Rough Guide To Glamour

The Jonstown Compendium is a programme that lets you publish your own Gloranthan PDF publications on the OBS online platform (i.e., DriveThruRPG) provided you respect a small number of constraints that Chaosium has set. Here is the full story.

There have been a number of successful publications, but the biggie I was waiting for with anticipation was the new version of the Rough Guide to Glamour, the wonderful capital city of the Lunar Empire.

There had already been an earlier publication of the Rough Guide to Glamour, in 1997-98 (one with a blue cover, one with a red cover; I have the latter, which is slightly more complete). So, what is the difference between the 20th century version and the latest one? Here is what Nick Brooke, the editor of the Rough Guide to Glamour, has shared on social media:

“The 1998 edition of the Rough Guide to Glamour contained about 29,000 words. We have cut out a third of the book: sections either reprinted in or made redundant by the Glorantha Sourcebook (e.g.: The Lunar Pantheon, Dart Competitions & New Year Ceremony) and sections primarily written to support the freeform Reaching Moon Megacorp's Life of Moonson (eg: Recent History, a list of Sultanates, Provinces etc. and their rulers). So there are 20,000 words from the old Guide remaining.

The Jonstown Compendium edition of the Guide contains more than 50,000 words.

Most major sections are significantly expanded (e.g.: the Gazetteer is 60% longer, detailing 117 locations in Outer Glamour; the Rough Guide itself has two new pages on Holidays and Festivals). We have incorporated material from the Guide to Glorantha (a full write-up of the Silver Shadow Sultanate, with a new map by Colin Driver), from Tales of the Reaching Moon (Cult of the Red Emperor, Lunar Government, Satraps & Sultans, Letter from a Monopolist, A Visit to Glamour), and from the epic Yolanelathon (three interlinked stories by MOB and myself, presented at various conventions in the nineties but never collected under one cover). There is a new 4,000 word write-up of the Cult of Glamour by Jeff Richard, plus obscure rumours, fragments and oddities scattered throughout (e.g.: Antiquities of Old Glamour, Red Empire, Pelorian Rhapsody, Annual Dinner of the Lunar College of Magic).”

So grab you credit card, head to DriveThruRPG, and purchase this magnificent guide to the capital city of the civilised world!