Back from the Eternal Con 2018

Yet another great convention. This one was a mere fortnight after Chimériades, resulting in a very weird 'embarrassment of riches' situation. I wish cons were regularly interspersed throughout the year...

the pathway to Burg Stahleck

As always we were welcome at beautiful castle-turned-youth hostel Burg Stahleck and given our room numbers. I ended up in the notorious snoratorium but since I had wisely added earplugs to my luggage everything went perfectly well.

Burg Stahleck - the Tower

I have already mentioned that the Eternal Con was a very family-friendly con, with many families with kids attending; I think this is the year when we saw most kids... If you have never been to a gaming con and have a family— honestly, this is the con to be!

the view from the castle

FRIDAY 18 MAY, 19:00, Grand Opening Ceremony

This year Franziska presented us the schedule and the activities under the form of a choose your own adventure book. As a long-time T&T fan, I really liked the idea!

FRIDAY 18 MAY, 21:00, Chaosium Panel

I won't bore you with the general RuneQuest stuff because (a) it was pretty much the same Jeff had already talked about at Chimériades, and (b) there was a dedicated RQ panel on Sunday (q.v.). As a result, I will focus on the non-RQ news that struck me as interesting.
First of all, we shall witness the return of two old favourites: the Credo card game, and the Nephilim role-playing game. The new edition of Credo is pretty advanced, whereas the new Nephilim is still under development.
There will also be a new edition of HeroQuest that will be non-Gloranthan in content so as to enable third-party publishers to publish games using the HQ engine.
As for Wyrms Footnotes, there should be a new issue soon (?) for some of the stuff that won’t get into the new RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG) books.

SATURDAY 19 MAY, Morning

I just spent the morning relaxing with friends— after all these years, and with pretty much the same people attending, the Eternal Con has really become a gathering of friends!

relaxing with friends

Then I prepared the pregen PCs for my afternoon game (see below).

busy busy

SATURDAY 19 MAY, Afternoon

This was quite interesting. I have been running an RQG campaign set in Eastern Genertela in Paris as one of the playtesting groups for about a year, and two of my Parisian players were also attending the con. So I ran a one-shot RQG adventure that I also managed to include in the overall story arc of my RQG campaign game. That showcased to the new players (4 of them) how deeply intertwined with Glorantha the new rules were.

weird artefacts at the castle

SATURDAY 19 MAY, Evening

Played Massive Darkness, an incredibly daft miniature boardgame: open door, kill monster, take treasure... Jesus, are we still playing this in 2018??? The cool thing, however, is that the material is fantastic, and the miniatures quite evocative. Alas we got killed at about 3/4ths of completing our Quest.

SUNDAY 20 MAY, Morning

Played Maria, an AWESOME three-player wargame by Histogame about the War of the Austrian Succession. I was playing Maria Theresa and had to face two enemies on two different fronts: the annoying Louis XV of France on the Western front, and the sly Frederick II of Prussia on the Northeastern front. Louis XV was trying to prevent my husband Whatsisname to become Holy Roman Emperor whilst Frederick II was quietly stealing large swathes of land from my northernmost estates. The first extraordinary idea of the game is that the same player who plays my enemy Frederick II on the Northeastern front plays my ally George II on the Western front, which led to... interesting developments. The second extraordinary idea of the game is that everything (battle results, diplomatic achievements, purchase of supply trains and/or reinforcement troops for the armies...) is fuelled by the use of cards so you're always hesitating as to how you should use them (obviously you never have enough of them) and, as we all know, a good game is about difficult choices.
And in the end I got to crush Louis XV and to slightly come ahead of Frederick II, so I was elated.

the perfidious Franco-Bavarian attack

in dire straits — luckily I managed to keep a cold head

make Alsace deutschsprachig again!

the political board

SUNDAY 20 MAY, Afternoon

I got to play Illuminati for the first time in my life— can you believe that, the game has been around since 1982! I was playing the Servants of Cthulhu (whose aim is to destroy cards rather than to control them) but I think I exaggerated on the 'not controlling any groups' side and as a result I was always cash-strapped. Anyway, a good starting impression of this classic game.

my game (with four destroyed cards)

the winner's game

Then I played an old favourite of mine, Nations the Dice Game, a very fast game of civilisation-building with a pleasant 'rolling dice' aspect (we gamers do love dice).

