Moon Design Seminar, 26 May

The panels are one of the highlights of every Eternal Con. During these seminars, we get a glimpse of what our favourite rpg publishers have in the pipe.

Jeff prophesying

On Saturday night, I attended the Moon Design seminar. Here is a summary of what Jeff et al revealed to us mere mortals.

The next available product should be issue 15 of Wyrms Footnotes: the text is finished, but the illos and the layout are incomplete. Issue 15 of Wyrms Footnotes will contain a scenario by Sandy Petersen.

The next big phat sourcebook will be the Guide to Glorantha. At the moment it's 500+ pages of text only. It has been proofread thrice, including by someone who is not into gaming. The book is actually so big that it will be simultaneously published as two books, divided as (a) overview of Gloranthan cultures and religions, and (b) a gazetteer. The books cover everything until 1630-ish Third Age Glorantha. All regions are covered, including Pamaltela and the islands. Jeff guarantees very detailed coverage, especially of the Lunar Empire, down to the smallest village. The only regions with less coverage are the Eastern areas, i.e., east of the Shan Shan mountains [note: not 100% true: I've had access to the draft, and Umathela isn't much more developed than in already-existing sources]. Regional maps are going to be beautiful and to the same level of focus as the ones in the Sartar book, plus there'll be 10 city maps by Gillian Pearce, plus mythical time maps by Éric Vanel. There won't be as much art as in the Pavis book. The Guides to Glorantha are written from a Third Age perspective. Material which refers to events that took place in the Second Age is purposely contradictory: Third Age people, including scholars, do not want to know much about the Second Age because it is thought of as a terrible age. God-Learners for instance are presented as much more evil than in the Chaosium or in the Mongoose books.

Sample map

Upcoming Moon Design projects (from most to least likely/complete):

• The Coming Storm, a Cinsina campaign book by Ian Cooper;
• The Harmast Saga, fiction by Greg Stafford;
• Gloranthan Bestiary, intended to be more like a field guide than a monster manual, by Pete Nash;
• Big Rubble book, companion to the Pavis book, possibly by a non-historically Gloranthan writer;
• a Gloranthan board game, possibly through Kickstarter;
• Harreksaga, by Loz.