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 12−15

Day 12 — RPG With Well-Supported Campaigns

I expect a lot of people will wax lyrical about the Masks of Nyarlathotep or The Enemy Within. Well, let me stand out of the TTRPG crowd and highlight how good many of the campaign games I have played for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds are.

Blood Over Gold, the (unpublished) Harreksaga, and The Eleven Lights, all of these HQ campaigns rank high on my list of best-campaigns-ever-played. Except for the Harreksaga which is more like a series of one-shots in different locales, these HQ campaigns feature extremely detailed NPCs in a complex web of relationships, which is what makes them stand out and “feel real”— which is what any good TTRPG campaign should strive for.

Day 13 — Evocative Environments

Given my obsession with all things Gloranthan, I reckon no one would believe that my favourite TTRPG genre is the historical role-playing game. And since my favourite city is Paris, I feel the most evocative environments are:

 - the 17th century Paris rife with the swashbuckling exploits of the musketeers from les Lames du Cardinal,

 - the early 20th century Paris full of occult mystery from Maléfices

(of course, both of these are French TTRPGs).

Day 14 — Compelling Characters

This question is not super clear. Are we talking about the player characters? the non-player characters? If it is the latter, I am going to repeat myself and refer to the incredibly detailed NPCs from the HeroQuest/QuestWorlds campaigns I’ve mentioned at the ‘Day 12’ entry.

If it is about PCs... any TTRPG that allows you to flesh out believable player characters rather than two-dimensional ones will do the job. Which I think favours narrative role-playing games. And the only one I’m really familiar with is, again, HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.

Day 15 — Great Character Gear

Groan. Honestly, this is probably the last thing I’m interested in when I play. For me ‘horse’ or ‘rifle’ are good enough on my character sheet and, despite being a lifelong fan of Tunnels & Trolls, I’ve always found its list of weapons ridiculously long and detailed for a game that is supposed to emphasise simplicity.

So I am going to mention a supplement that is supposed to be a ‘character gear’ manual but which is, in reality, an immersive guide into the day-to-day life of the people of central Genertela:

the Weapons & Equipment book for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

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.

Ultra-Fast As-You-Go Character Generation

QuestWorlds features a character generation option called the ‘As-You-Go Method’: instead of fully statting your adventurer at the beginning of the campaign, you simply sketch it to have a general idea and then you fill your ability slots during the course of the game whenever you need to roll under an ability, i.e.:

When events in the story put you in a situation where you want to overcome a story obstacle, or discover the answer to a story question, make up an applicable ability on the spot.

 

Today’s post is a suggestion to try and use this method for RuneQuest. However, instead of “making up an ability” you will choose among the skills printed on the RQ character sheet.

As with my previous character generation methods, this should work for any character type, except the assistant shaman.

Character Concept

Create a character concept: a homeland, that will give your adventurer their starting languages, and a general profession/background, that will give them reasonable equipment when needed.

 

Characteristics

Do not roll for characteristics but freely assign the following values: 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 to your characteristics, +4 extra points.

Do not apply the Rune or Homeland modifiers to characteristics (p53 of the core rules) as the values above have already taken them into account.

Compute the skill category modifiers per the rules.

 

Passions

Reserve three slots for three starting Passions: one at 70% and two at 60%. You will assign them during the course of the game.

 

Runes

Reserve three slots for three Elemental Runes: one at 60%, one at 40%, and one at 20%. You will assign them during the course of the game.

On top of this, you will be able to add an extra +10% (or +5% twice) to any of these Elemental Runes during the course of the game.

 

You have a grand total of 50 percentage points that can be added to any Power/Form Runes (max. +25%) during the course of the game.

 

Skills

Reserve 20 slots for 20 skills that will be improved during the course of the game. You have a grand total of 450 skill points that can be added to these initial skill values during the course of the game. You needn’t use all of the 20 slots – that will depend on whether you want to end up with a specialised adventurer, or one with a broader set of skills. Instead of improving a skill, you may also use a slot to add a new Passion that will start at 60% + the amount of skill points used up.

 

Skills that fully correspond to the character concept can be raised up to 100%.

Skills that are close to the character concept can be raised up to 75%.

Skills that are unrelated to the character concept can be raised up to 50%.

 

Cult

Once you have chosen which cult your character will be initiated into, distribute +45 skill points among three to four skills that fit in with the deity’s portfolio or with the deity’s Runes, e.g., Speak Darktongue for an initiate of a Darkness deity.

