Children of the Flame

Children of the Flame is an epic RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha campaign set in southeastern Sartar at the time of the Dragonrise.

The aim of the players is to reinstate the Dundealos tribe in their lands—which were stolen by the Lunars, and given to the newly-created Enstalos tribe after an ill-fated uprising by the Dundealos.

The adventurers are either former Dundealos hiding amongst fellow Sartarites or relatives of the Dundealos wanting to right past wrongs now that the Lunars are on the wane.

The supplement describes in detail the city of Swenstown, a former trading hub between Sartar and Prax slowly falling into poverty, and then works its way through six epic scenarios of growing difficulty until a final confrontation between militant Dundealos, Lunar loyalists, Praxian nomads, and some other opponents I shanʼt name because I donʼt want to spoil the adventure.

Children of the Flame will soon be available on DriveThruRPG, both as a PDF and as a print-on-demand book.

Note: this supplement is the English-language translation of Les Enfants de la flamme, an official supplement for the French version of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

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

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

RPG A Day 21−24

Day 21 — Classic Campaign

Shadows on the Borderland is my favourite product from the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’ of the early 1990s, one of the few original Avalon Hill RuneQuest supplements that was not a re-issued or a re-packaged product from the RQ2 range.

Shadows on the Borderland was not officially presented as a campaign, but as a series of adventures set in the same area (Prax) and with a common theme: the ever-present threat of Chaos in this uncivilised part of central Genertela— which of course enabled resourceful GMs to build a campaign out of these adventures (which is exactly what our GM did).

Day 22 — Notable Non-Player Character

What is a ‘notable’ NPC? One that is central to the ‘lore’ of a role-playing game? In this case, Arkat, Argrath, Harrek, Ralzakark and many others are notable NPCs, especially Argrath, who is supposed to play a major role in the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha line.

Or is it an NPC that the player characters are bound to meet over and over again over the course of their adventures, and who acts as a useful deus ex machina tool for the [lazy] GM? In this case, le Club Pythagore from the French role-playing game Maléfices ticks all the boxes.

Or is it an NPC that you and your fellow gamers will remember from a great role-playing session or from a memorable campaign? In this case, everyone will have a different reference as to who is a notable NPC, irrespective of how well the NPC was presented in a given gaming supplement. From my recent sessions as a player, I have fond memories of Zaleena Silver-Tongue, a Lunar schemer from The Eleven Lights campaign written for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.

And, last but not least, me and my friends have notable NPCs from our house campaigns. These NPCs won’t mean a thing to you, but we of course love reminiscing about them. One such NPC is Sturm Martex, a dream magician from Orathorn who kept thwarting my players’ plans during our Chern Durel campaign. I think his appearance is what made him so memorable... he had no body, just a head that was carried around on a silken cushion resting on a precious palanquin supported by his slaves. He had tinkered too much with dream magic, and his body got stuck in the Dream World. 

Day 23 — Peerless Player

Anyone who has ever attended a role-playing convention and enthusiastically played in a one-shot with total strangers is a peerless player 🙂

Day 24 — Acclaimed Advice

As someone of the show, don’t tell persuasion, I enjoy learning from experienced GMs at cons during the course of a game or at a panel.

For inexperienced GMs I will recommend the book Mener des parties de jeu de rôle (in French), which is a collection of articles written by French TTRPG professionals with loads of useful tips.

RPG A Day 20

Day 20 — Amazing Adventure

Oh my days, there are so many.

For me the best adventures are the ones with well-defined NPCs that you will still fondly remember years after the adventure has been played, but I am not going to mention my favourite TTRPG campaigns again (that was Day 12), so I’ll have to think of something else.

One that truly stands out from my recent years of GMing is a free Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes adventure titled the Curse of the Midnight Sun by Michael Paul. It is supposed to be set in upstate New York in 1953, but: (1) I have moved the action to Normandy in 1902, and (2) I have adapted it to Maléfices.

Well, what was supposed to be a one-shot adventure ended up as a fabulous mini-campaign with very endearing NPCs, scary villains, and two mysterious siblings.

RPG A Day 6–7

Day 6 — RPG That is Easy to Use

I’m not sure what this entails. All RPGs are easy to use. All you need is a table, a few friends, and your imagination. 

This may leave out a few RPGs that mandate the use of minis or of weird dice but that still leaves 99% of games in.

Day 7 — RPG with ‘Good Form’

Without the shadow of a doubt, the RuneQuest Starter Set.

