Sun County by Avalon Hill

[Aprewett]

Hi, how canon is this product? I understand I can play my own version, but just interested. If I use info from it will I have a problem later. I am looking to use it as a possible soft opening for our first foray into Glorantha.  Namely starting the pc as a member of Garhound and running the contest. Moving Rabbit Hat Farm to near Garhound and conected to that clan.

Is Hazia a canon drug and the Krarsht cultist?

Where do I find out more about it and them?

I have not read all the book, so maybe more info is in it.

Thanks

[metcalph]

36 minutes ago, Aprewett said:

If I use info from it will I have a problem later.

No.  

36 minutes ago, Aprewett said:

Is Hazia a canon drug and the Krarsht cultist?

Hazia is a canon drug and mentioned in the Guide p447.  As for the cultist, canon has better things to do with its time than determining whether a single initiate exists or not.

 

 

[Jon Hunter]

1 hour ago, Aprewett said:

Hi, how canon is this product? I understand I can play my own version, but just interested. If I use info from it will I have a problem later. I am looking to use it as a possible soft opening for our first foray into Glorantha.  Namely starting the pc as a member of Garhound and running the contest. Moving Rabbit Hat Farm to near Garhound and conected to that clan.

Is Hazia a canon drug and the Krarsht cultist?

Where do I find out more about it and them?

I have not read all the book, so maybe more info is in it.

Thanks

OK i'm pretty sure anything from  the RQ3 Renaissance era (which sun country is ) will see very minor changes if any  when RQG comes out, they are generally held up there as some of the best RQ supplements to date.  

You may see some very minor rule tweaks between RQ3 and RQG but nothing that would make playing the published RQ3 material difficult.

As regards Krarsht  either RQ2 cults of terror or the RQ3 reworking called lords of terror.   The first is now part of this supplement https://www.chaosium.com/cult-compendium-pdf/ which is well worth it if you don't have originals documents.

As rehards Hazia i think sun country is the most detailed as it gets in publishes supplements, so feel free to free form. I use it as a dope like drug and haven't added anything else to it terms of game effects. I don't think its chaotic in nature, just chaos cultists tend to be drawn to illict and illegal activities.

[David Scott]

You will have no problems with canon (should you choose to be bothered by it). @MOB has expanded much on this amazing resource over the years and it's history is plotted up to the new RQG. Likewise with the other RQ Renaissance products of their time: River of Cradles, Strangers in Prax (although Arlatan the Mage will change due to the new sorcery rules) and Shadows on the Borderland. 

If you are asking if Krasht is canon then yes.

[Joerg]

Note that the persecution of hazia possession or production should not be a case of a war on drugs.

For Yelmalians, hazia use might be legitimate only in certain rites, possibly restricted to members of certain ranks in the cult hierarchy.

In Lunar occupied lands hazia growing and use is "illegal" when it is sidestepping the Lunar monopoly on that stuff. If you pay your tax to the emperor, and purchase a users privilege, the Empire will be delighted buy your crop to imperially regulated prices and to sell you the stuff at individual rates per dose. Farmers caught growing this stuff illicitely may have their harvest burnt if caught by Sun Dome authorities not bribed to look away, and if caught by Lunar authorities have their harvest impounded, license fees impounded and additional fines or punishments for disregarding imperial monopolies. Sun Dome authorities avoid to notify the imperial authorities to avoid having to pay those fines from their community coffers.

[jongjom]

No Cannons in Sun Country, just Harpoons. 

I'll get my coat. 

[David Scott]

51 minutes ago, Joerg said:

Note that the persecution of hazia possession or production should not be a case of a war on drugs.

A war on drugs would make an excellent adventure. With the heroes taking on the role of crime busters against organised hazia growing with Krasht cultists at the centre of it. Illegal fields guarded by cultists with shadowy overlords selling it cheap to stupefy the masses of Pavis, Sun county, kids on field corners. The heroes in the pay of the Lunars, Yelmalions, or other crime lords, burn fields, root out evil and then sell the captured goods to the highest bidder. Of course it's a war on drugs.

 

[Jon Hunter]

20 minutes ago, David Scott said:

A war on drugs would make an excellent adventure. With the heroes taking on the role of crime busters against organised hazia growing with Krasht cultists at the centre of it. Illegal fields guarded by cultists with shadowy overlords selling it cheap to stupefy the masses of Pavis, Sun county, kids on field corners. The heroes in the pay of the Lunars, Yelmalions, or other crime lords, burn fields, root out evil and then sell the captured goods to the highest bidder. Of course it's a war on drugs.

 

Could make a nice in empire campaign actually.

[Joerg]

59 minutes ago, David Scott said:

A war on drugs would make an excellent adventure. With the heroes taking on the role of crime busters against organised hazia growing with Krasht cultists at the centre of it. Illegal fields guarded by cultists with shadowy overlords selling it cheap to stupefy the masses of Pavis, Sun county, kids on field corners. The heroes in the pay of the Lunars, Yelmalions, or other crime lords, burn fields, root out evil and then sell the captured goods to the highest bidder. Of course it's a war on drugs.

