After checking with our existing participants, we have decided to extend the submission deadline for Glorantha Has Talent?. We would like to see a few more folks sign up for a chance at our great prizes written and lovingly illustrated by ever so many wonderful people! The fine and grand titles we bestow and of course, the accolades love and adoration of glorantha-philes everywhere are just those little extras, special treats. So, to our great contestants, we hope you will all be okay with this delay and in the spirit of sportsmanship allow us to ramp up the competition a bit more. We talked among ourselves and unanimously (Podcast crew, Judges and our wonderful Sponsors) have decided we would extend Glorantha Has Talent?’s deadline by two weeks to get a bit more interest and beyond interest… ENTRIES!
Glorantha Has Talent?’s new and final deadline will be October the 5th at 12:00 AM or 2400 hours PDT (Pacific Daylight Savings Time) or about 2 weeks from now.
I am taking a bit of a chance here putting this forward without my partners—but I would be willing to say we can have the Prince of Entertainment (our first place winner) appear on the Wind Words podcast to tell us about their fantastic winning work. Woohoo. Heck, maybe even ask Joerg about lore…
Welcome to another issue of Wind Whispers. If you’re reading this in a web browser, you can subscribe via email and receive every new issue directly in your inbox.
For the past 30 years or so, one would have had to find them on the second-hand markets, often featuring damaged box corners and margin annotations. These new POD versions won’t have the boxes and loose papers, but they will be much more affordable and annotation-free!
Most of the RQ2 books never had any handouts. Large poster maps are already available on redbubble.com.
What few handouts there are for Borderlands and such can all be easily printed from the PDF. None of those were ever in color, nor did they go to the edges of the page.
All of the red bubble maps for RQ2 are EXACTLY like the original map. We didn’t remove ANYTHING from them. We specifically set them up to go with these books, not as some “piece of art” devoid of game useful details. If you take a look at any of them you will see they have a legend on them.
We don’t need a license to do the Avalon Hill era RQ3 supplements. Chaosium retained the copyright, especially on all the Gloranthan supplements. Greg got all that as his part of the split of Chaosium’s assets when he left the company in 1998, and Moon Design bought it all from him in 2013. Many of the RQ3 supplements that were RQ2 updates, like Apple Lane, Snake Pipe Hollow, the Gloranthan Bestiary, and TrollPak aren’t worth reprinting (at least beyond the TrollPak map). They aren’t different enough. The Monster Coliseum and Griffin Island boxed sets, RQ Cities are too generic. Daughters of Darkness and Eldarad are a hard pass. Not much point in reprinting Gods of Glorantha, Troll Gods, Elder Secrets, or the Genertela boxed sets as that range of info is already in print in a more comprehensive fashion, or soon will be. Reprinting Vikings and Land of Ninja are tempting, but they are not a priority. That just leaves Sun County, Strangers in Prax, Shadows on the Borderland, Dorastor, and Lords of Terror. We might reprint the first three, and maybe do the last two as a combo reprint, but I haven’t spent any time thinking about that. I would like to get the Troubled Waters scenario from River of Cradles reprinted, but I wouldn’t reprint the rest of the book since Pavis and Big Rubble are both available again.
Rick Meints
Let’s look at Rick’s shelves, featuring the new POD books (above), while we wait for a potential POD version of Wyrms Footnotes or, even, maybe, Tales of the Reaching Moon…
Chaosium at PAX Online
PAX 2020 Online is now finished and Chaosium has posted a summary of their events from last week. Following are a few highlights, but, most importantly, remember that Chaosium is running a 10% off sale at their website until the end of the month, using the “PAXONLINE2020” coupon code! It was supposed to only run during the duration of the convention, but it looks like they extended it by a week!
RuneQuest Live
Chaosium’s Todd Gardiner led a group of well-tattooed players through their first RuneQuest adventure…. finally, a game that features an Eurmali trickster!
Myth and Fantasy Gaming Panel
Glorantha’s Jeff Richard and Pendragon’s David Larkins are joined by video-game narrative designer Merry Borys-Piątkowska to talk about bringing mythic themes in gaming experiences.
Tips for writing in the RPG industry
Are you a Jonstown Compendium author, or are you thinking of becoming one? Community programs like these (including the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu and Explorer’s Society for 7th Sea) are great ways of getting started. Chaosium’s Michal O’Brien (MOB) talks about it as part of a PAX Online panel on getting started on the RPG industry.
Jeff Richard interview on Niezwykłe Przygody
Polish RPG YouTube channel “Niezwykłe Przygody” (Google Translate tells me it means “Unusual Adventures”) has an English interview of Jeff Richard. It doesn’t contain much new information but, as always, there might be new details and anecdotes you haven’t heard before. In any case, I’m sure giving a thumbs up to a RuneQuest video is never a bad idea!
Gloranthan Maps at RedBubble
This will become more relevant as the aforementioned classic RQ2 print-on-demand books become available: many Gloranthan maps are available on Chaosium’s RedBubble store as posters, canvas, pouches, and even blankets! Among the most recently added items we have a remastered Sun County map, featured in the picture above.
Jonstown Compendium news
Since the Jonstown Compendium is hosted on DriveThruRPG, you might be interested to know that an optical and organizational change is upcoming. You can test the new look and feel on their “preview” website. There doesn’t seem to be any broad “community content” link on the front page anymore, but you can still get to the Jonstown Compendium via Chaosium’s publisher page. Our own Joerg likes the useful filter options on top, and Ludo appreciates the prettier and less cluttered layout that features bigger covers. What do you think?
Legion
Neil Gibson gives us a huge collection of Broo NPCs to stink up your games with danger and disease! The book has beautiful illustrations, various levels of detail between various NPCs, and new deadly diseases to challenge even the most dedicated Chalana Arroy healer. And, in case Broos make you go “ewww”, there is no mention of their breeding practices, so you can use this book to bring pure heavy metal goat-headed monsters to your table, without any of the problematic stuff!
War Elephants of Fonrit
After producing the impressive Armies and Enemies of Dragon Pass and Men of the West, Martin Helsdon doesn’t seem to be able to stop: apparently, his idea of “taking a break” is “producing a smaller book”. We’re not going to complain! His latest work is a small booklet titled War Elephants of Fonrit, which should pretty much tell you what it’s about.
Across Solara’s web
Rollenspiel in Glorantha
Our German correspondent reports that the German translation of “RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha” managed the basic funding in less than 90 minutes, which means that there will be German language rules. Now we are looking at how big it can become. Half of the stretch-goals are waiting: mainly digital excerpts from the GM Screen package, and the Colymar tribal and clan lands maps also in printed form, translated where necessary.
Sandy Petersen, of Glorantha and Call of Cthulhu fame (among many others), has a video channel mainly focused on Mythos related topics. However, his recent dive into the lifespans of various lifeforms, including alien ones, is full of ideas also appropriate for fantasy roleplaying (including a small jab at D&D!). What do you think the lifespans of various Gloranthan species is? Does the Man Rune dictate the life-spans of Gloranthan humanoids?
HeroQuest (the other one) is coming back?
The Avalon Hill website is featuring a countdown for something related to the old and legendary HeroQuest board game. The trademark had been abandoned some time in 2001 and Greg Stafford acquired it, making it possible to rename the then recent “HeroWars” into the “HeroQuest” we know and love. Last year, the trademark saw a bit of paperwork movement, seemingly letting Hasbro own it for board games, while Moon Design (and therefore Chaosium) retains it for roleplaying games. GeekNative has a bit more context… what do you think it is? Well, we won’t have much longer to find out.
Nick Brooke in Black Gate magazine
The previously mentioned Black Gate online magazine recently featured an article by Nick Brooke. As you might expect, Nick writes about A Rough Guide to Glamour, the Jonstown Compendium, Tales of the Reaching Moon, and other Brookian topics.
RuneQuest combat example
If you have a bit of trouble wrapping your head around the crunchy combat system of RuneQuest (we’re not going to blame you on that), playing an example combat might help. BRP forum member Trotsky took it a step further and wrote down his experience, along with nice screenshots of his Roll20 setup. Later, Runeblogger got the permission to post the whole thing on his blog for posterity. Check it out! Can you spot any mistakes? Did you learn something?
Meanwhile, on Earth
Longhouses aren’t just for Vikings
This short video shows us that some inspiration for Orlanthi culture doesn’t necessarily come from the Vikings. Linear Band Ceramic (LBK) culture brought agriculture, long houses, and a social segregation into carls and cottars during the neolithic period. The video is full of story seeds, even if some of the presented material is speculation. Our hobby is a speculative one, so who cares?
LBK is one of the first “Hill Barbarian”-like cultures in Europe, even though they spread along river valleys, whereas Gloranthan rivers invaded pre-existing agricultural lands. But that is a potential topic for a podcast episode.
Some suggested reading comes in the video description, so if you have access to a university library or another academic outlet, hunt these up!
Exploring Roman cities
The always fascinating Digital Maps of the Ancient World has a compilation of Roman cities you can explore as a superimposition of points of interests on Google Maps. You might get some good scenario or NPC ideas after clicking on a few buildings!
And now, for something completely different
We know that many Gloranthan gamemasters play an incredibly diverse and, sometimes, ahem, “original” musical selection during their games. So what about, say, a cover of a Nirvana song in classical Latin? (Joerg is guessing that it might be titled “Olet de anima decennialorum”)
There are quite a few other “anachronistic” covers around on the tube, which some people call “bardcore” with a tongue firmly planted in the cheek. Check out some medieval ACDC or Metallica, for instance, or maybe even some Deep Purple!
How to find out how the winners are chosen & then how they (the winners) will choose their prizes…
We all know how a Prince, Chieftain, or Thane of Entertainment will be chosen, right? No? Well, head right on over to the our contest’s site in the “Cloud” and check out the Rules as pertains to Judges.
The Prince, as chosen by our wonderful judges, gets the first and the fourth choices of the prizes. The Chieftain gets the second choice and The Thane (number one in our hearts, but number three in the selection process) chooses … well, 3rd!
