Naiad

Naiads in art are always depicted with European features. Hey, why should that be? This is Pamaltela, after all!

a Naiad (Freshwater Nymph)

(picture stolen from this site)

Guide to Glorantha KS Update

It has apparently become extremely fashionable in the rpg blogosphere to write bad things about Kickstarter-funded projects. They're late. They're only in for the money. They don't even have a draft. It'll never be published. And on and on.

Well, Rick has recently posted the latest news with regards to the Guide to Glorantha Kickstarter-funded project, which I am reproducing below:

As March quickly draws to a close I wanted to provide you with more information about all the work that continues on our Awesome Guide to Glorantha project. In the broadest sense it all boils down to three simple words: words, maps, and art. As for words, the page count keeps steadily growing as Jeff works through the epic stretch goal new material. What started out as a 400 page text-only document has grown to 500 pages, with more to be written. I will be sending out a new "sneak peek" pdf tonight. No need to ask me for it. We're harnessing the latest dwarven technology and will send you a link to download it. As for maps, enormous doesn't begin to describe them. We looked forward to the "big kahuna" map of Genertela being basically 2 meters tall and 6 meters wide. I was chatting with Colin (Main Map Man) when he casually dropped into the conversation that  the overall map of the world would be more than 12 metres by 12 metres at regular size. Yeah, regular, not zoomed in, size. Another sampler of some of the latest cool places will go out this week for all to revel in their glory. As for art, the 25+ colour pictures keep rolling in. We have brought on several new artists to help meet the production timeline. You all have been very patient, and we are doing all we can to keep the machinery moving. We'll have more art samples in our next update.

While I still do not believe that I will be receiving my parcel in May, I have a feeling that June may still be quite reasonable a target. Anyway, I guess I'll have more information after the Eternal Con in May. As for advancement, I have received the link mentioned by Rick above, and I have downloaded the PDF draft document: 523 pages without any art. Can you just imagine the size of the final product once it gets all the art in?! Also I have seen the central Genertela part of the map mentioned by Rick above and it is really huge, beautiful and detailed.

Weird Tales Covers-Based Character Generator

The following is a Player Character Generator for 'narrative' role-playing games, i.e., games that describe PCs through short sentences or keywords. This is the case with HeroQuest, with Wordplay, and with my various homebrews.

You will need a d200 (a d100 + a coin: heads— 1 to 100, tails— 101 to 200), and access to the Weird Tales Covers web-site.

Procedure:
1. Roll the d100 and toss the coin to generate a random number between 1 and 200.
2a. If the number rolled is between 1 and 199, refer to the corresponding issue of Weird Tales on the Weird Tales Covers web-site.
2b. If the number rolled is 200, choose an issue of Weird Tales on the Weird Tales Covers web-site.
3. Describe a salient characteristic of your player character (or even your whole PC) based upon the cover of the Weird Tales issue.
4. Have fun.

Examples:

My character is an expert at killing giant spiders.

My character commands wolves.

My character is a female Pujaleg.

My character is not afraid of Gark's minions.

Note: you may add further pulp magazine covers to expand the possibilities...

Heroes Magazine (by AH)

Apparently, there are more and more scans of folded, out-of-print role-playing games magazines that are becoming available on-line. Let's hope this trend lasts. I understand that copyright holders may get itchy about these online scans but, frankly, what interest do they have in keeping these old issues off line and thus forcing people interested in the history of our hobby to spend ridiculous sums on eBay??

This latest link is for scans of Avalon Hill's short-lived Heroes Magazine, which was devoted to AH role-playing games in the same way that the General was devoted to AH war-games. Now AH main rpg's were RuneQuest III, Powers & Perils and Lords of Creation. I will obviously concentrate on the former, which is unfortunately my least favourite version of the game (if we ignore the broken MRQI).

Shannon Appelcline made a comprehensive index of Heroes Magazine. I'm making available hereunder the parts relevant to RuneQuest/Glorantha:
(note: VI below means Volume I, VII means Volume II; thus VII.4 means 'Volume II No.4')

Accessories, Record Sheets:
  Calendrics Record Sheet VII.2 pg 42
  Expanded RQ Character Sheet, by John T. Sapienza Jr VII.2 pg 3-6
  Ship Data Sheet, by Tim Bailey VII.4 pg 45

Adventures, Alternate Earth:
  Gruug's Cave, by Alan LaVergne VII.1 pg 19-35
  Black Sorceror, by Mike Olson VII.3 pg 11-26

Adventures, Glorantha:
  The Big Hit, by Sandy Petersen VI.6 pg 12-18,31-36
  Journey to Falderbash, by Bill Williamson VII.1 pg 12-19
  The Wolfrunners, by Sandy Petersen VI.4 pg 21-27