SUNDAY 20 MAY, Early Evening

The sad, sad Closing Ceremony. I want to let you know that next year is the 10th Eternal Con and the 30-year jubilee of the cons in Bacharach, so there should be some special events. Be sure to attend!

SUNDAY 20 MAY, Late Evening

The dedicated RQG panel. Here are a few news on top of the ones I've already mentioned in my Chimériades blog post. The triptych books should be available in hard format by Christmas 2018.
We had looooots of discussions about art, in the core book as well as in the future books. Jeff wants all of the future RQG books to look as good as the core book; e.g., Gods of Glorantha is fully written but work on art hasn’t started yet. And it’s going to take time because it will be good.

another RQG-playing table

supplies for the late-night singalong

the songbook of the singalong

definitely not Volvic water

excerpt from the singalong book

all the beautiful pics are by Heinrich Helms — all the ugly ones by yours truly

Back From Chimériades VI

Back from the first con in con season! Funnily enough I was re-reading my 2016 report from Chimériades V, and at the time I was complaining that I had had too much work and hadn't been able to prepare anything for refereeing. Well... apparently April is a bad month for me because I experienced a much similar situation. As a result, the following is also going to be a very short report.

welcome

I will refer you to past blog posts for information about the incredible location, the beautiful château, the breathtaking views... The first piece of news is that this was officially the very last Chimériades con, as organisers extraordinaire Camille and Philippe expressed their desire to do something else in the future. There were various rumours circulating about other people organising a similar con in the future in the same area (Provence) but nothing your favourite sleuth could get any firm confirmation about.

True to its roots (and, to be honest, also due to Mark Rein·Hagen's accidental absence), the 6th edition of Chimériades was very much Glorantha- and RuneQuest-centred. It was heartening to see that, even though the last widely-distributed French-language RuneQuest edition set in Glorantha (the Oriflam one) dates back to 1987 –more than 30 years ago!–, there is still a large fanbase, and younger RPGers are still attracted to the game (the amazing art and maps for the upcoming RuneQuest:Glorantha that were being shown around probably helped).
Also, I felt more French gamers than usual made an effort to play in English.

As a result, maybe up to 1/3rd of the gaming tables were RQ:G tables. This bodes well for the future. Speaking of the future, we had several informal chats with the Chaosium staff present at the con: Jeff Richard (Vice President and Creative Director), Jason Durall (RQ line editor), Neil Robinson (COO), and also with several freelancers and/or 'old sages' who are currently helping Chaosium on the gigantic effort to rekindle our favourite game, plus there was a big panel on Monday morning about the future of the RuneQuest line.

I guess the news everyone is most eager to hear about is with regard to the new core book. Well, we had a physical printout of the core book and it looked really finished, i.e., it included layout and art. The PDF should be available around mid-June, and the dead tree version around early August. The next books in the pipe are the ones that will complete the initial RQ:G triptych, namely the Bestiary and the GM Pack. These should be available around early December, although it wasn't clear if that would be in PDF or dead tree format.
The Bestiary is not only a Gloranthan creatures book (over 150 creatures, with stats and with a piece of art for each creature); it also contains everything needed to play non-human characters (chargen, cults, etc.). The GM Pack is really a setting pack, a Sartarite sandbox centred on the Colymar clan, with an astonishing map of Clearwine that was circulated, several scenarios, and a heavy emphasis on statted NPCs with a comprehensive background. Early 1626 Apple Lane will be the default base for player characters, in a kind of Wild West atmosphere of lawlessness after the demise of the Lunar Empire.

Many other books are currently being worked on, including some that are in an extremely advanced state of completion (i.e., they are not vapourware) like the Gods of Glorantha book, of which a printout was available for our perusal. The book contains lots of extended writeups or even entirely new ones, all in the familiar format from Cults of Prax. The cults in the Gods of Glorantha book are mostly player character-oriented cults; Jeff is working on a Cults of Terror-like book for the Chaotic cults. This latter book will probably include scenarios since it will be supposed to be read by GMs only.