You also get to choose 5 points of Spirit Magic amongst the cult’s available spells. Your adventurer receives 3 Rune points dedicated to their cult, and an extra Passion at 60% amongst the ones listed under their cult. 

Random Clan Terrain Generator

In 2015 I wrote a blog entry to randomly generate an Imperial Chinese Prefecture for TTRPGs set in Imperial China. I was quite satisfied with my article (itself based on a post on Éric Nieudan's now-defunct web-site), but it has only very recently occurred to me that I could easily adapt it to Sartar to make a Random Clan Terrain Generator!

What you need:
 - A standard 52-card deck with French suits (♠♥♣♦); remove the jokers and the 2's.
 - Dice.

1. Draw cards to make a 7×7 grid; leave centre of grid empty. The rectangle represents the tula, and the dark grey centre is the main settlement, the clan's capital:

2. Terrain the remaining 48 areas according to card suit; face cards mean there is a steading. See tables below:

Terrain
♦ plains
♣ woods or swamp
♥ hills
♠ mountains

Steadings
Jack: hamlet or stead
Queen: temple, shrine, other holy place
King: manor or mansion
Ace: small town or village

Choose or draw another card for sub-types, e.g.:

Second Card Drawn	Settlement Sub-Type	Temple Sub-Type	Manor Sub-Type
♦	Sartarite	Orlanthi	Retired Rune Lord/Priest
♣	Sartarite	Ernaldan	Guildhouse
♥	Sartarite	other Sartarite	Local Thane
♠	non-Sartarite (e.g., Sun Domers, Lunar colonists)	pre-Sartarite	Wealthy Landowner

Third Card Drawn	other Sartarite Sub-Type	pre-Sartarite Sub-Type
♦	Humakt	True/Dream Dragon
♣	Issaries	Major Spirit
♥	Lhankor Mhy	Mysterious otherworldly being
♠	other	other

3. Encounters and events. Now, whenever the player characters are travelling throughout the clan territory, random encounters may happen! For each card, roll d20 and compare to card value (Jack = 11, Queen = 12,  King = 13, Ace = 14). If the die roll is = card value, look at the encounter on the table below.

Variant: Use a d10 in the light grey area.

Die	Civilised Encounters Die roll < card value	Events Die roll = card value
1	Farmers ♦travelling ♣foraging ♥poaching ♠fleeing
2	Fishermen ♦working ♣mending nets ♥famished ♠building a dam
3	Merchants ♦caravan ♣lost ♥being robbed ♠loaded with silver	Ambush or trap
4	Initiates ♦preaching ♣looking for help ♥begging ♠on a pilgrimage	Impromptu market
5	Warriors ♦professional ♣rural militia ♥urban militia ♠press-gang	Freak weather
6	Orlanthi from Another Clan ♦mercenaries ♣traders ♥transients ♠pilgrims	Blocked roads
7	Orlanthi from Another Tribe ♦warband ♣migrating ♥raiding ♠hiding	Fire
8	Non-human ♦Tusk Riders ♣Elves ♥Beast Men ♠Trolls	Flood
9	Adventurers ♦bruised & beaten ♣hostile ♥friendly ♠richly equipped	Battle
10	Lunars ♦tax collectors ♣missionaries ♥colonists ♠soldiers	Ghosts
11	Bandits ♦river raiders ♣on the run ♥hiding ♠carrying plunder	Country fair
12	Thieves ♦street thugs ♣running from the law ♥spies ♠burglars	Bandit Lair
13	Sun Domers ♦merchants ♣ambassadors ♥prisoners ♠pilgrims	Siege
14		Plague

Feedback and suggestions welcome.

HeroQuest becomes QuestWorlds

Big news! The narrative role-playing game known as HeroQuest becomes QuestWorlds as Chaosium sells the name to Hasbro, who wants to re-release the famous 1989 boardgame that bore the same name as the Gloranthan role-playing game.

Here is the full story.

Eternal Con 2020– Jeff’s Panel

So the organisers cancelled the 2020 edition of the Eternal Con, but some people (who live in Germany) did travel to the Schloss, staying there as ‘individuals’ since there was no way an official con could be seen as happening.

Amongst these individuals, Jeff Richard from Chaosium who broadcasted his usual ‘ask me anything’ panel on YouTube. Luckily the broadcast was captured; here it is for your enjoyment.

