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.
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.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
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?)
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
Available in hardcover and Leather. PDF included.
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.”
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
Three Great Gloranthan Treasures!
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!
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.
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?
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!”
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.
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.
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!
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!
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:
In this fifth episode of Wind Words, we come back to Sartar to look at every Heortling’s favourite past time: cattle raiding. Why do they like cattle so much around here that they need to go and steal them from their neighbours on a regular basis?
But first, we look at this month’s Gloranthan news.
Herald’s Podium
(located at 41 seconds)
Gen Con Online
(located at 1:o8 minutes)
Bill has registered for Gen Con Online: https://www.gencon.com Look for him and his mic at the con. His user name will be Bill of the Wind Words Tribe!
The grandpappy of them all. Gen Con falls to the rampaging Covid-19 virus but, like the phoenix consumed in the flame—emerges alive! This time online! Events will be announced on July 6 and registration begins on the 13th.
Errata: In our recording we gave incorrect information. Events will be announced on July 6 and registration begins on the 13th as is noted above. Mea Culpa!
Jeff Richard AMA
(located at 1:44 minutes)
The boys look at a Jeff Richard’s interview that happened when a bunch of German fans took over a Schloss as “socially distancing individuals” instead of a conventioneers and in lieu of the non-existing con’s usual “Ask-Me-Anything” panel by Jeff, they recorded this. Many highlights, rumours and easter eggs are discussed.
We discuss this HeroQuest/QuestWorld book that starts players off as children of the Dundaelos tribe. The book is from Shawn and Peggy Carpenter, a.k.a. Troupe Games.
More information is available on Troupe Game’s blog:
This is the final instalment of the three part series which finshes up at the Battle of Queens. We find ourselves astounded by Paul Baker, the author, and his rapidity in publishing—as we are with our next item’s author…
Austin’s at it again with MotM #6! Ludo introduces this months monster as the most dangerous of them all!. From the BRP forums to you… at the speed of sound!
…also by Austin Conrad who is joined by Shawn Carpenter, Gil Cruz, Simon Phipp, and Jerry Thorpe (and Ludo!). This work starts a new series filled with storyful items to tempt—with an eye to the old RuneQuest Classic “Plunder” as inspiration!
By John Wick (yay!) The adventurers encounter a Blue Moon Assassin from the Lunar Empire. What is she doing out here in Dragon Pass? And what is she running from? Will prejudices and superstitions overcome empathy and curiosity? It’s up to your players (and their moral compass) to decide.
James Chambers, aka “JamesCORPTV” is a video streamer who does RPG-related videos and, mostly, actual plays. He has recently organized games of RuneQuest Glorantha (“The Broken Tower”) and 13th Age Glorantha (“The Beard of Lankhor Mhy”), which we rejoice about as we don’t see enough of that game around.
The live plays feature a few RPG personalities like Paul Mitchener, Bud, Pookie, and Seth Skorkowsky, but most importantly, Bill isn’t bored!
Main Topic
(located at 30:18 minutes)
Cú Chulainn in battle, from T. W. Rolleston, Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race, 1911; illustration by J. C. Leyendeckerw
The twin topics of Clan and Cattle in Sartar
(This is located at 30:18 minutes)
Clan
(This is located at 31:18 minutes)
What is a Sartarite Clan?
What binds them?
What separates them?
Cattle and clans
(This is located at 36:35 minutes)
What cattle do for one’s resources and self sufficiency.
Hillbillies? Cultured folk?
Cows provide that certain “je ne sais quoi”, a little Gloranthan Bronze Age flavour…
Cattle and myth
The Raid
(This is located at 43:25 minutes)
Cows and how to find them.
Cows and how to get them.
Beginning/Preparation of the Raid
(This is located at 47:12 minutes)
When does a raid actually begin?
Getting permission for a raid
Who does one raid? The answer might surprise.
Ramifications that later impact our raiders or defenders may be foreshadowed here.
Recon/Scouting (spiritual and mundane)
Tactics Leadership (politics again)
Charging over the hill (crazy but…)
Diversions
Politics, negotiations, borders, hospitality (boon or bane).
Military preparations: mundane and spiritual, arming, praying and sacrifices.
The realities of limited resources is introduced, as is the wyter.
The role (or necessity) of a hired expert.
Use all these some or all of these ideas to have several excellent challenging and fun games before combat even begins (so that’s what all those other skills are for)!
Splat Note Jörg mentions a name I was unfamiliar with in conjunction with charging over the hill, Read the entry about the character and his actions that created the meme in honour of Leroy Jenkins @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeroy_Jenkins
Execution of the Raid
(This is located at 1:06:37 hours)
The moment ya blood thirsty barbarians have been waiting for…
Raiders: Overt? Covert? Distractions, magical or mundane?
Defenders: Observing invaders magically or mundane
Hospitality rears its ugly head again.
How much magic should be used in defence and attack? Resources vs needs vs wants.
When to use this magic (and what does filibustering have to do with magic?).
To use aggressive/lethal magic or not?
More complications
(This is located at 1:14:48 hours)
No plan survives contact with the enemy
…and yet, more story seeds are provided!