Next in the pipe is a GM Book with rules for heroquests, magic items, and 'high-level' characters that is currently being playtested, and several other exciting ones, about which I have alas sworn an oath of secrecy.

the Chaosium panel

But Chimériades is not only Glorantha.  My first game was in Jason Durall's Lone Star, a new RPG set in the independent Republic of Texas (1836-46, much smaller than today's state). The game uses the Pendragon engine, and, surprisingly enough, runs really well. As someone who really likes the Old West genre and its tropes, I am looking forward to this game, as there is a glaring absence of West-themed role-playing games WITHOUT magic/undead/whatnot in them.

My other two RPG games were both RQ:G games, one also by Jason with a short incursion into the Dream World, and the other one by Andrew Jones, which was a Runequestification of the introductory HeroQuest Red Cow scenario.

playing the introductory Eleven Lights adventure

And, last but not least, I played two games of GMT Games' Command and Colours: Napoleonics on a giant table with painted miniatures, all created and refereed by the immensely resourceful and talented Grégory Privat (with help from Jean-François Bounes). We played with four people per side: one commander-in-chief, who played the command cards and who was not allowed to touch the miniatures or the dice, and three generals, one per battlefield section, who ordered and moved the units, and rolled the dice. Each commander-in-chief had 5 command cards and could use two cards per game turn that were given to two of the generals, the third general only being allowed to order a single unit (the one stacked with their leader). The orders also had to be sent at the end of that side's previous turn, in order to simulate the time it took for orders to reach the leaders from headquarters. As a result, we were always one turn late in term of reaction possibilities, which realistically enhanced the fog of war impression, and which basically added fun.
This being a game by Grégory, we also had fun objectives such as retrieving Wellington's ale barrels (for the British player) or the marshal's favourite caterer (for the French) for extra victory points.
A beautiful gaming table, fun rules, nice fellow gamers, two victories in a row— this was definitely my favourite part of the con ☺

pictures by Andrew Jones and Jean-François Bounes

Upcoming Book by Chaosium: ‘The Gods of Glorantha’

This piece of news is so important for fans of Glorantha and RuneQuest that I am copying it verbatim from Chaosium’s web-site:

The Red Goddess, by Jacob Rebelka

(This is Jeff Richard writing) ‘I just finished the draft manuscript of The Gods of Glorantha, which is about 50 RuneQuest cults done long-style (as was done in Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror).

We’re going to include all the old favourites like Storm Bull, Humakt, Yelmalio, and of course Kyger Litor (albeit fully updated and expanded for the new rules), and cults that feature major overhauls like Orlanth, Ernalda, Maran Gor, Lodril, and Yelm, plus plenty of cults that have never had a long version write-up before (like say Babeester Gor, Dayzatar, Gorgorma, Lokarnos, Odayla, Valind, even the Red Goddess, and plenty of others). This is the culmination of work I first turned to after we finished putting the Guide to Glorantha together, and I finally have a vehicle to get this into print!

The book is done with a strongly God Learner perspective, and provides lots of guidance as to Gloranthan mythology itself. You won’t need anything other than the RuneQuest rules and maybe the Bestiary to use this book (since obviously if you want to make Kyger Litor, Zorak Zoran, or Aldrya worshippers, you’ll probably want stats for dark trolls and elves!). And for grognards, the new information and revelations will definitely make this a must-have.

This is going to be a big book – probably the size of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rule Book – and it is going to take time to get the art commissioned on it (and I am sure we’ll be editing and tweaking this for quite some time). But the manuscript now exists— we might even make a few copies of it available at some point in the not so distant future.

And just to be a completionist, I’ve been finishing up the cult descriptions of the Cults of Terror – the updated and revised write-ups of the main gods of Chaos. These cults won’t be included in The Gods of Glorantha, since they are antithetical to most of the gods (although the Red Goddess might disagree), and because they are really not intended as player character cults. But having that done now helps us have resources for the scenario writers.’

As a RQ referee, I do hope we will also be able to have access to the latter cult write-ups!

The Design Mechanism to produce the Lyonesse RPG

I must admit I haven't followed the RuneQuest 6 line much since its rebranding as “Mythras” and its departure from the Gloranthan roots of RuneQuest.