Short summary:

(the recording missed the part about the Cults of Glorantha book)

Q: What happens to HeroQuest?
A: Announcements soon, but people may have noticed QuestWorlds already!

Q: Will there be a Lunar supplement?
A: We are putting together the right team of writers.
But the huge size of the Lunar cults chapter within the Cults of Glorantha book, plus the Lunar material within the Guide of Glorantha, should already enable you to run Lunar campaigns.

Q: Are there any differences (in content) between the English-language edition of Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest and the translations? Is any of the original stuff written for the translated versions going to be published back into English?
A: We are translating some Polish CoC material into English and we are really excited by the additional French-language material that Philippe Auribeau is putting together for the French edition of RQG.

Q: Next RQG book in print?
A: Starter Set, similar to the CoC starter set. It will have everything needed to run RQG games, with a focus on Jonstown with two adventures.

Q: Pavis & Big Rubble book
A: Robin Laws has finished writing the Big Rubble book, it is currently being used as the in-house Chaosium RQG campaign. It takes place after Pavis has been raided and it really changes the feel of how it’s played— it’s not under Lunar occupation any longer: YOU are the occupiers!

Q: Glorantha East & West
A: We actually have a fantastic Kralorela manuscript, but I think it’s not the best time to publish it, because there is no good way for a party of characters from Dragon Pass or Prax to travel there, which means it is an entirely new setting. I would prefer to wait until we come out with the Nochet book, which opens up the rest of the setting more broadly [because characters can then travel by boat from Nochet].
About the Malkioni and the Invisible God... the Invisible God is not in the Cults of Glorantha book because it is too different and so big... it would be the tail that swallows the dog, so it’ll end up being its own book, that’ll also include Sorcery.

Q: The Nochet book?
A: A team is putting it together, with encounters and adventures based on the beautiful map that we have made available.
The manuscript isn’t final yet, though. But I hope to have the book out in 2021.
Nochet is a very important city, it’s the biggest and most cosmopolitan city in the world.

Q: A revision of HQG?
A: No.

Q: A book about how to better narrate stories for CoC?
A: The Keeper Rulebook already has some great tips on how to be a good keeper. But it’s an idea worth looking at.

Q: The Ring of the Nibelung as a Pendragon setting?
A: Great idea, but how to combine the historical elements and the myths to create a kind of ‘monomyth’ like Greg Stafford did for Pendragon?

Q: What is the Sartar book going to feature?
A: How to make a Sartarite character, how to create a clan, how do tribes function.
Complete and detailed gazetteer.

Q: Status of Barbarian Town?
A: This is a book that Sarah Newton started drafting and putting together. Alas she’s had a lot of personal stuff going on in her life, but it is definitely a book I’d love to get moving again!

Q: What is the God Learners’ Secret?
A: It’s a secret.

QuestWorlds SRD

After the Basic Role-Playing System SRD, the Chaosium has made the Questworlds SRD available on their web-site! (Seems the Lockdown is beneficial for table-top role-playing...)

However, whereas the BRP SRD was a mere 23-page booklet that paled in comparison to the 2008 “Big Gold Book”, the Questworlds SRD, at 76 very dense pages, is a hefty, fully-fledged role-playing game.

I already hear you saying “But praytell, what on Earth is Questworlds?”. Well, Questworlds is the genericised version of HeroQuest that the Chaosium has been promising us for years — at least since October 2017. You can now publish your own QW-driven role-playing game, à la Mythic Russia, following the guidelines on Chaosium’s web-site.

Rough Guide To Glamour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.”

THE KRAKEN 2019 Report

Hello happy taxpayers. This is my traditional post-Kraken report. Expect a long and detailed one as — believe it or not — there are still some poor souls who wonder whether they should go to THE KRAKEN. Of course, you should. As this report will show, this is the very best game vacation ~ con on this side of the Plateau of Leng.