The Booty!
Head to godlearners.com/blog to see more about the contest and read about the fantastic prizes Psst, c’mere kid, we can sneak you one more peek at the covers right here…
Every one’s favourite “animated war chariot bent on carnage” returns. This time in Japanese. But beware, my Japanese friends, this adventure is reputed to have a bit if a kick. Adjudicate accordingly
Rune Quest Germany!
RQ G begins translation & Crowd funding news
Joerg delves deep into the German news and comes up hoping for gold!
The German edition of RuneQuest. Roleplaying in Glorantha is finally moving onward!
Patric Göetz, the proprietor of Uhrwerk Verlag, the German licensee for RQG, did have to shoulder an insolvency through 2019, which really threw a spanner into his plans on having this game out already.
Uhrwerk Verlag publishes one original German RPG and setting, Splittermond (“splintered moon”, and no, this is not a Gloranthan 4th Age utopia), and various German translations of well-established English RPGs like Fate,Numenera, Coriolis. (“Uhrwerk” means clockwork.)
Uhrwerk Verlag has successfully overcome that insolvency, and work on the translation has gone on even when the fate of the publisher wasn‘t absolutely clear, but in January Patric was back in control of his business, and now he has named a date for the crowdfunding of the German edition of the rules.
Crowdfunding a translation of an RPG into another language is a common approach, as it gives the publisher a solid number of sold copies and hence a much lower risk. This is true for translations into English from other languages, too.
Anyway, Patric announced on tanelorn.net, a venerable German language forum for all things about RPGs, that – barring major unforeseen calamities – the crowdfunding will run from September 18th to October 12th.
The object of this crowd-funding will be just the RQG rules book, not the entire slipcase edition. The Bestiary will be the next item down the line, but its realization will depend on the success of the crowdfunding for the rules book. Any hopes for getting the slipcase edition translated and published from this crowdfunding was a tad too optimistic.
Production options are said to include standard (cardboard cover, colourfully printed), leatherette, or genuine leather, plus pdf.
Danke Schön, Jörg! Nice digging! Go to Rune Quest Germany in Discord for more info!
Jonstown Compendium News
Secrets of Dorastor
Short note on a very quiet week for the Jonstown Compendium.
Simon Phipp had informed BRP Central, just before we went to press, of a major update to his Secrets of Dorastor, by Master Gollum to make it like the classic mode of yesteryear’s classic Dorastor: Land of Doom! If you have already bought this work head to the Jonstown Compendium for your free update. Still here is what we do know.
Oh, and here is a peek at the Secrets to Dorastor’s innards thanks to Simon! Yum!
So, of course, there will be much more to come in future Wind Whispers issues! One quiet week in how many busy ones? Not so bad, eh?
From the Spider’s Web
News of Glorantha caught in our webs from elsewheres in the cyber realms.
Roleplaying and GM notes mostly in Gloranthan context
Hannu Kokko has been a friend of Glorantha for forever. Interestingly he does not play in your more traditional gaming systems for the world but uses Mythras (formerly RQ6).
There is a wealth of Gloranthan Gold here and great tools for his favourite version of d100 games!
Hats off to Hannu Kokko! Give his site a look!
From BRP Central
Walrus Ivory and Orlanthi Naval Culture?
Today’s treats from BRP Central are two fine treatises. The first is on Ivory and trade in a topic created by Garrik, and then we take a look at the can of worms opened by Joerg in his topic on why naval cultures and the Orlnathi do not jive in his Glorantha!
Joerg gets us all started and then like a true Eurmali devotee sits back and watches the action unfold!
“As always, in case you’re in need of rumors to fill column inches…
“September’s Monster of the Month will be titled Children of Melikaphkaz. Who’s Melikaphkaz? Why, he’s the O-God of Traps! What’s an O-God? I’m not telling you yet. You’ll get to meet his children this month—those which serve as cult spirits, anyway—along with a short-form version of his cult, but it will still be some time before Melikaphkaz is ready to publish.”
Austin
“Nice! So many mysteries! So many secrets! Wait… was that email a trap itself? Anyway, thanks for the rumour as always ;)”
Ludo.
I suspect a plant in Ye Olde Rumour Tables this week… a ringer, if you will. I mean (and trust me, I will get to the truth of this), that would give this rumour an A… too Awful to contemplate. So in the end I will have to rate this rumour a T… for Too good to be true…
Take it away Pookie (quoted from his post on BRP Central).
“Glorantha Games 2020: Glorantha at Home takes place on Saturday, October 3rd.”
“We are looking for Game Masters to run scenarios set in Glorantha using RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, QuestWorlds (HeroQuest), 13th Age Glorantha, and RuneQuest Classic.
“Plenty of slots open and we definitely need more GMs and more games.
“Let us know if you want to be a GM and send us your scenario.”
From BRP Central
A Noob’s Rough Guide to PAX ONLINE
Does that wonderful green bring to mind retro 80s video games?
So, events for 9 days and for the full 24 hours of the day! 24/9! So, how could I choose, how could I decide that I want to catch: this panel or should I try to look in on that event? It’s not science folks, I have no idea what I am doing. Limited convention experience, doncha know. So, I chose by luck and daring. I guessed.
There are four broad categories, here I find that I have chosen, again with no forethought having passed my fevered brow other than that of the looming deadline. The long past looming deadline…
In no particular order the categories I went with were: 1) Glorantha-ness, 2) the Ability to inspire creativity in Gloranthan games (sometimes a stretch or hell, perhaps I even make an error, did I say I knew what was doing?), 3) Music (all the podcast crew are musicians) and finally, with what is happening in our world—4) Inclusivity. A word on the final category; I am of a certain gender and of a certain age, I mean really—again I have no idea what I am talking about—so, I am going to do myself a favour and catch the Black In Game panel, and a few of the LGBQT panels, the indigenous panels… well you get my drift. I am going to look around at the con, have a game or two and some fun, and learn a bit as well.
The final category, I have not yet mentioned. It was important that the item I listed had caught my eye. Nothing fancy or grand, just that it made me want to see what it was about. Oh. and I guess the first entry has no category at all except, “So, are ya new in town, sailor?”
Lastly a few housekeeping notes.
So. I have ordered the chosen events below by date from Saturday the 12th until Sunday the 20th. The events by the hours in each properly sorted day may be sorted in chronological order or they might not. All times given are in Mountain Daylight Time. Set your clocks accordingly.
Not to be lazy, but the text is the original text from the PAX schedules. I would not be able to do better not having seen the events. This podcast is not making anything by doing this, no financial gain and time and resources this year are limited but most importantly we simply want to give an assist to worthy endeavours in our fave world for our favourite games. This was the easiest and best way to achieve that! The individuals involved in the events will know the best way to present their event and there is no way I can top that.
Next, some items are prerecorded and a look at Pax’s schedule will reveal which ones these are. In fact, the following picks are not a replacement for their schedule by any stretch of the imagination They are simply… well as I said above, guesses made by a near noob at cons on which items might be cool to participate in or that I might learn from. Lastly, check it out, they have all the overlapping events items listed in each entry so you can make an educated choice on where you should be or maybe it could have you flipping back and forth between two or three events. (the number of events and festivals I attend that could use this but do not, well I could just spit) I suspect there is at least one error in the times below, there may be more. so to be safe, always refer to the schedule at Pax Online for the (more?) correct info.
What little italicized found text below is mine. All other is the event’s organizer or their representative.
This first article is kind of like the city that is so great everyone says its name twice. NY, NY! I thought this was so great for the noob that I list the time and place above… twice! And you though I goofed.
New to PAX? New to doing virtual cons? The Orientation panel returns to unleash a barrage of tips, tricks, and hints that’ll help you maximize your PAX XP. Hear from members of the industry during this fun, inclusive panel designed to help you make the most of the first-ever virtual PAX.
PANELISTS
Miellyn Fitzwater Barrows [Writer, Gorgeous Robot], Carmen Askerneese [Game Writer, Self], Ash Sevilla [Community Manager, Parallel Space Inc], Cissy Jones [Voice Actor, Three in a Row, Inc.], Erin Fusco [America’s Best Friend, Private Citizen]
Collaborative Homebrew 101: A Cure for the Common Murderhobo
We’ve all been there: After hours of meticulously planning an epic campaign, our players kill the quest NPC and run off after the first shiny thing they see. The cure for this problem may be easier than you think. With your help we’ll create a world from scratch, and then we’ll crowdsource some story hooks with the audience to create a whole campaign of our own. You can steal this adventure and use it in your own game, or steal the techniques and keep your players chomping at the bit.
PANELISTS
Adam Johns [Executive Director / Therapeutic Game Master, Game to Grow], Adam Davis [Executive Director / Therapeutic Game Master, Game to Grow], Lauren Urban [Community Manager, DnD Beyond], Lauren Bond [Content Creator, RandomTuesday], Cicero Holmes [“Perrin”, Rivals of Waterdeep]
Sunday
Inclusion and Sensitivities of Indigenous Culture in Games
During this talk Phoebe Watson, a proud Yarrer Gunditj woman, will speak about her experience in the processes she takes to include Aboriginal Culture into the game InnChanted. Highlighting the benefits of including Aboriginal culture in games and the importance of it along the way. She will also discuss how to approach this for developers who are uncertain about how to begin the process and what to keep in mind.
PANELISTS
Phoebe Watson
Fantasy and Indigenous Culture: Collaborating with First Nations Musicians on the Innchanted Soundtrack
How does a non-Indigenous composer try to create an Indigenous Australian game score? By connecting with some of the most talented Indigenous Australian musicians around.
Composer Meena Shamaly details his process of collaborating with First Nations musicians to create a culturally respectful, celebratory, and entertaining score to InnChanted, a game set in a fantasy Australian world. It is a process of complete openness and extensive cultural dialogue, as well as collaborative experimentation and free-spirited improvisation from the musicians. Meena draws on his knowledge as a game composer, his own cultural experience as a session musician, and his extensive research involved in presenting the music of video games on ABC Classic (not to mention his lifelong obsession with video game music).
