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.

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!

French-Language RuneQuest Podcast

I believe I havenʼt mentioned it yet, but myself and fellow Gloranthaphile Dasfynx have started a French-language podcast about RuneQuest and the world of Glorantha, called Runecast.

There are quite a few episodes online already, with a significant variety in the topics weʼve addressed.

RuneQuest Stat Blocks

RuneQuest is a wonderful role-playing game (for me it is even the best RPG ever) but one aspect of the game has to be recognised as a pain: its stat blocks. For the gamemaster, RuneQuest’s strength — ‘monsters’ are as lovingly detailed as its player characters and have the same characteristics — is also its weakness, as each opponent has to be painstakingly statted.

Obviously, and since the very beginning of RuneQuest’s history, NPCs’ and monsters’ stat blocks have tended to be reduced to whatever is indispensable to run an adventure.

Let us have a chronological look at them.

FANGS and FOES (1980)

These were collections of randomly-generated NPCs for the unprepared gamemaster. The general aspect of the entries was as follows:

where Def was the RQ2 skill of Defence (which has disappeared in all subsequent editions), T.F. was the Treasure Factor, ENC the Encumbrance (standard/maximum), Spl SR the spell strike rank, and the three labelless numbers the sum of the DEX and SIZ SRs, the attack bonus, and the parry bonus (which could be different at the time). The rest is self-explanatory, with an emphasis on combat statistics: localised hit points and weapon stats.

My Opinion: There’s a lot of information in a very compact stat block. It is excellent for its purpose (a catalogue of randomised NPCs), but I wouldn’t use this format in an adventure.

RQ2 SCENARIOS

Let’s use Snake Pipe Hollow as an example. Here is one of the adventurers the PCs may encounter while exploring the caverns of Chaos.

This is much more readable than the stat bloc from Fangs/Foes, because it’s not as curt, and it seems like it is giving more information. The info provided, however, is pretty much the same. The only extra entries are Languages and Magic Items, and there is a ‘Treasure’ line instead of a Treasure Factor.

My Opinion: As a stat block, it uses up a lot of real estate on the page. I don’t think it’s better than the curt Fangs/Foes format. For a gamemaster in a hurry, however, I must recognise that it is important that the stat block be readable, and in this aspect it’s better than the Fangs/Foes template.

RQ3 SUPPLEMENTS

RuneQuest 3 started a policy of making a difference between important NPCs, who sometimes get several pages of description, and unimportant NPCs, who get a treatment similar to what was the norm in RQ2, e.g., to use an example from the RQ3 edition of Snake Pipe Hollow:

This is similar to the RQ2 treatment, except that the hit location chart has its own space between the characteristics and the weapons block.

My Opinion: Differentiating between important and unimportant NPCs is good. For the latter, however, I still think too much real estate is being used.

RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA

After a long hiatus, RuneQuest returns to us in 2018 in its fourth Chaosium edition. With the addition of Runes and Passions, the basic NPC template has had to accommodate these new entries, of course. Depending on the supplement, the basic NPC template alternates/hesitates between these two formats:

from RuneQuest: Gamemaster Adventures (CHA4029)

from Lands of RuneQuest: Dragon Pass (CHA4037)

These formats provide pretty much the same information as in the older editions, with the addition of Runes, Passions and Ransom.

My Opinion: I think the bottom example is quite good: all the characteristics are on the same line, and the attributes, being to the right of the hit locations block, do not take up any extra space. The second template tries to optimise the space it uses up on the page, but I still think it could be reduced.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

OK, it is good to criticise, but it is better to provide solutions, and I can hear you all saying “Awright, smarty pants, how would you do it?”

Well, here are my recommendations.

Major NPCs

For major NPCs, the gamemaster needs to have a maximum of information available under their eye, because the slightest oversight could ruin an encounter. Here is how I typically describe major NPCs:

NPC Name

Male/Female, Species, age XX, from //place, member of //organisation, initiate of //cult

STR XX CON XX SIZ XX DEX XX INT XX POW XX CHA XX

Hit Points: XX Move: 8

DEX SR: X SIZ SR: X

Runes: list all Runes in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Air XX%, Death XX%, Fire XX%, Stasis XX%, Water XX%.

Rune Points: 3 (Cult)

Rune Spells: All common Rune spells plus Catseye, Command (Hawks), Sunbright.

Magic Points: XX

Spirit Magic: Co-ordination (2), Lightwall (4), Multimissile 2.

(variable spells have their value without parentheses)

Spirit Combat Damage: 1D6+1

Passions: list all Passions in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Devotion (Yelmalio) XX%, Hate (Trolls) XX%, Honour XX%.

Reputation: XX%

Armour: heavy scale hauberk (5 pts.), plate greaves and vambraces (6 pts.), closed helm (5 pts.).

(name each piece of armour and indicate the corresponding armour points)

Skills: list all Skills in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Battle XX%, Climb XX%, Cult Lore (Yelmalio) XX%, Dodge XX%, Homeland Lore (Sun Dome County) XX%, Listen XX%, Move Quietly XX%, Scan XX%, Spirit Combat XX%, Track XX%, Worship (Yelmalio) XX%.

Languages: list all language skills in alphabetical order with their value, spoken first, read/written last, e.g. Firespeech XX%, Heortling XX%, New Pelorian XX%, Praxian XX%, Read/Write New Pelorian XX%.

Ransom: XXX L

 

Location     D20            Armour/HP

Right leg      1-4              6/6

Left leg         5-8              6/6

Abdomen    9-11           5/6

Chest           12               5/7

Right arm    13-15         6/5

Left arm       16-18         6/5

Head            19-20         5/6

 

Weapon                          %          Damage            SR         PTS

Short spear                    45         1D6+1+1D4      6            10

Dagger                             45         1D4+2+1D4      7            7

Medium shield              35         1D4+1D4          7            12

Composite bow             50         1D8+1                2            7

Minor NPCs

The information needed for minor NPCs corresponds more or less to the two RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha examples above.

Typical XX

Member of //organisation | initiate of //cult

STR XX CON XX SIZ XX DEX XX INT XX POW XX CHA XX

Hit Points: XX Move: 8

SR X (DEX: X SIZ: X)

Runes: list only the major Runes, in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Air XX%, Death XX%.

Rune Points: 3

Cults: Orlanth Adventurous, Humakt

(list the most common cults for this kind of NPC)

Rune Spells: All common Rune spells plus Leap 1+, Shield 1+.

Magic Points: XX

Spirit Magic: Bladesharp 2, Heal 2, Protection 2.

Passions: list only the major Passions, in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Honour XX%, Loyalty (city militia) XX%.

Armour: heavy scale hauberk (5 pts.), plate greaves and vambraces (6 pts.), closed helm (5 pts.).

Skills: list only skills above 50%, e.g. Battle 55%, Climb 90%, Cult Lore (XXX) 75%, Dodge 75%, Homeland Lore (New Pavis) 60%, Listen 70%, Scan 65%, Track 85%.

