Upcoming Glorantha publications (Old thread 2015-2022)

[jajagappa]

9 hours ago, Glorion said:

There really aren't too many people out there who want to play HQ, it's a failed game system

Commercially, yes, it did not take off.  Still a great system to play, though (as my own campaign has now passed 6 years running).

6 hours ago, Loïc said:

Then, I console myself because 1/ the Jonstown Compendiums, with QW licence, will maybe still publish HQ material. 2/ as many said in this thread, it's so easy to convert RQ to HQ...

We just got Valley of Plenty in JC, which is one of my top 2-3 entries there.  And all the RQ material works just fine.

[Lordabdul]

15 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

One exception: IMHO the "Dragon Rise book" that filles the gap of events of 1625 should be published as a HQ book. 

Are you talking about the 3rd volume of the Red Cow saga (which, in this case, is indeed a HQ book) or the "Great Argrath Campaign" which, frankly, I'm not even sure if it's a setting book (like the Glorantha Sourcebook) or if it will have RQ stats in it ?

[AndreJarosch]

On 8/22/2020 at 3:25 AM, lordabdul said:

Are you talking about the 3rd volume of the Red Cow saga (which, in this case, is indeed a HQ book) or the "Great Argrath Campaign" which, frankly, I'm not even sure if it's a setting book (like the Glorantha Sourcebook) or if it will have RQ stats in it ?

Yes, the third Volume of Red Cow. 

[AndreJarosch]

The "Sartar Homeland Sourcebook" was mentioned numberous times by Jeff but is missing in the the list of upcoming products. 

[7Tigers]

Also mentioned by Jeff here:
The Master Map series
The new Prosopaedia

[Loïc]

4 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Yes, the third Volume of Red Cow. 

There will be a third Red Cow book??? When HQG edition is coming to an end? This is great news, but is there any clue about a publication delay?

[AndreJarosch]

34 minutes ago, Loïc said:

There will be a third Red Cow book??? When HQG edition is coming to an end? This is great news, but is there any clue about a publication delay?

Have a look here: 

 

[Loïc]

4 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Have a look here

Forgot that post! Thanks! This said, it remains to be seen if the two Ian Cooper's HQG books (Dragonrise and Fonrit) are still topical or will fall in oblivion, buried together with the rest of HQ... 😢

[AndreJarosch]

22 minutes ago, Loïc said:

Forgot that post! Thanks! This said, it remains to be seen if the two Ian Cooper's HQG books (Dragonrise and Fonrit) are still topical or will fall in oblivion, buried together with the rest of HQ... 😢

All other HQ Glorantha books (and IMHO Fonrit) should be published as RQG books. 
Because it is no problem for a HQG game master to pick up a RQG book, and run it as it is... ignoring the stats, but it requires a lot of time and efford to make up the lacking stats in a HQG book for RQG. 

But IMHO Dragonrise should be published as a HQG book, because it takes place before the default starting year of RQG... and it would wrap up the HQG line very nicely. 

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, AndreJarosch said:

but it requires a lot of time and effort to make up the lacking stats in a HQG book for RQG.

I completely disagree. I have yet to find a need to do this myself. Using @Nick Brooke's excellent statement as my go to quote for this - Don't sweat the details or Don't make a rod for your own back. If you already run HeroQuest then a simple NPC cheat system works well.

 

[AndreJarosch]

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

I completely disagree. I have yet to find a need to do this myself. Using @Nick Brooke's excellent statement as my go to quote for this - Don't sweat the details or Don't make a rod for your own back. If you already run HeroQuest then a simple NPC cheat system works well.

 

Yes, that is Nick, you, and me (and lot´s of old fans), but i am thinking of people that are newly recovering Glorantha for themselves, and don´t have years and years of experience in running RQ and/or HQ. 

[Kloster]

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

If you already run HeroQuest then a simple NPC cheat system works well.

That's a big 'if'. If you don't know or can't stand Heroquest, this is a very long and difficult task.

[Lordabdul]

4 hours ago, Kloster said:

That's a big 'if'. If you don't know or can't stand Heroquest, this is a very long and difficult task.

...unless you're the type of GM who doesn't make up NPC stat blocks anyway   I've been making up NPC stats on the fly for all manners of crunchy and non-crunchy games for the past 15 years. Half the time I can't remember all the rules and spells and stuff so I make things up that are not even "properly" from the rulebook, but the more I'm familiar with a game, the closer it tends to be to the "real" stats of course. Having some cheat sheet is useful though.