This talk will break down Meena’s sessions and conversations with some of Australia’s most talented First Nations musicians, including Allara Briggs-Pattison (NIMA 2020 finalist for New Talent of the Year), Kiernan Ironfield (of DRMNGNOW), and Eric Avery (renowned violinist, dancer, and creator of Dancing with Strangers). It will showcase how a game score can be composed not just in response to the game itself, but also to the musicians’ innate connection to culture and language, no matter the instruments on which they express themselves.
The Black In Gaming Awards is an annual event that recognizes the achievement of black gaming professionals. We build an inclusive community by championing diversity in video game development and we are committed to creating a pipeline of opportunity for the cultivation and advancement of diverse talent. Black In Gaming (BIG) is dedicated to cultivating, supporting, and promoting Black professionals in the game industry.
A live concert from amazing Brisbane-based musician, Karl Smith, playing a dynamic set of music inspired by a lifelong love of games. See more at https://thelyrical.com/
Join Chaosium’s Jeff Richard (RuneQuest, The Guide to Glorantha) and David Larkins (Berlin The Wicked City, King Arthur Pendragon) as we talk about the mythology behind Fantasy RPG and how to bring mythic themes into your gaming experiences. We’ll draw on real world historical mythology (King Arthur Pendragon) and fictional (RuneQuest) as well as mixtures of the two (Nephilim and Call of Cthulhu).
PANELISTS
Michael Douglas O’Brien [Vice President, Chaosium Inc.], Jeff Richard [Creative Director, Chaosium Inc.], David Larkins [Line Editor, Pendragon, Chaosium Inc.]
88bit is the alter ego of Cleveland-based composer/pianist, Rob Kovacs, where he performs virtuosic note-for-note piano arrangements of classic video game soundtracks from the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Kovacs’ repertoire consists of music from Mega Man 2, Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest as well as lesser-known games such as Marble Madness, Adventures of Lolo, Arkista’s Ring and others. By acoustically recreating early electronic music (music never intended to be performed by humans), Kovacs is stretching the limits of traditional classical piano playing and bringing video game music to audiences that might never have otherwise heard the music.
When discussing racial inequality in America, it’s often said that minority groups have to work twice as hard to get half as far. In spite of a public commitment to diversity, black talent continues to be severely underrepresented in a largely homogeneous game industry and the game audio community is no exception. Join a panel of black game audio professionals as they discuss their experiences, problems, and the way their lives have changed in the wake of the events of 2020.
PANELISTS
John Smith [Composer & Sound Designer, Slide20XX], Mega Ran [Musician, RandomBeats, LLC], Calbert Warner [Composer, JumpButton Studio], Dorrell Ettienne [Composer, Dorrell Ettienne], Chase Bethea [Composer, Chase Bethea], Devlon Samuels [Composers, Devlon Samuel]
Tuesday
We’re Here, We’re Queer, Now What? LGBTQ in the industry
We’re here, we’re queer, what’s next? Being queer in the games industry means navigating a lot of things—and sometimes even publicly! How do you learn to build healthy boundaries around what you do and don’t want to share online? What are some of the risks you face when you’re openly queer in games? How do you create, market, or discuss a game that’s inclusive of queer identities that are both your own, and not your own? From game developers to journalists and entertainers, we’re here to explore the world of queerness in games in (and out) of the workplace.
PANELISTS
Ana Valens [Reporter, The Daily Dot], Francesca Carletto-Leon [Game Designer, Contigo Games], Dani Lalonders [Head Developer & Game Designer, ValiDate Game], Nikatine [Ambassador, Twitch], Dreadful Damsel [Animator, Team Nimbus]
Looking for a night of games, trivia, laughs, and fun? Look no further than the PAX Community Discord Game Night! Test your knowledge about PAX and the gaming community at large! Earn prizes, impress your friends, or even make some new friends all night long! Make sure to drop by for a night you won’t soon forget!
Join a cast of brand new players as they explore RuneQuest for the first time! The perfect actual play to learn more about the mythic setting of RuneQuest, and the unique (and brutal!) game mechanics.
PANELISTS
Todd Gardiner [Chaosium], Becca Scott [Good Time Society], Noura Ibrahim [L.A. By Night], Panda [PandaTV], Brian Holland [Chaosium]
YAY!!!!
Digital Dragons – TableTop Roleplaying in the Online Age
The internet has brought us closer together than ever before, letting us connect and play games with friends around the world. So how is the power of connectivity helped to evolve TableTop Roleplaying Games, a traditionally face-to-face gaming medium? What tools are being made to facilitate play and to help fledgling content creators, and how is the internet leading to a “roleplaying renaissance”?
A panel of content creators, streamers, podcasters, and all ‘round RPG fanatics will answer all your burning questions and share their experiences in the expansive world of online TTRPGs.
PANELISTS
Scarlet Moth [Freelance Artist, Cosplayer, D&D Streamer, n/a], Matt/Briefcase [DM, Producer, Editor, Split the Party], BurrowsRed [Content Creator, Wisdom Saves], Shauntelle B [Writer, actor, streamer and psychologist, Words with Colour], Elyssa Grant [Senior Producer and Partnerships Manager, Penny Arcade], Makenzie De Armas [Ennie Winning TTRPG Creator, Lead Writer for The Islands of Sina Una]
Have you long dreamed about joining the games industry, but you don’t know how to code? Perhaps you’ve gotten into a balance argument on Twitter with a game developer who you didn’t actually realise worked in publishing? Maybe you’ve just straight up wondered how the heck a modern video game not only gets made, but continues to run? If this sounds like you, then DON’T PANIC! Because you just discovered the perfect panel to answer all your questions.
Despite the common misconception, not everyone who works on making a video game is a programmer or engineer. Our panellists today come to you from AAA studio Wargaming Sydney, with a wealth of experience across Product Management, Community, Marketing, Art, Design, and User Experience. Eager to share their journeys and highlights about producing games before, during, and after launch.
You’ll walk away from this engaging discussion thinking “so long, and thanks for all the facts!” Just don’t forget to bring a towel…
PANELISTS
JayRated [Product Manager, World of Tanks ANZ, Wargaming], Vondle [Community Manager, World of Tanks ANZ, Wargaming], Dean Finnigan [Lead Artist, Wargaming], Jemima Gulliver [Junior Technical Artist, Wargaming], Holly Hawkins [Junior Game Designer, Wargaming], Veronica Tjakrawisada [User Interface Designer, Wargaming]
Up Your Game: The Building Blocks for Better Online Gaming
Can’t seem to climb out of bronze? Connectivity issues getting you down? Can’t help but take the bait and get 3v1ed? From securing low latency, to getting the right peripherals, to honing your in-game skills, to avoiding the dreaded tilt, hear from a panel of experts on how anyone can start the climb out of the gulag or ELO hell.
Get a foot in the RPG industry door with community content!
Want to write for roleplaying games? Now is the perfect time to get your foot in the industry door with community content programs on DriveThruRPG. The DM’s Guild (Dungeons & Dragons), Miskatonic Repository (Call of Cthulhu), Jonstown Compendium (RuneQuest), Explorers’ Society (7th Sea), and other community content programs are an ideal proving ground for you to hone your writing and creating skills, publish your work, and build an audience. And come to the attention of major publishers like Wizards of the Coast and Chaosium!
In this workshop, bestselling DM’s Guild writer M.T. Black, DM’s Guild brand manager Lysa Penrose, and Chaosium vice president Michael O’Brien take you through the process of creating and publishing community content on DriveThruRPG, and how this led to M.T. Black writing for WotC itself (Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus).
PANELISTS
Michael O’Brien [Vice President, Chaosium Inc.], M.T. Black [Writer, DM’s Guild], Lysa Penrose [Brand Manager, DM’s Guild, OneBookShelf]
The last few years have given corvids, canaries, and pigeons plenty to celebrate. A new batch of indie games feature birds in leading roles. From anthropomorphic beings to avian companions, birds in games are riding an upward thermal, with little signs of slowing down.
This panel features developers and journalists discussing what it is about birds that make them apt leading characters, the process of designing an avian hero, and where the genre-spanning-niche-community goes from here.
PANELISTS
Megan Fox [Founder, Glass Bottom Games LLC], Rebekah Valentine [Senior Staff Writer, GamesIndustry.biz], Nicholas McDonnell [Director, Samurai Punk], Tan Kang Soon [Animator & Technical Artist, Joysteak Studios], Joel Davis [Animator, Stonewheat & Sons]
Retrogaming is more popular than ever, and it’s never been easier to play history’s greatest videogames. But while vintage consoles and arcade games are increasingly accessible, classic computer games remain a bit arcane, and it’s easy to miss out on some amazing games buried in the floppy disks of yore.
So join us for a guided tour to an age of forgotten home computers, when PCs didn’t have the best computer games and they didn’t even make games for Windows yet. There’s no DOSBox where we’re going!
What’s worth playing? How do the emulators work? What’s BASIC? If you’ve never heard of a Commodore 64 or an Apple ][ and want to explore a new frontier of undiscovered retro goodness, join some game design professors to learn about getting into games on everything from the Amiga to ZX Spectrum.
PANELISTS
Alexander King [Adjunct Professor, NYU Game Center], Naomi Clark [Assistant Arts Professor, NYU Game Center], Clara Fernández-Vara [Associate Arts Professor, NYU Game Center], Bennett Foddy [Associate Arts Professor, NYU Game Center], Jesse Fuchs [Adjunct Professor, NYU Game Center]
Oooh I think I will be seeing this!
Thursday
Improv in Roleplaying: How To Run A Game In The Now
Are you a Game Master that dreads when your players go off script? Does the thought of the adventurers wandering back into town instead of into your intricately planned dungeon make you throw your intricately drawn maps out a window? Well, then, Improvisation in Roleplaying is the panel for you. Join an expert team of authors, comedians and expert tabletop maestros and learn the secrets of how to improvise and adapt so that you can handle anything your players can throw at you… either in person or online! All while having more fun!