Anyway, The Design Mechanism have just released an announcement about the upcoming release of a stand-alone, fully-fledged role-playing game based upon the Lyonesse Trilogy, a high fantasy trilogy by Jack Vance. The ‘engine’ of the Lyonesse role-playing game will be based upon the Mythras rpg.

It is unclear at the moment how much the Lyonesse rpg will differ (or not) from Mythras, especially with regards to the magic system(s), but The Design Mechanism will certainly communicate on the various groups dedicated to Mythras on social media (G+, MeWe...)

mock cover

RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha Sample Page Revealed

As you already know if you are a true blue Glorantha and/or RuneQuest fan, play tests for the new RuneQuest rules are over, and the new rulebook, simply titled RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is currently at the layout phase.

Jeff Richard has declared on social media that he was aiming at having the art not only embellish but also illustrate the rules. Here is one of the samples he has posted:

RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha Cover Revealed

Oh my Orlanth.

13th Age in Glorantha - PDFs Delivered to Backers (At Last!)

At last! Backers of the 13th Age in Glorantha crowdfunding campaign have received the PDFs of the two books that were part of the basic pledge:

• The rule book for 13th Age in Glorantha itself (466 pages),
• The new stat-less, engine-neutral Glorantha Sourcebook (226 pages) that sets the gaming clock forward to the time of the Hero Wars.

Both PDFs will be available for general purchase from the chaosium.com web-site later this month, respectively at USD 26.95 (appr. EUR 22) and at USD 19.95 (appr. EUR 16).
Now I have 692 pages of Gloranthan goodness to read, so I think I am going to disappear from public life for a while...

13th Age in Glorantha - Infinity Rune & Earth Priestess

Another incredibly inspiring piece from the upcoming 13th Age in Glorantha book. Can't wait for the book to be out... Even though I am not planning to use that particular rule set, I know I will extensively mine the book for ideas and inspiration.

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:

John Carter of Mars RPG

The Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the John Carter of Mars role-playing game by Modiphius is live! And since it is the first day, and it has already reached £17,532 out of £20,000, it is certainly going to be funded.

The system's engine is called 2D20, and it is the very same engine as the one for the new Conan RPG, which I have tried and enjoyed at the Eternal Con in 2016.

There are many different pledge levels, and lots of add-ons. Actually maybe too many pledge levels— I have trouble figuring out which pledge level you must choose depending on what you want to get. For instance, there doesn't seem to be a way to only get the PDFs (which is what I would have liked to pledge).

You may want to download the sample chapter to get an idea of how Modiphius have rendered Barsoom as a role-playing setting.

City Generator

There is a nifty on-line City Generator available here. It says 'mediaeval city generator', and Glorantha is an ancient world rather than a mediaeval one, but I still find it extremely useful to prep my RQ games.

I haven't fully explored all its options, and in particular the implications of the toggle on/off of the various features (some of them seem to remove the previous ones), but once I master the tool I will probably post some bits of advice on how to use it, and maybe on how to Gloranthise the results.

Also the City Generator has quite a community of users who submit new ideas to the developer, meaning the tool is probably bound to get further improvements (e.g., numbered buildings).

Enjoy!

Genertela Automated Word Generator

Here is the link to it. It's pretty impressive.

Issues 1 to 10 of French RPG Magazine "Runes" Online

French humour

Runes was a French RPG fanzine/magazine that lasted but ten issues, from issue No.1 of January 1983 to issue No.10 dated “Q1 1985”. The short existence of Runes coincides with my discovery of role-playing games (I had only been playing wargames before that).

Runes was written and published by the Toulousian circle of gamers. At the time, in France, there weren't many RPGers, and they were mostly centred in Paris, Nice and Toulouse. I also happened to live in Toulouse at the time, and I remember vivid fan discussions with the Runes team at the Relais Descartes gaming shop in the centre of Toulouse.

Despite its name, Runes published almost only AD&D and Call of Cthulhu articles and scenarios — it made sense since AD&D and CoC remained the two most popular RPGs in France for a very long time. Yet there were also a few Traveller articles, a DragonQuest one, several RuneQuest ones, one in particular that I remember that described all the classic RQ campaigns in issue No.8. RuneQuest was also introduced as “the most elegant RPG” in issue No.3.