RuneQuest has often been maligned as being “only for Grognards” or “only for Gloranthaphiles”. The Starter Set shows how this criticism is rubbish.

The Starter Set is a beautiful, sturdy box containing everything needed to start playing RQ in the world of Glorantha: four booklets, a set of pre-generated characters, several maps, and a few accessories, like the super cool Strike Rank Tracker for mathematically-impaired players.

The first booklet contains the rules, which are perfectly laid out (I feel they’re even clearer than in the core book). The absence of what is probably the most daunting part of RQ:G, character generation, makes them almost standard fare as far as fantasy RPGs go. The slim booklet makes the rules easier to use as reference than a thick book.

The second booklet gives an overview of the world of Glorantha, with an emphasis on a single city, which I think is a good idea because it sets the tone of RQ adventuring, which is often city- or wilderness-based rather than dungeon delving.

The third booklet is a solo adventure. This is a terrific idea— an inexperienced GM can get the gist of RQ adventuring before they set up a table for their friends by playing this advenure, although I think the adventure itself may be a tad too complex.

The fourth booklet contains three adventures. The focus of the adventures is to have the novice players slowly discover the peculiarities of RQ and Glorantha as they start adventuring. The adventures are really good— but while I appreciate the surprise effect of the third one on long-term RQ aficionados I’m not sure it’s a good example of what a 21st century RQ game usually revolves around.

The character sheets are practical and beautifully illustrated. The characters are a good mix of adventuring types and make it perfectly clear that RQ is not your typical vanilla fantasy TTRPG.

RuneQuest Humble Bundle

For a mere €16, you can get the PDFs of most of the books of the latest edition of RuneQuest via this incredible offer.

Whether you have sat on a fence, or only purchased the dead tree versions, or even if you want to offer this bundle to a friend, you can’t possibly ignore this unbelievable offer.

In detail, this is what you’ll get:

1. the RQ core rules
2. the RQ Screen Pack
3. the RQ Quickstart
4. the RQ Bestiary
5. the RQ Book of Magic
6. the RQ Starter Set (best TTRPG starter set evah)
7. RuneQuest Weapons & Equipment
8. King of Sartar
9. Cults of RuneQuest — Mythology (invaluable even if you don’t play RQ)
10. Cults of RuneQuest — the Prosopaedia
11. Cults of RuneQuest — the Lightbringers (the good friends of Orlanth Rex)
12. Cults of RuneQuest — the Earth Goddesses
13. the Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories (scenario pack)
14. the Smoking Ruins & Other Stories (scenario pack)
15. the Guide to Glorantha (all about Glorantha, the TV series)
16. the Argan Argar Atlas (map companion to the Guide)
17. the Glorantha Sourcebook (all about Glorantha, the film)
18. the RQ colouring book (I have no idea what this is)

Again, this is amazing value for €16!

RuneQuest Starter Set

The RuneQuest Starter Set is available at last. Chock-full of Gloranthan goodness, it is an absolute must-buy for any serious TTRPG player and/or collector.

chock-full of gaming stuff, for €25 only

I'll point you to someone else's blog post for a ‘standard’ review of the RuneQuest Starter Set. Since this blog is mostly followed by seasoned Gloranthaphiles, I am going to concentrate on what a grizzled Gloranthaphile will find of interest in it and on why you too should purchase it. First and foremost, the RQ Starter Set has been written with years of feedback from newbie and veteran players and GMs, and it shows in how the rules have been clearly laid out, re-organised, and re-written. Honestly, except for character generation (which has been left out of the Starter Set and replaced with 14 pre-generated characters), Book 1: Rules of the Starter Set contains all the rules needed to play RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. In this aspect, it is completely different from most TTRPG starter sets that only give you an inkling of the fully-fledged game system, and which require you to purchase the various manuals later on. With the RQ Starter Set, you can skip the purchase of the rulebook if you are happy not to go through the fully-fledged character generation procedure (the one with the adventurer's family history, etc., from the core rulebook) and if you are willing to use a simpler system like, for instance, my accelerated character generation or my ultra-fast character generation.

In some areas, I feel the Starter Set is even superior to the core rulebook. The tricky parry/dodge mechanisms with regards to success quality (fumble, failed, normal, special, critical) are clearly explained, with a very detailed table that details all the various cases with the relavant results. Spirit combat and the shaman–fetch relationship are also expounded upon in a much more unequivocal way than in the core rulebook.