For GMs who don't want to/can't improvise stats, yeah, it's either intimidating or tedious to use HQG books for RQG games. But there's probably enough RQG scenarios out there already for them, so it's not like they're stuck -- the HQG books are simply a bonus.

Edited August 26, 2020 by lordabdul

[Kloster]

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Having some cheat sheet is useful though.

Yes, it helps for improvising.

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

For GMs who don't want to/can't improvise stats, yeah, it's either intimidating or tedious to use HQG books for RQG games.

That's right. Exactly my point.

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

But there's probably enough RQG scenarios out there already for them,

Not that much, in fact.

7 hours ago, lordabdul said:

the HQG books are simply a bonus.

Yes. True.

[g33k]

8 hours ago, Kloster said:

...

Not that much, in fact.

...

1 - Quickstart - Broken Tower

3 (+ Colymar sandbox!) - GM Screen Pack

7 - Pegasus Plateau

5 (+ South Wilds sandbox!) - Smoking Ruins

And if that's not enough, there's the Jonstown Compendium, with... I dunno, I've lost track... @Nick Brooke, what's the current score here?  Adventures AND multi-adventure campaign-starter or Sandboxes?

Honestly -- there's actually SO MUCH content, that the average Glorantha newbie has (much!) more than they can/will want to acquire/read "just to get started" and/or "to mine for NPCs"!

Edited August 26, 2020 by g33k

[soltakss]

37 minutes ago, g33k said:

And if that's not enough, there's the Jonstown Compendium, with... I dunno, I've lost track... @Nick Brooke, what's the current score here?  Adventures AND multi-adventure campaign-starter or Sandboxes?

I am up to 61 links for the Jonstown Compendium, but that includes maps and VTT Images.

[Kloster]

3 hours ago, g33k said:

1 - Quickstart - Broken Tower

3 (+ Colymar sandbox!) - GM Screen Pack

7 - Pegasus Plateau

5 (+ South Wilds sandbox!) - Smoking Ruins

And if that's not enough, there's the Jonstown Compendium, with... I dunno, I've lost track... @Nick Brooke, what's the current score here?  Adventures AND multi-adventure campaign-starter or Sandboxes?

Honestly -- there's actually SO MUCH content, that the average Glorantha newbie has (much!) more than they can/will want to acquire/read "just to get started" and/or "to mine for NPCs"!

Not counting the sanboxes (a whole other story), nor the JC (unofficial), that makes 16. Better than what I counted (not yet having purchased them, I counted Pegasus Plateau and Smoking Ruins for 1 each). My mistake.

[g33k]

16 minutes ago, Kloster said:

Not counting the sanboxes (a whole other story) ...

If the context -- the desired content -- is "NPC's for GM's to re-purpose, re-use, modify, or inspire other riff's" (which I had understood this to be -- a count of resources for GM's to get NPCs from) I think a Sandbox is VERY relevant.  I'm unclear how many NPCs are in the two sandboxes so far, but presume they average to at least as much as an "average" adventure offers...

 

16 minutes ago, Kloster said:

... nor the JC (unofficial) ...

YGMV, but I'm /perfectly/ happy to use JC content in this fashion.

Most JC content is from ardent RQ-o-philes and Gloranthophiles, is of extraordinarily high quality, and is eminently useful for this sort of thing!  If you chose the Yelmalion Geas of "Wear no Helmet" you're stuck with the consequences when you take a headshot... 

Edited August 26, 2020 by g33k

[Bill the barbarian]

4 hours ago, g33k said:

Honestly -- there's actually SO MUCH content, that the average Glorantha newbie has (much!) more than they can/will want to acquire/read "just to get started" and/or "to mine for NPCs"!

Ach, and don’t git me started!

Ya try to tell tha kids these days  but they’ll nay listen. When I was a young GM, just out of my DM short pants... ya know... I had ta built ma own Gonn Orta’s Castle with ma bear hands, MA BEAR HANDS, do ya ken? Afore I could populate it with giants and monsters and treasure... You try to tell a dragon it has to go to the dungeon! But  ya try ta tell that to ‘em young 'uns and they’’ll nay believe ya!

[jajagappa]

3 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

I had ta built ma own Gonn Orta’s Castle with ma bear hands, MA BEAR HANDS, do ya ken?

It was fun playing Gonn Orta, the great giant, holding the little miniature PC's in the palm of my hand while the players looked on, knowing their characters could easily be crushed in the palm of my hand, or dropped from great height to their deaths on the rocks below.  🙂

 

[Austin]

4 hours ago, Bill the barbarian said:

MA BEAR HANDS, do ya ken?

Bear hands are an unsanctioned building material, please visit your local Gold Mostali representative for a mandatory re-education session.