Languages: Speak Heortling XX%.

Treasure: XX

Ransom: XXX L

 

Location     D20            Armour/HP

Right leg      1-4              6/6

Left leg         5-8              6/6

Abdomen    9-11           5/6

Chest           12               5/7

Right arm    13-15         6/5

Left arm       16-18         6/5

Head            19-20         5/6

 

Weapon                          %          Damage            SR         PTS

Short spear                    45         1D6+1+1D4      6            10

Dagger                             45         1D4+2+1D4      7            7

Medium shield              35         1D4+1D4          7            12

Composite bow             50         1D8+1                2            7

Very Minor NPCs/Mooks

Jondoe the NPC

POW 11

Hit Points: 12

Armour: such and such (3 pts.)

Combat: Uses a <weapon> at XX%, at SR 5, does 1D8+1D6 damage

Magic: Has XXX, XXX, XXXX. Will cast XXX to raise his <weapon> to XX% before entering mêlée.

Comments: I like how I present information for major NPCs and for mooks. Everything needed to run an encounter with a major NPC is there. For mooks, it is just the bare bones. No localised hit points are indicated because, say, if the mook has 12 hit points it is likely that the GM has a screen that breaks this down into how many hit points each location has. Also mooks would often have the same amount of armour protection in each location.

On the other hand,  I am still dissatisfied with my ‘Minor NPC’ stat block... it is still too large. I guess I could reduce the information for hit locations, armour and weapons (weapon hit points, for instance can be found on the GM screen).

Suggestions are welcome!

Nu RuneQuest − Habemus nomen!

There has been a short announcement of sorts about the new RQ rules, which clears up a few uncertainties:

BTW according to this announcement, the new game is going to be called RuneQuest: Fantasy Roleplaying.

Also this is kinda cool in an Olde Schoole way as Pavis and the Big Rubble were the locations where Steve Perrin and friends playtested the Chaosium Game (the working title of RuneQuest) back in the 70s)!

Animal Shape-Shifters in Glorantha

cover of DW #9

With the exception of the Telmori, the lupine shape-shifters that play a central role in the lore of Dragon Pass and Sartar, and which have been extensively described in several RQ and HQ supplements, animal shape-changers have never been precisely described in Gloranthan products. Worse than that, what little information we may find in the sources is often contradictory.

In RuneQuest 2nd edition (their first appearance), for instance, animal shape-shifters are described as follows under the heading Lycanthropes:

“Shape changers are a lonely breed, tainted with Chaos, and disdainful of civilisation. Few know whether they are animals who can take on human shape, or humans capable of assuming the shape of an animal. In either case, they can assume the strength and senses of the animal form at the expense of some intelligence (varying as to species).

...

Lycanthropes are a very rare breed, no matter what sort of animal they become. The genes for lycanthropy are recessive, so that only matings between lycanthropes will breed true. Most children of two lycanthropes are either animal or human without shapechanging ability.

...

Their Chaotic nature gives them their abilities of shape change and invulnerability to impure metals. They do not receive any of the Chaotic Features shown in Chapter X.

...

The lycanthropes include Bearwalkers, Tiger Sons, Tusk Brothers, and Wolfbrothers.”

In HeroQuest Glorantha, animal shape-shifters are described as follows under the heading Skin-walkers — accompanied by the Beast and Spirit Runes:

“Skin-walkers are shape-changers, and disdainful of civilisation. Few know whether they are animals who can take on human shape, or humans capable of assuming the shape of an animal. In either case, they can assume the strength and senses of the animal form at the expense of some intelligence (varying as to species), with its natural weapons.

...

The skin-walkers known in Dragon Pass and the Holy Country include Bearwalkers, Tiger Sons, Tusk Brothers, and Wolf Brothers. Only the Wolf Brothers are described in further detail here. The God Learners classified them as a type of primitive men they called Hsunchen or Hykimi. There are dozens of different types of Hsunchen throughout the rest of Glorantha.”

In a nutshell, RQ2 tells us that animal shape-changers are lycanthropes tainted by Chaos, whereas HQG describes them as a sort of peculiar Hsunchen. Well, that’s completely different: lycanthropes are basically monsters, whereas Hsunchen are primitive humans. Also, the connection to the Chaos Rune has been replaced by a connection to the Beast and Spirit Runes.

Worse yet, the most recent material (the RQG line) is completely devoid of any references to animal shape-shifters other than the Telmori. The Guide to Glorantha merely mentions (on page 484) that one of the towns in the East Isles has a Tiger Son Guard “comprised of Hsa were-tigers”, which simply adds a layer of confusion since ‘Hsa’ is the name of the tiger Hsunchen tribe according to the Guide (p439 and p561).

It is simply impossible to try and figure out which interpretation is correct (‘monsters’ vs ‘primitive humans’) given the current canon.

A further research on each type of animal shape-changer in the Gloranthan corpus doesn’t provide any particular help either:

A search on ‘Bearwalker’ returns a mention of “the Rathori Bearwalkers from the forests of northern Genertela” in HeroQuest Glorantha, and a very similar one in the Glorantha Sourcebook.
In the HQ supplement Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, ‘Bearwalkers’ is the name given to the initiates of Odayla (p110). In its sister publication Sartar Companion, there is a description of such an NPC (p133), who “attacks and kills Telmori or Chaos on sight and without hesitation”. We are very far from the Chaotic nature of RQ2 Bearwalkers...
In RQG, ‘Bearwalkers’ is the name given to Odayla Rune Lords (RQG core rules p300, and the Lightbringers p124). 

A search on ‘Tiger Son’ returns a long, unofficial article in Different Worlds issue No.9, and a mention of a Tiger Son initiate of Zorak Zoran in Big Rubble. 

A search on ‘Tusk Brother’ doesn’t return anything.

⁂

So, to summarise:

★ In early Glorantha (end of the 70s, beginning of the 80s), lycanthropes were animal shape-shifters tainted by Chaos. According to the official rules, you had to be born a lycanthrope, whereas Big Rubble and Different Worlds issue No.9 seemed to imply you might become one via a cult.

★ In the early 2010s (at the time of the Guide and of HeroQuest Glorantha), the concept of ‘animal shape-changers’ seems to have become interchangeable with ‘Hsunchen’. The association with the Chaos Rune is gone, except for the Telmori.

★ Today, with the RQG line, there is no all-encompassing concept any longer. You have the Chaotic Telmori; you have the Bearwalkers who are the Rune Lords of Odayla; Tiger Sons and Tusk Brothers have disappeared. As for the Germanic prefix were-, it is used in the Glorantha Bestiary for the Ducks who are “sometimes called durulz or were-ducks” (p31), even though... they are not shape-changers, they are Beast Men! The inconsistency is total.

5-Year RuneQuest Campaign Podcast

I have played an online RuneQuest campaign game set in Sartar for five years (I reckon it must be the second-longest I’ve ever played). We played approximately every fortnight; you can imagine the sheer number of episodes the campaign entailed!