Obviously, Book 2: the World of Glorantha does not attain the encyclopedic depth of the Guide of Glorantha, nor does it give the same overview of the myths and of the religions of Glorantha that the 220-page Sourcebook does, yet it does solve the eternal GM problem of ‘how am I going to quickly introduce Glorantha to my players’. In a mere 21 pages of (dense) text, it manages to give a satisfactory overview of the history of Glorantha, both mundane and mythical, of the Runes and of the Elder Races, of what makes Gloranthan magic and religion different from your vanilla TTRPG setting, and of what organisations your adventurer will gravitate to; it also includes a mini-gazetteer of the Dragon Pass area with the added benefit of it all being for GMs and players alike (which means you can safely pass on the booklet to your players for reading).

This is followed by what can only be described as a mini-campaign setting of Jonstown and northern Sartar. Again, in a mere 39 pages you have everything you need as a GM to run your games in the Jonstown area: city map, gazetteer, guilds, cults, major NPCs, sample NPCs, etc.

Book 3: SoloQuest is a Tunnels and Trolls-like solo adventure that has the double aim of teaching you the rules and of making you familiar with the situation in the Dragon Pass area in 1625. As a seasoned Gloranthaphile, you probably don't need to be taught the rules. However, if you've only played the adventures that were published for RQ2, RQ3 and HeroQuest, you won't be familiar with the new situation (the Dragonrise, the end of the Lunar occupation of Sartar, Argrath's conquest of Prax and Pavis, etc.), and going through the Battle of Dangerford with your player character will brush you up on your Know Glorantha skill.

As implied by its title, Book 4: Adventures presents three adventures set in Jonstown and northern Sartar. The interest for the seasoned GM is, again, to make you familiar with the new political landscape of the Dragon Pass area; the second adventure, A Fire in the Darkness, is particularly useful in this regard. As for the third adventure, the Rainbow Mounds, your players will certainly be extremely surprised if they try and go through it using whatever they may remember from the original RQ2 adventure— the times they are a-changin'!

Last but not least, the Starter Set contains several reference sheets, amongst which a handy ‘Strike Rank Tracker’ with helpful SR-related information directly printed on it such as spell casting times & SRs, held actions, spirit combat, aimed attacks, etc. Again, this should prove useful even for grizzled players & GMs.

[Jonstown Compendium] The Howling Tower

The Howling Tower is my first foray into the Jonstown Compendium, the Chaosium-sponsored corner on drivethru rpg where fans can sell their own RuneQuest content. My contribution is minuscule (I have made sure everything was consistent with the latest edition of the rules, and I have written the stats of the pre-generated characters): the original author of the adventure is Devin Cutler, and Dario Corallo has been the driving force behind this endeavour, doing the layout, the artwork, choosing what should get in and what should stay out, etc. so it's definitely his baby. Moreover, Dario has transformed a mere adventure into a fantastic adventure pack by adding virtual tabletop maps and counters, handouts, enlarged maps, etc.

Irrespective of my involvement, I really recommend you purchase this adventure pack: if you buy The Howling Tower, you will get everything needed for several session of Old School fun via virtual tabletop play (quite useful in these pandemic times), plus loads of re-useable setting material for any RuneQuest campaign set around the Upland Marsh and/or the village of Two Sisters, or even in north-western Sartar.

Buy it now!

The Conspiracy Theory

Revolution D100 is an elegant iteration of the Basic Role-Playing System published by Alephtar Games. Of the many available flavours of the D100 System, each has its own benefits and flaws. What I particular like with Revolution D100 is that the skill creep that we may often experience with D100-based RPGs has been cleverly stemmed by having a limited set of skills that are subsequently expanded via traits.

Another great improvement over other D100-based RPGs is the concept of Conflict. Much like in a narrative RPG, instead of solving salient situations via a string of skill checks, important encounters/challenges/whatnot are framed within the scope of a Conflict. The party chooses a leading character who will face the enemy/threat with an appropriate skill. The other characters describe how they support the leading one, and Conflict points are gained or lost.

I have played in a variety of Revolution D100 campaign games, and I feel the system is best suited to complex, background-heavy settings such as historical, contemporary or sci-fi ones. It is hence a good piece of news that Alephtar Games have chosen a contemporary/mystery setting for their free Revolution D100 quick-start.

The free PDF is titled 'The Conspiracy Theory' and contains:

• a four-page summary of the bare-bones rules
• a 17-page adventure cleverly interspersed with extra rules when they are needed
• pre-gens
• a rules summary

You can download The Conspiracy Theory for free from DriveThruRPG.

