The Six Paths - Print on Demand now available

[Tindalos]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/395741/The-Six-Paths?affiliate_id=289226
 

Available now in print on demand format, as well as pdf, this Jonstown Compendium supplement grants a look into Heortling perceptions of gender, is illustrated by the excellent Katrin Dirim, and includes write ups for Nandan, Vinga, and Heler.

The author's share of proceeds will be donated to the UK charity Mermaids, while Chaosium's share will be donated to the Transgender Law Center.

Some (admittedly very crude) photos of the print version are attached, to give you an idea of what the finished version looks like.

[Steve]

I'm starting to read through this in PDF, and I'm loving it so far - great work!

One minor point is that the "digital new layout" version of the PDF (which looks superior to me in terms of layout/design) hasn't had the two small errata incorporated, unlike the standard PDF.

Would it be possible to update this, please?

[Nick Brooke]

1 hour ago, Steve said:

I'm starting to read through this in PDF, and I'm loving it so far - great work!

One minor point is that the "digital new layout" version of the PDF (which looks superior to me in terms of layout/design) hasn't had the two small errata incorporated, unlike the standard PDF.

Would it be possible to update this, please?

Thanks for the compliment, Steve! Could you kindly let me know what those "two small errata" are?

[Steve]

16 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Could you kindly let me know what those "two small errata" are?

There's an errata file included with the PDFs. I mean that those two items aren't included in the new layout version. I've attached the file here, which I hope is ok.

 

289226-Errata.pdf

[Tindalos]

Thanks to the work of Nick Brooke, that version should now be updated as well, thank you for the reminder!

[AndreJarosch]

On 5/24/2022 at 9:10 AM, Steve said:

There's an errata file included with the PDFs. I mean that those two items aren't included in the new layout version. I've attached the file here, which I hope is ok.

 

289226-Errata.pdf 381.2 kB · 4 downloads

Are these errata already included/fixed in the PoD version?

[PhilHibbs]

6 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Are these errata already included/fixed in the PoD version?

No.

[g33k]

7 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Are these errata already included/fixed in the PoD version?

The errata specifically references the print version; these errata presumably came after the printer-proofs were approved by DTRPG.
The PDF is obviously easy to update.

I collect that the process of getting proofs authorized through OBS is... nontrivial.

 

[kerr_avon]

Is this Canonical now ? I ask because looking back at earlier   writings on the Heortlings  I can find no mention of this multitude of  supported Sexes and Genders . I'd appreciate any  canonical references earlier than the Latest RQ edition ( pg 81 )  which  states that the Orlanthi support  more than one gender definition .Hero Wars - Thunder Rebels - Chapter 1 "The Heortling Way"  - pgs 11- 92 makes no mention at all of 4 sexes and 6 gender roles that I can see  beyond the traditional male /female roles

I also see no mention of this in any RQ3 materials I have  at hand  - although I do not have the Stafford's Library  "History of the Heotlings"  currently .

Any references welcomed .

[Nick Brooke]

The Six Paths is a community content title on the Jonstown Compendium, and is therefore not canonical. Nothing on the Jonstown Compendium is canonical.

However, it's based on the description of Heortling genders from the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core rulebook (Sex and Marriage, p.81), which is as canonical as it gets.

Greg Stafford thought and wrote extensively about Vinga and Nandan (as the role-models for Orlanthi folk who don't fit traditional gender roles) in the 90s and 00s, and you'll find them in Thunder Rebels for the old Hero Wars RPG.

Edan's work in The Six Paths builds on that and IMO transcends it, by explicitly and overtly splitting the six paths from cult affiliations. 

[soltakss]

21 minutes ago, kerr_avon said:

Is this Canonical now ?

No, but it is fun, which is as, or more, important!

If Chaosium were to write a canonical treatment if this subject, they would either replicate Edan's work, which seems pointless, or change it, which also seems pointless. So, they might as well not write anything canonical and let us use Edan's glorious work.

 

[AndreJarosch]

22 minutes ago, kerr_avon said:

Is this Canonical now ? I ask because looking back at earlier   writings on the Heortlings  I can find no mention of this multitude of  supported Sexes and Genders . I'd appreciate any  canonical references earlier than the Latest RQ edition ( pg 81 )  which  states that the Orlanthi support  more than one gender definition .Hero Wars - Thunder Rebels - Chapter 1 "The Heortling Way"  - pgs 11- 92 makes no mention at all of 4 sexes and 6 gender roles that I can see  beyond the traditional male /female roles

I also see no mention of this in any RQ3 materials I have  at hand  - although I do not have the Stafford's Library  "History of the Heotlings"  currently .

