Jonstown Compendium: The Children of Hykim

[Brian Duguid]

I have just published this book on Jonstown Compendium.

159 pages and just over 100,000 words on the Hsunchen totem animal peoples of Glorantha. Priced at $16.99.

This book is aimed at anyone who is interested in the Hsunchen. The Hsunchen inhabit the fringes of Gloranthan geography and include some of the most peculiar and fascinating peoples in this world. Because they mostly live far away from mainstream society they are often obscure and poorly documented, and perhaps rarely encountered in many RuneQuest games.

Twenty-one Hsunchen tribes living in the western and central parts of the continent of Genertela are described across the space of 158 pages, alongside extensive information regarding their culture, myth, technology, magic and more.

The book explains how to create a Hsunchen adventurer, gives tips on using them as adventurers or as non-player characters, ideas for high-level campaigns, and even information on Hsunchen Heroquesting!

Appendices provide the author's notes, answers to Hsunchen Q&A, a spells index, Hsunchen mega-list and more.

The tribes included are (in order of appearance): skunk, black owl, mammoth, badger, raccoon, bear, bobcat, wolverine, reindeer, yellow quill porcupine, moose, mountain goat, fallow deer, giant beaver, horse*, wolf, opossum, boar, elk, lion and puma*.

(*sure, debate if you want!).

I am hugely grateful to @Diana Probst, Kristi Jones, Robert Meyer and @M Helsdon for their art, and to various others on this forum and elsewhere who provided input or simply pointed me in the right direction. And of course to the Chaosium team for creating these opportunities for community authors and artists.

If you have any comments or corrections, feel free to send me a private message via this forum.

http://tiny.cc/TCoH

[eknarfer]

I love the book. I have only started to skim through, but I really look forward to settling in to read deeply.

I did have one thing that jumped out, and that is a mention of the "Uthri" on page 130 as a possible member of the Eleven Beast Alliance, and there is no other information on them at all. Maybe there is none. But I thought it was strange as there is so much other information, sourcing and cross referencing that really provides depth and resources, such that the lone culture group name with no other information seemed odd (e.g. it is not apparent in the Hsunchen Mega-List).

Thank you for this book. It looks amazing!

[Brian Duguid]

Just now, eknarfer said:

I did have one thing that jumped out, and that is a mention of the "Uthri" on page 130 as a possible member of the Eleven Beast Alliance, and there is no other information on them at all. Maybe there is none.

Good spot! They are mentioned in a source that I think has never been officially published. I put them in, and then took them back out; I must have missed that reference, I'll remove it in v1.1.

And thanks for the kind words 🙂

[eknarfer]

8 minutes ago, Brian Duguid said:

Good spot! They are mentioned in a source that I think has never been officially published. I put them in, and then took them back out; I must have missed that reference, I'll remove it in v1.1.

And thanks for the kind words 🙂

Happy to give back just a small bit. You have created an amazing labor of love with this book!

[Brian Duguid]

Thanks for Evan. For any further typos, feel free to pop them in a DM. I've fixed a few in the v1.1 file, and I'll fix any more when v1.2 is provided.

[Brian Duguid]

To celebrate recently reaching Copper Best Seller status, I have added bonus art content, a 13-page PDF containing the text used during art commissioning, sketches from the art development, and two of the larger illustrations at larger size so you can really appreciate the glorious detail from Kristi Jones!

The bonus content is available immediately to all previous and new purchasers.

If you have already bought and enjoyed the book - please consider leaving a star-rating and/or a review, it really makes a difference and helps the title succeed.

http://tiny.cc/TCoH

[Frp]

I'm loving the book. 

Must admit it's a bit embarrassing I never thought through some of effects the great sleep in Fronela. 

[Brian Duguid]

12 hours ago, Frp said:

I'm loving the book. 

Must admit it's a bit embarrassing I never thought through some of effects the great sleep in Fronela.

Please do add a review and/or rating! 🙂

It took me some time to "wake up" to the effects of the Rathori sleep in Fronela, and it just got more interesting once I worked out how long ago most of the Rathori alive in 1625 must have been born. Some of that came from thinking about writing a "family history" section for character creation - that never made it into the book, though, too much work given how many tribes there are.