PANELISTS
John Serpico [Director/Instructor, ImprovBoston], Melissa Carubia [Director/Instructor, The Company Theater], Auston Habershaw [Author, Harper Voyager], Samantha LeVangie [Performer, ImprovBoston], Bobby Smithney [Performer/Instructor, ImprovBoston]
Sound Design Live: Watch Us Recreate Video Game Sounds
Have you ever wondered what goes into creating a professional video game sound effect? Watch us recreate sound effects from popular video games like Overwatch, Super Smash Bros, and League of Legends with regular items like dining silverware, balloons… or maybe even a prop or item from the audience. During this panel, we will record sound effects with a microphone, edit and process them together on a computer, and show the full process for creating a polished video game sound effect.
What does sci-fi look like when you consciously step outside the bounds of western ideals of fiction? Afrofuturism imagines a future through an unapologetically Black lense, and its influence is expanding into the world of games. Game developers and writers who explore this bold new vision will converge to speak on what Afrofuturism is, where it’s going, how it interacts with the world of games, and where the art will go from here.
PANELISTS
Xalavier Nelson Jr. [Narrative Director, Heart Shaped Games], Anthony Jones [Art Director, Heart Shaped Games], Jordan Minor [Analyst, PC Mag], Ural Garrett [Project Manager, iamMedia]
Diversity is Not a Gimmick —Prioritizing Inclusion in Tabletop
Come join Skybound Tabletop and friends as they discuss the need for diversity in the industry. Diversity and inclusion are necessities that are vital to our community and require thoughtful consideration. It is not right to watch the community grow and not let the content and makers of our games grow as well. Our industry has been treating diversity like a gimmick, and that just makes it ten times harder for others to take this seriously. Let’s talk about what we’ve been doing already and what more we can do in the future to expand our games, people, and community in general.
PANELISTS
Maya Coleman [Kickstarter Manager, Skybound], James Hudson [Senior Director of Tabletop, Skybound], Anya Combs [Director of Games, Kickstarter], Jeremy Howard [Contributor, Man vs Meeple], Marcus Ross [Operations Manager/Lead Game Designer, Water Bear Games], Cara Michele Ryan [Art Director/Game Designer, Water Bear Games]
Drink This: How to Create Game Themed Cocktails You’ll Love
Hello adventurer! You fought through the dungeon, sailed the open sea, rescued the princess, and somehow managed not to get eaten by a grue. Take this cocktail, you’ve earned it!
Our geek cocktail expert, Lynn, will guide you in shaking up cocktails that will invoke the enchanting worlds and unforgettable characters of games you know and love. Learn with our panel of games industry experts as we explore how to incorporate innovative ingredients to create thoughtful, well-balanced game-themed cocktails and mocktails together. Follow along with the ingredient list, get creative, and explore how to use your newly leveled-up skills to design your own recipes!
PANELISTS
Lynn Richter [Owner, AwkwardNerd Events], Nika Nour [Executive Director, IGDA Foundation], Anya Combs [Director of Games, Kickstarter], Jerry Belich [Game Designer, Alt Ctrl Wizard]
Do you have a favourite gaming scene from a movie? Do you even watch movies without gaming in them? Join the Clocked team plus special guests as they dive into the decorated history of video games on the silver screen.
Dicebreaker Presents: How to Run an Amazing Tabletop RPG Session (with special guests)
Wanting to get to grips with the ABCs of RPGs? The Dicebreaker team run through 13 top tips on how to run a fantastic roleplaying session, from giving your story twists and turns without flying off the rails to making the world come alive. Plus, star GMs, RPG designers and fans tell us about their most memorable moments roleplaying!
No matter your role in the game industry – developer, writer, publicist, streamer – you create entertainment people love. From this shared passion and excitement springs forth… COMMUNITY! Heck. Now what? Bringing together talented community builders from many facets of the industry, this panel teaches you skills to foster and grow game communities with intention. Learn how to harness the power of community as your greatest advocates via a simple three-pronged approach. It’s as easy as A-B-C!
PANELISTS
Lysa Penrose [Owner, Behold Her Studio], Tanya Depass [Director & Founder, I Need Diverse Games], LaTia Bryant [Community Manager, D&D Adventurers League], Brenna Noonan [Co-Founder, Quillsilver Studio], Rachel Billings [Community Manager, Resonym]
Second Saturday
Rest and…
Not sure if this is a wise idea but I will plan nothing for this day but will simply drift with the wind! Orlanth be kind!
Second Sunday
Tea with Grandma Gamers: Old Ladies Talk #$%@ about Games
It’s a virtual tea party, complete with flowered hats, lace gloves and lots of grandmas! We plan to let it all out when it comes to gaming and what we love (and hate) about our favorite games. From Skyrim, to The Sims to Resident Evil 3, we touch on all kinds of gaming experiences. So if you ever wanted to watch a gaggle of Grandmas giggle and gossip about gaming, here is your chance!
Tell me this does not sound d@mn interesting!This Ol’ F@rt will be there!
Striking Distance Studios, Survios, and Schell Games invite you to join a discussion on environmental storytelling in video games! Featuring panelists from a variety of game design disciplines across AAA development and virtual reality, panelists will discuss the importance of designing worlds with a narrative eye.
Join Glen Schofield, Tate Mosesian, and Dave Bennett as they highlight their favorite examples of environmental storytelling, which will provide attendees with a new appreciation for the worlds they play in.
PANELISTS
Glen Schofield [CEO, Striking Distance Studios], Tate Mosesian [Art Director, Survios], Dave [Senior Game Designer, Schell Games]
Let me know how this noob did, What did I miss, what did not hit the spot!
Well, this is something Ludo has been looking forward to since the release of The Valley of Plenty, To be honest, so have we all, and the Carpenters were as wonderful as we thought they would be, They invited us into their lovely southern home replete with kids dogs and a just a wee touch of chaos—in a very genteel way. And in the course of our conversation we find everything one expects from the creators of the very cool “Wildlings”! But first, let’s meet our judges for Glorantha Has Talent? and then see what M has for us…
The good stuff straight from M, with a flurry of items of less than ideal repute. Rumour has it this used to be our “News and Rumour Tables” but that thought gets an A for too awful to contemplate.
15:19
Money Money Money
We like these play aids, we really do! Buy these @. Campaign Coins!
18.52
RuneQuest For Free?
An affordable option for evaluation or even short play, It’s great for those of us that are facing economic hardships in these strange times.
20:44
Dragons Eye and Other Examples of “YGMV”
Screen Capture from BRP Central
This is a long awaited examination of Glorantha locales that us old folk have been waiting for forever! This supplement explores the strange and odd places in Dragon Pass that show that Kansas is far, far away!
25:05
M. Heldson’s “Men of the West”
Mr Helsdon has been tantalizing BRP Central in the TopicSwords pf Central Genertela for years with early peeks at his works!
Martin returns with another of his explorations of the fighting men and women of Glorantha. This time he goes West!
According to M, the french will be getting this double translation with the publication of RQ G or soon thereafter: Double translation; once into French and then once more into RQ G!
Quelle Chance!
37:36
Our Main Topic
An interview with the Carpenters’ of Troupe Games Fame!
Introducing our guests, then a sneak peek at our Lightning Round
Their history in War-Games and RPGs
Griffin Mountain changes everything
Years pass and then cue a late visit to Sandy Petersen’s epic TrollPak!
Gloranthan Miniature game?
The Dundealos, The Poljoni, the Jaldonkillers Saga and how YGWV Joerg asks the tough questions!
The Wildlings and The Valley of Plenty
Novel use of PCs and NPCs, Bill says “Bravo! Well Done!”
A discourse on BRP OGL and the QuestWorld SRD (Bill gets a headache from all the TLAs).
Troupe Games on Inclusivity, X cards and Trigger Warnings
What’s up and coming for Troupe Games?”
1:31:39
What do fat Elvis and fat Hemingway have in common? And here, we get our comeuppance!
1:33:04
The Lightning Round
1:37:57
Bye For Now!
See y’all next month for Glorantha Has Talent? and so much more!
They’re coming soon! It sounds like Chaosium is currently reviewing the print proofs, and testing the online infrastructure for placing orders through the Chaosium website…
Also, note that these reprints do include some of the extra material that was compiled for the Glorantha Classics, such as extra items in Plunder or designer notes in Griffin Mountain.
More Cults of Glorantha work-in-progress
Loic Muzy, which we mentioned already a few times here, has shared more work-in-progress art for the upcoming Cults of Glorantha book! Look at this marvelous Storm Bull, for instance:
Loic Muzy isn’t the only artist working on this giant tome, however. Agathe Pitie shared the piece below which will probably send our own Joerg into over-analysis mode!
Jonstown Compendium News
Storm Rams
The “Monster of the Month” series from Austin Conrad continues with volume 8, “Storm Rams”! It focuses on a new spirit which is the “embodiment of rain-giving clouds”.
Secrets of Heroquesting
Simon Phipp is sharing his Gloranthan secrets once again, after “Secrets of Dorastor“, which we mentioned in past issues of Wind Whispers. This time, he’s writing about the “Secrets of Heroquesting“, sharing tips for game masters and players alike, detailing rules for heroes and heroquesters, and much more.
It’s not clear how these rules will survive the upcoming release of the “RuneQuest Gamemaster Guide”, which will supposedly contain Chaosium’s own heroquesting rules… but having two sets of rules for heroquesting will definitely be better than 40 years with none! Also, “Secrets of Heroquesting” contains a large amount of descriptive advice that most likely has timeless value anyway.
Sandheart remastered and in print
The collaboration between Jonathan Webb and Nick Brooke is paying off, with the latest volume in the Sandheart series being available in hardback! And in addition to that, the first volume has been completely remastered, with new illustrations, maps, and additional text. This remaster is available as a free update if you had already purchased the first volume (that is: you just need to re-download the PDFs). The second volume is of course going to be remastered next, and we can imagine that both volumes one and two will also be available in print-on-demand in the future.