The game started with RQ2 on Roll20, then moved on to the RQG rules (and Foundry) as soon as they were made available, and ended up with a hybrid RQG-OpenQuest ruleset, with the occasional “Runes in the Dark” homebrew for our (many) heists. 

Despite the many dangers, our party of five remained the same during the duration of the campaign... I was the only one to transition from a first character, killed in a single blow, er sting, by a Chaos wasp who rolled a crit in his head, to a second one, so we all ended up with Rune-level characters. The whole zero-to-hero shebang.

Our GM extraordinaire, Steve, has devoted an episode of his Orlanth Rex’s Gaming Vexes podcast to reminiscing about salient events, favourite rules changes, character arc vs story arc, and whatnot, from these five glorious years of gaming. Oh, and did I mention Chaos wasps?

Play

the Gateway Bestiary and the Barguest

In my latest blog post, I wrote about the Barguest and, not having the Meints Index to Glorantha (MIG) at hand, I thought it hadn't been described in RQ terms.

Well... yesterday night I retrieved my copy of the MIG from the cellar and, lo and behold!, it did mention the Barguest. The creature is listed as being described in the Gateway Bestiary. So I went to look for my signed* copy of the Gateway Bestiary, and yes there it was on p25, "a sort of fairy dog" whose description is actually more that of an undead dog. The main differences with 'my' take on the Barguest are as follows:

- it Demoralises rather than it inspires Fear
- it doesn't turn Invisible

So maybe now you can have two versions of the Barguest in your RQ games... A spectral one, and an undead one!

*I had to brag about it, didn't I? BTW the little-known Gateway Bestiary has an interesting story. When Sandy Petersen signed my copy, he told me this was how he was hired by Greg Stafford-- he went to Albany with the manuscript, and Greg said 'cool stuff, want a job?' and hired him.

Also (if I am not mistaken), Sandy's maiden publication is also the very first frp bestiary that, instead of merely listing its entries in an alphabetical order, has them grouped by type of creature.

the Stafford House Campaign and the Barguest

I am currently reading ‘The Stafford House Campaign’, a collection of personal notes and of Amateur Press Association (APA) articles by Greg Stafford. These essays are a narrative of his early RuneQuest campaigns (“expeditions” as he calls them) interspersed with various commentaries, musings and Q & As with other APA contributors.

The book is invaluable for the insight it provides on the very early years of our hobby in general, and on the birth of Glorantha as a frp setting in particular.

You may read my various thoughts about the book here.

One item that struck my fancy is the mention, on p52, of an expedition to ‘release the barguest’. Now I don’t have my Meints Index to Glorantha available right now, but I don’t recall the “barguest” as being a RuneQuest creature.

A friend kindly pointed out that there is a Barghest (with an ‘h’) on p6 of All the Worlds’ Monsters, vol.2.

As a tribute to Greg Stafford’s early RQ expeditions, I present you the Barghest from All the Worlds’ Monsters, vol.2 converted to RuneQuest using Steve Perrin’s conversion guidelines from All the Worlds’ Monsters, vol.3.

Barghest

Type: Undead Spirit

Description: a large spectral hound that may become invisible, and only while invisible will it shriek.

Characteristics

STR 4D6 avg. 14

SIZ 4D6 avg. 14

POW 3D6 avg. 10-11

DEX 2D6+3 avg. 10

The number of hit points of a Barghest equals its POW, hence its hit points equal its magic points. If reduced to zero hit points or magic points, it is destroyed forever.

Move: 10

Base SR: 5

Armour: 5-point spectral hide

Skills: Dodge 50%, Jump 45%, Listen 30%, Spirit combat 50%, Swim 55%, Track 50%.

Magic: The Barghest may spend 3 magic points to turn Invisible.

Weapons

Bite 40% Dmg 2D8+1D4 SR 9

Claw 40% Dmg 1D8+1D4 SR 9

Special attack

Shriek (SR 1): All those hearing the shriek must roll their POW vs the monster’s POW on the Resistance Table or be paralysed with fear for 2D6 combat rounds.

Special defence

A Barghest can only be damaged by magic, e.g., a sword with Bladesharp 4 would do 4 points of damage; Fireblade 3D6 damage. True Weapon spells do normal damage.

The Barghest is completely immune to emotion-affecting magic such as Befuddle, Demoralise, and Fear.

OCR'd Wyrms Footnotes

Chaosium has made the old issues (No.1 to No.14) of Wyrms Footnotes available as cleanly OCR'd PDF files on their web-site. Issues may be individually purchased at USD 2.49, but the whole fourteen-issue bundle is available at USD 24.99. BUY 'EM; this is a fantastic set of boardgame and TTRPG history, and Greg Stafford's editorials give great insight as to how a gaming company was run during the golden age of our hobby — these fourteen issues cover the 1976-1982 period of time.

I have started reading them, and there are lots of nuggets of weird knowledge and exciting announcements of supplements that never were. Some of my comments appear in this thread.

In issue No.5, from summer 1978 (just after RuneQuest got released), there is the very first tentative list of RQ supplements:

RUNEQUEST SP SERIES
SCENARIO PACKS, numbered, by several various authors. Scenario Packs are mini-dungeons or short overland treks. They include appropriate maps, monster stats, treasure stats, and everything required to run an expedition of one to more nights.
#1, Kakston's Art Museum, by Warren James is for all beginning characters with no more experience than they might roll up on the Past Experience charts. Only $2.
#2, Balastor's Barracks, by Steve Henderson is tougher, requiring a party to have gained some skill at arms, and a few spells as well. Only $2.
#3, 4, and so on are also in the works, and will sell for various prices.
Both of these are Definite.

LOL... “Both of these are Definite”. Although Balastor's Barracks was eventually published as SP1, I have never ever heard anything about Kakston's Art Museum, not even as a draft publication.

Chaosium News from Dragonmeet

Alas like most of you guys I haven’t been able to go to Dragonmeet in London (one day I will!).

Luckily Nick Brooke live-tweeted the Chaosium panel. For those of you who aren’t on Twitter (BTW I am Gɪᴀɴɴɪ’s Eᴠɪʟ Tᴡɪɴ on Twitter, follow me!), here is the transcript from Nick’s tweets:

“On the panel are Jeff Richard, Michael O’Brien, Jason Durall and Ian Cooper.

MOB introduces the new Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium’s online library of fan-published Gloranthan works at DriveThruRPG, which launched yesterday.
He shows off Martin Helsdon’s awesome hardcover “Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass,” a lavishly illustrated, beautifully laid-out labour of love.

MOB solicits contributions written for RuneQuest Classic, RuneQuest Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha, and stresses that YGWV — “Your Glorantha Will Vary.” Canon does not limit community content: it’s a rod for the official publisher’s back only.

He mentions that Chaosium has identified several talented new authors through the Miskatonic Repository — the “Call of Cthulhu” equivalent — who have gone on to be published in Chaosium’s own books.