Aftermath
(This is located at 1:19:08 hours)
Division of spoils {See the beginning of the raid for decisions already made that were said to have possible ramifications).
No spoils—things go south, now what?
Is this bad or can it be negotiated? (more game nights that leave the need for combat behind).
So are we now at the end of this raid or the beginning of the next raid
What to do with the cattle (why don’t the villains win once in a while and get the cattle home?) (“It’s what Orlanth did…”)
Cue the poets and skalds to tell the heroic tales…
Conclusions
(this is located at 1:28:43)
You want more notes, nah. You got the time listed above. Anymore would be telling. Go and give it a listen for our final thoughts on the matter.
(Psst… although I could sell you a copy of Cole’s Notes to this episode in a sealed mylar package with the sealed and signed copy of our podcast to boot… Mint condition, perfect for collecting!)
A joke
(this is located at 1:37:02)
A teaser and special announcement not to be missed. This special announcement is located about 2 and a half minutes after the joke begins (for those with enquiring minds)…
As our team of intrepid explorers enters the capital of the Lunar Empire, we are joined by a team of professional historians..
Sit back, get a snack and something to drink, this may take a while.
First a short word about our tribe: at the time of publication, there have been more than 1111 downloads of the first three episodes in total. (That’s 1111 in decimal.)
The Herald’s Podium
As Corona Virus remains looming over us, we have to report more cancellations of conventions. This time it affects the two biggest ones of the year:
A supplement for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. As always, buying the PDF from Chaosium gives you a discount when buying the printer version later (although only from Chaosium too).
John Wick’s personal blog on his first foray into Glorantha as a designer
Last Faction Hero, a board game by Gianni Vacca
A print and play Gloranthan board game, playable in ~45min. (The funding action has run out on Monday, 31st of may, after which the item was hidden on itch.io)
A first look at the crowd-funded French edition of RuneQuest:
Main Topic: A Guided Visit of Glamour
As a premiere, we welcome guests to our podcast, the team of authors behind the Rough Guide to Glamour, all long time RuneQuest veterans who met studying history at Oxford university:
Nick Brooke; long time contributor to Tales of the Reaching Moon, host of etyries.com, an award winning Glorantha website, co-author of the freeforms How the West was One and Life of Moonson, and co-author and publisher of both the original and the new, revised and expanded Rough Guide to Glamour
Mike Hagen: contributor to Tales of the Reaching Moon, co-author of the Rough Guide to Glamour
Chris Gidlow: designer of Credo, the game of dueling dogmas, author of Tarsh War, a mini-freeform published by Reaching Moon Megacorp, co-author of Life of Moonson and the Rough Guide to Glamour
After a warm-up exercise ducking rapid-fire questions, our guests relate a tale of how their bestselling publication came to be, with lots of behind-the scenes information.
How does the Lunar Empire work, and how does it fail to work? Chris talks about making the Cult of Yelm work as the cult of the Red Emperor, Nick explains the interaction between the Lunar Empire and the Lunar Way, and Mike mentions the cycles and the weakness of the Empire.
The city of Glamour does get a closer look – the movers and shakers, the cosmopolitan milieu, real world influences on the design, how a joint visit to Rome by our guests shaped their exploration of the imperial city, how the Junta boardgame influenced the design process, the shape of the Moon Rune as the dominant pattern of the city
We learn about the origin of the Life of Moonson freeform, from its origins as a mini-freeform “The Hunt for Red Storm Season” which was then expanded to a 50-person freeform.
There is a collection of the Life of Moonson characters on Nick’s Website – check them out. Mike, Nick and Chris expand on their favourites.
Ludo asks about the humour in Glorantha, and then we get to the influence of pop music to Glorantha, and especially Pelorian Rhapsody. After some evasion wherein we discuss why the Red Emperor resembles Elvis rather than Freddy Mercury, Michael O’Brien’s inspiration, Mike Hagen suggests a cyclical change of his appearance due to massive intake of Moon Rock, and Chris on MOB’s Maximum Game Fun principle, we get a musical interlude:
The Red Army Choir performing the first lines of Pelorian Rhapsody. Roll for Sanity.
Bill asks about which module our guests wished they had written. Nick offers his admiration for MOB’s Sun County for RQ3, Chris gets poetic about Griffin Mountain, and Mike Hagen reminisces about his first contact with RuneQuest through the early White Dwarf article on Dealing with Demons.
Our investigative reporting goes on to ask “What is the most Gloranthan thing you have ate”. Mike submitted a dish called Corflu Surprise as a winner to the first Eat at Geo’s contest at Convulsion (3 tbs cream of coconut, 1 tin of tuna, and 1 tsp Sambal manis, plus perhaps some black pepper. Adjust quantity of coconut and spice to taste. Garnish with seaweed if desired.). Nick tells about Walktapus seeds, and Chris celebrated the publication of the new Rough Guide with a most Lunar dinner consisting of ostrich steak (a type of bird that has been extinct in Peloria for centuries and may be illusionary), maize and pink gin.
