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!”
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!