Jeff talks about Basic Role-Playing and QuestWorlds, an initiative to produce SRDs authors can use to produce their own BRP and HQ-based role-playing games. (Terms and conditions apply: there will be a new Open Gaming Licence for these)
Among those T’s & C’s: you can’t produce games about Lovecraftian investigations, Gloranthan heroics or indeed King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Which seems fair enough, given Chaosium already print those.
And if you want to produce a game using someone else’s IP, you’ll need to obtain the rights from the owner (and good luck with that!), but Chaosium won’t stand in your way.
Like Jason’s Big Gold Book, the SRDs will contain all sorts of options, with the expectation that authors will pick and mix (and remix!) the bits they need for their games. Not use the whole kit and caboodle, every time.

MOB teases future libraries for Pendragon & Seventh Sea, once the Jonstown Compendium is up and running.

Jason talks about the next RQ book, “The Smoking Ruins,” containing big scenarios by Chris Klug and Steve Perrin, and opening up a major area to the west of Sartar.
After that, “Pegasus Plateau,” a collection of pick-up-and-play starting adventures for lazy GMs (like me). Lots of new authors in this, including John Wick (not that one), and another scenario by Steve Perrin.
The scenarios will take adventurers all over Dragon Pass and offer a whole range of different experiences.

Next: the “RuneQuest Starter Set,” including a guide to Jonstown and several scenarios for beginning GMs and players. Everything in the book will be new and useful to established campaigns: it’s not reprints, and any group could use the material.
Plus 14 pre-generated characters (incl. 7 from RQ:G core and a bunch more archetypes; Jason mentions adding some downloadable non-human characters).

The “RuneQuest Gamemaster’s Guide” will expand the game with plunder, Rune metals, heroquests, mass combat, etc. It will be exactly the right size to replace the GM Screen Pack in your slipcase set.

Finally (for now), “Cults of Glorantha” (Jeff has the complete manuscript in two volumes / 450 pages), and the “RuneQuest Campaign,” an adventuring timeline for the Hero Wars comparable to “The Boy King” for Pendragon.
That should keep them busy for the next 6-8 months. Other books mentioned include Troll stuff and Robin Laws’ reboot of Pavis in the Hero Wars timeline, but those are further off: they’ll be multi-book sets and won’t be available until everything has been finished.
So the pipeline feels healthy, and some of the next releases are in the late stages of layout, with art and maps aplenty. As always, there’s no commitment to publication dates — Chaosium don’t do that nowadays until a book is done and ready to ship.

And so to Q&A.

Will there be more of an “Apple Lane Campaign”?
The players’ home stomping grounds for most RQ:G material is assumed to be around that area, and several upcoming scenarios will tie in directly — including “Return to the Rainbow Mounds.”
Jeff waxes lyrical about the huge master-maps of Dragon Pass and Prax he’s been constructing from Greg Stafford’s originals. Working at this scale is illuminating — e.g., you can see the Block from Boldhome.

Maps of the Holy Country? Nochet City, Seapolis etc?
A Nochet book incl. a poster map of the city is well advanced, and a Seapolis adventure and pack is ready for final content-edits as soon as Nochet is nailed down.
Plus scenario packs and sourcebooks for Whitewall and Heortland, allowing the latter to be used as a RQ:G character homeland (incl. event tables for parents and grandparents).
Nochet works in two directions: while you can have plenty of adventures without ever leaving the city walls, on the other hand it’s easy to hop on a ship and sail off to distant Kralorela.

Jeff dilates on how Battle rules will work — they’ll be not so much a wargame (working out which side won), rather about adventurers’ experiences on the battlefield.
So the Battle rules are player-facing: they determine what your heroes did in the battle, rather than which side won. (“What happened when the Crater Makers hurled comets at our army?”)
Player characters need to make Passion or Runic inspiration rolls to take any action that will make a name for themselves (e.g., taking on an enemy champion in single combat) — otherwise, they’ll sensibly hunker down with their units.

The prime movers in the Hero Wars are Jar-eel and Argrath: they reflect each other, the “Yin and Yang” or the Holmes and Moriarty of the conflict. “The Hero Wars is the dance between Jar-eel and Argrath.”

MOB’s hope is that eventually new RQ books will be coming out every couple of months (the same pace as CoC). Once Jeff is sitting on a mountain of loot, he may return to the “Prince of Sartar” web comic: he’d love to keep it going, but it’s a time sink.”

Chromatic Soup and Other Old School Zines

art by Evlyn M

Evlyn M has just put PDF versions of her zines online for free. All the zine are lavishly illustrated. One of these zines, Chromatic Soup issue No.1, describes a swampy* area full of weird monsters and cults, sandbox-style. Yours truly has provided a RuneQuest conversion appendix at the end of the zine, meaning you can have a fully-fledged swamp sandbox at your disposal for your RQ games. At the time, RQ:G wasn't available yet so the stats are for RuneQuest Classic Edition, but I think they can be used with RQ:G with minimal effort (I'd had the prescience to include Runes and Passions).

The swampy sandbox is probably ideally situated in Western Pamaltela, between the Swermela Sea and Yedidrya, but YGWV.

Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15uisPoVVbS2ztNHSmkrkn4-YQ7r-HAzE

*or maybe marshy. I've never really understood the difference between 'marshy' and 'swampy'.

Hearts in Glorantha, issue No.6

Issue No.6 of the British Gloranthan magazine Hearts in Glorantha is available for pre-order. If you purchase it, you get the PDF right away, and the dead tree version once it's available.

If you only want the PDF, it will be available from Drivethrurpg later on.

Contents:

Back from Bacharach

So this is my traditional “Back from Bacharach” post. Honestly I don’t know how useful this post will be for readers of this blog because every year the Eternal Convention becomes more like a gathering of old friends and less like a place where one may gather industry-related news (not that I’d complain...)

Also I crushed my smartphone just before travelling to Bacharach, meaning (almost) no photographs this year.

FRIDAY 2 JUNE, afternoon

Came in quite early this year and could catch Jason Durall playtesting the adventure from this year’s Free RPG Day RQ QuickStart booklet for early conventiongoers. The booklet really has everything needed to get you play the new RuneQuest except the chargen rules (it uses pregens): combat, Battle Magic, Rune Magic, skills, passions...
Then I got to chat with Jason about the new RQ and about the latest behind-the-scenes secrets at Chaosium...

FRIDAY 2 JUNE, 19:00, Grand Opening Ceremony

This year Charlotte was late so Franziska was our only host. The ceremony was shorter than usual because, as I’ve pointed out, everybody already knows the rules! (and was probably eager to fetch a beer [given the atrocious heat] and catch up with old friends)

FRIDAY 2 JUNE, late evening, First Chaosium Panel with Jeff Richard and Jason Durall

Here are my notes:

Rick Meints is preparing the PDF rewards for the remaining RuneQuest Classic Edition KS stretch goals (Trollpak, Pavis, Big Rubble...)