We have a few more rapid-fire questions, sowing some dissent among our guests. and we let our guests answer the questions we failed to ask them.
Nick gives an account of the experience of publishing on the Jonstown Compendium. We learn why The Tide is High to Call Her, the goddess Glamour bearing a stunning similarity to Debbie Harrie. Mike gives an account on the art acquisition for the Rough Guide. Chris answers why one would explore the Lunar Empire.
As we ceremonially eject our guests, getting information on the sales numbers and a hint at the next project we can expect from our guests, learning about the banned Seleric Verses and what really happened in Torang in 1220.
Credits:
The lovely image detail of Mucha Blondie Glamour is by Antonia Doncheva. View the full image on p.99 of the Rough Guide to Glamour!
The performance at 1:27:20 is a parody of Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen. Nick Brooke’s lyrics to Pelorian Rhapsody were inspired by Freddy Mercury’s original work. His group may have sung it better, but our version makes more sense as a Lunar hymn to the Seven Mothers and the Red Goddess.
Some publishers are shutting down their warehouses for physical products (Paizo quoted on EnWorld).
Chaosium’s distributing partners in the USA, UK, Australia, Poland and Canada are still handling direct sales of printed material (Chaosium Blog), and Chaosium is not laying off anyone for the time being.
Glorantha content (and other existing Chaosium lines) excempt, but Gloranthan material can be published in their Jonstown Compendium community content program.
Valley of Plenty – an upcoming HeroQuest scenario by Shawn and Penny Carpenter of Troupe Games, part one of the Jaldonkiller Saga set in the Dundealos tribe.
Ludo mentions the exclusive French language supplement on the Dundealos tribe for the French edition of RuneQuest Glorantha that was crowdfunded on GameOnTabletop.
Six Seasons in Sartar, a sourcebook and RQG campaign by Andrew Logan Montgomery, set in an obscure clan of the Colymar Tribe.
Print on Demand options are researched for RuneQuest Classic and other Chaosium products, including the Jonstown Compendium. Some of these products are already avaiable on Lulu.
Presumably the first splatbook in the history of roleplaying products,
Ludo mentions Shannon Appelcline’s Designers and Dragons, a four volume history of roleplaying written by a Chaosium insider, and kept up to date over on rpg.net.
Biturian’s Travels
First stop: Hender’s Ruins
A Baboon Daka Fal ceremony observed by Biturian, manifesting the spirit world or even God Time to the observer.
Second stop: The Block
Talking about Truestone, Gloranthan honey, troll caravans, sugar and Aldryami syrup.
Third stop; Day’s Rest
A bison wedding, parallels to Sacagawea from the Lewis&Clarke expedition, slave bracelets, bolgs (not clacks), detection magics and hiding from them.,
Conclusion: a praise for the narratives in the rules books and supplements: Rurik Runespear (RQ2 rules), Biturian Varosh (Cults of Prax), Paulis Longvale (Cults of Terror), non-Gloranthan Cormac the Pict (RQ3), Jaxarte Whyded (Sun County), Samastina (HeroQuest Glorantha) and Vasana (RQG).
Letters to Wind Words
Please send your questions or comments to tribe@windwords.com or post it on the Podcast of Wonder thread on BRP Central. Feel free to comment or share on social media, too.
If you send us a sound file, we will make use of that.
And mentioning our friends in Finland: Episode 3 of Dayzatarin Tähtien Alla is out.
Here’s our second episode of Wind Words, where we look at scenes in the Founders Market of Pavis. We hope our audio quality has improved somewhat, but we’re still learning and Bill has a terrible head cold which is why he sounds so bad.
Andrey Fetisov art used with kind permission of Chaosium Inc/Moon Design Publications for the background header of this blog post.
Introduction
We are not alone: there is a Finnish language podcast on Glorantha: Dayzatarin Tähtien Alla.
The Herald’s Podium
Our collection of news (up to date at the time of recording):
That rumour is totally unsubstantiated. For Jörg’s and Ludo’s eyes only:
Main Topic: Scenes
from the Founder’s Market of New Pavis
An experiment in setting up a scene for Game Masters, hopefully with ideas to build upon
Bill is setting the scene
A party out of the Rubble meets a pair of Grey Sages – Taking a rather ordinary piece of metal ornamentation found in the Rubble as a lead into more Rubble Running
Why you shouldn’t mess with trolls, they will mess with you. And does eating humans make you chaotic?
A beggar a bit out of place – the seedier side of the city. (Or maybe not.)
and of course we get into rambling with each, surprising each other with side issues – the very kind of side issues your average band of player characters will pick up and go haring off on in your sessions, too.
Letters to the Editor
A question from the audience – what materials do you need as a new player or a new GM in Glorantha?
The news dropped shortly after we recorded our first episode: Petersen Games announced late backing to be available for Glorantha: The Gods War. The game is hard to find outside of the second-hand market, since it has only seen a limited print run after its first Kickstarter. This second Kickstarter might be the only way to get it for a long time, as explained in this recent Kickstarter update.
If you missed even that second Kickstarter (which closed last month), you have one last chance to get in as a late backer on Pledge Master.
