Is anyone on Jonstown Compendium creating a Ralios Sourcebook?

[pachristian]

Ralios and the Safelester city-states have long been a favorite location of mine. I'd try to create a book myself, but originality is my dump stat.

So - is anyone out there creating one?

[g33k]

Interested!

(also, Jeff apparently recently announced an 11th volume for the Cults of RuneQuest line -- an Invisible God book; I was speculating, elsethread, on the likelihood that this in turn implied the release (at about the same time) of a "Western Sourcebook," though I think that would include more than Ralios & the Safelster region).

[Snugz]

I'd LOVE to have one, and the 2nd Age one (Mongoose) doesn't give enough inspiration to me, and I've written some stuff for my own game, but I'm no games-writer and don't have the deep knowledge of Ralios that would be ideal.

[M Helsdon]

15 hours ago, pachristian said:

Ralios and the Safelester city-states have long been a favorite location of mine. I'd try to create a book myself, but originality is my dump stat.

There's quite a bit about Ralios and Safelster in.....

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West?

Edited August 23, 2023 by M Helsdon

[Joerg]

Safelster might be best handled one city-state at a time for purposes of the Jonstown Compendium, with perhaps an introduction to the lake and rivers connecting them all thrown in. I'll have to check whether there is anything salvageable in the freeform booklet we produced in 1996 for the broader picture.

[Newt]

Not for the whole region, but I've got 100+ pages of a sourcebook I've written around the land of Karia in the Eastern Wilds, which touches on the surrounding lands of Delela, Naskorion and Halikiv. Its got its origins in a RQ III campaign I ran during the best part of the 90s, which I've periodically updated. I'm planning on doing one more update to bring it in line with RQ G and then making it available via the Jonstown Compendium. 

I'll be writing about its progress over on my Gloranthan fan blog Arkat's Playground

• Visit Arkat's Playground

[JRE]

Like Joerg I have been trawling old 90s material and some new ideas to develop a new version of Kustria and the Tower of Xud. But my time is quite limited and I am traveling a lot, so it goes very slowly. Certainly not enough to even think of joining the JC writer’s circle. 

[Minlister]

Well, at some point it will come to fruition, no deadlines in the JC! We will wait!

[Akhôrahil]

I think Safelster is the most playable region that has little to no published material.

It might even be the most playable region, period.

[g33k]

3 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I think Safelster is the most playable region that has little to no published material.

It might even be the most playable region, period.

I don't think anywhere other than Dragon Pass has quite such a density of everything.

Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Trolls, Beastmen, Dragonnewts, Dinosaurs, Chaos; multiple dragons are proximate.
Praxians on one border, Lunars on the other, and both borders utterly porous.

The same way we point to OP'ed characters in a setting, and say "that's obviously a player-character," we can point to Dragon Pass and say, "that's obviously created as a microcosm of the broader world, to be a playground for GMs & PCs."

[mfbrandi]

4 hours ago, g33k said:

I don't think anywhere other than Dragon Pass has quite such a density of everything.

Does that make it more playable or less?

[mfbrandi]

8 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

I think Safelster … might even be the most playable region, period.

Urban living, religious orgies, intrigue, and if the Safelstrans are as “cunning, corrupt, perfidious, servile, effeminate, and treacherous” (GtG, p. 376) as people say, I may just fit right in.

[Akhôrahil]

5 hours ago, g33k said:

I The same way we point to OP'ed characters in a setting, and say "that's obviously a player-character," we can point to Dragon Pass and say, "that's obviously created as a microcosm of the broader world, to be a playground for GMs & PCs."

The Rubble is this to an even more condensed state.

That’s why I like the idea that it’s completely in-world intentional, an actual project of Pavis’s.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Akhôrahil

[g33k]

4 hours ago, mfbrandi said:

Does that make it more playable or less?

More, I'd say.
More options for players, more tools for GM's.
More "adventure tourism." 😉

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

The Rubble is this to an even more condensed state.

The Rubble is very close-packed; it's very similar to Dragon Pass in having so much crammed (even closer) together, but it has IMHO fewer total options:

• only very-rare beast-folk, of much fewer types than Beast Valley; they aren't a force to be reckoned with
• only a few specific choices when venturing out from Pavis
• dragons not particularly close-by
• fewer Dragonewts, and no proximity to Dragon's Eye
• pre-Aargrath, you're stuck with the "Occupied City" vibe
• post-Argrath, the "Lunar PC" concept becomes a much-harder lift

 

[metcalph]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

 

• post-Argrath, the "Lunar PC" concept becomes a much-harder lift

 

There is still a Lunar population in Pavis after Argrath takes over.

[pachristian]

On 8/23/2023 at 4:10 AM, M Helsdon said:

There's quite a bit about Ralios and Safelster in.....

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/325525/Men-of-the-West?

There is. It's excellent, and I have all of your books so far. But I'm hoping for a more Pavis/Big rubble treatment, setting up the game with names, politics, taverns and so on. I use Men of the West extensively for the armies (I recently had a Pavisite persuade a Talari Knight to train her and her bison in western-style lance work and discipline. They're now planning to build a mercenary army of praxian warrior who fight on armored bison with western discipline... I'm curious how it will turn out!).

[g33k]

43 minutes ago, pachristian said:

... They're now planning to build a mercenary army of praxian warrior who fight on armored bison with western discipline... I'm curious how it will turn out!).

😱

Platemail(ish) on the front-facing elements of the bison would make for a pretty overwhelming charge...

[Nozbat]

1 hour ago, g33k said:

😱

Platemail(ish) on the front-facing elements of the bison would make for a pretty overwhelming charge...

But then defences evolve... pits, stakes, trip wires, long bows, multi-shot crossbows, Fast moving bow armed light cavalry... 

In that other world..see Battle of Legnica.. or perhaps Agincourt .. 

They have more armour? Don't let them close, Tire them out, Knock them over, Kill them before they get up again.. 

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Nozbat said:

But then defences evolve

They do, yes.

But... if they actually produce a "fusion" force (not just upgrading horses to bison for a heavier "heavy cavalry"), I expect the Prax-derived bison-riders will lean-in on mobility, and not charge across prepared fields, and will have Storm magic screwing with the "cowardly missileers who refuse a real fight," etc.

It will turn into another example of a military/tech arms-race (but including magic).  I do not presume the outcome will be comparable to our real-world outcome, though it's possible (maybe magic X magic largely cancels-out, leaving the real-world examples valid).