Tunnels & Trolls Bundle of Holding

For some reason, Tunnels and Trolls has become intimately associated with solo role-playing. Personally, I have always used T&T to run 'normal' adventures (i.e., with a group of players) but I know that, for a lot of RPGers, "T&T" and "solo play" are almost synonymous.

Anyway, if you click here, you will be magically transported to a 'bundle' offer that will let you purchase 12 T&T solo adventures for a mere USD 7.95.

Amongst the 12 PDFs are well-known classics such as Naked Doom, Sewers of Oblivion and Deathtrap Equalizer.

I love T&T's Old School art

If you pay above the threshold price of USD 18.93, you also get the following:

 - the deluxe Tunnels & Trolls rules, my favourite incarnation of the T&T rules
 - Monsters! Monsters!, a spin-off of T&T that lets you play 'the bad guys' — it's really hilarious
 - the Adventurers Compendium, an 88-page collection of twelve classic adventures from the 1970s/1980s — Old School at its best
 - four extra 'GM' (i.e., non-solo) adventures

At USD 18.93 it's a steal. It's a shame I already own 90% of the stuff listed above.

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:

Revolution D100: Hardcover Crowdfunding & Free QuickStart

Well, the title of this post pretty much sums it all up: Alephtar Games have started a crowdfunding campaign to fund a hardcover edition of their narrative D100-based game, Revolution D100. It is currently running on ulule, and if you pledge you get an extra reward (an out-of-print supplement, a deck of cards, or something else they will work out upon request during the crowdfunding campaign).

Also of importance, if you just want to discover this excellent mash-up of narrative and gritty mechanics, you may download the free QuickStart rules, which also contain a contemporary occult scenario. Very recommended.

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.6

Heil og sæl, dear readers! The sixth issue of my free e-zine, The Hanging Garden, is available for your perusal and enjoyment from the usual page.

Issue No.6 is a special “Norsemen”-themed issue (actually the first of two such issues); it contains a complete deluxe Tunnels & Trolls solo adventure by Thomas Pugh, with 284 (!) paragraphs. This is as good as one of the published solo adventures.


An appendix at the end of the solo adventure (don’t miss it) presents the various kindreds, creatures, etc. from the solo adventure, should a gamemaster want to use them in their GM scenarios set in the Frozen Lands (the Viking-like setting of the solo adventure).


As always, feedback and comments are welcome. Cheers!

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.5 – Updated!

Issue No.5 of The Hanging Garden has been updated with a full-length article about Boot Hill by Travis Casey. Enjoy!

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.5

Howdy dear readers. The fifth issue of my free e-zine, The Hanging Garden, is available for your perusal and enjoyment from the usual page.

Issue No.5 is a special "Old West"-themed issue. It contains several interviews, articles, and three full-length scenarios (two for Basic Roleplaying, and one for GURPS).

Feedback and comments are welcome, as usual. Cheers!

The Sea Cave

I have received the PDF of the RuneQuest Old School Source Pack from the RuneQuest Classic edition kickstarter. It is a collection of all the very early RQ supplements, incl. The Sea Cave, which is an original unfinished and unpublished adventure by Greg Stafford. The Sea Cave is rather in the style of the quite lethal old school adventures of the time. Here are a few salient points I enjoyed whilst reading it [WARNING– MAJOR SPOILERS]:

“When adventurers are slaughtered or run screaming, the Monsters get experience rolls too.” I guess this is to make the adventure tougher should the PCs return to it. This sentence has a nice Monsters! Monsters! flavour to it which, being a huge T&T fan, I have really enjoyed reading.

At the beginning of the scenario, there is a section dedicated to tides in Glorantha, and to how the exact day the characters start the adventure may influence its outcome.

The text makes a difference between Denizens (remain in the same area) and Inhabitants (move from one area to the other) of the Sea Cave. The referee must decide where the latter will start off at the beginning of the scenario. This is decision is a mix of referee agency and of a random die roll influenced by the tide.

Rather than wandering monsters, the referee has a table to roll up random items in the various locations. The items go from the mundane (a shark tooth that was part of a necklace) to the hazardous (a magical skull that attacks the PCs) or the magical (an aluminium whistle). They are globally Gloranthan-themed, and contribute to making the adventure more than an average dungeon crawl.

The monsters themselves depart from the tedious monster-in-a-room-guarding-a-treasure design philosophy (or lack thereof) typical of the 1970s/1980s. The Trolls have family ties, know how to read and write, and do not get along well with the Sea Wyrm. The Mermaid also opposes the Wyrm. It is an interesting little monstrous ecosystem.

