City of Lei Tabor

cover

City of Lei Tabor is a “gateway” (i.e., non-Gloranthan) supplement for RuneQuest 2 by Paul Nevins and Bill Faust published by the Judges Guild in 1980.

It is a typical Judges Guild supplement of that time: the cover is of the same flimsy paper as the booklet itself, the layout is non-existent, most of the content (illos, maps) is b&w and whenever there are some colours they seem to have been haphazardly chosen. The authors are not even amongst the ‘greats’ that published both for the Chaosium and for the Judges Guild: a short search on the internet shows that they only published for the latter. Yet for some reason I have a particular fondness for this supplement, probably because of the implied (vaguely) Oriental background of the city. However, my friend 𐌘𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌖 aptly remarks on his blog that the mix of Oriental names (incl. real Chinese deities), Gloranthan cults, and vanilla fantasy illustrations by Kevin Siembieda is completely unconvincing. And yet I have a particular fondness for this supplement.

Within its 96 pages, City of Lei Tabor presents the titular city (or rather city-state), its inhabitants, major NPCs, politics, cults, and businesses in quite some detail—even if, for the most part, it is uninspiring. And yet I have a particular fondness for this supplement.

The best part of the supplement is the many NPCs. You don’t have to create any on the spot, or to name them... they’re all in there, down to the lowliest constable—as Anders Swenson wrote in issue No.11 of Different Worlds: “RQ referees will never have to write out an NPC soldier again, ever.”.
Again, some Western/Oriental name mixtures are really weird, like the captain of the City Wall Guards who’s called Graham Fiendfeller and who is a Rune priest of Lei Kung (also: shouldn’t he rather be a Rune lord?).

One thing I like is that many of the guilds mentioned in RuneQuest 2, which disappeared from all subsequent editions, are present in Lei Tabor.

Lei Tabor, despite its small size, is the seat of the Ducal House of Lei. The cult of Lei Kung is the main cult in the city. It is unclear to me whether the authors took the name of the Daoist god of thunder from the Deities & Demigods manual (I have sold mine years ago) or from some book about Chinese folk religion, but the fact that he is a thunder god somehow makes him related to the Storm Tribe in my eyes, which is a welcome change to the mostly Solar gods of the Kralori pantheon. The cult of Lei Kung is associated to the Runes of Air and Movement.

Other local gods are the Lightning Goddess, Tien Mu (her name really means ‘Celestial Mother’ in Chinese), and five powerful associated Spirits of Thunder, the Wu Lei Shen (whose name really means ‘Five Thunder Spirits’). Given that these deities have real Chinese names, they probably also stem from a book about Chinese folk religion the authors must have had access to.

There is also a thieving cult which is based on the worship of three apotheosised thieves of the past, which is actually a pretty neat idea. The worship of these apotheosised thieves is intertwined with the local Thieves Guild.

The many inns and taverns are neatly fleshed out, with a few nice NPCs I have used in my RuneQuest games, with rumours, with adventure seeds, etc. My favourite is Imal’s Inn.

The various members of the ruling family, the Leis, are also well fleshed out and the details of their backgrounds can lead to several adventure seeds if built upon by the GM.

In My Glorantha, I have placed (and used) Lei Tabor in northeastern Pent. The Leis are former Kralori nobility, who fled Kralorela when it was ruled by the False Dragon Ring but who did not return to Kralorela when the rightful ruler was reinstated because their lands in northern Shiyang province were given to other aristocratic families. They have been brooding their discontent since then. This makes Lei Tabor a useful urban centre to place conspirators in. With its many inns and dangerous wilderness, it is also a good area to have your adventurers wander through.

detail of my campaign map,
see p288 of the Guide

First Mention Ever of RuneQuest?

Amateur Press Association (APA) zines were the internet forums/social networks for the SFF nerds of the 1970s: each contributor would write a mini-zine (1 to 10 pages), send it to a central mailer who would collect all the mini-zines in order to produce a massive, 100+ pages zine that he or she would then post back (via snail mail!) to all the contributors. Alarums and Excursions was the main APA zine devoted to pen & paper role-playing games. In Alarums and Excursions issue No.26 (September 1977), Steve Perrin writes that he, alas, will have no time to participate in the APA zine scene any longer because he is

engrossed in RUNEQUEST, the role-playing game based on the world of Dragon Pass (from White Bear and Red Moon, Nomad Gods, etc.). About the ideas in this game, more later, but it has thoroughly eaten up my D&D time.

(...)

RUNEQUEST
The name of the game is my invention, and it describes the basic focus of the game. The characters must improve themselves so as to earn the Runes which will set them on the road to Herodom. (...) It is a long, hard trail to earn a Rune and that does not guarantee a Hero status. (...)
The other principal unique feature of the game is that everyone knows magic, or at least can learn it.

