Hello and welcome to the fourth instalment of Wind Whispers. If you’re reading this in a browser, remember that you can also receive this newsletter by email by subscribing here.

Chaosium News

The Dragon’s Eye is announced

Chaosium just announced that a new RuneQuest: Glorantha sourcebook is in development, and it’s called “The Dragon’s Eye”. This is notable for two reasons.

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.

Chaosium blog

It’s not totally clear how that will materialize in the book, but Jonathan tells us that the book is gearing up to be mostly system agnostic, and should have plenty of material even for those running Gloranthan games using HeroQuest or 13th Age.

Read the full announcement on Chaosium’s blog.

Episode 4 of the While Bull campaign

Episode 4 of Jeff Richard’s house campaign is up on Twitch! It should be up on YouTube soon, too, as usual.

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.

You can learn more about The Rolistes on their website.

Resources for online play

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.

Rumour Table

Loic Muzy’s allied spirit

Loic Muzy, who recently woke up to a Best Cover Art Ennie Award for Berlin: The Wicked City, seems to be hard at work on the upcoming big cults book for RuneQuest. Not only did we get a couple of glimpses of his work in progress on social media, we also got to meet his allied spirit and, probably, assistant.

QuestWorlds: Glorantha?

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!

The latest video in the series is Episode 14: Holding the Baby:

And if you want to read them in chronological order, instead of published order, the Timinits & Trolls blog has that all figured out for you!

The Complete Griselda tales are available in PDF from Chaosium.

Jason Durall on the GrognardFiles

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?

Greg Stafford’s plan B

Speaking of Conan, here’s an unexpected thing: when Greg Stafford founded The Chaosium in 1975 (it had a “The” back then!), his backup plan was a wood-carving studio. Only a few specimens of Greg’s wood work exist, but some lucky fan obtained this Hyborian-related art piece on eBay:

Taking a look at these Gloranthan coins

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.

Of course, Chaosium got a bunch themselves.

Trollpak Review

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!).

Trollpak is available in PDF directly from Chaosium.

Map of Dragon Pass

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.

You can listen to their episode over here.

RuneQuest Thursdays

The D-Infinity game network runs RuneQuest articles every Thursdays on their website. This week’s article is about Sir Ethilrhist’s Black Horse Company, while, for instance, a previous week focused on the ever lovable Tusk Riders. Most of these articles are from Clint Staples, and they cover a wide range of RuneQuest or Gloranthan topics… something else to read every week!

Meanwhile, on Earth

Baboons with knives and chainsaws!

These roaming bands of baboon bandits are out of control!

Another rebel naiad

It looks like we found another river spirit rebelling against Magasta’s orders to plug the hole in the centre of the world… look at her going upwards, apparently under the influence of Orlanth…

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.

The third instalment of this newsletter, and tardy Jörg’s first go at it.

Happening soon (or even right now)

As I am preparing this for publication, Gencon 2020 is happening online. All the games are full, but there is streaming of “stage events”, using the “Looking Glass” and other activities you’d usually do in person. There is discord to chat with other convention visitors, and more.

Chaosium News

Gloranthan Coins from Campaign Coins

Fresh “from GenCon”:

The people at Campaign Coins present:

“We are gearing up for #GenConOnline so here is our first new release: RuneQuest Coins, straight from the pages of Chaosium Inc’s The Guide to Glorantha. Find them at www.campaigncoins.com on Thursday 30th July 10 AM EDT, as soon as Gen Con Online begins. May Issaries bring you good fortune!”

Chaosium at PaxOnline

“PaxOnline is taking place from 12th-20th September. No, that’s not a typo. This is indeed a nine day long event! With content running 24 hours during those days. Or “24/9” as they call it over at PAX.

Our convention coordinator Todd is working with PAX on the program for pre-registered tables of RPG events. So it’s now time to start recruiting GMs!

At this stage, just email todd@chaosium.com with the following details:

Full name.

City/Timezone you live in.

Game system(s) you want to run – Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, 7th Sea, HeroQuest/Questworlds, Prince Valiant.

The online system(s) you prefer to use to run games, e.g. Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral, Zoom, etc.

Chaosium Unveiled: RuneQuest – Roleplaying in Glorantha

Here’s the latest Chaosium Unveiled video: take a look inside RuneQuest – Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Available from Chaosium (jncludes PDF) and DriveThruRPG.