(disclaimer: Wind Words host Ludovic is one of the illustrators)
A Peek at “The Company of the Dragon”
Andrew Logan Montgomery, author of “Six Seasons in Sartar”, shared some information on his blog about “The Company of the Dragon”, the sequel-but-not-quite-sequel to his first campaign. He goes over what we’ll find in this upcoming book, and how it differs from “Six Seasons in Sartar”.
Convention News
Glorantha Games
Glorantha Games 2020 is a virtual convention focused around… well, you can guess what it’s focused around pretty easily. It will happen on October 3rd 2020, and the organizers are still looking for a few more gamemasters… so if you can run some RuneQuest, HeroQuest, QuestWorlds, 13th Age: Glorantha, or even RuneQuest Classic adventure, now’s your time! Register here.
AlbaCon
AlbaCon is an “online, charity focused” roleplaying game convention, running for two days on October 3rd and 4th, 2020. The RPG schedule has already been posted and features a couple of Gloranthan games. Grab a seat while you can!
PAX Online
Likewise, the game schedule for PAX Online is now available. The convention is running from September 12th to 20th, and features a good number of Gloranthan games. Chaosium has the link for their own games on their blog.
The good news however is that the back issues might see a print-on-demand re-run. You can sign up right now for which issues you’re interested in: if there are enough customers, the printing could be done with a higher quality provider.
Jason shares some very fun stories about his career, and most notably his move to Germany, meeting with Jeff Richard for the first time, and some awkward beginnings. He also gives some information on the upcoming RuneQuest Starter Set, which is “hopefully” coming before the end of the year, and includes a return to the Rainbow Mounds as one of its three adventures!
Griffin Mountain: Remastered in French
Philippe Auribeau, the person in charge of the French edition of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha produced by Studio Deadcrows, was interviewed by French RPG channel “Roliste TV” recently. In it, he talks about the various projects he’s working on, but most importantly (at least for Wind Whispers) reveals that Studio Deadcrows is planning to translate the classic Griffin Mountain campaign into French. Not only that, but the campaign will be updated for the latest edition of RuneQuest. And not only that, but they plan on vastly expanding it, complementing the sandbox hexcrawl of the original with an optional campaign made of several semi-original scenarios! Given the history of close collaboration between Chaosium and its foreign licensees, there is a chance that if such a project is successful, it could be translated back to English for the international market!
The always excellent Seth Skorkowski posted a review of the RuneQuest Quickstart rules and adventure a few months ago after having played it on James Chambers’ channel (we had discussed these live games on the podcast at the time). As always, Seth makes several good points about the book, and provides helpful suggestions for future gamemasters.
And it is Jörg’s time again to write about the news and related stuff about the world of Glorantha, the publishers creating stuff for that, and a selection of fan-written stuff dealing with the world and the games for it.
Yes, Bill told you everything about this contest in last week’s Wind Whispers. Or did he?
Work behind the scenes continues while we are talking to our judges and listening to the first contributions. Watch the threads on BRP Central for tidbits on the contest. So send in your material! Surely you can do better than Bill and Jörg with their examples in the last two podcasts!
Chaosium News
Illustrator Loic Muzy has been showing off some work-in-progress on Twitter – an illustration of a bare-chested Ernalda lounging with a snake on one arm and a bushel of grain in the other.
GenCon Online RQG Sessions on YouTube
Watch these videos to learn how the folk at Chaosium run a convention adventure, especially if you are a GM who might wish to run the scenarios for other players.
In Jason Durall’s session “The Forest on the Waves” from GenCon Online the pregen characters Vasana, Sorala, Harmast, Nathem and Vastor are sent on a mission from Clearwine to Nochet by Argrath, carrying gifts for Queen Samastina.
Michael O’Brien ran “The Getting of Wisdom“, an initiatory scenario for Lhankor Mhy apprentices, with his usual MGF approach showing through.
Bill says he his sorry that his plans to attend as our on-site reporter suffered from too much work to do for our podcast and connection problems.
Remembering Caroman by Michael Paul O’Sullivan is an adventure building on the last field battle of the Lunar conquest of Sartar. In a situation not unlike the Spartan defense at the Thermopylae, the Lunar invaders bypassed Prince Salinarg’s defensive position in the Sambari Pass, and this story starts with the funeral of a widow of one of the glorious but defeated guardians of the pass. Meet their restless spirits, and lay them to rest?
This is the expanded version of a scenario from one of the scenarios provided by the Cult of Chaos to volunteer GMs at conventions.
Other News from the Community
Roleplaying History presented by Shannon Appelcline
Shannon is the author of the definitive work on the history of roleplaying, Designers and Dragons, and he keeps putting out the results of his research on rpg.net.
As a former employee of Chaosium, Shannon has a good idea on what went on with our favourite publisher of Glorantha material, and his recent article on The Chaosium Connections comes with a chart showing the interactions of Chaosium with other companies.
There is hardly anything on the history of licensees in other languages, though. I appreciate that it is hard to do research in a language that you don’t read yourself, but maybe there are people from those countries who could contribute and share their experiences.
In similar news, Shannon published an interview with the people behind Pavic Tales, the first known fanzine for RuneQuest. This British fanzine was the predecessor to the well-known Tales of the Reaching Moon, and it amounted to nine issues in the years 1987-1989. Originals are hard to find, and probably collectors’ items these days.
Both Pavic Tales and Reaching Moon Megacorp are going to get more detailed attention in Shannon’s next project in the series, named “The Lost Histories”.
Glorantha fans keep surprising us with the topics they discuss. One of the most recent explorations goes almost skin deep, as people are discussing Gloranthan underwear.
We have now posted a ton of info and rules for our contest, Glorantha has Talent?. We have not been shy. So, we won’t rehash it all, except to say we are on BRP Central with rules, info, advice as well as a place where you can post your opinions. We are also on the Wind Words site with all of that. except the public opinions. You can post your entries on the site (to post an entry, go to the site’s home pageand click on the envelope icon in the upper right corner and attach it to an email). So, pop over to one of our two presences on the web for opinions or entries, to read the rules, get advice from your peers and soon even drool over the prizes (which we will have a sneak peak at right away in this very newsletter! A great reason to subscribe)!
Prizes
To begin with, we will list Glorantha Has Talent?’s prizes in alphabetical order? Why? Well, we don’t have a first second or third place prize! We are well aware that one man’s treasure can be another man’s, “been there done that, already got the `Tee-Shirt!” kind of deal.
So, no sequential order of prizes, for us. We all know how a Prince, Chieftain, or Thane will be chosen, right? No? Well, head right on over to the our contest’s site in the Cloud and check out the Rules as pertains to Judges.
The Prince, as chosen by our wonderful judges, gets the first and the fourth choices of the prizes. The Chieftain gets the second choice and The Thane (number one in our hearts, but number three in the selection process) chooses—well, 3rd!
So let’s gave lo look at our prizes…
The Booty!
Chaosium, Nick Brooke, and Austin Conrad of Akhelas have graciously donated the following wonderful PDFs of their works as prizes and in the case of Austin and Nick they have said they will specially mod the PDFs for the contest. These publishers have been at this for a while so I will let them describe their treasures in their own way! Mind you, I have been working with Austin on his great collection for 3/4 of a year, so I am honoured to put in a bit of a kind word for our prolific genius and his oeuvre.
“One of our great prizes is a unique digital edition of A Rough Guide to Glamour, the Jonstown Compendium’s first Gold best selling title. It’s your indispensable tourist guide to the capital city of the Lunar Empire, and much more besides, including a city map and gazetteer, two RuneQuest cult write-ups, history, art, fiction, poetry and more.”
Monsters of the Month – January to August!
That’s right! Eight months worth of terror, wonder, awe and cuddly cuteness—all at once.
Austin Conrad has offered the first 8 issues of his wonderful series, Monster of the Month as his treasure to be chosen to by our worthiest and the wisest competitor! He says that those who chose his treasure will also get a special memento from him! Hmm!
His cute, horrible, and awesome pets, all created from his fevered imagination, are in order of appearance:
“Set in the mythic fantasy world of Glorantha, The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories features seven complete ready-to-play adventures, taking you from ghoul-haunted catacombs, into mystic ruins, across the arid deserts of Prax, and up to the rocky pinnacle of the Pegasus Plateau!
“Additionally, The Locaem is a new tribe for use by gamemasters and players, and the lonely village of Renekot’s Hope, perched between the Lunar Empire and its enemies in Sartar, provide refuge… or a springboard for adventure!”
“TheSmoking Ruin & Other Stories contains ready-to-play adventures for RuneQuest, taking adventurers across the untamed South Wilds, a region filled with reclusive villagers, ancient ruins, beast folk, troll spirits, undead, wolf-brothers, dinosaurs, monstrous mercenary companies, living trees, surly river spirits, and worse!
“The book also offers a closer look at some significant locations in the South Wilds, and some more adventures – there’s the Wild Temple, a massive open air holy site, the Lost Valley which offers an interesting little community, and the adventures Urvantan’s Tower in which the fate of the Lost Valley relies on quick action from the player characters and Grove of Green Rock, in which the player characters can get hired to help a massive elven project to establish a new sacred grove in Dragon Pass.”
So we look forward to hearing your entries and giving you your choice of these great prizes. Record your work of art, and enter soon!
Jonstown Compendium News
What is it?
Amazingly, we have not described what the Jonstown Compendium is, in all of our Wind Whispers to date! As we intend to visit it often, I will attempt to describe this great library of Glorantha Fan products. Here goes.
After the fantastic success of the Miskatonic Repository, DriveThruRPG–OBS and Chaosium have again created a marketplace in the cloud for fan created goodness. This time for Gloranthan products, and it is known as the Jonstown Compendium. While this is great for most of us product hungry Glorantha-philes, alas, 13th Age Glorantha is not yet supported. Soon, we hope.