One puzzle that remains is what happens with all the other Rathorelan tribes during the same period. They don't all have totemic animals that hibernate. Did they expand into Rathori territory? I've touched on that (suggesting a reason why the White Bear became vulnerable to Harrek), but not tried to explain too much.

[Brian Duguid]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:45 PM, eknarfer said:

You have created an amazing labor of love with this book!

A review or rating would always be appreciated. Alternatively, are you happy if I quote the above on any future publicity?

[eknarfer]

On 7/25/2022 at 8:32 AM, Brian Duguid said:

A review or rating would always be appreciated. Alternatively, are you happy if I quote the above on any future publicity?

I intend to review and rate, but I have not had enough time with the book to do a good job (sorry, too many things going on), but I would be happy if any of my first impressions strike you as helpful quotes. Feel free to use them. I meant them!

[Nick Brooke]

You can leave a five-star rating now, and write the accompanying review later, you know? This book is obviously top quality, and believe me: creators live for feedback!

[Soccercalle]

A question. I will probably buy the book some day no matter the answer. But I have bought a lot on JC the last weeks and cant buy everything. How much more information is it about Hsunchen in the Dragon Pass/Prax area? (Telmori and Basmoli)?

[Nick Brooke]

The overview takes up the first thirty pages or so, and applies to any kind of Hsunchen. There are three pages on the Basmoli (lion hsunchen, found in Prax) and three pages on the Telmori (wolf hsunchen, originating in Ralios with some migrants as far away as Sartar). So that's about 36 directly relevant pages, not counting generic advice on character creation, adventure/ campaign/ heroquest suggestions and the technical appendices. Every tribe in the book gets a half-page myth, included in the above.

[Brian Duguid]

12 hours ago, Soccercalle said:

A question. I will probably buy the book some day no matter the answer. But I have bought a lot on JC the last weeks and cant buy everything. How much more information is it about Hsunchen in the Dragon Pass/Prax area? (Telmori and Basmoli)?

I think the answer depends how canonical you want your Glorantha to be. I've included the Puma People as one group who are sufficiently divorced from location specifics that they can appear anywhere. To bring others into Dragon Pass would require some willingness to depart creatively from canon. 

Some thoughts:

There's a place in Sartar (Elkenvale) where the local clan consider themselves kin to the elk. Evidently descendants of Pralori, and a possible story hook to either bring in their Pralori cousins or to trigger a trek to Pralorela.

Sartarites more generally are descended from Heortlings, who in one of the Stafford Library books included people who could take deer form. Evidently descendants of the Damali.

The Odaylans and Yinkini are fairly transparently the semi-civilised heirs of the Rathori and Rinkoni.

I can imagine any of these having their ancestral magics reawakened by either a visit to Beast Valley, or by the events of the Dragonrise, or simply by "mysterious dreams".

Some of these, and other ideas, are mentioned in the book - but yes, the Hsunchen are not an obvious presence in Dragon Pass and the Telmori (chaotic curse) and Basmoli (no lion companions) are anomalous amongst the Hsunchen.

[Brian Duguid]

My other tip would be to look on the maps for the wild places and speculate what might be there. Away from Dragon Pass, the Hsunchen mostly live in forests and often share territory with elves. Is Tarndisi's Grove too small to accommodate a tiny clan of Opossum Folk, free from their traditional elk-folk enemies? And the forests over near Muse Roost could hide all sorts. 

Even in the real world there remain an estimated 100+ tribes of uncontacted indigenous peoples. Glorantha may have far more waiting to be discovered. 

[Brian Duguid]

This is just a quick update for all you sensible people who don't frequent Facebook.

This image is work in progress, courtesy of artist Kristi Jones. This is just a small part of the new wraparound cover for the forthcoming extended edition of The Children of Hykim, your one-stop shop for everything to do with Glorantha's shape-changing Hsunchen people.

Here you can see shamans from eight Hsunchen totem animal tribes (feel free to guess which ones, noting that if you own the existing book it may be surprisingly easy!), and some of their companions. They are gathered as part of a joint effort to revive the Serpent Beast Master secrets and prepare for the forthcoming conflicts at the end of the Third Age.