There is also a faux boss, which is a clever little twist. The PCs will think they have killed the boss,  collect the reward... but then the villagers who have hired them will still be plagued by mystery attacks at sea... possibly prompting a second foray into the Sea Cave, and making this adventure re-usable :)

Unfortunately, since this was an unfinished and unpublished adventure in the first place, the maps are quite terrible. Furthermore, a very short appendix at the end of the adventure explains that Greg had originally intended to add a temple to Cacodemon to the east of the cave complex; there are stats for the priest. Speaking of stats, they are handwritten on RQ monster/NPC sheets and are particularly difficult to decipher. I wish Chaosium had made the extra effort to print them rather than merely photocopying them.

All in all, it is a very decent adventure, possibly playable in a single session (depending on how long the PCs stay in the fishing village to investigate/hire a boat before heading to the cave).

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.4

Howdy dear readers. (Yes, I know I'm late.) The fourth issue of my supposedly bimonthly 'zine, The Hanging Garden, is available for your perusal and enjoyment.

Issue No.4 is a single-themed issue as it is 100% devoted to the description of the city of Swenstown in the mythical world of Glorantha. It features a kind of mini-sandbox with random tables, enabling the referee to use the city for 'urbancrawl' adventures, or as a base for your adventurers whilst they explore Sartar and/or Prax. The 'zine also includes a short scenario set in Swenstown and appropriately titled Swenstown's Sour Secrets. It is quite dark and adult and, as a result, may not be to everyone's taste. I GM'd it twice for two different gaming groups, and it was well-received both times, despite some unsavoury elements.

I have tried and kept the rules-y parts to a minimum. Whatever stats are present are for RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha, and they can be easily converted to other D100-based FRP games or even to other Old School systems.

Well, anyway. Feedback and comments are welcome, as usual. Cheers!

THE KRAKEN 2015 Report

The following statements are both true:
1. The Kraken is a gaming vacation.
2. The Kraken takes place every second (even) year at Schloss Neuhausen in Brandenburg.

However, it is also true that there was a mini-Kraken this year. Not a gaming vacation, no— a gaming retreat. And it was as good as the real McCoy except that –alas– it was much shorter.

FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER, afternoon

I drove all the way from Paris with my daughter and a friend. On Friday afternoon, we arrive at last, after 1,000km of heavy metal, noise pop, folk punk and Autobahnbaustellen, and get our Krakeneers' kits and schlüssel.

The weather is fantastic, which keeps the illusion of the gaming vacation, and Fabian doesn't look too stressed (yet). Sandy Petersen, the Only Old One, is already busy running demos of Gods War.

FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER, evening

Playtesting session of my (formerly) Secret Project. Lots of fantastic input from Mark and Patrick (thank you, guys, I'm already taking your feedback into account for version 2).
People slowly start arriving; I get to see old friends and new ones. Chatted about the new supplement of The Cardinal's Blades with Rémy. Jeff and Claudia explained me at length the pros and cons of the various gaming conventions; apparently I miss a lot by never going to Essen.

veggie food – thank you, Fabi!

SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER, morning

Played the gianormous wargame Operation Market Garden by Odile and Louis; lost twice in a row.

the gianormous map

my starting position

heavy fighting

Then attended the What's Up, Chaosium? seminar with Jeff, Neil, MOB, Sandy. Here are the main highlights:

Chaosium is now a fully virtual company (they've closed the Hayward office). What this really means is that there isn't any warehouse any longer. US fulfilments will be via Brainerd MN; European ones are in view via a UK company, who will also be carrying Moon Design and The Design Mechanism products.
Big focus at the moment is the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition kickstarter. Printing is underway, they are waiting for the physical proofs. Still working out the shipment details. Once this is solved, they expect to be in full working mode again, with lots of products and scenarios down the road, e.g., Infectious Fungi From Outer Space, a collection of short, unrelated, standalone scenarios by Sandy Petersen set at various different time periods (not the 1920s). If it is successful, expect more of those.

RuneQuest is back to the fold. The new version (referred to as Chaosium RuneQuest, CRQ) will be out by next year's Gen Con. It will be a shorter book, set firmly in Glorantha, back to the look and feel of RQ2, with brand new material (cults, scenarios). By the way, to celebrate Glorantha's 50th anniversary, the original RQ2 will be re-released as a hardback.