At the moment, new products are sold as PDFs but if enough sales are reached a POD may be offered by the publishers. When buying a Jonstown Compendium product, remember, the author’s Glorantha may well have varied!
So, what do ours gods say? Orlanth gives it 4 very blue thumbs up
This bad boy is too new to have a lot written on it, hell, even the authors acknowledge this, and let us know right away that it is very much a WIP. Still this is the first work on Glorantha’s mystic east by fan or pro, so we had to mention it.
Quoted from the Authors Blurb
“A source book for the far east of Glorantha. Warning: This document is a work in progress and not a finalized product.
It forms the basis of a house campaign and will be updated and amended as the campaign progresses. The Document as mentioned is a work in progress and may contain typos and inconsistencies, which I will up date at a regular interval. The regularity, depending on how my campaign runs and personal commitments.
It should be noted, Chaosium will be producing a Kralori Source book in the future and much of the information contained within these pages may well be superseded.
This supplement to the much loved Six Seasons in Sartar helps convert the RQ stat blocks to your 13th Age Glorantha and HeroQuest Glorantha gaming tables. With rules and guidelines on character creation and converting NPCs you can easily enjoy Six Seasons in Sartar with whatever game system you prefer. But there is more than that inside!
“For hundreds of years, one day in every year, braziers have been lit in a cave near Sandheart and left to burn for the night. No one can remember why, but it is recorded as an important cult duty and that seems a good enough reason for the tradition to be upheld.
“Another year passes and the militia are sent on their annual pilgrimage to light the braziers. Just the same old same old… but not this time.”
Tradition: Sandheart Volume Three is a mini-campaign set in Sun County and can be played on its own or integrated with Sandheart Volumes One & Two. At 82 pages / 30,000+ words (not counting preface, credits, handouts, etc.), it includes over thirty bespoke illustrations. The scenario is bundled with a 24-page supplement containing printable versions of all the maps and handouts.
—From the authors
Return to the land explored in RQ’s last renaissance back in the 90’s by luminaries like Michael O’Brien and Ken Ralston, This time out Jonathan Webb and friends explore the “6th Great Tribe of Prax”.
The other books in the series are:
Tales of the Sun County Militia: Sandheart Volume 1 The Corn Dolls: Sandheart Volume 2
Heort’s Legacy
Heorts Legacy` From Alistair Jones, Edan Jones PDF $5.00
And again, I will turn to the authors own words:
“Contained within are several series of questions to add even more variety to Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes’ clan questionnaire: providing variants for Orlanthi of solar, earth, darkness or water tendencies, and others from less orthodox members of the storm pantheon.”
So for use with HQ, we get an expansion to fill out clan myths and adventurer’s history beyond the Orlanthi norm. Great show boys!
From the Spider’s Web
News of Glorantha caught in our webs from elsewheres in the cyber realms.
Today we head to BRP Central to find a truly great free resource to navigate the crowded lands of Dragon Pass to locals where one might find adventure of the Jonstown Compendium sort under every tree and in every alley.
Andre Jarosch has answered both questions by undertaking the task of displaying where published scenarios can be found in these beautiful Dragon Pass maps,
In his own words:
“Inspired by the map in “The Pegasus Plateau”, and with the kind permission of Chaosium Inc., i made my own “Adventure Locations” maps.”
The following list of maps is just a start, he has since added and amended the maps a few times. Visit here before visiting The Jonstown Compendium for the latest on info on where the scenario takes place and in what rules systems.
Map I. Adventure Locations in official RQG publications: Map II. Adventure Locations in Jonstown Compendium publications Map III. Adventure Locations in official RuneQuest 2 and RuneQuest 3 publications Map IV. Adventure Locations in official HeroWars, HQ, HQ 2 and HQ Glorantha publication
Thanks Andre!
Rumour Tables
The Company of the Dragon
Rumour says this might be by Andrew Logan Montgomery. I tend to believe such rumours.
Hmm suspicious, a great roll and a rumour that comes with very professional looking cover art. I have a sinking suspicion this might rate a T on the Rumour Table. Well, let’s see what this rumour says… A first look at a nominal sequel. Well that is intriguing and enigmatic, hmm.
From Andrew Logan Montgomery
“IN WRITING THE COMPANY OF THE DRAGON, the one thing I didn’t want to do was a sequel. Six Seasons in Sartar is a self-contained story; it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It struck me as silly to just have “continuing adventures” tacked on, as if the ancient Third Age poet Usuphus of Jonstown just kept cranking out additional epics like some Gloranthan Jerry Bruckheimer. So from the start I knew The Company of the Dragon had to be something different. It would have to be 100% compatible with Seasons, but also a stand-alone project.”
Well that’s it for the Rumou…hey what was that crash and bang… what odd critter is that butting it’s way into our Newsletter? AGAIN?
Austin, is this one of yours? Huh, what’s that? A runaway MotM? A Storm Ram? You don’t say! Hey. stop that, aw man, who gets the job of cleaning up after him?
Darn monsters, wait for your month!
Dragon Pass On Pennies A Season!
Gloranthan Goodness even a stick picker can afford
“So. work is irregular, discretionary income is shrinking faster and faster, but damn it, We want to try this Glorantha thing and see what all the fuss is about. After all, we have plenty of time.”
Well, believe it or not, a large amount of Gloranthan exploration is possible for free… yes, let me repeat that, a large amount of fun can be had evaluating Gloranthan Goodness for free!
Oh, if you are like the Wind Words’ cast you will want to invest a few shiny gold Wheels into the hobby but, if reality does not allow for this and you exist on a bolg budget with golden dreams, well… what is a curious adventurer to do? Over the next few months on an irregular basis when they turn Wind Whispers over to me, I will look at a few free or cheap items of Gloranthan Goodness to bring to you attention.
From Chaosium
RuneQuest Evaluation for Free!
Our friends at Chaosium are helping the bored and broke “want to be adventures” with quite a few items but let’s go back to before the start of the modern era of RQ.
“Sherman, set the wayback machine for the heady days of 2017.”
Way back when Chaosium was giving away the only version of RQG it had… Free! Let me quote from their blurb of today.
“Try the Ennie-Award-winning RuneQuest Quickstart Rules & Adventure for free! This 48-page booklet provides all the info you need to begin play, from basic rules, five pregenerated adventurers, and a full adventure, letting you step right into the world of Glorantha!
GMed this after having it for only a couple of days at my FLGS’s free game-day for four Glorantha newbies back in ’17 and it was great (a few problems were had, but they were ones that everyone noted at the time and they led to official rule changes since!). Yeah, Chaosium said if first and probably best in the above blurb… I have nothing to add. Click download, read, evaluate and then—enjoy!
All Glorantha on your hard drive! This will cover your big picture view for a long time to come in more maps than you will need… Though the year is fixed at 1625 it is still useful to all Gloranthan RPGs to a greater or lesser degree. There will be a few discrepancies if you flavour of Glorantha does not hew to the RQ G canonical timeline but nothing to invalidate the maps usefulness. To be really complete one will still need to draw or buy the local maps (this freebie does not do it all. But we all like to do the local maps, no?).
From the ad
“The Argan Argan Atlas is the perfect companion to the Guide to Glorantha with all of the regional maps of Glorantha collected in a single reference volume. The enchanted world of Glorantha is fully illuminated with over 120 full page colour maps by Colin Driver and Jeff Richard based on Greg Stafford’s original hand-drawings.
The AAA is the complete atlas of the entire Middle World in astonishing detail. The whole of Glorantha is mapped in amazing detail, including all of Genertela, Pamaltela, Jrustela, the East Islands, Vormain, and more.
Details include:
every human settlement of 1000 inhabitants or more
So let’s see, a free book of rules that includes a scenario and an atlas of the world and no money has changed hands. What can be better? How about another free scenario? One that is a tribute to Glorantha’s founding shaman, Greg Stafford? This one was done in memory of Greg Stafford’s passing. Before playing this, give the page at the above URL a read . #weareallus – Play a Tabletop Game to Remember Greg Stafford.
“The world of Glorantha was Greg’s creation in 1966; and is now one of the oldest, most detailed, and most influential roleplaying settings ever published. The Rattling Wind is a brand new RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha adventure by Helena Nash, suitable for four-to-six new or moderately experienced adventurers. It is a preview chapter from The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories, a forthcoming adventures anthology.”
So, that’s it for Glorantha on Pennies a Day and for that matter also for Wind Words #5. Thank you ever so much for having us on your computer or device!
See y’all next issue in about a week!
One More Peek
drool!
It’s just so frickin’ beautiful, I needed one more look! Thanks for the pic MOB!
May Orlanth toss those that profane these rules from his cloud May Vaneekara cast those offending souls into the maw of oblivion Worse yet, may Eurmal detune these curs’ lyres at the worst possible moment Should malfeasance be their goal!
Glorantha Has Talent? is a contest running on our Wind Words podcast until Late September/Early October or to put it another way, until our 8th episode is published). We will receive entries until the 21st of September 5th of October, midnight PDT (later at the judges discretion, only) (the deadline has now been extended). We are looking for short (no more than 3 minutes) audio files with Gloranthan content that are entertaining, evocative, and that sound nice (or at least memorable), ideally all at the same time.
Things we would like to hear include, but are not limited to: jokes, short oral myths, filk songs, or more nerdy stuff that could help a player get into character… like traditional Gloranthan greetings, Heortling boasts, a memorable gaming scene reenactment, or similar stuff you may have done for your gaming table’s entertainment. Surprise us, the judges and our audience with yet more ideas brimming with Gloranthan Goodness!
Let’s keep it all in the spirit of maximum game fun, so treat the judges and their decision with respect as well as your fellow contestants.
We will funnel your works on to our judges after a quick vetting. The judges will cull the entries down to our finalists and then will vote on our Prince, Chieftain, and Thane (first, second and third prize). Please note that the above Sartarite titles are unisex.