Any references welcomed .

As fas as i know the first mention of Vinga (female aspect/subcult of Orlanth) and Nandan (male aspect/subcult of Ernalda) was in "Storm Tribe" for the HeroWars RPG, published in 2001. 

 

[Nick Brooke]

2 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

As fas as i know the first mention of Vinga (female aspect/subcult of Orlanth) and Nandan (male aspect/subcult of Ernalda) was in "Storm Tribe" for the HeroWars RPG, published in 2001. 

Vinga was introduced in King of Sartar (1992) and is mentioned in Avalon Hill's Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993). Nandan wasn't mentioned in print until Hero Wars.

[David Scott]

23 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Vinga was introduced in King of Sartar (1992) and is mentioned in Avalon Hill's Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993). Nandan wasn't mentioned in print until Hero Wars.

Not in print... we were introduced (here in the UK) to Nandan at Convulsion 98 by Robin & Greg. https://glorantha.steff.in/digests/GloranthaDigest/vol06/0409.html (and Robin's mad HW game where we played Ethelrist's Demon mounts)

[AndreJarosch]

49 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Vinga was introduced in King of Sartar (1992) and is mentioned in Avalon Hill's Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993). Nandan wasn't mentioned in print until Hero Wars.

Aaarg... I went through all of the gaming books (RQ, HW, HQ) in my mind... forgot to check the "fiction" book. 

[Nick Brooke]

And one of the RQ books. So it goes.

[AndreJarosch]

5 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

And one of the RQ books. So it goes.

That i overlooked the mention of Vinga in the Dorastor book is less disturbing to me, than the fact that i forgot KoS!

[Nick Brooke]

The thing is, @kerr_avon, Greg was working in that space because the exclusionary gender-essentialist bollocks that attached itself to traditional mythological gender roles had started to bother him. If the only permitted miffic roles for women were queen/ lover/ mother/ witch/ virgin/ castratrix, if Orlanth was so bound up in Heortling concepts of masculinity that women couldn’t ever be allowed to worship him, what message would that send to players who wanted to explore other gender possibilities (heroic Orlanthi warrior-women; men worshipping the Earth Goddesses)?

Many of the pioneering scholars whose work Greg had relied on when he first conceived Glorantha were frankly a bit fashy, rather more Kinder, Küche, Kirche inclined than most of us would enjoy. (Look into Mircea Eliade’s links with the Iron Guard, if you like). As with female knights in Pendragon, Greg’s instincts were to empower and enable non-traditional, diverse choices, not to close them down by fiat.

(Knee-jerkers don’t like that, either; but we don’t particularly care what they think. They’re welcome to publish their own community content, of course: there’s enough room for Varied Gloranthas to suit every prejudice, even weird fantasy worlds with a rigid gender binary that doesn’t exist in our real world. Clearly that wasn’t what Greg Stafford wanted in his world of Glorantha)

[Bill the barbarian]

It's mine! Thanks Tindalos!... 
Bit disappointed to find that by paying full price I was labeled as paying above the average... especially seeing as 75% of the price of this puppy goes to good charities!
Looks great, and will be a great assist to my games! I look forward to giving this a read!

 

On 6/10/2022 at 10:54 AM, soltakss said:

No, but it is fun, which is as, or more, important!

 

Yep

[MOB]

'The Six Paths' is now a GOLD Bestseller, all the more remarkable as it's a "Pay-What-You-Want" charity product*. Edan Jones's Jonstown Compendium title is about non-traditional gender roles among the Orlanthi barbarians of Glorantha, setting for the RuneQuest TTRPG. The book features beautiful illustrations by Katrin Dirim.

Chaosium's share of the proceeds is donated to the Transgender Law Centre.

*remarkable, because - as long experience on DTRPG has shown us - the amount people typically pay for Pay-What-You-Want products is $0.00.

Get your own copy of The Six Paths here from DriveThruRPG; it is available in PDF and Softcover. The author's share of proceeds goes to the UK charity Mermaids, while Chaosium's share is donated to the Transgender Law Center in the US.

Edited June 18, 2023 by MOB