“Greg Stafford’s supreme creation brought fully up to date with the presentation it deserves and tremendous added depth. A fitting memorial. STYLE – 5/5. SUBSTANCE – 5/5: Can it go higher than 5?”—Paul StJohn MacIntosh, RPGNet review.

“One of the most stunning RPG books ever made”—Games Vs Play.

Chaosium Staff on Orkenspalter TV

Four Chaosium staff members (Lynn Hardy, John Wick, Jeff Richard and Jason Durall, in the sequence of their introductions) met with the German role-playing channel Orkenspalter TV for a video-conference which went on lively for almost two hours, starting with the question “What makes a game a Chaosium Game?” The English language episode is available on youtube. I watched it live and thought it could have gone on longer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDse2s5c4K8

“Orkenspalter” translates as “Orc Cleaver”, btw. The channel has been around for many years, and has produced German language movies alongside with reports on various forms of the hobby. Maybe you have some German language skill that could use a little training?

Jonstown Compendium

Glorantha keeps rocking the Drivethru community content, with the first six entries all Jonstown Compendium items. The current 25% rebate on many of the JTC items may have something to do with that, but this is still quite the achievement.

I had started my writing with “No new items this week”, but being late proves me wrong.

Who would have thought that we would ever read that complaint “no new items this week” for RuneQuest or Glorantha publications? Many of us remember periods when seasons or entire years went by without anything new.

And then be proven wrong?

The Dregs of Clearwine

A RuneQuest Scenario by Beer with Teeth, to wit: Kristi Herbert, Erin McGuire, Diana Probst, Dom Twist

“Set in the tribal city of the Colymar, The Dregs of Clearwine is a sourcebook for Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, covering the mini slum that lies north of the Ram’s Head Inn. It features ten households, 25 fully explored NPCs with stats for RQG, and a host of minor characters. There are dozens of plot hooks and community events to help link characters to this area, and the people and even animals within. From potters to charcoal carriers, drunken ex-initiates to well fed butchers, the people who support Clearwine and the Earth Temple live, love, and die here. Some leave only to go to their vineyard work. Others vanish for months on end, and return with new scars.”

There is a print-on-demand option available.

Monster of the Month: Dolorous Edd

A sad creature that may be roaming Dragon Pass, by the indomitable Austin Conrad:

“Dolorous Edd is a new bestiary entry which describes an odd creature for use in your game of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—a giant beast ruled by inscrutable instincts. Included in this supplement are:

• A description of Dolorous Edd’s appearance, behavior, and abilities
• A collection of rumors and scenario seeds to help introduce him to your Glorantha
• How adventurers may establish a spirit cult honoring this creature
• Several folktales illustrating Dolorous Edd’s behavior, and what Gloranthans of the Dragon Pass region believe about him”

News from the French language RQG

The talented cartographer Thomas Rey is currently working with Deadcrows Studios on the French version of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. He has posted a teaser of “Vert-Cuivre” (the Ernaldori village of Greenbrass?)

and a work-in-progress of Swenstown, on Twitter:

And that’s it for now, unless this newsletter gets even more delayed. Terribly sorry about that!

Hello! Welcome to my first time taking our new “Newsletter’” out for a cruise and it’s also our second edition! Now to start, this issue will be similar to our premier issue but not quite the same, After all, Ludo and I might also be called similar but not quite the same. Even better, I expect Jörg’s 1st kick at Wind Whispers’ tyres (scheduled for next week) will also differ. Fantastic! Three opinions for the price as one—cheap and worth every single bolg! 

Fer a start, I am not sure this is a newsletter. I see it more as an ever changing series of weekly Hot Link’s pages embedded on our website—with the emphasis on HOT!  Although I can also see it as a form of “community newsletter.” You know, the kind that North Americans know and love! The kind that shows up in our mail boxes on a regular schedule with lots of ads, not the annoying kind, but the ones that are really meant to be of use to their chosen communities, sandwiched around and between a few articles of interest to that very same community (granted, we do not get paid to tell you of items of interest to our community nor are we asking to be, so these really aren’t your usual ads). Hmm, a cool email newsletter you said, Ludo?

We hope to surpass that lofty mark and whether we are cool or hot at the end of the day it’s just a point of view! We look forward to hearing your points of view. Write or send us your 2 Bolgs Worth in an audio file to tribe@godlearners.com.

Cheers
Bill

The Herald’s Podium
(in the Cloud)

Chaosium News

The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories
now in print

Time to head into the wild… a collection of ready-to-play scenarios for RuneQuest!

Well that is what the ad says. It’s for the new print copy of one of Chaosium’s early RQG PDF modules and one of their first forays into the lands just south of Sartar.