Your contribution may be made public (in MP3 format) on godlearners.com where it will be on display for all to hear, in its full glory. Beyond this use of your recordings to benefit our website and podcasts, the copyright on the entries remains with the content creators. The content creators can reserve the right to withdraw an entry from publication at any time, removing it also from “Glorantha Has Talent?”.
To be considered a victor we will need the rights to your work for the duration of the contest guaranteed (including for advertising, posting, and then possible broadcasting). Future rights remain with the copyright holder and must be renegotiated for further use.
Copyright held by third parties will hold sway.
“Let‘s take the assumption that you happen to do a beautiful rendering of Boris Mikey‘s filk song “The Day the Flame Died Down” to the melody of Don McLean’s “American Pie”, possibly with the slight re-arrangement to fit the words better to the melody by Nick Brooke. Any of the people listed here plus the performers receive the right to demand a withdrawal of the recording from publication. If necessary leave it to us to edit an already broadcasted episode of Wind Words if we need to remove copyrighted material.
“In order to avoid such bummers, the less material copyrighted by third parties you use, the less chance of losing that work.”
The judges will talk about your submissions, and possibly why they chose them. Bear in mind we don’t bite, They will treat your quirky pieces, badly thought out ideas that come to naught, or half page of scribbled lines with care and sensitivity, be assured.
Record your entry digitally, somehow—everybody reading this has a cell-phone or a computer capable of recording sound. Good sound quality will be a quality of its own, but content and ideas will balance that and bear in mind lo-fi is a thing that might be used to your advantage.
Upload your sound file from your device memory either as an e-mail attachment to tribe@windords.fm or upload it to https://www.dropbox.com/request/aORt2e9DPOg7RqEHnput. The Wind Words team will take it from there. If you want to add some corroborative material (a photo or video of you performing, a cover image, a transcript, sheet music, an animation), feel free to do so. It may sway the judges, but remember that the presentation of your entry is on an audio only format.
Guide for the Judges
Use
1. entertainment 2. Gloranthaness 3. production values
,,,as your guides. And then add in your own values. Be ready to defend these on air.
Principles
Ludo’s notes that he penned for the judges, above are a great guide, but we do have a few more principles we would like to introduce to you as well. They are briefly mentioned below.
Fun
Fairness
Simplicity
Nice Judging
Glorantha-ness
The Contest Rules
Entries have to be follow these constraints (Judges might tend to leniency)
Audio-media must be sent to “our dropbox in the clouds” in most modern audio formats
Must allow us publishing rights for the Podcast and Web-Site for the duration of the contest. Further rights may be negotiated.
Entries will be received until the 21st of September, midnight, PDT (later at the judges discretion, only).
Judging
First vetting done by Podcast Crew
Those that make the cut go onto the judges for the finals, Each judge gets three votes to distribute as he or she sees fit and may divide these in any way they choose or give all three to one entry. We will cull half the entries at this time to those with the most votes. Ties will be decided by Bill, Jörg and Ludo as above (3 votes, etc).
And then for those who advance, three then will be chosen to be our Prince of Entertainment, our Chieftain of Mirth and our Thane of Good Humour (first, second and third).
In disputes or disagreements, Ludo, Bill, and Joerg’s joint decision will be final!
Who may not enter
The podcast hosts and the podcast crew, judges, and those who have given prizes for the contest Glorantha Has Talent?, AND their families.
May we wish you all the best of luck!
Bill, Jörg and Ludo!
The Prizes
To begin with, we will list Glorantha Has Talent?’s prizes in alphabetical order? Why? Well, we don’t have a first second or third place prize! We are well aware that one man’s treasure can be another man’s, “been there done that, already got the `Tee-Shirt!” kind of deal.
So, no sequential order of prizes, for us. We all know how a Prince, Chieftain, or Thane will be chosen, right? No? Well, look up to the top of this doc to check out the Rules as pertains to Judges.
The Prince, as chosen by our wonderful judges, gets the first and the fourth choices of the prizes. The Chieftain gets the second choice and The Thane (number one in our hearts, but number three in the selection process) chooses—well, 3rd!
So let’s gave lo look at our prizes…
The Booty!
Chaosium, Nick Brooke, and Austin Conrad of Akhelas have graciously donated the following wonderful PDFs of their works as prizes and in the case of Austin and Nick they have said they will specially mod the PDFs for the contest. These publishers have been at this for a while so I will let them describe their treasures in their own way! Mind you, I have been working with Austin on his great collection for 3/4 of a year, so I am honoured to put in a bit of a kind word for our prolific genius and his oeuvre.
“One of our great prizes is a unique digital edition of A Rough Guide to Glamour, the Jonstown Compendium’s first Gold best selling title. It’s your indispensable tourist guide to the capital city of the Lunar Empire, and much more besides, including a city map and gazetteer, two RuneQuest cult write-ups, history, art, fiction, poetry and more.”
Monsters of the Month – January to August!
That’s right! Eight months worth of terror, wonder, awe and cuddly cuteness—all at once.
Austin Conrad has offered the first 8 issues of his wonderful series, Monster of the Month as his treasure to be chosen to by our worthiest and the wisest competitor! He says that those who chose his treasure will also get a special memento from him! Hmm!
His cute, horrible, and awesome pets, all created from his fevered imagination, are in order of appearance:
“Set in the mythic fantasy world of Glorantha, The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories features seven complete ready-to-play adventures, taking you from ghoul-haunted catacombs, into mystic ruins, across the arid deserts of Prax, and up to the rocky pinnacle of the Pegasus Plateau!
“Additionally, The Locaem is a new tribe for use by gamemasters and players, and the lonely village of Renekot’s Hope, perched between the Lunar Empire and its enemies in Sartar, provide refuge… or a springboard for adventure!”
“TheSmoking Ruin & Other Stories contains ready-to-play adventures for RuneQuest, taking adventurers across the untamed South Wilds, a region filled with reclusive villagers, ancient ruins, beast folk, troll spirits, undead, wolf-brothers, dinosaurs, monstrous mercenary companies, living trees, surly river spirits, and worse!
“The book also offers a closer look at some significant locations in the South Wilds, and some more adventures – there’s the Wild Temple, a massive open air holy site, the Lost Valley which offers an interesting little community, and the adventures Urvantan’s Tower in which the fate of the Lost Valley relies on quick action from the player characters and Grove of Green Rock, in which the player characters can get hired to help a massive elven project to establish a new sacred grove in Dragon Pass.”
Legion
Thanks to the generosity of Neil Gibson, we have an extra prize!
Legion is the silver best-selling Broo NPC supplement for GMs running RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha games.
Broo are a prolific and varied adversary. This supplement provides 94 pre-rolled Chaos enemies from the aspirant lay members to deadly Rune Lord / Priests as well as new deadly diseases that will challenge even the most dedicated Chalana Arroy priestess. Includes 4 beautiful, full colour, full page Broo portraits.
So we look forward to hearing your entries and giving you your choice of these great prizes. Record your work of art, and enter soon!
We announce our contest for audio takes on Glorantha.
A Ludoch Story
02;10
Another example (after last episode’s joke at the end of the podcast) of how such a 3 minute audio entry could sound
The Herald‘s Podium
05:25
Starting with an interruption announcing Wind Whispers, a newsletter collecting the news of the week (convention news, new products, new rumors, and occasional looks at cool topics on the interweb, current and older).
The RuneQuest Live-Play videos on Twitch and YouTube Should an official live-play be free of house rules?
Orkenspalter TV meets Chaosium
15:40
With Lynn Hardy, John Wick, Jeff Richard and sorry, not Mike Mason, but Jason Durall—bad Jörg, bad!
Some Jonstown Compendium products now available in Print on Demand
Only electrum sellers are going to get a Print on Demand, talking about the catch22 when some buyers hold back on supporting a new title hoping for a PoD bundle and electrum status possibly delayed or not reached.
Talking about reading in the bathroom (don‘t try that at away from home, folks)
John Wick‘s Blue Moon, White Moon John Wick? No, not the one played by Keanu Reeves!
The Rumour Table
29:50
Mark Baldwin releasing some marble statue depictions of Sun County? There are some uncanny similarities with certain folk at Chaosium.
31:40
Campaign Coins – get your hard Gloranthan currency! (No, not live cattle, but actual bolgs, clacks, lunars and wheels.)
Feedback
33:40
BrentS on Cults of Prax and Biturian‘s Travels, and getting sweet on us
37:40
Pookie from Reviews from R’lyeh on how he listens to us on his walks, and a nod to our Cattle Raid proposals
Biturian’s Travels revisited – Part Two
40:00
A letter home to Esrolia, from a traveler in Prax
Bill gives one of our intrepid explorers a voice, dictated to a scribe at a Praxian Oasis.
Introduction
42:28
A thank you to Martin Helsdon of Armies and Enemies of Dragon Passfame for letting us use his imagery of the Paps, on the cover ofTemplesand Towers, his exploration of the architecture of central Genertela.
A Dark Season Ritual at the Paps
43:30
Starting with Bill‘s comments on the Eirithan Dark Season rites at the Paps, we take a look at various things on and off topic.
The Respected Elder (and Most Respected Elder) of the cult of Eiritha at the Paps
A digression about the Morokanth
The holy nature of the Paps and its importance to Prax, and how this is similar to real world earth worship for Earth worship in an underground location. Bill brings out the Hopi using the Grand Canyon as the hole in the ground around which their earth worship was centred.
Rituals and Heroquests, and how much Other Side is involved. What do observers see?
Little love lost between trolls and the Earth worshipers of Prax.
Darkness attackers in the most holy place—why do we have Morokanth attackers? Similarities between Morokanth and trolls We mention Steve Purcell’s image of a Morokanth on the cover of RQ3 Bestiary, and how Jörg managed to mis-interpret it as a dark troll for way too long – illustrating an uncanny similarity between these Darkness Rune creatures of Eiritha and the Men of Darkness.