The colour version is in progress and looks fantastic. All being well, the updated version will be available to new and existing purchasers before Christmas; once new and refreshed art is complete, the main delay after that will be the Print on Demand checking process because, yes, this will be available Print on Demand!

PS: As always, star ratings and reviews from existing readers are very welcome over on the DTRPG site ... http://tiny.cc/TCoH.

[Brian Duguid]

Two quick updates on this book:

First, @Lordabdul and @Joerg's God Learners Podcast has a new episode available today featuring, er, me, discussing all things Hsunchen:

And second, I'm in the final stages of preparing the Print on Demand edition of the book. Hopefully I'll be ordering the proof copy in the next few days, and assuming that is glitch-free, it will then go straight on sale. There will be several new pages of content, a refresh of some of the internal art, and a brilliant wraparound cover by Kristi Jones that I'm sharing here as a preview ...

 

[Brian Duguid]

Hopefully this is nearly there. While waiting, here's how two copies of the POD look on a shelf.

#WhichWayWillYouShelveIt?

[Jex]

I've added this to my DriveThruRPG wish list and plan to get it when my next paycheck comes in.  (Or maybe I'll wait till it's available in POD, if  that's going to happen soon.)

I had been going to ask about the apparent omission of a few types of Hsunchen that I remembered seeing mentioned in the Guide to Glorantha, but then I reread your initial post and realized that you were focusing on the Hsunchen of western or central Genertela, which makes sense because I think the "missing" Hsunchen I was thinking of are only found in eastern Genertela and/or Pamaltela.  Did you have any plans to later cover Hsunchen from other parts of the world in another book?  (If not, I guess someone else could pick up the torch...)

[Nick Brooke]

10 minutes ago, Jex said:

I think the "missing" Hsunchen I was thinking of are only found in eastern Genertela and/or Pamaltela.  Did you have any plans to later cover Hsunchen from other parts of the world in another book?  (If not, I guess someone else could pick up the torch...)

There’s already a JC release by Paul Baker called Hsunchen of the East that may have some of what you’re after: it details the Yak, Tiger and Deer hsunchen of the Kralorelan/Teshnan borderlands.

I know that Brian reviewed works by Paul Baker, Jamie Revell (Bearwalkers) and others while pulling his own book together: that’s what makes it “magisterial.” (You mean that words… have meaning?? Whoah!)

[Jex]

Ah, that makes sense; I didn't know about Hsunchen of the East.  Another book to add to my DriveThruRPG wishlist.

[Brian Duguid]

In addition to the Yak, Tiger and Deer people, Hsunchen of the East also features the Bat Folk (Pujaleg), they were added in an update. There's more eastern Hsunchen information in The Teshnos Companion, but I've not read that yet so I'm not sure what exactly, and it looks like it's only 5 pages out of 80+.

I'd like to do further volumes of my own book but two books covering very similar material for Kralorela / Teshnos in different ways don't seem to be worthwhile especially given the small audience for topics away from the middle of Genertela anyway. Much the same would be true for Pamaltela, although it does have some fascinating Hsunchen tribes!

[Brian Duguid]

Version 1.2 of The Children of Hykim is now available on DriveThruRPG.

The revised version includes one more tribe (the Gord-un gopher people), a new story, two art pieces increased to double-page spreads, and corrections and amendments to various sections. It also has an absolutely wonderful new cover by Kristi Jones.

Existing customers will find the new version in their DTRPG library immediately.

The book is also now available Print-on-Demand, in both Premium and Standard colour hardcover editions!

If you like the book, please, please, please do leave a star rating and if possible a review!

 

[Brian Duguid]

I've put together a quick video preview for the Print-on-Demand edition of The Children of Hykim:

 

[Brian Duguid]

Many thanks to everyone who has bought The Children of Hykim over the last nine months or so. It has now hit Electrum best-seller status, which is an unexpected delight!

To celebrate, I've added two more pieces of bonus content. There's a short "words from the shaman" type thing, for the Lotari raccoon people, which was originally prepared for a player in my own game. There is also a full (lightly edited) transcript of the Hsunchen episode of the God Learners podcast, featuring myself, @Joerg and @Lordabdul, for anyone who prefers reading to listening. (For anyone who prefers listening to reading, or doesn't want to buy the book, the podcast is here).

http://tiny.cc/TCoH