From a graphical point of view, the layout was rather crude, but the covers were beautiful, and there were some funny vignettes (see above).

To drive down nostalgia lane, it's here.

T&T News

Busy days, so short posts. Steve Crompton of Tunnels and Trolls has announced some exciting news about T&T!

1) An English-language compendium of translated material from the pages of the Japanese T&T magazine called T&T Adventures Japan: Solitaire Adventures, Game Master Scenarios, whatnot. All with delightful Japanese illos.

2) Vaults of K’horror, a gothic-horror fantasy GM adventure by A.K. Holmes — and actually the first one in 20+ years. As a bonus, the book will include an original K’horror mini-solo adventure, written by Ken St André, that connects to the GM adventure.

As usual, I reckon these will ship for ridiculous prices to Europe, so I’ll have to content myself with the PDFs 🙁

RuneQuest: Fantasy Earth & More

According to information gathered from people who were attending the RuneQuest panel at Dragonmeet in London this past week-end, and from an interview of Jeff Richard and Jason Durall at AetherCon, the next big batch of books for RuneQuest once the various RuneQuest: Glorantha books (core rules, bestiary, GM pack) are completed is going to be a series of historical/fantasy campaign books set in the 10th century AD.

The first one will be a re-working of Mythic Iceland, and the following ones are rumoured to be about Constantinople and the Arabian Nights.

On a parallel note, The Design Mechanism have announced Mythic Constantinople, a supplement describing 15th-century Constantinople at the time of the Ottoman conquest, with rules for Christianity, Islam, and some uchronic pagan cults. The book should also contain details on the factions, institutions, guilds and military orders of the city on the Bosphorus, plus “Old School”-like random tables to create scenario seeds for busy referees.

It will be interesting to compare the two Constantinople books and, why not, set up a time-travel campaign between the 10th and the 15th Century!

Dealing With Demons – Parts Two and Three

Dave Morris has posted Parts Two and Three of his iconic series about demons that had been published in White Dwarf at the time when it was a role-playing magazine and not a miniatures catalogue, resp. in issues 45 and 46.

[podcast] Gaming as Mythic Exploration

This podcast about 'Gaming as Mythic Exploration' is from a session at Gen Con (2014, I do not know why it has only resurfaced now) that had assembled an incredible panel: Greg Stafford, Ken Hite, and Lillian Cohen-Moore. These are all great panellists, great game designers, but oh my God is Greg good. I would say this podcast reminds us yet again why we are such big fans of his :-)

The panellists talk about myth, legend, their place in society, in our collective psyche, and how to translate that at the gaming table and/or through game design. It's pure gold.

For those who do not like to listen to podcasts, there is also a full transcript; both podcast and transcript are available here.

The Language of Kralorela (Part Two)

As written in the Guide to Glorantha (p55):
“Written Kralorelan uses a logographic script devised in the God Time by a student of NiangMao and perfected by Emperor Shavaya. The characters capture the special characteristics that set apart each and every thing on the earth. The script is primarily used for seals and engraving; a less exact but easier to write derivative script devised by Emperor Mikaday is used for most purposes.”
In my campaign, I call these two styles respectively the seal style and the regular style. Both are extremely difficult and time-consuming to learn, being thus the province of aristocrats and scholars. Over time, and in particular at the time of ShangHsa and his God Learner companions, a simpler, non-logographic system was devised, which I call the demotic style, and which is only used by commoners. Its use by aristocrats or scholars entails a loss of Reputation of 1D4%.

Examples of the seal and regular styles can be seen in the Guide to Glorantha, respectively on pages 744-746 and on page 266.

The classical Kralori writing system in both its seal style and its regular style has been adapted by most other Vithelan languages (notably Imperial and Tanyen).
The debased writing system has been adopted by the Ignorants and adapted to write Stultan.

Here is how the phonemic demotic style works:

Clearly denoting God Learner influence, the shapes of the consonants and of the vowels are based on the standard runes the God Learners popularised over Glorantha at the height of their power.