Note how Steve mentions that it is the ‘world of Dragon Pass’, rather than ‘the world of Glorantha’. Also of note (from another part of Steve’s contrbution): at the time flame wars were called fan feuds.

RQG Roadmap

So while I was away in Lyons at Octogônes, running 3-hour RuneQuest adventures for newbies and sitting at an “ask me anything about RQ” table, Chaosium Con UK was happening. The chaps who attended the latter sent the following information about the RQG roadmap (NuRQ was NOT tackled):

Sept 2026: Lands of Runequest, Sartar, with a PDF-only supplement containing three short adventures set in Boldhome

Q4 2026: The Apple Lane Campaign, revisiting the adventures from the Gamemaster Screen Pack (unclear whether it’s merely the same stuff re-published with new art or if the content will have been improved); as a consequence, the current version of the Gamemaster Screen Pack itself will be discontinued, and it will be replaced by a newer version 

Q4 2026: Greg’s unfinished novel, A Pyre for Gods and Heroes, with an ending written by Andrew Logan Montgomery

Q1 2027: The streamlined edition of the core rules, thinner, with fewer cults, with simpler chargen, but adding non-human adventurers (minotaurs, durulz, baboons)

Q2 2027: Welcome to Glorantha adventure pack; each adventure will showcase a different aspect of Glorantha:

- Prax

- the Lunar Empire

- disease spirits and Broo

- a hero quest

Q3 2027: Return to Snakepipe Hollow (adventure pack): the Dragonrise has affected the denizens of Snakepipe Hollow in unexpected ways…

Q4 2027: On the Royal Road (encounter collection): dozens of NPCs, each with their own adventure hooks, to be used as a collection of random encounters or as an NPC codex

Q4 2027: Cults of RuneQuest: the Gods of Darkness: as per its title, plus how to create troll adventurers

RIP Dario Corallo

Dario Corallo has suddenly left us, at the age of 66. On top of our gaming-related collaborations, he was a good friend, and although weʼve only met once in real life (in Palermo, of course), we exchanged jokes and gaming-related ideas almost on a daily basis on social media. As a result, I am still reeling from the shock of the sad news of his disappearance, and I wonʼt be able to add much to what I am writing here today.

Chaosiumʼs Rick Meints has written a beautiful, moving obituary.

There is also this piece from a Sicilian daily, amongst many others, as Darioʼs day job was in the publishing industry where he was well-known and liked for his keen humour. He did the layout and drew vignettes for the Giornale di Sicilia daily newspaper until about two years ago when he was part of a massive layoff. This, however, enabled him to spend even more time illustrating his beloved Jonstown Compendium and The Fantasy Trip supplements.

Opponent Create-O-Matic

I don’t know who created the Adversaries Generator for RuneQuest (the page doesn’t mention any name), but this tool is fuсking brilliant. I absolutely love the detail of being able to choose the format under which the stats of the adversary shall be rendered. I choose FOES for old times’ sake!

New NuRQ News

As I have written here, the so-called ‘nuRQ’ has been ditched. In its stead, Jeff Richard is working on a lighter/simpler (but fully backwards-compatible) clarified version of RQG.

Here are some news about the latter posted today by Jeff on basicroleplaying.org:

New core rules book. This is 200-250 pages laid out. It is very focused on Sartar, Prax, and Pavis. Combat is much clearer and easier (what we have found is that a typical 4 round combat with 5 adventurers versus a group of NPCs takes about 45 minutes to run with a newish GM). Character Creation is MUCH faster. You should be able to make your first character in around thirty minutes, with it being 20 minutes or less once you get the hang of it. Faster if you use the PDF worksheet. The cheat sheet for the core rules, magic system, plus all common rune spells description takes up three pages total.

Gamemaster book. This is 250-300 pages laid out. It includes a full bestiary that is focused on being plug and play. It teaches all of the core rule systems, how to create encounters tailored for your characters, how to handle social interactions, spirits, run campaigns in Dragon Pass and Prax and Pavis, between adventures, and how to handle treasure (plus plenty of unique items). It includes the official and complete heroquesting rules and battle rules. This is something that reflects years of discussion between Mearls and I about how people learn how to run games and what they actually need to know.

Pavis and Big Rubble. This is the setting. Fully updated and expanded, with at least a half-dozen brand new adventures, starting with a Welcome to Pavis scenario intended to bring brand new players into the setting. 

Chaosium Con Europe II

Chaosium have just confirmed there will be a Chaosium Con Europe II next year in Poland, from 30 October to 1 November (so basically the same dates as this year). Well, see you all next year in Gdańsk, then!