The 13th Age in Glorantha Sourcebook is at final layout; it contains:

• Expanded pantheons from Greg Stafford’s notes from 40 years ago with FULL-COLOUR ILLUSTRATIONS!
• A history of Dragon Pass with an emphasis on Tarsh at the time of the Hero Wars
• A history of the Lunar Empire (remember those serialised articles in Heroes magazine?)

RuneQuest 4: Jason is the lead editor. Still heavily working on editing. Sarah Newton and Lynne Hardy have been brought aboard to help with their external eyes; they are providing lots of feedback.
The first two books are the rulebook and the bestiary. Both should be available for Christmas 2017. Then there is a book of scenarios called the RQ “GM Pack”.
And then obviously this year’s Free RPG Day RQ QuickStart booklet, which has kept everybody very busy.
For those who haven’t followed the latest developments, here is a presentation of RQ4 in a nutshell.
RQ4 is not generic; it is set in Glorantha in 1625.
The rules are an elaboration of the RQ Classic Edition rules, but add:
- Runes, see this post from one year ago, except that the mechanism has been further polished and refined.
- Passions, which also work as augments.
Note: both Runes and Passions work like Skills, with a %age value. Runes are also the basic skills on which Rune Magic depends in terms of succeeding at casting a Rune Magic spell.
- Rune Points, used to fuel the casting of Rune Magic spells. They work like Magic Points except that are replenished during worship ceremonies that take place once a season. How many points you top up also depends on whether your PC is an initiate or a Rune-level character. You do not have to ‘learn’ Rune Magic spells: when you cast a Rune Magic spell, you are channelling your god’s power. I’ll provide an example later on.
- CharGen: characters are much more integrated into the fabric of society; however, there also will be a QuickGen system for people who are in a hurry/do not want to go through the fully-fledged system.
- Shamanism & Spirit combat: completely rewritten (this was arguably the worst part of RQ2) by Chris Klug and Ken Rolston, who have put an emphasis on communicating with spirits rather than fighting them.
- CHA as a characteristic is much more useful and important than it used to be; in particular an 18 CHA is needed to become a Rune Lord.
- Reputation (as a %age), which is different from CHA: it is more like the PC’s renown
- Sorcery. Not the final, fully-fledged rules, but enough to play in Dragon Pass, for NPCs, and for Lhankorings. BTW the Lhankor Mhy cult is the one that has received most tweaks.
- 14 or 15 cults in the core rulebook.
- Culturally, the core rulebook is centred around Dragon Pass/the Holy Country/Prax.
- Non-human characters: none in the core rulebook but rules to create non-human PCs are in the bestiary.
- Alchemy as in RQ2 is mostly gone, replaced with a skill-based system, much more consistent.

Friday ended with drinking beer and eating salty liquorice with Dutch friends. Quite a pleasant combination.

SATURDAY 3 JUNE, morning

Played HeroQuest auf deutsch, again with Robin Mitra like last year. Exceedingly interesting scenario that started at dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307 when King Philip IV ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar. Our characters were entrusted with one third of the treasure of the Templars which we had to bring to Prester John. Except no fucking body knew where his kingdom was. ‘Nach Osten’. Right. With no idea how to get there. A very challenging scenario, with a very open-ended finale (the group who played the same scenario on Sunday did everything in a completely different way!)

picture by Heini

SATURDAY 3 JUNE, afternoon

Played Monkey 2nd edition with Dan Barker as the referee. We played the original companions of Tripitaka, and I got to be Monkey himself! A very zany scenario that will probably appear in a free Monkey QuickStart free PDF. Very recommended.

SATURDAY 3 JUNE, evening

Playtested my historical/civilisational boardgame Siebenbürgen. It is for four players who each represent one of the historical nations vying for supremacy over Transylvania (‘Siebenbürgen’ in German, hence the title): the Hungarians, the Vlachs, the Saxons, and the Szeklers. The game starts at the fall of the Roman Empire and ends at the fall of the Soviet Union. It is a card-driven game, but there is also an actual board (a map of Transylvania and of the surrounding lands) on which the players move the counters representing their peoples and where they may build cities, churches, fortifications, etc.
The game is now almost one year old, and I am very satisfied with how it runs. We played it in about 2.5 hours, which I think is excellent for such a game. Really excited!

Had (again!) a long chat with Jason about the new RQ.

SATURDAY 3 JUNE, late

We played the boardgame Mafia de Cuba but were exaggeratedly deep in the roles of the various characters. Great fun... this is what happens when RPGers play boardgames :-)

A cold morning before a hot day

SUNDAY 4 JUNE, morning

The traditional Trollball game was held under a cold sun (probably makes sense... Chern Durel, anyone?). This was followed by yet another chat with Jeff & Jason with regards to the new RuneQuest. My Parisian friends and I secured a copy of the manuscript to turn our current RQ2 campaign into an RQ4 playtest campaign!

SUNDAY 4 JUNE, afternoon

Playtested the adventure from this year’s Free RPG Day RQ QuickStart booklet with Jason as the referee and a group of RQ grognards as the players. Here are my impressions from an actual gaming session as to what the most salient differences are, compared with RuneQuest Classic Edition:
- Battle Magic does not succeed automatically any longer (you have to roll under POW×5 – not sure I like this)
- Runes, Passions, used as augments (see above). Loved it.
- Rune Magic. Lots of new kewl spells, which depend on your Runes and not your god. Also you do not have to choose which spell you memorise/sacrifice for beforehand since the act of casting a Rune Magic spell is tantamount to your channelling your god’s power. And gods do not memorise spells... In the game, I cast a 3-point Rune spell early on in the adventure, expending my entire capital of Rune points (which I knew I would not be able to replenish). I had to roll under my Truth Rune for success. But I got to choose the spell from a list available to my god; it wasn’t a spell the PC had memorised.
- Magic Skills, and especially Spirit Combat
- Combat: the Defence skill IS GONE (auggggh) replaced with Dodge (nooooooo).
Great refereeing by Jason; we were all completely and hopelessly in the sombre mood of kinstrife, of wergeld, and of the past coming back to haunt the present... That is when I realised that Chaosium hadn’t treated us to new Gloranthan RQ adventures since the RQ Renaissance in the 90s!

SUNDAY 4 JUNE, evening, Third Chaosium Panel with Jeff and Jason

Note: I missed the 2nd panel on Saturday; I’m told it was mostly about HeroQuest (and it seems not much is going on at that side...)
The 3rd panel consisted in an open Q&A session. Everybody spoke quickly and in a noisy atmosphere, so I apologise for the incomplete notes.

HEROQUESTING & ILLUMINATION
Q: Tell us more about heroquesting and how that ties with Illumination.
A: Illumination is a mystical epiphany where you realise the nature of All. In a heroquest, you interact with the God Time. The more you deal with the God Time from different perspectives (i.e., you are not always re-enacting the same heroquest) the more likely it is that you get that epiphany.
Think about the famous tale of the blind men each touching a different part of an elephant; the more you touch different parts of the elephant, the more you can understand its true shape.

