Jonstown Jottings #80: Desire for Knowledge

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but for material set in Greg Stafford’s mythic universe of Glorantha. It enables creators to sell their own original content for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, 13th Age Glorantha, and HeroQuest Glorantha (Questworlds). This can include original scenarios, background material, cults, mythology, details of NPCs and monsters, and so on, but none of this content should be considered to be ‘canon’, but rather fall under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’. This means that there is still scope for the authors to create interesting and useful content that others can bring to their Glorantha-set campaigns.

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What is it?

Desire for Knowledge is a scenario for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty-three page, full colour, 5.63 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy and artwork decent. The player handouts are functional rather than interesting. The floorplans are attractive, but could benefit from clearer labelling.

Where is it set?
Desire for knowledge is set in Jonstown.

Who do you play?

Desire for knowledge is designed to be used in conjunction with the Player Characters from the RuneQuest Starter Set. However, it easy to use other Player Characters as well. Useful Player Characters include Lhankor Mhy initiates, Shamans, and anyone skilled in Spirit Combat. The adventure would be interesting, if socially challenging for a Seven Mothers initiate. Having a Player Character who can read is a necessity.

What do you need?
Desire for knowledge requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest Starter Set. The Glorantha Bestiary and The Red Book of Magic will both prove to be useful.

What do you get?

Desire for knowledge is a short, investigative and exploration scenario set in Jonstown as described in the RuneQuest Starter Set. In fact, it is easy to run as part of the scenarios contained in the RuneQuest Starter Set. The Player Characters are hired by a Lhankor Mhy sage, Janast, to recover a scroll from the townhouse which during the city’s occupation was home to a minor Lunar official who had an interest in sorcery. Unfortunately, following the Dragonrise, the townhouse was burned and loot and the official killed. It is now ghost-infested and Janast wants someone better suited to exploring the house and recovering the scroll than himself.

Desire for knowledge initially looks like a mini-dungeon, the Player Characters required to explore the partially ruined, burnt out building. The floorplans are compact enough that they could placed on the table and the scenario run with miniatures (full-size floorplans would actually make a nice addition to scenario so that the Game Master could print them out and use them in this way), although unlike ‘Gringle’s Pawnshop’ from Apple Lane, there are no scenes of mass combat involved, and what combat there is, is more incorporeal than corporeal. The scenario benefits from methodical exploration and investigation, and Player Characters who take a bullish approach may miss some of the subtleties to the scenario. There is definitely much more to the scenario than at first sight and good roleplaying will elicit this from the various inhabits of the house—both incorporeal and corporeal. The best encounter is with a Trollkin hiding out from the hairy little demon found elsewhere in the townhouse, which turns out to be something quite benign and loveable instead!

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Desire for knowledge is an entertaining, but compact investigation-turned mystery that is easy to add to a campaign using the RuneQuest Starter Set or set in Jonstown which calls for good roleplaying as the Player Characters work its twists and turns.

No—Desire for knowledge is too location specific and its investigation-turned mystery may not suit groups who prefer a more action-orientated approach to solving situations.

Maybe—Desire for knowledge is location specific, but other cities have been occupied by the Lunars and it could easily be relocated to one of them.