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 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.
Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is a short supplement for for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is by the same author of GLORANTHA: Trinkets from Dragon Pass.
It is a five page, full colour, 3.28 MB PDF.
Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is reasonably presented, but it could have been better organised. It needs a slight edit.
Where is it set?
Dragon Pass.
Who do you play?
Adventurers of all types who could come across these rare items.
What do you need?
RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It can also be run using the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha – QuickStart Rules and Adventure.
What do you get?
Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is a description of seven figurines, or statuettes, which might be found in the world of Glorantha. In comparison to other treasure guides from the same author, it points out that they more common, since they are typically carved or sculpted to represent deities, powerful ancestors, and cult figures. Some of those described in the supplement are rarer than others and some are tied to more obscure deities, which lessens their usefulness in a campaign. They are crafted from a variety of materials—bone, clay, metal, stone, and wood—grant a magical effect that is either linked to a Rune or the purview of the creature or deity represented.
For example, Fast Legs is a rough carving of a horse’s hindlegs with a handle sacred to the cult of Mastakos, Orlanth’s charioteer, the God With No Home. It is dotted with tiny points that represent Mobility Runes. It must be held in the hand to be effective and increases the wielder’s Move score and Kick skill. Gelid Breath is a flat plate of bronze with the arms, mouth, and face of a man. Crafted by Orlanthi priests, if held to the mouth, the user can fire darts of ice through its mouth using his Blowgun skill. However, if character’s player rolls a critical failure of one hundred, it explodes and will inflict damage directly to the character’s head. Perhaps the rarest item is Korasting’s Bless, a dull, but heavy statute of a pregnant Troll female raising her hand to her face in blessing. If broken into pieces and eaten by a Troll female, her next birth will always be of a Troll rather than of Trollkin.
As with the other treasure supplements from the same author, the figurines in Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha vary in quality and usefulness, as well as development. More description of their histories and their legends would have been welcome, especially since they are meant to be rare. However, none of the entries are overly powerful and they feel more thought out and less rushed than in other supplements from the author, making it the best of the series so far.
Is it worth your time?
Yes—Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is an inexpensive way of adding more magic to give Player Characters or NPCs minor powers that will enhance their legends and the entries are some of the best yet.
No—Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is simply too expensive for what you get and the entries too underdeveloped in terms of the setting. Plus, the Game Master could create her own with a little bit of research which are just as good.
Maybe—Runequest: Figurines of Glorantha is expensive for what you get, but entries are far from being poor and the Game Master might want to add a little variety to the treasure found or perhaps take inspiration from the treasures presented here and either develop more of their legend or create new ones of her own.
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