And you are playing agents of the tax agency, or alternatively of the monopoly holder. Who may be chaotic cultists of a rival organisation, as you may find out after busting that first organisation, only with imperial endorsement.

The point I want to make is that mind-altering substances aren't inherently bad in the eyes of the population. They are a common component of rituals, and practitioners of magic are likely to use them for various magics.

The Yelmalio cult has quite rigid standards of behavior it forces on his own people as well as on visitors. Letting them have a moral problem with addiction would be in character. In Orlanthi clans, the addiction doesn't matter much as long as the individual contributes to the clan. As to native Old Pavisites and Riverfolk, as long as it doesn't threaten survival, drug use might even have been an approved way of coping with the burden of the troll occupation.

As to the Lunars, to them it is a case of imperial privileges and taxes. Their deity bestows madness on followers as much as on foes, so why bother about substance-induced madness?

 

So yes, play the righteous enforcers of a morality you force on people that may or may not share with you, in the service of an authority that makes big money from the imperial privilege, professing to sell to worthy customers only. (You know what makes a customer worthy: wealth or influence.)

Have them supported by the delightful peltasts from Tarsh War.They will be quite motivated and helpful to make the first find, but might be quite lackadaiscal afterwards until their stash runs out. Maybe add one of those Carmanian magicians, with similar goals and motivations. Give them an imperial scribe or tax assessor who is part of the ring they are prosecuting, or at least on their paylist.

Have a Lunar slave farm somewhere (e.g. in the Grantlands) which grows the stuff legally, and which buys additional crop from a secret joint venture with a southern Sun County village headman.

Blow up the ritual use by Orlanthi heroquesters out of all proportion, have them crack down on a number of Orlanthi rites (which are illegal for other reasons) without finding more than maybe two pipes worth of the stuff. Find a huge clandestine or compromised operation with the destination Whitewall (or some other major build-up of Lunars vs. Orlanthi), and have them follow it into all manner of dark channels, but none leading to the Orlanthi. You might sacrifice a few hard working Issaries merchants supplying the Manirian road on the way.

 

After they turn on or turn in (some of) their original employers (and co-workers), have some survivors of the cartel they just busted approach them to pursue an imperial monopoly against their former employers. Just for the groans. Possibly through Halcyon var Enkorth (who may have been involved in some payment from the first ring, too).

Edited November 15, 2017 by Joerg

[David Scott]

There's also some great Sun County resources out there. If you are not aware of them:

The Secret History (plus the "errata")

Quote

This is the result of my [Jane Williams] asking @MOB (who originally wrote "Sun County") what happened in 1613, when Sun County had a new Count. He, I, @metcalph, Alison Place and Ian Gorlick had a long email conversation in which we sorted out just what had happened, and lots of other interesting things as well. We said we would write it up properly and send the results to the Digest. Somehow, we never got round to it. What did happen was that I put the combined result into HTML and showed it to MOB: who was trying to find more material for Questlines II at the time. He grabbed it ("It's wonderful! I'll just change a few things...") and published the final result.

http://www.jane-williams.me.uk/glorantha/sc/sc_sh_01.cfm

@MOB has a page here filled with Sun County goodies: http://rpgreview.net/mob/suncounty.htm

 

it contains:

• Sun County Errata
  
• Jaxarte and the Sun Dome
  
• Gamemaster Notes for the Sun County River Ritual
  
• Mad Prax - Beyond Sun Dome - classic slice 'n dice RQ3 adventure

one of the first appearances of Melo Yelo

• Last Tango in Pavis - another classic RQ3 slice 'n dice adventure

Melo Yelo again

• Pent Ridge - The Sun County Prison

Also available in PDF here with other cool Glorantha material: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/215726/Ye-Booke-of-Tentacles

• The Men with the Golden Gun - the cackhanded lefties, who fire the famous spear-thrower at Harpoon.
• Origins of the Retirement Towers in Sun County (by Benedict Adamson)

Both also available in PDF here with other cool Glorantha material: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/220892/Ye-Booke-of-Tentacles--Volume-2

• What is Darkness? - the Sun Domer POV

• How Rabbit Hat Got Its Name

For other MOB stuff, his main page is here: http://rpgreview.net/mob/glorindex.html

 

[Aprewett]

Are, links, thanks. And thanks to everyone who replied  

[MOB]

12 hours ago, David Scott said:

There's also some great Sun County resources out there.

I also have the (as-yet unpublished) future history of Sun County, "The Great Winter and The Time of Two Counts", extending the timeline from the appearance of The Cradle in 1621 through to 1627-8.

[The Hooded Claw]

On 11/16/2017 at 4:31 AM, MOB said:

I also have the (as-yet unpublished) future history of Sun County, "The Great Winter and The Time of Two Counts", extending the timeline from the appearance of The Cradle in 1621 through to 1627-8.

Just listened to the excellent Grognard Files interview. Will you be writing up this future history for a (hopefully, soon-to-be) forthcoming Sun County RQG supplement?