Basic Role-Playing System. The line is still alive. A new standalone Mythic Iceland will be the first book in this line (with new stuff, of course, e.g., more magic). Should be out before CRQ. MOB insisted that the BRP had not been killed off.

All the HeroQuest products are going to be published by Chaosium from now on; the Red Cow books, the new three-volume Trollpak, are the next ones in the pipe.

13th Age in Glorantha (13G): the 3rd playtest pack has been released today [i.e., on 3 October].

Credo, the Game of Duelling Dogmas. Updated the game of 21 years ago.

Secret announcement for Krakeneers only: another boardgame will be KS'd next year. Ultra-secret. Come to Paris and buy me a beer if you want to know more. [Note: I could see on G+ that some pictures had been leaked...]

Q&A Session

Q: Are you going to publish conversion rules for 13G/HQ/RQ?
A: No, because those rules sets aim at different gaming experiences.
Q: What happens to non-Gloranthan RQ6?
A: No standalone core engine, no third party products; any future "RQ6"-like product by TDM will be a standalone game à la Mythic Iceland.
Q: What do you suggest as an introduction to Glorantha for newbies?
A: HeroQuest: Glorantha, or the upcoming 13G or CRQ. They are all self-contained Gloranthan books.
Q: Talk to us about your fiction line.
A: We definitely want to revive it; we feel it's been neglected. At the moment we're still in the assessment phase.
Q: What happens to Magic World?
A: We simply do not have time to focus on all game lines.
Q: What happens to 3rd party licences?
A: The Laundry stays. Alephtar Games have lost theirs. Jeff says "If anybody has a great idea, they just come to me". But the idea is, again, to aim at standalone games.
Q: Are your games going to be available at game stores?
A: CoC 7e and 13G certainly.
Q: What about Pendragon?
A: Ask Greg!

on display

the new Chaosium

We then had a sort of short Sandy Petersen Games panel on top of the Chaosium seminar. In the pipe:
 - Cthulhu Wars Onslaught (extensions, new figures)
 - Gods War. New improved version compared with last year. KS early next year.

SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER, noon

Tested the new Gods War. The game mechanics have been slightly improved. The game is still pretty long (more than 2hrs for a four-player game). And I really, really would like to see some statistics. I think Chaos is too strong, no matter what they say.

SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER, afternoon

Played Cthulhu Wars with the new factions extensions, I got Yog-Sothoth (and summoned Him too late).

Played Operation Market Garden and won at last.

SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER, evening

Playtested my game again, and rather successfully too.

SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER, morning

Played in Jason Durall's The Akkadian Stars Are Right, powered by Magic World but set in a hybrid Bronze Age/Sci-Fi world, not unlike my own Glorantha in Space. I enjoyed the adventure very much!

SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER, early afternoon

GM'ed my RQ:AiG scenario, Swenstown's Sour Secrets, that I had been preparing for weeks (I had forgotten the pain that stat blocks and creating pre-gens could be for such a detailed system). I was so immersed in my GM'ing that I forgot to take any pictures!

my daughter preparing the map for the Swenstown game

Anyway, it was fantastic fun. I am planning on running it another time in Paris and then I'll probably publish it in The Hanging Garden.

SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER, late afternoon

Pancake Wars– Which ones are the best? Finnish or Dutch? Honestly, BOTH.

SUNDAY 4 OCTOBER, evening

Sandy Petersen entertained us to many anecdotes from all his years of gaming and of running gaming companies. Enormous fun.

that was before he started giggling

And then the closing ceremony, and then the sad farewell on Monday morning. I don't even want to recall that part. There should be a Kraken every three or four months!!!

my daughter

Fabi

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.2

Howdy dear readers. The second issue of The Hanging Garden is available. I wanted to make this issue available to you one week ago but Real Life struck.

As with last issue, the idea is to have a text-heavy 'zine to read on the commute, hence the literary parts (including the English-language translation of an award-winning Italian short story).

And again, as in last issue, I have tried to keep a good balance between already-published (but maybe overlooked) material, and new stuff.

Anyway, here are the main features from issue No.2 of The Hanging Garden:

• D100 Towers, by kONSUMTERRA
• Formosus, the Lich Who Ruled Rome, by Cronista
• The Distance Between Eternities, fiction by Massimiliano Malerba
• Qelong, a review by the RPGPundit
• The Itako (or Blind Medium), by yours truly
• a scenario for LotFP, by yours truly
• Uprising at the Buzzard's Gulch Monster Rez, the second instalment of the Monsters! Monsters! campaign log by Thessaly Chance

Enjoy!