You can open to any random page and find proof that–yes Toto–you aren’t in Thedas, or Middle-earth, or Faerûn any more.”

Andrew Logan Montgomery, Exploring the Otherworlds of Fiction, Magic, and Gaming.

Now if you bought the PDF from Chaosium, you get the price of the PDF off the price of the hardcover! Check for a coupon in your email or ask for yours from customerservice@chaosium.com.

Heroquest Glorantha Sale

HEROQUEST GLORANTHA
Narrative gaming in Glorantha and a must have for a game of HeroQuest Glorantha.
260 page full color hardcover +PDF, was $39.95 now $14.99

THE COMING STORM
A great game supplement, written for HQ G but definitely much of it usable for RQ G. 
134 page full cooler hardcover + PDF, was $34.95 now $14.99

THE ELEVEN LIGHTS
“If The Coming Storm was the perfect sourcebook, The Eleven Lights is the perfect campaign”—RPG.Net. 
The RQ usability remains in this great conclusion to the HQ classic, the Red Cow Saga, but there will be a little work needed to be done by the GM to make it so.
180 page full color hardcover +PDF, was $34.95 now $14.99

No date is given for when this sale ends.

White Bull | Episode One on YouTube

Those disappointed in missing this live game with Jeff Richard GMing his intrepid band last week because it was restricted to customers of Twitch will be happy to know it is now available on Chaosium’s YouTube Channel for free. Did not have enough tine to fact check this next note before publishing but Ludo has said that episode 2 is now available on Twitch, and says it seems to be viewable by all. Give it a check..

Jonstown Compendium News

Glamour goes gold!

“They said it wasn’t possible, that would violate ancient compacts and disturb the fundamental balance of the universe. And as ever, we Lunars have proved those pitiful nay-sayers wrong.
As a special “Thank You!” to all our devoted subjects, every Illuminated buyer will find a couple of dozen extra pages – “directors’ cut bonus features” – added to their Library on DriveThruRPG.“ Hail Moonson! We are all Us!

“Now, what do we do for an encore…?”

Nick Brooke (who claims to be an Illuminated Master) was obviously chuffed to announce that “A Rough Guide to Glamour” is the first Gold Best Selling product on DrivethruRPG’s Jonstown Compendium.

Jonstown Compendium Best Sellers!

Want to know who to cadge a beer from when we finally get to return to our “in-real-life” conventions?
Chaosium’s Michael O’Brien lets us know the standings of the many Jonstown Compendium items in terms of their sales. For the scoop on who leads the pack, so click here to visit this page on the famed BRP Central for all the details.

Okay gang, skill testing question; who’s the first JC Gold Best Seller? No-prizes will be awarded!

Convention News

Gen Con Event Registration Is Open!

Gen Con Online will be hosting many great Chaosium events. Please note that some are already sold out. You’d better hurry and register for your favourites before it’s too late! More info can be found on Chaosium’s blog post @ Chaosium’s Blog Cloud!

Of course there is a rumour that there are other events at Gen Con Online besides Chaosium oriented ones, On the of chance this is true (neither Jörg are lending this much credence), can someone check it out and let us know. No-prizes might or might not be awarded.

Miscellaneous News

Christmas in July!

A cool sale on DriveThruRPG!

Many Chaosium and Jonstown Compendium  items are on sale at this cool event and there may even be items from other companies! Click on the link above and then search for your favourite Gloranthan Goodies.

The Rumour Table

Printers Proofs for The Pegasus Plateau!

Shaking the dice, (clatter clatter clatter) and roll (click, clack click)… 62%, consults table and reads… 

The printer’s proofs have arrived for The Pegasus Plateau – the presses will be rolling soon!

Order the PDF from Chaosium now, and you get the full price off the printed product when it’s out later this year (October).
T: I believe that we will have to award this rumour a T for true!

An Austin Conrad Rumour?

And with a flick of the wrist the dice rhythmically reveal an… 11%

Hmm, I smell a rat, or a leak at the very lest

To the tribe:

I’ve got some news for Wind Whispers! (or maybe a rumour?)

A print on demand edition of Treasures of Glorantha: Volume One — Dragon Pass will be available in the near future on the Jonstown Compendium. The files have been approved by Lightning Source (the printer), and a print proof has been ordered. This is a 64-page softcover book printed with Lightning Source’s “Premium Color” setting.

In the future, I plan to provide simultaneous PDF and POD releases to longer works from Akhelas.