Ritual foes, and how heroquesters from all over Glorantha may be drawn into your quest (and vice versa). We discuss worshipers taking on the ritual role of a foe of the cult.
Biturian making a profit out of his worship Lay membership, joining other cults’ ceremonies
Bill points out the similarities and differences with the Paps scene in Vasana’s Saga in the RuneQuest Glorantha rules book.
A Humakti Duel at Tourney Altar
1:06:00
Ludo introduces us to Tourney Altar, where we get to witness a Humakt Duel. Naimless— Sword of Humakt from the Temple of the Wooden Sword, and accompanied by dark troll worshipers of Humakt.
Troll initiates of Humakt Digressing about the Chaosium RQ2 (and RQ1) house campaigns A history of the Temple of Wooden Sword with the Sazdorf Clan
Breaking the stereotype of your cult (and we didn’t even mention 13G’s “One Unique Thing” that each character has).
Fairness in Humakti Duels
Discussing the limitations of Divine Intervention and how gods interact with their worshipers
Ludo has us tell about and then make up unusual specimen of cultists.
Bill’s mentions a duck character that worships Polaris, “a bit of an odd duck”!
Jörg “in memoriam” of Onslaught (a Humakti character invented by Martin Laurie) and his antithesis
“The Bodyguard” – a Humakti dilemma, in Ellie Akers’ campaign
Rolling a random cult – we improvise on Waha and Maran Gor.
The Etyries Market at Moonbroth
1:33:20
Biturian’s description of Moonbroth, and thoughts on why it spouts water every Wildday.
Like the oasis, Jörg spouts illuminating nonsense about “it washes away the red Chaos from the Red Moon”.
The nature of Rune Spells (e.g. Charisma) in Glorantha
A High Fantasy version of Glorantha, envisioned by Bill
The inevitable comparison of Charisma with Axe or Sword Trance
What’s the dark secret about the horned children in the Empire? Tell us your theories at tribe@godlearners.com (hell, tell us your theories of anything and if it comes as an audio file that runs for about 3 minutes, it might double as your contest entry).
And with that we sneak out at the break of dawn, just like Biturian…
First, the supplement is written by Jonathan Tweet, whose name should be familiar to anybody who played at least a few RPGs. We’re not going to list his entire resume but let’s just say he co-wrote the old RQ3 Strangers in Prax, and the more recent 13th Age: Glorantha, being also the co-author of 13th Age itself. Of note, he is also the co-author of Ars Magica, which drew inspiration from RuneQuest and, later, influenced RuneQuest back with its innovative sorcery mechanics.
Second, this new supplement will allegedly showcase the “variability” of Glorantha, as per the saying “Your Glorantha May Vary” (YGMV):
Originally conceived as “Your Glorantha May Vary”, this collection of locations demonstrates the versatility of the setting, putting that phrase to work by showing new and veteran gamemasters alike how to customize and make the world of Glorantha their own.
David Scott and Ian Cooper on The Rolistes podcast
David Scott (one of Chaosium’s convention coordinators, and an underrated source of Gloranthan knowledge) and Ian Cooper (the line editor for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds) were interviewed by The Rolistes podcast during the Chaosium UK Meetup that happened just before the COVID-19 lockdown in March. In this episode they chat with their host about the (then upcoming) QuestWorld SRD, the guests’ origin stories, and many other interesting things.
Chaosium seems to have been expanding a bit on their online play resources lately. There’s probably nothing new for the experienced players in the audience, but it might be worth pointing to the newbies in your entourage. In particular, Chaosium now has separate pages for each game. Here’s the RuneQuest page, and here’s the HeroQuest page.
RuneQuest en Français
Note quite Chaosium news, but close enough: the French version of RuneQuest: Glorantha seems to have come back from the printer. Does this cover look like it has some embossing?
And let’s not forget that this version of the rulebook contains rule fixes (like some occupation skill bonuses) along with an original scenario!
Jonstown Compendium
There’s nothing to report on the Jonstown Compendium this week.
Remember that if you’re wondering which PDF(s) might be interesting to you, Nick Brooke has a cheap but well maintained index of all Jonstown Compendium scenarios and sourcebooks. For only half a Lunar, you get some solid information that will let you decide what to buy next… it even includes a map of where each PDF is set!
Convention News
Glorantha Games 2020 is happening online
Glorantha Games is a one-day gaming convention dedicated to, well, roleplaying in Glorantha, and that usually happens in Birmingham, UK, for the enjoyment of all the lucky people who happen to live in this hotbed of tabletop gaming. This year it was supposed to happen in April but agents of Mallia had other plans, and the event was understandably cancelled.
Well, as we’ve learned these past few months, COVID-19-related cancellations are not always all bad news, with conventions moving online and, therefore, being accessible to a broader and more diverse audience! Glorantha Games 2020 is therefore open for anyone that can get online on October 3rd. You can register on Warhorn to be notified when further information is revealed.
Ian Cooper, line editor for QuestWorlds (the new generic line that came out of the HeroQuest rules), has been quite active on the QuestWorlds Facebook group, encouraging community members to participate in the design process for the SRD and upcoming rulebook. This is what he had to say about a Gloranthan sourcebook for QuestWorlds:
For now, HQG is the main published text for Glorantha. QuestWorlds is available but still in development. So the SRD will undergo some revisions before being final. One design goal is the make it more rules-lite, yes.In addition it will be a generic presentation. In the medium term, for Glorantha you are probably best of grabbing HQG and incorporating any rules changes from QW you are comfortable with. That may end up, for you, with only really using the ‘genre pack’ elements of HQG such as the magic, keywords etc.A “QuestWorlds Glorantha” will come at some point, and will probably be more than just a reprint of HQG with the new mechanics. But that is a way off.
Ian Cooper, QuestWorlds Facebook group
About RuneQuest 3 remasters
Rick Meints, president of Chaosium and expert archivist, gave us some behind-the-scenes information about the state of RQ3’s catalog with regards to seeing it re-released in the same vein as the RQ2 catalog:
I have said this on other threads, but there is no rights issue with the vast majority of RQ3 material. If you look at the credits page of almost ANY RQ3 supplement your will see that it is copyrighted by Chaosium and not by Avalon Hill. Greg made very sure that they retained the copyright, and when he left Chaosium his part of the split was taking all of those copyrights with him. Moon Design Publications owns all the rights to RuneQuest and Glorantha, both in terms of trademarks and IP. So why haven’t we reprinted more RQ3 product? It’s just down to time and resources. We do not have electronic copies of any RQ3 material in a laid out form. Those layouts were all done as cut and paste until late in the life cycle of RQ3, and Avalon Hill deleted the layout files for whatever they had for the last books in the RQ3 line several decades ago. That said, a few RQ3 books may get released as “Classics”, but they haven’t even been started yet. To be fair, getting a copy of Dorastor, Sun County, and similar isn’t that hard on eBay, and you probably wouldn’t have to pay more than $30-$40 for any of them if you have a bit of patience. I know a few sellers have copies listed for far more than that, but those don’t sell. If you are based in the US, feel free to send me your want list of RQ3 items you are looking for.
Rick Meints, BRP Forums
Elsewhere on Arachne’s web
Griselda’s bedtime stories
Friend of the show Pookie, from Reviews From R’lyeh fame, has an ongoing YouTube series where he reads the Griselda Tales, written by Oliver Dickinson. That’s a great way to relax before going to sleep, or something nice to listen to while cooking or working out… after you’ve finished listening to the latest Wind Words episode of course!
Jason Durall, Chaosium’s line editor for RuneQuest: Glorantha, is a very busy man, as he’s also a line editor for the Conan RPG at Modiphius. Since this RPG is based on the quintessential sword & sorcery tales of Robert E. Howard, RuneQuest players might find some interest in learning more about it…. and what best for this than Jason being interviewed by Dirk The Dice on the ever excellent Grognard Files podcast?
Back in Wind Whispers #3, we mentioned that Campaign Coins, makers of fine RPG related tokens, had announced Clacks, Lunars, and other familiar types of coins. If you want to see what they look like in video, Loscha has you covered with the coins he recently received.
Timothy Brannan’s RPG blog and publishing outlet “The Other Side” recently had a review of Trollpak, the classic RuneQuest supplement that made it possible to play as everybody’s favourite munchers (including recipes for better roleplay!). The review goes over the contents of the books, adds a touch of context and a history, and overall highlights how innovative Trollpak was, especially in terms of showcasing non-human factions as something else than purely one-dimensional monsters.
Timothy is also an RPG author, and you can find his stuff, among other places, on DrivethruRPG and the DM’s Guild (and note that these are affiliate links for him, not for us!).
WayneBooks, a fine purveyor of used and out-of-print games, has recently posted a blog article about Dragon Pass (the old board game) and its history. For those of you who not lucky enough to own a copy, the article contains many pictures of what’s in the box. Note that WayneBooks has several Glorantha-related items for sale, including Dragon Pass itself.
Interview with Pavic Tales founders
Shannon Applecline, the RPG industry’s most prominent historian, recently ran an interview with Mark Corbett and Jim Mozley over at RPG.net. Mark and Jim are two of the founders for Pavic Tales, the first known RuneQuest fanzine, which ran between 1987 and 1989.
If you want more RPG history, you can visit Shannon Applecline’s website and purchase the awesome “Designers & Dragons“, a series of books that each cover a decade of industry news and gossip in detail. This includes, of course, a history of Chaosium’s early years.
The Dice are Screaming: A Rough Guide to Glamour
RPG podcast “The Dice are Screaming” did a review of “A Rough Guide to Glamour“. We’re pretty sure there wasn’t any live performance of “Pelorian Rhapsody” in there, unlike on our own podcast, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t just as interesting and entertaining.
New research on the origins of human population in the Americas
The evidence is a bit strenuous, and therefore still hotly debated, but some new discoveries in Mexico could indicate that humans have been living on the American continent for a lot longer than previously thought. This date has been steadily pushed back since the Clovis culture theory of the 1950s, but we are now possibly looking at as far back as 33,000 years ago.
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