Thursday 18 October

We travelled from Paris to the Schloss by car. ‘Why didn't you fly?’ Well, getting to Berlin from Paris by plane emits 97kg of carbon dioxide per person per leg. With four people in the car, we emit 32kg per person per leg. It's also cheaper and you get to marvel at the beautiful countryside (ha ha, just kidding, it was boring as hell).
Anyway we stopped at the Belgian-German border in a cheap motel on the motorway, and were ready to leave first thing in the morning on Friday.

the glorious Vaccamobile

Just a few words on how games are organised at THE KRAKEN. Usually what happens is that prospective GMs and boardgame enthusiasts advertise the game they are going to run on the con's website. This leaves attendees enough time to decide which games they are going to try and sign up to during Friday night's Sign-Up ceremony (more on this later...); it also leaves Fabian Küchler, the con's supremo and stationery zealot enough time to craft minuscule cards with the names of the games on them that will be used during the notorious Sign-Up blood bath.
Anyway, this year I had advertised two boardgames I'd run: Siebenbürgen and Last Faction Hero.
Siebenbürgen is a four-player boardgame that aims at retracing the history of Transylvania and of its peoples from the Crisis of theThird Century to the 2007 enlargement of the European Union. Each player guides the destiny of one of the four historical peoples who have inhabited Transylvania, and tries to reach an optimal geographical and cultural situation by the time the game ends.
Siebenbürgen is not a “wargame”, but it is not a simple boardgame either. It is best described as a card-driven strategic boardgame, much like Twilight Struggle and similar games made popular by GMT Games, and it takes about three to four hours to play.
Last Faction Hero is a simple, fast-paced boardgame that pits several famous Gloranthan heroes against each other at the time of the Hero Wars. The game can be played in teams of two, which is much more fun. Contrary to my previous game, this one is more like a ‘filler’ and can be played in about 40 to 45 minutes.
Last but not least, the game is beautifully illustrated by veteran Gloranthan illustrator Dario Corallo (he of the Gloranthan Classics, Tales of the Reaching Moon, and Tradetalk covers).

Friday 19 October

Friday evening

Despite my best efforts, and German motorways being what they are (Stau, Werke, Stau), we only got at the Schloss late in the evening. We registered and had the good surprise of finding out that there had been an addition to the Schloss– a nice cottage across the street. Contrary to the main Gästehaus, ‘Ilse Bilse’ (that's the name of the new house) has its own kitchen, living room, and even fireplace!

our neighbours

We had dinner at the Schloss, and I had a great chat about the merits of various beers with Irish, English and German friends.

why are they all so tall?

After dinner, there was the traditional Sign-Up mayhem, during which the conventiongoers storm the display panels holding the above-mentioned miniature cards with the available games. People who run a game get to sign one game before the fray but since I was chatting with friends I forgot to. D'oh!
Anyway, I placed myself skilfully before the fray and I managed to more or less get what I wanted to.
After the fight, me and my fellow travellers settled for a game of Siebenbürgen, my very own boardgame I have been refining for several years now (see above), and we decided to play in the living room of the cottage to take advantage of its quiet. As usual, I lost, but for the first time I didn't write a single line of players' feedback or comment: all the rules are fully satisfactory now. Quite pleased with the result!

Saturday 20 October

Saturday morning

Another characteristic of THE KRAKEN is the sheer amount of high-quality panels. It's quite a quandary every year between attending the panels or the games. Obviously the panels are visible on YouTube or available as chapbook transcripts after the con, but it's much more fulfilling to attend them in person. As a result, I went for the full monty, and attended all the panels except one (the first Sunday panel).

one of the best aspects of THE KRAKEN: catching up with old friends

First Panel: Big Rubble and Activating Your Sandbox Setting

Hosts: Jeff Richard and Robin D Laws

Pavis is the archetypal sandbox setting because it's actually like a box (a walled city) in the sand (the Plaines of Prax). First principle: Sandbox = Strong player agency.
The Big Rubble is really archetypal because the players are supposed to explore it and find their own trouble, not wait for the GM to shower it upon them.
A Sourcebook is a high-level description of an area.
An Adventure provides super detailed focus (flashlight) on a given area.
The Sandbox is halfway between the sourcebook and the adventure , e.g., in the Big Rubble the descriptions are actually quite vague, and only some places are really detailed (e.g., the Puzzle Canal).

For the new edition of the Big Rubble, Robin is trying to give more detail for some areas and also to provide adventure hooks not only for some locales but for everywhere, e.g., the PCs talk to the Mani tribe and this could develop into a relationship with the Mani tribe, or a mission for them, or whatever, and this because of a much more detailed description of the Mani tribe than in the old source material. And it's similar for Troll Town or the Garden.
In a nutshell, the new book will give material for the GM to be able to improvise adventures anywhere in the Rubble.
Also the idea is to make the sandbox dynamic, thanks to the current situation (the Hero Wars). The players modify the environment, and the environment is not static because of the wars around Pavis:

• Argrath has taken over New Pavis and is preparing the takeover of Dragon Pass
• The new life paths have the PCs interact with the movers and shakers of the region
• Much more PC interaction with the past of the city
• Praxians have much more of an influence on what happens
• The old order has collapsed, but the new one is only starting to be enforced
• Local allies will be necessary for the story arc (see below)

The new adventures contain moral dilemmas, etc. rather than mere looting. Second principle of the Sandbox: there is a story — it's just not railroady. The GM buries the plots and the players have to unearth them.
Story arc: the Eye of Wakboth is buried beneath the area and is about to be released.
Third principle of the Sandbox: the story elements are triggered by the players. Success in a given mini-adventure is not an end to itself: it is actually the trigger to an episode of the major story arc, e.g., the PCs go to Ogre Island and clear an area of Chaos... well, that might actually accelerate the release of the Eye of Wakboth!
The lore of the setting (the past history of the city) is also to be slowly discovered by the players — the book will feature lots of artefacts from the past ages, Plunder-style.

The Horror Lottery

Some games (those GM'ed by the panellists) are not available for sign up during the Sign Up ceremony. Instead, our names are put in a big hat, and the panellists draw their lucky players. My daughter is a lucky devil... she was drawn twice, and so she got to play with both Robin D Laws and Sandy Petersen. Me? Nothing. Groan.

Second Panel: Master Map Show and Tell

Host: Jeff Richard

Basically, Jeff came with lots of old and new maps of the Dragon Pass area. The old ones were from Greg Stafford's times, and the new ones are from Jeff's cabinet.
Obviously, the old maps are from back when Greg was preparing White Bear and Red Moon, which started as an interactive fantasy novel (which got rejected on the basis that ‘fantasy as a genre is dead’ [LOL]), and which ended up as a boardgame (the rest is history).
The scale of all the maps is 1cm = 4km; Greg used the same scale for all his maps. The climate and terrain are mostly based on California and the American Southwest. Jeff has been expanding Greg's maps of Dragon Pass, the Holy Country, and Prax at the same scale. Greg's way of creating maps was one A2 sheet of paper at a time, which explains why most political entities nicely correspond to an A2 sheet of paper! Looking at the maps, you realise Sartar is small and underpopulated but it sits right on the major trade route between the Lunar Empire and Esrolia and Prax.
The idea is to have the new maps ready for publication with the RuneQuest Campaign Book.

Third Panel: Investigative Role-Playing Masterclass

Hosts: Cat Tobin, Lynne Hardy & Robin D Laws

Robin starts by summarising the merits of the Gumshoe system, mostly by making a distinction between general skills and investigative skills. The latter basically ‘always succeed’ in a Gumshoe-powered game. The emphasis is on sorting out the information that the PCs have found, rather than finding the information itself. Plus lots of advice about using this approach with Call of Cthulhu, e.g., Library skill always succeeds for the clues, the roll is just to convince the librarian to let you in.
Lynne: Always think about having the information available in more than one place so if the investigators miss location A they can always find it in location B.
Cat: Clues must be prioritised. It's the really fundamental clues that must be made ‘moveable’ as Lynne says.
Lynne: Even if it is an illusion of Agency, it's still Agency.
Robin: Use red herrings to put the investigators back on track, e.g., if the werewolves are not the killers, have the investigators find the information that puts them back on track when they meet the werewolves.
The job of the GM is also to spur the investigators on — rather than have them think forever ‘should we do this or that’, instigate them to do it!
It's OK to instigate the investigators to do sensible things: they're supposed to be seasoned investigators, whereas the players aren't.
Lynne: Use the skills to help them: if an investigator has a high Architecture skill, tell them ‘you notice this and that’ automatically — again, no roll.

Saturday afternoon

Fourth Panel: The Great Yelmalio vs Elmal Debate

Hosts: Jeff Richard and Robin D Laws

This one was pretty funny. Jeff explained how Yelmalio was so much better than Elmal, and Robin was doing the opposite, with the attendance cheering and booing. Since I hate both Yelmalio and Elmal (I often play trolls or Darkness-worshipping humans), I quickly lost interest in the arguments that they used; I mostly followed the cheering and booing.