Q: That’s what the God Learners were doing...
A: The big difference is that the God Learners had an intellectual approach, not a mystical one.
Logic is a very useful tool but it is also very limited when we are talking about things that are beyond comprehension, e.g., eternity.

Q: Is it possible to train someone to be better prepared to Illumination?
A: Yes, it’s exactly what happens in some real-world religions.

Q: What is the definition of a heroquest?
A: It is a procedure to bring back a part of the God Time into our world.

THE EAST
Q: Why doesn’t Godunya do anything against Can Shu?
A: Ignorance is part of the balance of the universe. And at least it’s controlled where it is [in Chern Durel]. If Can Shu were to be crushed, who knows where Ignorance would re-surface... maybe in Kralorela itself?

Q: What is the procedure to find a new emperor?
A: Who knows? There isn’t anybody left around from the last time this happened!

Q: I want to know more about Orathorn.
A: It will be in the 13th Age in Glorantha Sourcebook.

SUNDAY 4 JUNE, late evening

Played ‘Return to Apple Lane’ (probably from the upcoming RQ4 GM Pack) with Jeff as the referee. A fantastic moment of Gloranthan fun, and a surprising twist/follow-up to a beloved adventure. I won’t say more so as not to spoil anybody’s fun when this is out.

[zine] Issue No.1 of Chromatic Soup is Out!

I am happy to announce that issue No.1 of the collective OSR dead-tree zine Chromatic Soup is available on lulu for a mere €4.88.

The zine started as a jocular idea on G+ by artist Cédric Plante (whose fantastic art graces the cover and the interior of the zine) and eventually developed into a 179-page zine that describes a fully-fledged weird and marshy setting known as ‘the Biting Marshes’.

The setting features a lot of crazy but extremely inspirational ideas in a ‘pointcrawl’ kind of presentation, with three beautiful maps. I would like to highlight the following:

Duke Arqueballast's scheming — This chapter alone could very well form the backbone of a complete sandbox campaign. Duke Arqueballast rules from a fortress barge towed by a hundred yoked crocodiles. If this is not OSR at its best, then I don't know what is.

Log-Jaws — The ecology of an Alien-like plant monster that can be tamed by the music of the Log-Jaws Pipers.

Stewpot Witches —This is probably my favourite. This chapter describes a cult of  witches who master a weird and very old form of magic native to the Biting Marshes. Each Stewport Witch has a familiar that looks like a walking iron pot with a huge face in the middle of the pot (like in the illo above). The witches may create magical meals within the iron pots. By the way this iron is called ‘bog iron’ and has peculiar properties.

Bobcatmen — A new race. They live in the northern part of the Biting Marshes as bandits of slavers. Their human thralls wear bobcat-like masks.

The Order of the Merchant-Knights — A quasi-religious order of merchants who ply their trade east of the Biting Marshes. They are actually quite similar to the cult of Issaries, but with a more military bent.

Last but not least, there is a ‘RuneQuest conversions’ appendix at the end of the zine to enable you to use all of the above with the RuneQuest Classic Edition rules.

Link to the free PDF version.

Quick-ish RuneQuest Classic Edition Char Gen

Mike Hill over at G+ has suggested the following:

These are the set-up rules we use to quickly replace a character in play or when we don’t have the energy for the full-blown experience.

Quick Adventurers

Here’s a solution for the creation of new adventurers in a hurry; it’s not scientific but it produces a playable character that’s fairly close to the original training rules without taking half an hour.

1. Roll the dice to create your character and calculate the skill modifiers, strike rank, damage bonus etc.

2. Take 12 skill advances in accordance with the provisos below.

3. Take one weapon, including a shield, for each weapon skill that received one or more advance.

4. Select items of armour totalling no more than 3 encumbrance points.

5. Record one adventurer’s pack (2 ENC points), if they’re in use.

6. Select two 1-point battle magic spells or one 1-point spell and two Detect spells.

7. Accept 3,100 L in training debt, less 5% per point of CHA over 12.

8. If the adventurer has background funds they may be spent on additional gear now.

Skill AdvancesEach skill advance increases the base skill level by 5 points; the base level is the value printed on the character sheet plus (or minus) the skill category modifier (attack, knowledge, stealth etc.).

However skill advances may only bring the net skill level up to 25 points unless the base skill level is already 25 or greater, in which case a single advance is permitted.

For standard weapons, a single advance increases both attack and parry; an advance in a missile weapon or a shield increases only the attack or parry skill respectively. The referee may rule that weapons outside the cultural norm start with a base of 5 plus modifier rather than the value stated in the rules.

THE KRAKEN 2016 Report

Schloss Neuhausen
Neuhofer Straße 20
19348 Berge, OT Neuhausen

AND THEN THERE WILL BE CAKE

The theory was that there would be a “gaming vacation”-type of Kraken on even years, and a shorter “gaming retreat”-type of Kraken on odd years. However, we’ve now had two “gaming retreat” Krakens two years in a row, and I am under the impression that it is going to remain like this... because apparently those who work in the industry find it convenient to have a “gaming retreat” the week-end preceding the Essen game fair. The biggest beef I have with this is that we’re all sort of used to the older version of the Kraken (which was longer), and we all get there with three or four RPG adventures that we’ve prepared, or piles of board games we want to try out with our friends, and, inevitably, we end up not being able to do everything we’ve planned. I feel this has particularly been true this year.

Anyway, I’ll stop ranting – here’s my report. Since there was so much to see and to do at the same time, I have written the report using both my notes and my friends’ – so thank you Éric Vanel and Runeblogger of the Runeblog for sharing your notes with me.

As always, the bad-looking pictures below are by yours truly, whereas the nice-looking ones are by friends, and in particular by Aliénor and Toumy, photographers extraordinaire!


FRIDAY 7 OCTOBER, late afternoon

We arrive at the Schloss after a stop and a good night’s rest in Nimeguen at Louis Kolkman’s place where we have retrieved he and his wife’s impressive Operation Market Garden giant wargame (see past posts about it). We receive our Krakeneers’ kits (less beautifully crafted than the earlier years) and accommodation keys.

Disorder.

Order.

FRIDAY 7 OCTOBER, evening

21:00 – Opening Ceremony. This year is a slightly special edition of the Kraken:

• It is the 5th Kraken,
• We are celebrating 30 years of Call of Cthulhu in German,
• 50 years of Glorantha,
• and 500 years of Reinheitsgebot!

50 yrs of Glorantha!

I tell Fabi he shouldn’t advertise the Kraken as a “gaming retreat” — but as a “gaming gourmet gathering”! The food is superb, and this year we have a choice of going full vegan! (so three different options at each meal: standard, vegetarian, and vegan). And, of course, the beer is free.

I watch people play a demo game of Khan of Khans run by Chaosium’s Michael O’Brien (aka MOB); the game is going to be launched at Essen. It is a nice and fast little family card game (it plays 2 to 5) in which each player is a Praxian khan who raids Dragon Pass for cattle; whoever has raided most cattle at the end of the game wins. A game lasts about 10 minutes. Most people are enthusiastic about it (Éric certainly is) but I have the impression that it is really a game designed for kids [note that I didn’t play — I just watched people playing]. Anyway, the illustrations are fantastic and perfectly Gloranthan-themed. More on Khan of Khans later.