Advice, Players:
  Tips for Shamans, by Forrest Johnson VII.4 pg 11-19

Background, Glorantha, Fonrit:
  The Land of Fonrit, by Greg Stafford & Sandy Petersen VI.6 pg 36-39

Background, Glorantha, Lunar Empire:
  History: Zero Wane, by Greg Stafford (1) VI.1 pg 5-6+
  History: First & Second Wanes, by Greg Stafford (1) VI.2 pg 9-11+
  History: Third & Fourth Wanes, by Greg Stafford (1) VI.5 pg 33-35
  History: Fifth Wane, by Greg Stafford VI.6 pg 4-6
  Pottery: First Wane, by Greg Stafford (1) VI.4 pg 46

Background, Glorantha, Pavis:
  The Ostrich Clan, by Mike Dawson VII.1 pg 4-11

Creatures:
  Abstract Elementals, by James A. Holden VII.4 pg 31-33
  Insects for RQ, by Sandy Petersen VI.3 pg 11-13

Cults, Glorantha:
  Hykim & Mikyh, by Chaosium VI.4 pg 30-32
  Orlanth, by Chaosium (2) VI.4 pg 17-21+
  Telmor, by Chaosium (3) VI.4 pg 28-30

Equipment, Ships:
  The Sail and the Sword, by Tim Bailey VII.4 pg 23-25+
  A Ship for RuneQuest, by Greg Stafford (4) VI.3 pg 40
  War Fleets of Glorantha, by Greg Stafford (4) VI.2 pg 42-43+

Magic, Shamanism:
  Tips for Shamans, by Forrest Johnson VII.4 pg 11-19

Magic, Sorcery:
  A New Look at Sorcery, by B.L. Humphreys VII.1 pg 9-10
  New Spells for RQ3, by Martin Crim VII.4 pg 26

NPCs:
  Tips for Shamans, by Forrest Johnson VII.4 pg 11-19

Rules, Misc:
  New Skills, by Greg Stafford & Sandy Petersen VI.6 pg 11+
  Talents for RQ, by Andrew Scott MacKenzie VII.2 pg 39

Rules, Combat, Misc:
  Fatigue and Damage Changes, by Jonathan Tweet VII.1 pg 7
  RQ Hit Points, by John T. Sapienza, Jr. VII.1 pg 44
  Shield Law, by Morgan Woodward VII.2 pg 45

Rules, Combat, Sea:
  The Sail and the Sword, by Tim Bailey VII.4 pg 23-25+

Rules, Gambling:
  A RuneQuest Gambling System, by Donna Selzer VI.5 pg 15

Rules, Official Questions & Answers:
  Dragon Pass VI.6 pg 10-11+
  RuneQuestions, by the Chaosium Staff VI.5 pg 40-41
  RuneQuestions, by the Chaosium Staff VI.6 pg 39-40
  RuneQuestions, by the Chaosium Staff VII.4 pg 21-22

Previews, Misc:
  Box 4: Vikings VI.4 pg 5-7
  Box 5: Gods of Glorantha VI.6 pg 19-30

Previews, RuneQuest III:
  New Face for an Old Friend, by Greg Stafford VI.1 pg 40-41
  Testimony of a Tester, by Bruce Dresselhaus VI.5 pg 8
  What Happened to RQ, by the Chaosium Staff (5) VI.5 pg 31-32

Reviews:
  Dragon Pass VI.6 pg 9-10

(1) The Background of the Lunar Empire, through the Fourth Wane, was also published in Wyrm's Footnotes. Wane 0 appeared in issue 10, Wane 1 in issue 11, Wane 2 in issue 12, Wane 3 in issue 13 and Wane 4 in issue 14.

(2) A variant of this Cult has been printed in RIVER OF CRADLES (AH8591).

(3) A variant of this Cult has been printed in DORASTOR (AH8592).

(4) Reprinted in Tales of the Reaching Moon No.10.

(5) Also appeared in Different Worlds No.37.

Deluxe T&T — The Backers

The names of the backers of the Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls Kickstarter project have been posted here. I know it's utterly childish, but I find it soooo cool to see my name on that list :)

Yog-Blosoth Again

Another terrific picture from Yog-Blosoth:

Oread

In Greek mythology, an Oread was a Mountain Nymph — the Greeks had a special name for each type of Nymph, depending on where they were supposed to dwell:
‣ Tree Nymph = Dryad
‣ Freshwater Nymph = Naiad
‣ Saltwater Nymph = Nereid
‣ Mountain Nymph = Oread

For gaming purposes, I'll consider that the Oread is merely a mountain Dryad. And she's ready to lure unwary travellers to a certain death :)