Fifth Panel: What's New with RuneQuest

Hosts: Jason Durall and Jeff Richard

Obviously the first thing out is the Rattling Wind, a free scenario out of the forthcoming RQ adventure anthology The Pegasus Plateau and Other Stories, a collection of low-barrier introductory scenarios. Next: the Smoking Ruins, a collection of more epic-level scenarios, which will include source material about Beast Valley and the South Wilds.
Why is it taking so long? Art art art art art art art art art art art...
There are lots of artist who can do vanilla fantasy or Cthulhoid art; there really aren't many artists who can draw Gloranthan art. And the latter also goes through several iterations.
The Cults book will be two or three books, including the Red Book of Magic (a compendium of all the RQ spells). The art is coming along beautifully but it's a lot of work.
The Starter Set will be a boxed set with four adventures (two of which are investigative scenarios) set in Sartar, and it will contain a fully-fledged Jonstown city guide with a cool map, similar to the Clearwine one. This should make the Starter Set super appealing, even to seasoned players.
Further on in the pipe: an Elder Races book with an emphasis on character generation (expanding on what is available in the Bestiary), and Gloranthan Voices-like content.
Other geographical source books in the pipe: Whitewall, Nochet, Pavis, Big Rubble, Troll Lands, all by various authors.
And obviously in parallel Jeff is super busy working on the RuneQuest Campaign Book and the RuneQuest GM Source Book with battle rules that will not be “wargaming” rules but rules about how your characters live through a battle, how they shine, how they are affected by it.

Saturday afternoon's panels

Gods War

No more panels for Saturday, so we started a five-player Gods War game with the following factions: Chaos, Sea, Darkness, Storm, and the Invisible God (moi). It was the first time I played in a game with the Chaos faction since the early playtests with Sandy, and I had forgotten how quickly it became a case of everyone against Chaos — which nicely allowed me to finish first, but just a single victory point ahead of Chaos. Overall, I think I prefer the games without the Chaos faction, as they are more open and there is much more diplomacy involved.

another Gods War game (not the one I played)

Saturday Evening

Played a very nice Call of Cthulhu game GM'd by Evil Gaz aka the Iron GM. I was Vanessa the Scientist, debunker extraordinaire of fraudulent mystics and faux mesmerisers! in the exciting occult-crazed London of Queen Victoria.

playing in Gewölbekeller

Since this is a Gloranthan blog (rather than a Call of Cthulhu one), I have asked Patrick, a player from my Paris RQ:G group, to share his experience of playing in a HeroQuest game with Ian Cooper on Saturday night. I think it's also interesting because they were playing Puppeteers and, except in 13th Age in Glorantha, I feel there hasn't been much material written about the mysterious Puppeteer Troupe.
Patrick was playing Orane Nowhere-Girl, a runaway girl, and the troupe was travelling to Alone for the Aldachuria, a festival sponsored by Harvar Ironfist with a grand prize of 200 gold Wheels (the story is set during the Lunar occupation, slightly after Temertain's assassination). The following is Orane's tale.
Our small troupe had a play titled “the Prince and the Sad Lady” in our repertoire, i.e., a play about prince Sarotar of Sartar and his wife Arkillia who was kidnapped by Esrolians — some say she left by her own volition, but we wanted to set the record straight by telling the truth. Sarotar tried to save his beloved wife, but both of them died in the ensuing fights. They had a daughter who survived them, called Marlesta, and who eventually became a Puppeteer.
At the beginning of our story, we have thus organised the very first shows for the ‘tournament’. We first lured kids with illusions and short sketches (I used my puppets Tat and Tol, emphasising the cute aspect of Yinkin). Then we tried to achieve the maximum success on the applauseometer during the city pageants. Our main opponents were Gerrard’s Men, another Puppeteer Troupe, who came to taunt and disturb us before our pageant. There was a lady amongst them, Arissa, who seemed to be able to talk with spirits, and who put my mother's pendant under my nose, the very one I'd ‘lost’ after a pageant in Boldhome where Gerrard’s Men were also present... Arissa says she can talk with my deceased mother. I am 18/19, and haven't talked with her or have had any news from her since I was 15 and ran away. So according to Arissa, she’s dead!