Khan of Khans demo game

Sandy Petersen is also demoing his new boardgame: Planet Apocalypse. This time it’s not set in one of Chaosium’s licensed universes but in our own world, invaded by demons. Also contrary to both Cthulhu Wars and Gods’ War, it is a co-operative game. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try it at all, so this is pretty much all the information I have at the moment. Based on how the pieces and the gaming aids look like, I believe the game is still in its early design phases.

Planet Apocalypse

Everyone had been expecting that Volume One of the Coming Storm by Ian Cooper would be available for sale at the Kraken... Unfortunately it is not. Still, I can peruse a physical copy of the book. It is a sturdy, full-colour, 148-page beauteous hardback book. (More about its physical aspect later.) In a nutshell, the book contains the following:

• Clan description
• Red Cow clan PC creation
• Important clan NPCs (loads of them!)
• Gazetteer of the Cinsina lands
• Other Cinsina clans

Beateous Hardback

It's real, it's not been photoshopped!

Just like last year, I take advantage of the Kraken to playtest my board game, Gloranthan Realms, outside of my usual group of Parisian playtesters. I run two demo games leading to v3.4 of the rules, which streamlines the turn sequence and (hopefully) makes the game less frustrating for unlucky people who never draw the rune or the card they need. Also I run a game with seven players, which I’d never managed to do in Paris (maximum I ever got was six).

Gloranthan Realms cards

SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER, morning and noon

I referee several times in a row Odile and Louis’s ginormous wargame, Operation Market Garden. It’s really nigh-impossible for the Allied player to win. Now I understand why it took me so many games last year to eventually manage to capture Arnhem!

As a result of my refereeing the Operation Market Garden giant wargame, I miss the “Quo Vadis, Chaosium?” panel. Luckily the Runeblogger attended it and took notes that he’s shared with me; plus I watched the video recording on _THE_KRAKEN_’s YouTube channel.

The Chaosium: Neil, Jeff, Rick and MOB

So here’s the gist of the panel:

MOB & Rick: what is in the pipeline?

CoC pipeline

For Christmas 2016, two books for children: HP Lovecraft for Young Readers, and a Cthulhu colouring book. I think this is good news – there’s never enough Lovecraft and Cthulhu, and the sooner kids learn about the Great Old Ones, the better.

The upcoming gaming supplements are:

Doors to Darkness – 5 scenarios, full-colour layout.

Pulp Cthulhu (15 years in the making!)

A set of four Keeper decks (originally for the KS backers only; now generally available)

• NPCs
• Weapons and artefacts
• Phobias
• Miscellaneous (events, twists…)

Glorantha pipeline

The Coming Storm (Volume One) – This will feature the new look of all the future Gloranthan books: hardcover, bronzey feeling, colour layout, and the Chaosium logo on the cover!
The Coming Storm (Volume Two) is currently “in layout”.

The Guide to Glorantha is being re-printed, with a ‘50th anniversary’ slipcase, and will be sold to non-backers. It should be available in about three weeks’ time.

The next RuneQuest (definitely called RQ4 now) won’t be out this year (even though the rules are nearing completion) — Chaosium don’t want to have a rules book out without any supporting material, so the idea is to have 4 to 5 books out simultaneously: the rules, a bestiary, a GM’s pack, etc.

First RQ4 book (the rules): we can have a look at the Playtest book, which is really THICK (see the photograph below).
The book is 95% finished (only the examples of play are missing; Jason is working on them, the idea is to build a Rurik-like saga).
Art is being commissioned.

RQ4 rules...

Second book: Bestiary (also PHAT), set to look like the Petersen’s Guide to Cthulhu Monsters; will have rules for monsters as PCs.

Third book: GM’s book; rules on Chaos, rules on Illumination, some Lunar cults (Red Goddess priestesses as allies or as enemies), material on heroquesting, battle rules, a collection of statted encounters set in Dragon Pass...

A policy that Chaosium now want to enforce is: no more rulebooks without scenarios, so this is what they’re working on now: a fourth book, the Dragon Pass Campaign, which will span a year and a half of in-game time, starting just after the Dragonrise, and done as seasonal adventures. Some of it is straight from what Greg Stafford was working on before he eventually switched to working on Pendragon.

Secrets of future RQ supplements!

Mythic Iceland second edition; the book is stand-alone (no separate rules – the BRP line is dead), new magic (shamanic), rune magic re-worked, new scenarios…
It will also have a companion book, hence starting its own product line, with forthcoming scenario and setting books (like Vinland).

Board Games!

Khan of Khans, a Gloranthan family card game by Reiner Knizia (see above); will be KS’ed (5 tribes in the original box) with an expansion (5 more tribes).
Set in the plains of Prax.
Very cute art.
Doesn’t take much time to play.
Hopefully it will be a gateway to more complex Gloranthan games.

Khan of Khans prototype next to an iPhone - small game!

The new edition of Credo is still being worked on; the aim is to have shorter games.

Chris Klug is still working on the new Dragon Pass game; aim: being able to play the game in 2 hours but with the same strategic and diplomatic satisfaction as the original game from the 70s.
The hex map has been abandoned, it will be replaced by an area movement system (personal note: I am not surprised… the early prototype version I’ve playtested was 3+ hours to play, and that was the shortest scenario!).

Fiction Line

The fiction anthology Cassilda’s Song has been named as a finalist for two World Fantasy Awards, for the anthology itself, and for one of the stories in the book, The Neurastheniac.

Neil talks about fulfilment: European customers will now be able to order from the UK; all the products will be stocked in the UK. Also, Chaosium has joined the Brick & Mortar Initiative, see my earlier post.

Next European conventions Chaosium are going to attend:

• Essen (13-16 Oct 2016)
• Dragonmeet (3 Dec 2016)
• UK Games Expo (2-4 June 2017)

Jeff talks about 13th Age in Glorantha:
It will be a very big book. Single biggest book that Rob & Jonathan will ever have written. Hence lots of art, by several talented authors.
The (system-neutral) Gloranthan sourcebook is going through layout & art; it’s sort of a shorter version of the Guide, with a major focus on mythology and with an updated timeline of the Lunar Empire. It also has MAPS!

Q&A session

Q: Are the battle rules in RQ4 going to be based on the ones in Pendragon?
A: No. Pendragon emphasises knight combat, whereas we wanted to take into account all kinds of characters, and especially those that use magic.

Q: How are you going to make your games appeal to Joe Average RPGers?
A: We are aiming at having games that don’t only appeal to grognards but also, for instance, women. We think the new RQ should appeal more to people who are bored with combat.
We are going to continue setting up ‘Organised Play’ (like we did for Call of Cthulhu) also for RQ4.
Also looking to have introductory scenarios, like the one Andrew Bean ran at the Kraken.