[Nick Brooke]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:42 PM, g33k said:

And if that's not enough, there's the Jonstown Compendium, with... I dunno, I've lost track... @Nick Brooke, what's the current score here?  Adventures AND multi-adventure campaign-starter or Sandboxes?

Sorry, I didn't see this tag before. Here's all the RuneQuest campaigns and scenarios on the Jonstown Compendium, listed from newest to oldest:

Four campaign settings:

• Sandheart  -- a campaign setting in three volumes (so far): Tales of the Sun County Militia; The Corn Dolls; Tradition. Each book contains one scenario, which could take several sessions to resolve.
• Secrets of Dorastor -- a massive expansion of the Land of Doom, for SuperRuneQuest players who enjoy horrific threats, regular acid damage and absurdly high skill ratings.
• Red-Deer Saga -- a clan-based Sartarite campaign in three books: Whitestone Ruins, Elgar's Blade, A Sword Turned Inward. Plus The Rostakori Clan, which expands the bad guys of the campaign and includes an abduction scenario.
• Six Seasons in Sartar -- a complete coming-of-age starter campaign in one book, containing six seasonal scenarios plus loads of extra events. A sequel is in progress.

A dozen standalone scenarios:

• Remembering Caroman
• Blue Moon, White Moon
• Vinga's Ford
• Humakt, Raven and Wolf
• The Duel at Dangerford
• Jorthan's Rescue Redux
• Stone and Bone
• Rocks Fall
• Arrows of War
• The Throat of Winter
• This Fertile Ground 
• Yozarian's Bandit Ducks

And as nothing's ever clear-cut, I'll mention that both The Dregs of Clearwine and Rubble Runners are setting sourcebooks that could easily be used to improvise one-shot adventures or campaign events. For more details (inc. tips on setting, complexity, etc.), pick up my regularly-updated index to all the Jonstown Compendium Scenarios & Sourcebooks: now 26 pages, still only 50 cents.

 

As this is a general Gloranthan thread, I'll mention that for HeroQuestWorldWars there's the Valley of Plenty campaign setting, which would be easy enough to rework for RuneQuest (all of the background is system-agnostic, and the story -- a campaign for children growing up and discovering the world -- looks like great fun).

Edited August 28, 2020 by Nick Brooke

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

Jeff mentioned a Sartar Book when talking about the Cults book on the Facebook page. Perhaps I am reading too much into this but I wondered if the Sartar book was coming out sooner rather than later?  

Here is the link if anyone is interested.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RuneQuest/permalink/1764710963704895/

You might have to cut and paste.

He talks about a double whammy, which is what made me think this.

[Lordabdul]

On 10/6/2020 at 7:58 AM, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Jeff mentioned a Sartar Book 

Yeah I think it's listed in the OP as "Heortland sourcebook", although I believe the latest working title is "Sartar Homeland", hinting at a series of "homeland" sourcebooks.

Edited October 8, 2020 by lordabdul

[Blindhamster]

On 8/25/2020 at 9:25 PM, AndreJarosch said:

Yes, that is Nick, you, and me (and lot´s of old fans), but i am thinking of people that are newly recovering Glorantha for themselves, and don´t have years and years of experience in running RQ and/or HQ. 

just wanted to say - this, absolutely. For people newer to the setting that don't have the encyclopedia level knowledge, having detailed stats is excellent, we learn something about the setting from it's inhabitants, good writeups on the NPCs gives us insight into details of their lives, knowing that they have certain skills we maybe wouldn't automatically expect can have implications, knowing their rune affinities and passions helps determine how we portray them.

Speaking as someone who has a whopping 10 sessions of RuneQuest under their belt as a new GM to the system, I absolutely love it. I add my own details here and there, but I've mostly used the Gamemaster adventures as a starting point, adding a couple of session prior to apple lane, expanding on events before and after the raid, introducing interactions with some locations and individuals on the way to clearwine to be recognised etc. Being able to see details of important NPCs really helps.

(fwiw, I'm not new to GMing, I've ran games in various systems, and made my own settings plenty of times over the past twenty or so years, but there is something about Gloranthas rich setting that also makes it daunting for both players and GMs, my group are enjoying it (a lot, which I am lucky and greatful for) but we all agreed that the largest obstacles to the system, is the setting itself, because it's so vast, working out how the world fits together, I'm both excited and dreading my first hero quest because they're such an integral part of the setting (really hope for the game master book sooner rather than later to expand on those things, and yes, I have Six Seasons of Sartar and the Secrets of HeroQuestiong Jonestown books)