Best
Austin

Okay, so Bernstein and Woodward we ain’t!
A: I believe we might just have to give this the other A, the rare one… A for Awesome… or Austin! Not sure how he will deal with MOB’s announcements just below, though. Sell more?

Notes from the
Green and Blue Marble

From Michael O’Brien Vice President for Chaosium

Please note that until further notice OneBookShelf, who run DriveThruRPG, has asked us (Chaosium) not to approve and pass on to them any further Print-On-Demand requests for community content. This is for operational reasons at their end.

You may not be aware, but the process to create each POD test print is time-consuming and sometimes problematic for OBS. For those reasons the practice was discontinued outright for the DM’s Guild. We are fortunate it is allowed on the Jonstown Compendium, but that is by their discretion. 

Chaosium has a very long-standing and successful partnership with OBS/DTRPG, which we are not going to take advantage of. Not every JC community title needs to be or should be available as POD. So, going forward, we have advised creators that only titles that have achieved Electrum seller status in PDF format (250 sales) shall be eligible for consideration for POD.

The Electrum threshold comes from us (Chaosium), not OBS. We have instituted this to help our community content programs stay in OBS’s good graces. We have to be mindful of how often we approve titles to get processed for POD publishing on DTRPG. They have a limited capacity to add POD titles on their site.

—Thanks Ludo! Good catch.

Digital Maps of the Ancient World

and another note from Ludo…

The reference website Digital Maps of the Ancient World (who mostly focuses on the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece) is going to hold a live Q&A session on July 30th with historian Greg Woolf for the release of his newest book “The Life and Death of Ancient Cities”. As such, people are encouraged to send their questions via Twitter, so they can be answered during the Q&A. There may be a lot of good stuff to learn during the Q&A that we can apply to Gloranthan games and stories!

time sensitive info above date to be noted is in bold

and now…
a trip to the BRP Central Fora

Starting with Notes from Ludo (part 3)

Kabaddi

“You can learn about Kabaddi, a sport that might originate from Bronze Age northern India (thanks to the keen eye of Sir_Godspeed). It’s definitely suitable as a past time in Dragon Pass… for more entertaining activities to put in your Gloranthan (or otherwise Bronze Age) games, our own Bill has a whole thread on the topic for you!”

Dragon Pass Pastimes

Thanks for the shoutout Ludo…(Bill)

Bronze Age Metallurgy

and now back to our weeks compiler—that rascally Bill!
… and its my turn shoutout one of our own…

Jörg has many interests and beer and metallurgy are but two of them He explores the latter in a series of links found in his topic on BRP Central @ the long-named topic: Iron, Steel and Swords – a very readable hyperscript for material science
Though the first link is devoted to steel, Jörg avers that it is useful to us bronze age devotees). 
Some of the works are “Nerd Core”, and they ain’t pretty but it is as advertised, very readable (and interesting as well)!

for convenience we’ll place some of the pertinent links below. Just click on the coloured words.

Native Copper: “Who used the first metal (copper or lead), when and where?”

Luristan: “The correct spelling for this region in Persian would be Lorestãn but I’ll stay with the popular Luristan. It qualifies as “sword place” because the remarkable iron…”

The Greek Age of Bronze: “In contrast to Anatolia and Near East, the earliest stages in the development of Mediterranean metallurgy appear only after about 5500 BC. During the late Neolithic of Aegean (ca. 5500-4500 BC) pins of copper turn up at Dikili Tash, Paradeissos, and Kitsos Cave, while two small daggers have been recovered from Aya Marina in Phocis. It was only during the following, Final Neolithic period (ca. 4500-3700 BC) however that Aegean metallurgy began to flourish…”

Oh and about that beer!

Sumerian Beer: The Origins of Brewing Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia

So, Salut, Auf Wiedersehen and Farewell

…and thank you for your kind attention! Stay tuned to your favourite Bat Channel at your favourite Bat Time for our next instalment of Wind Whispers. 

Cheers!

Here is our very first issue of Wind Whispers, our (hopefully) weekly Gloranthan news. You can register via RSS or via email to get these news delivered directly to your feed reader app or email inbox! Yes, email newsletters are cool again!

Chaosium News

The White Bull Campaign actual play has gone live on Twitch! This is a RuneQuest game GMed by Jeff Richard himself, and featuring a handful of other Chaosium players. Right now you have to be a subscriber on Twitch to view it, but it should be posted soon on Chaosium’s YouTube channel.