Q: Product schedule for the RQ Classic kickstarter?
A: We will resume working on the PDFs when we’re back from Essen…


11:00 – Horror Lottery. For the first time since I have been going to the Kraken, my name has been drawn! I play in Robin D Laws’ game on Sunday – which also means I won’t be able to play in Éric Vanel’s…

Rick and Fabi

Just before lunch, I manage to squeeze in a Gloranthan Realms playtest game again, with the new sequence of play. It works really great!

Fabi with a present from my daughter

Lunch is home-baked pizza. The vegan one is so good the non-vegan Krakeneers are stealing our slices!


SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER, afternoon

The usual perk of attending cons— I play a game of the French dark fantasy RPG Les Chroniques des Féals refereed by one of the designers herself: Camille Chiverne Guirou! The universe (which I didn’t know at all, nor did the other players) is quite rich and absolutely not your run-of-the-mill fantasy setting. The system is easy to grasp and plays nicely. It leaves us wanting to discover more.

Chroniques des Féals game

As explained in the introduction, the gaming sessions just override each other because there are so many; I have to cancel my Call of Cthulhu game. I’ll probably run it at the Eternal Con.

19:00 – Excellent and abundant Chaosium BBQ dinner. I chat with MOB. Fans of Tales of Mythic Adventure do not despair: he has seven episodes in the pipe.

Hillfolk game

SATURDAY 8 OCTOBER, evening

I play in the secret playtest session of a brand new game by a French game designer well-known for his unconventional ideas. Sorry, super-secret, I can’t add much, except that I have had a blast and I can’t wait for the next playtest session!

During that time, Éric participates in the playtesting session of a future supplement for the Coming Storm. The adventure (DragonRise) should be one of several in said supplement. Lots of feedback for Ian from the players.

Just before going to sleep, I peruse the printout of the new Conan RPG by Modiphius. It just oozes love for RE Howard’s work from each page.


SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, morning and noon

Sunday morning, lots of people are testing prototypes of new games, or trying out recently published KS’d games. The Runeblogger, for instance, playtests Planet Apocalypse.

Trollball prototype

Trollball prototype

Gods' War

Food

Well, I do the same: I am refereeing for the very first time The Motherland Calls! my new role-playing game set on the Eastern Front during WWII. The idea is to have a fully realistic, non-supernatural game set in a period of time that, apparently, has attracted writers of fiction, designers of war games and board games, but not of role-playing games [yes, I know of Night Witches, but it’s focused on a particular type of missions]! My players are very nice to me (and to the imperfections of this early draft) and I have a great time. I will definitely develop it further and publish it in The Hanging Garden when it’s ready.


SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, afternoon

New RuneQuest Seminar with Jeff Richard: Spirit Magic in the Upcoming RuneQuest
Focus on the shaman/spirit world/combat rules and their implications on the party (keep everybody adventuring together).
Chris Klug is basically rewriting the whole section to avoid the pitfalls from past editions.


Conan seminar with Jason Durall and yours truly.
We take advantage of the nifty audio/video facility in one of the large rooms of the Schloss. We show “Conan: The Rise of a Fantasy Legend”, a featurette from my Conan the Barbarian: Special Edition DVD set. It’s a nice 20-minute documentary about the life and times of RE Howard, and about the impact that Conan has had on the Sword & Sorcery genre. Jason (who is a bigtime RE Howard and Conan fan and amateur scholar) then comments the short film and tells a few anecdotes about RE Howard and Conan of his own. Since the projector is connected to the internet, we subsequently show an excerpt from The Whole Wide World, a 1996 biopic about Robert E Howard adapted from Novalyne Price Ellis’s autobiography. She was a close friend of RE Howard’s and she acted as an advisor for the film, although she was in her late eighties!

Conan/REH seminar

The problem with the Conan stories is that they were published in a haphazard order by pulp magazines, so we ask Jason which edition we should look at for a definitive text. Jason thinks the authoritative edition is the Del Rey one in 3 hardbacks, edited by Patrice Louinet — who is also an advisor to the Modiphius RPG, which is BTW at its final layout phase; it should be at the printers by the end of October.

All in all, a fantastic panel; I really feel elated. Unfortunately there aren’t many people attending because almost everyone is a player in the traditional Gloranthan freeform taking place outside; this year it is the one called “White Bear and Red Moon”. I am told they have barely stopped Chaos from entering Gloranthan reality (again).


SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, late afternoon

Finnish pancakes galore by the incredible Risto “Lätyt” Welling. He has brought all kinds of Finnish seasonings but the best one is definitely the home-made cloudberry jam.

Advanced Gaming Lore seminar with Robin D Laws.
Highlights:

• Suggests alternating core scenes with alternative scenes
• Ask your players what your bad GM habits are, and try to avoid them in the future
• Plus mucho specific HQ-related advice (e.g., the economy of Hero Points…)

Dinner: stuffed capsicums and rote Grütze. Rote Grütze is a northern German dessert that apparently stemmed from an experiment to have the highest-possible carbohydrate content per cubic centimetre in the world. After a small serving, I feel I have to drink a gallon of water. Yet some Krakeneers manage to eat several in a row. I know RPGers have a different metabolism to normal humans but still— wow!

SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER, evening

Since we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Glorantha, Fabi sets up a Skype conversation with Greg Stafford (who is in California) in the audio/video room. Greg tells us many anecdotes from the early days of Gloranthan gaming, especially about the Dragon Pass/White Bear Red Moon board game, and then we have a short Q&A session.
Scoop: Conan was the inspiration for Harrek the Berserk – which ties in nicely with the earlier seminar.

You could buy some 'forgotten' Dragon Pass counters

Robin D Laws HeroQuest game: The Secret of the Egg. The funny thing is that the game is the sequel of the game that Robin has refereed the previous day but using his Hillfolk system. Anyway, both games are set in the Dragon Pass area a few generations after the Dragonkill, and involve tough choices that will shape the future of the clan for generations to come. The best thing as always with Robin is his incredible skill as a referee and his versatility in impersonating NPCs… The adventure itself is a rough ride, the clan has to face impossible choices, but I guess that’s what clan-based adventures are all about. The interesting thing is that, out of 5 players, only 2 (Fabi and yours truly) are Gloranthaphiles, and yet everybody quickly captures the essence of living in a world where the gods are real and can be met in the hero plane, and in which you just don’t kill a dragon— you have to heroquest to find something to defend yourself against it. Kudos to Janet who played a very trickster-ey Eurmali character.

Robin and yours truly

During this time, Éric referees his Welcome to the Grazelands HeroQuest game. The PCs stop the ice demons who have appeared in the Grazelands during the Great Winter.

Late at night, I ran yet another playtesting session of Gloranthan Realms, again with the new turn sequence.


MONDAY 10 OCTOBER, morning

10:30 – Closing Ceremony (amidst much sorrow).

Yours truly in front of the Schloss

See you next year!