The vowels have been drawn from the Elemental Runes:

Darkness - u
Water - i
Earth - e/ɛ
Air - o/ɔ
Fire/sky - a
Moon - mute/very short vowels

The consonants have been drawn from the other Runes; opposite pairs denote consonantal pairs:

Beast - k
Man - g
Fertility - t
Death - d
Harmony - p
Disorder - b
Truth - f
Illusion - v
Stasis - m
Movement - n
Movement (reversed) - ŋ
Luck - s
Fate - z
Dragonewt - ʃ
Dragon - ʒ

Pairless runes are used for unopposed consonants:

Law - l
Plant - r
Spirit - h
Chaos - q

Less-used runes play the role of diacritics:

Mastery - preceded by semi-vowel
Magic - followed by semi-vowel
Infinity - gemination

Each syllable is written separately within an imaginary square of the same size and shape as a regular character, e.g, Godunya [go - du - nja] is written

Interview with Rob Heinsoo & Jonathan Tweet

I do not mention podcasts very often on this blog, but the latest Tableplay Podcast with Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet gives a lot of insight into the creation process behind their 13th Age in Glorantha role-playing game, and so it is almost compulsory listening for all Gloranthan fans out there.

You can find it here.

Dealing With Demons – Part One

When you talk about RuneQuest and Old School, you inevitably think White Dwarf – at least if you are 40~50 years old and European.

One series of RQ articles we all remember fondly (even if it was “Gateway”, i.e., not set in Glorantha) was the one about demons and demonology. The first instalment in the series, titled “Dealing With Demons”, appeared in White Dwarf issue No.44 (August 1983). The good news is that it has just been made available on Dave Morris' blog. Enjoy!

The Language of Kralorela (Part One)

(warning: rants about my pet Gloranthan peeve)

Even though Kralorela is supposed to be the ‘Chinese’ counterpart to the Western lands of Genertela, the Kralorelan language has never sounded Chinese in Greg’s writings.
If you look at the Kralorelan chapter of Revealed Mythologies, for instance, you can read the following:

 - Place Names

• Abzered
• Hemkarba
• Hesezmedi
• Kerandaruth

 - Emperors, false emperors and heroes

• Daruda
• Godunya
• Heen Maroun
• Heseroon Marn
• Mao Tzen
• Metsyla
• Mikaday
• Sekever
• Shang Hsa
• Shavaya
• Tarn Gat Ha
• Thalurzni
• Vashanti
• Vayobi
• Yanoor

Honestly, among all the above names, there aren’t many that sound even remotely Chinese; maybe Mao Tzen and Shang Hsa do. On the contrary, most are multi-syllabic names, quite unlike what one would spontaneously think of as ‘Chinese’. This is the reason I was so disappointed when I read actual Chinese words in the Guide to Glorantha, e.g., Lungren Men (p271) or Lingnao Qiao (p274). So why do I hate the latter?

1- As written above, Greg’s original Kralorelan place and people names sound nothing like ‘Chinese’.

2- Kralorela is supposed to be vaguely inspired by China, not to be its exact equivalent in Glorantha, so please no actual translations. Just when we got rid of the faux Viking names in Dragon Pass!

3- OK, let’s assume (for argument’s sake) that it is OK to equate Kralorelan with Chinese. Well, even if this assumption is true, Kralorela is still supposed to be Bronze Age China, not Qing China. Yet the Chinese words used above (e.g., 橋 qiáo for bridge) are the contemporary Mandarin words, i.e., the ones heavily influenced by Manchu pronunciation after the Manchu conquest of North China at the end of the 17th century. If Kralorela is equated with Bronze Age China, let us at least use the pre-Qing pronunciation of Chinese. For the word 橋 (bridge) this would be something along the lines of “giew”. But since, again, we are rather looking at a Bronze Age version of China, the reconstructed Old Chinese pronunciation of the word 橋 would be even better, i.e., “graw” or “grew” depending on which particular reconstruction you favour.
Lingnao Qiao (Dragon's Head Bridge) would thus become Roongnoo Graw, which still retains an imperceptible Chinese flavour but at least is slightly more similar to Greg's naming scheme.

(to be continued)