The printing proofs for The Pegasus Plateau have been approved, which means that this collection of adventures and settings for RuneQuest is going to print soon.

Finally, we were apparently so awesome with our Gloranthan podcast ramblings that Chaosium decided to join in the fun: they started their own podcast! Their first episode is an audio live play of “The Dead Within”, an upcoming Call of Cthulhu adventure, but they promise many other things in upcoming episodes such as developer interviews and news!

Sadly it seems to be only available on Spotify at the moment… we hope they will offer an RSS feed soon, along with adding themselves to the other popular podcast repositories.

Jonstown Compendium News

With the Jonstown Compendium releases routinely popping up in DriveThruRPG’s top community sales and even, sometimes, overall top sales, RPG news website ENWorld decided to take a look at it. You’ll spot many usual suspects taking a day off from the BRP Central forums to talk to the masses here!

New Releases

Secrets of Dorastor, written by Simon Phipp, provides everything you need to run a campaign in the Chaos-filled region of Dorastor, arguably the most dangerous place in Glorantha.

Speaking of Chaos, Dario Corallo continues producing Gloranthan themed “tokens” for use with Virtual Tabletops such as Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds. His newest creation is focused around Chaotic creatures, so I guess that could come in handy when your party gets stuck in Dorastor.

Volume 3 of Sandheart, subtitled Tradition, is the newest entry in Jonathan Webb’s Praxian police procedural campaign. This time Jon went all out on the art budget, and this book is significantly prettier than the previous ones (disclaimer: Ludovic did one illustration in this book).

The Rostakori Clan, by Paul Baker, extends on the clan already presented in The Red Deer Saga books.

Petty Spirits is the new entry in Austin Conrad’s Monster of the Month series. It describes four spirits one could encounter in around Dragon Pass, complete with a bestiary-type write-up and stat block.

Trinkets from Dragon Pass is a very short (two pages!) list of small items one can encounter in the central part of Genertela. What the title says, basically.

Heort’s Legacy collects additional questions to add the HeroQuest (now QuestWorld) clan questionnaire featured in Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. This allows players to make clans that vary from traditional Earth and Storm alignments.

Valley of Plenty is now available in Print-on-Demand! If you’re not a PDF-person, now is your chance to get this wonderful introduction to Glorantha and HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.

Rumours and Upcoming

Diana Probst, of Beer With Teeth, is teasing their next book on Twitter: The Dregs of Clearwine. She even did it twice!

Other Publications

The Black Gate, a long running online fantasy magazine, has an article about the excellent HeroQuest campaign books The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights.

Italian people, a version of the RuneQuest Quickstart is now available in your language:

Moving Pictures

Dethstrok9, who usually makes videos about Call of Cthulhu on his channel, recently fell into a RuneQuest-shaped hole and hasn’t quite come back out yet. He is in the middle of playing The Dragon of Thunder Hills, from the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. He posted part 3 of this live play this week.

Overheard At The Market

Ever wanted to know what Bronze Age cuisine tasted like? Bill Sutherland, over on twitter, has tried a Mesopotamian recipe from 1750 BCE, and written about this culinary experience!

This is a nice and quick read while we wait for the official Gloranthan Cookbook… and speaking of food, Newt Newport, from D101 Games, has edible Duck Runes with duck in them!

The recent launch of The Last of Us: Part 2 triggered a debate around the portrayal of “buff women” in video games. Jan Popisil, artist of Gloranthan video game Six Ages, shared his favourite relevant illustrations, such as these:

Find someone who loves you as much as how Babeester Gorites love severed hands!

And speaking of Six Ages, here’s a teaser from the next Six Ages game, “Lights Going Out” (can you guess what Gloranthan period it is set in?):

Ian from Fenris Games has shared several pictures of some cool Gloranthesque miniatures on Twitter… the pumpkin bear is especially cool! Here’s one of the pictures:

We would like to remind you that Ian is the guy who has some Rune tattoos on his right arm, in case you were doubting his dedication:

If you want more Gloranthan tattoos, there’s a thread on the RuneQuest Facebook group with a few awesome ones!

KlêiosCanvas is continuing to create very evocative Gloranthan art and is, apparently, available for commissions!

Meanwhile in the Real World

A vast Neolithic circle of “deep shafts” has been found around the Durrington Walls site, near Stonehenge. What kind of Dragonewt magic is this?!

Farewell

That’s it for this week! Did we miss anything? Contact us at tribe@godlearners.com and we’ll feature it in next week’s issue of Wind Whispers!