Journey to Jonstown #74: "A true labor of love" - Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome

[MOB]

Community Ambassador Nick Brooke writes:

In 1992, my friend Michael O’Brien’s first book was published by Avalon Hill [for RuneQuest 3rd Edition]. Called Sun County, this acclaimed campaign setting and scenario pack for the RuneQuest TTRPG was set in a patriarchal theocratic dictatorship, a few days’ journey from the city of Pavis in the world of Glorantha.

32 years later, two new Jonstown Compendium authors have published a 300-page “supplement” all about everyday life in MOB’s imagined Sun County.

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome by Malin Rydén and CJ Håkansson examines their social classes, gender relations, religious rituals political tensions, nuances of dress and diet and popular culture, and more besides.

Designed to support RuneQuest campaigns, the book bulges with random event tables (road and river encounters, regional events, seasonal weather), adventurer generation (inc. family history) a cast of 100 potential acquaintances and rivals, and new rules for tracking factional influence.

Whether you’re playing as Sun County natives or merely hoping to pass through their xenophobic, intolerant regime without untoward incident, Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome will bring your game vividly to life. It’s a phenomenally detailed look at everyday life in a sophisticated, highly-cultured and proudly independent Gloranthan society, and a true labour of love.

Out now from the Jonstown Compendium at DriveThruRPG, Chaosium’s community content programme for RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha. $19.95 for 300 pages!

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome
Malin Rydén and CJ Håkansson ($19.95, 300 page PDF)

Come foreigners, visit Sun County, the only nation in Glorantha that passed The Solitude of Testing. See the living light of Sun Dome, travel the easily accessible road network, enjoy our surplus of food, our stoic unity, and our fully adequate culture. Come for the holy days, witness our drill parades, leave when we tell you to! Sun County - the safest, hardest working and most envied nation in Glorantha. You wish you were us! -The Sun County Travel Bureau.

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome explores the history, culture, and customs of the citizens of Sun County, a small Yelmalian enclave in the Zola Fel valley, south of Pavis, across the plains of Prax. Designed for both gamemasters and players, this book is a must-have for anybody who wants an in-depth look at what daily life in Glorantha might be like. Written in the style of “Daily Life in the [insert Ancient Empire here],” this book is an in-depth exploration of the minutiae of existence coupled with a generous dose of humor.

Use with the Sandheart series

This new work perfectly complements Jon Webb's best-selling four-part Sandheart series of Sun County scenarios, available in the Jonstown Compendium in PDF and print formats. Combined you have many months or even years of RuneQuest adventuring ahead of you!

Edited August 16 by MOB

[Malin]

Thank you so much for all the nice words! It's been a blast writing... hope everyone will have as much fun reading it.

[Eagle Talon]

I am presently reading the book and so far it is amazing. Great job! 

[svensson]

I just got done absorbing 'Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome' and all I can say is,

**If you run a campaign in Prax, GET THIS BOOK**

Totally not kidding. Hard 'Buy' rating.

This is a masterpiece of fan contribution /community content to an RPG by anyone. I've been fulsome in my praise of Martin Helson's 'Ships and Shores of Southern Genertela' and of Ian Thompson's ongoing Pavix Redux project and 'LTUSD' hold up extraordinarily well in that competition.

The book specifically deals with the Praxian Sun Dome as a culture in isolation, so it is NOT a general discussion about Sun Dome Counties continent-wide. But it delves into glorious depth about the various powers and influences that are tugging at the social fabric of that nation. It goes into history, laws, customs, social classes and their attitudes, and so forth in a way that would do credit to a sociological professional journal [except that the authors keep the jargon down to a bare minimum]. If there is something you're curious about insofar as Sun County goes, there are very good odds that you'll find it addressed in the volume.

I cannot congratulate CJ Hakansson and Malin Ryden enough. They have taken what we thought was the last word on Yelmalio and Yelmalion societies [MOB's Sun County] and added several chapters.

So yeah, get this book.

[Malin]

Silver in a week! Thank you everyone!

 

 

Edited August 22 by Malin

[svensson]

But let me also say:

 

ELMAL LIVES! ☀️😆

 

[Hey, just because I appreciate your work doesn't  mean I'm still not an Elmal heretic... Don't MAKE me nail my 95 theses on the door of the Sun Dome, pal!]

Edited August 22 by svensson

[Malin]

12 minutes ago, svensson said:

But let me also say:

 

ELMAL LIVES! ☀️😆

 

[Hey, just because I appreciate your work doesn't  mean I'm still not an Elmal heretic... Don't MAKE me nail my 95 theses on the door of the Sun Dome, pal!]

Oh when I finally drag my players to Sartar, you bet Elmal will be a presence there to complicate matters further for our (almost) heretical Light Servant... 😄

 

[Nick Brooke]

14 hours ago, svensson said:

I just got done absorbing 'Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome' and all I can say is,

**If you run a campaign in Prax, GET THIS BOOK**

Totally not kidding. Hard 'Buy' rating.

Please share this as a review on DriveThruRPG. It really helps!

[svensson]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

Please share this as a review on DriveThruRPG. It really helps!

Happy to oblige.