The following day, Gerrard’s Men's gig is a great success, the public is cheering, and we have to play just after them... I am playing Arkillia Sad Lady. I am happy in my palace in Boldhome, dancing and singing while I am waiting for my beloved prince to return. But instead some foreigners arrive, who dance in a circle around me, a circle that gets tighter and tighter, I feel oppressed... My song becomes a lament, my dance a contorsion. Strings appear, as from a puppeteer forcing his or her puppet to progress towards the back of the stage until I disappear in a last cry. Sarotar rushes in, flaming sword in hand. But it is too late. By the open window of the palace, he can see the fleeing scoundrels... Furious, grief-stricken, he dries his tears and follows in hot pursuit. The choir is silent. The public cheers loudly, it is a triumph. Gerrard’s Men try to play down the magnitude of their defeat by offering a free concert after the pageants. We also think about playing the show another time for free. But in the evening an official comes and meets us; he is the festival organiser and doesn't want us to compete against the official programme. So we give up, much to the discontent of the fans who came to see the free show... During the night, we can hear dogs howling (yes, dogs in Sartar) and swords clashing at the far end of the tent city in which all the artists are staying. When we get there, we can see the leader of Gerrard’s Men, Derryl, dead in his blood with a huge spear wound. Some Gagarthi, maybe associates of Harvar's who uses them as mercenaries, are wreaking havoc. In the confusion, we meet Arissa. The Gagarthi are hot on her trail but she says the dogs are not after her— they are after my mother's pendent... Panic-stricken, she gives the pendent back to me and flees in the night. We run away when a man and his alynx block our path. The shadow cat speaks. His name is Durnan, and the rebel with him is Gurnan. They are here to help us abscond. We decide we must trust them and follow them to a cellar in the city where we can talk. Durnan asks my uncle, Brogard, the leader of our Puppeteer Troupe, to tell me the truth. Uncle Brogard tells me I am Orane, daughter of Sorana, daughter of Marlesta, daughter of Arkillia Sad Lady... and Sarotar of the Sartar Dynasty. I am the last heir to the occupied kingdom with Kallyr who — according to Durnan — has alienated too many people to be able to still lead the rebellion. The whole festival was but a ploy to attract all the Puppeteer Troupes of the region and thus find me. Because it is Tokarse, Harvar's lieutenant, who killed my mother and trained his dogs to track her scent... Durnan asks me to join the rebels, and to lead them in their fight against the Lunars.

That's all quite of a sudden and quite too much for a girl lost in a cellar, an orphan denied of the bohemian lifestyle she'd always dreamed of. But a decison has to be made, and so I accept to leave with Gurnan and Durnan, and most of all I accept to attract Tokarse's Gagarthi after me, so that their men can ambush them and inflict upon them the loss they deserve. We surreptitiously leave the city, and a cloud is soon upon us. The Gagarthis walk in the air amidst a storm, their dogs pointing their nose towards us. We meet Durnan's band, who has prepared its ambush around a clearing. We take place in the clearing as if we were live bait, and start to draw upon our powers. Far in the woods, our illusionary doubles are anxiously waiting for us... The barking draws nearer. The Gagarthi are upon us. They raise their spears to charge... and we call upon Donandar to exchange our bodies with our illusionary doubles! The Gagarthi plunge their spears into our doubles and receive a shower of arrows from the ambushing rebels, who then charge and kill the wounded Gagarthi. We are not artists any longer. We are fugitives — and the first Puppeteers to prepare to fight against the most powerful empire in the world... But Truth shall be born from Illusion!

Sunday morning

Last Faction Hero

Missed the sixth panel (Calling Cthulhu with Lynne Hardy), played a four-player game of Last Faction Hero instead. Everybody concentrated against Harrek and his terrible double attack power, so the game was pretty soon down to a three-player confrontation between Cragspider (yours truly), Androgeus, and Jar-Eel. Since both Cragspider and Androgeus are immune to her charm, Jar-Eel was soon out too. The final confrontation was between Cragspider and Androgeus; I thought I was going to win (I had plenty of allies), but Topi's masterful use of the map meant that he won the day. And thus continued the established tradition of me never winning at my own games.

Seventh Panel: What The Only Old One Told Me

Host: Sandy Petersen

This panel was a kind of continuation of previous ‘secrets of Glorantha’ panels by the Only Old One, er, I mean Sandy Petersen, which are available as chapbooks by THE KRAKEN.
Honestly, a lot of what Sandy ‘revealed’ had already been said during previous secrets of Glorantha seminars, but his anecdotes are always pleasant to hear. Also, some of the following might be new (I was too lazy to check), so here you are:

• There is only one single Blue Vadeli left, he is 13, and he is a good guy— for now.
• There is a zone in Ralios where spells do not work because it is just above one of the ginormous iron chains the Dwarfs are building for their Plan for world dominance.
• The Dorastor map in the Argan Argar Atlas is wrong because it is based on the map that was given to PCs during the in-house Chaosium campaign, and which was supposed to be misleading. Dorastor is actually 4 times larger. [Note: I have checked this one, and I can see it is already on pages 18-19 of the chapbook More Forgotten Secrets of Glorantha]
• Ralzakark promotes only two cults in Dorastor: Chalana Arroy and Humakt, because they are illuminated and are not limited in their use of Rune magic.
• Ralzakark is not the guy behind the threat told in Cults of Terror.

the real Dorastor

This was followed by a session of Q&A, during which I asked the following [of interest to my current RQ:G campaign]:
Q: Who wrote the petroglyphs in Chern Durel?
A: Nobody knows.
Well... if even Sandy doesn't know, I guess I can continue elaborating my own theories!

Eighth Panel: Dramatic Interaction Masterclass

Hosts: Cat Tobin and Robin D Laws

The aim of the masterclass was for us GMs to manage to master the interaction between characters that have conflicting goals, e.g., the thief says “Let's backstab the guy” while the paladin says “No, no! No way!”. In D&D, this usually doesn't lead anywhere. In the Drama System, this is managed by an economy of tokens (vague explanation at the end of this page).
A similar issue is when a player introduces an element in a narrative role-playing game that the other players do not like.
Consent is also a similar issue, as emphasised by the discussions around the use of the X-card. A mutually-agreed upon list of topics to be avoided can actually make a TTRPG session more intense because nobody is afraid of going as far or as deep as possible into the unlisted topics because obviously everyone is cool with them. The Character Relationship Map (example here), also from the Drama System, enables the GM to take advantage from the relationships the players have written down to come up with cool adventure ideas, e.g., in a fantasy game with a bizarre cast of characters the Character Relationship Map may explain why a Dragonewt, a Minotaur, a Trickster and an Ernaldan Priestess hang out together.
It also enables the GM to create missions that enrich these relationships rather than ‘go and fetch the MacGuffin’.
Also: there is intra-character tension that may lead to interesting inter-character tension.
Duty <-> Freedom
Altruism <-> Selfishness
e.g., a character's Duty vs Freedom where the character doesn't want to obey a given order whereas the other characters want to. Again, the GM must take advantage of this kind of situation.
A similar case is provided by Player Character <-> Sidekick, as it's cool to bring in other player characters into this relationship. 

Sunday morning's panels

Sunday afternoon

RuneQuest Mythic Iceland

Chaosium published Mythic Iceland (based on the Basic Role-Playing System) back in 2012. Pedro Ziviani has been working on a second edition for a long time, which will be based on the new RuneQuest. One cool thing of 2nd edition Mythic Iceland is that Ravens are a playable race, so Pedro GM'ed a Raven-only game for us!
It was deeply entrenched in Icelandic Mythology and felt like a fairy tale of sorts so it was exceedingly pleasing. I was just jealous that the other Ravens got all the shiny treasure at the end.
It was also a very enriching gaming experience: when you play a 2-hit point character in a gritty TTRPG like RuneQuest, you know your noncombat skills are going to be your best friends. Icelandic Ravens have a 'Prophecy' power: by spending 3 magic points, you receive a clue from the GM as a vison of the past or of the future. Since I also use Divination/Prophecy a lot in my RQ games, I really enjoyed this.

my Raven character sheet

During that time, my daughter was playing one of her lottery games!

Sunday evening

Contemporary Call of Cthulhu

I was Steph Martinelli, 25, a tall, strong brunette in today's Manchester. A lover of 'the Fast and the Furious', I had a ball when I hijacked a TfGM bus to go and save my best friend Tish from that spooky fellow.
I tell you— playing in the 2010s is much more fun than in the 1920s!

I hope you're jealous of my KRAKEN all-rolled-up

Sunday late evening

Share your treats

This was a new addition to THE KRAKEN: since people come from all over Europe, it was suggested they should bring a treat from their country to share with the other Krakeneers. Needless to say, I found Belgian cheese much more to my taste than Hobnobs (despite their association with TTRPGs).

a selection of northern European artery cloggers

a selection of French and Belgian cheeses

You had ONE job

By the way, sorry Runeblogger. I was supposed to ask Jeff about the rumours mentioned in my earlier blog post, but he had to leave on Saturday, and I couldn't talk with him!

German beer was in constant supply.

All the nice pictures are by Aliénor, Jean-Michel, Valentina. All the ugly ones are by yours truly.