Jonstown Jottings #100: City on the Edge of Forever

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.

—oOo—

What is it?

The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is a sourcebook and first part of a campaign for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters come to the city of Pavis and attempt to make a life and reputation for themselves.

It is the first part of The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut campaign.

It is an update of a campaign previously available in the nineties and includes commentary from the author on both the original and current version of the campaign.

It is a full colour, two-hundred-and-twenty-four-page, 105.55 MB PDF.

It is a full colour, two-hundred-and-twenty-page hardback.

The layout is clean and tidy, though a little tight in places, and it is decently illustrated.

The cartography is decent for the most part.

Where is it set?

The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever takes place in the city of Pavis and its surrounds (but not the Big Rubble).

It is set in ST 1619.

Who do you play?
The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever suggests and even provides a wide range of character types. What it mandates is that the Player Characters are all new to the city of Pavis.

What do you need?
The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary, and the Red Book of Magic. It also requires The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 02: New Pavis: The City that Time Forgot, Pavis: Threshold to Danger, and Big Rubble: The Deadly City.

In addition, Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers, Cults of RuneQuest: The Earth Goddesses, Cults of RuneQuest: The Gods of Fire and Sky, and Cults of RuneQuest: The Lunar Way will all be useful. Sun County: RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun may also be useful.

What do you get?

The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is the archetypal release made available on the Jonstown Compendium. It is written by fans for fans. It is messy. It requires a high number of other sourcebooks to fully work. It requires a high degree of knowledge about Glorantha. It contains a lot of information that is extraneous. It is overwritten. It is incomplete. It is set outside the current time frame for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Of course, this will not be a problem if the Game Master has access to all of the supporting material that she needs to set up and run the campaign, but if not, this is a campaign that the Game Master might want to wait to run or perhaps play it before she does so. Nevertheless, there is the start of an interesting campaign here which is designed for beginning characters and to some extent beginning players. However, whether the players are new to Glorantha or not, an experienced Game Master is needed.

The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is the reconstruction of old campaign content created in the nineties that was influenced by conversations with the late Greg Stafford. It does rely upon the Game Master having access to both Pavis: Threshold to Danger, and Big Rubble: Threshold to Danger, as the author did when he first ran it. He puts this in context a historical backdrop to the campaign, both in game and out, the in-game backdrop providing a history of the original Pavis City, its destruction, the founding of New Pavis, and the invasion of the Lunar Empire. This is supported by an introduction to the city, overviews of the region, a discussion of its local languages, and then... Well, then it takes hard turn into a lot of background about Pavis in ST 1619 that is potentially going to confuse the reader and leave him wondering what he has got himself into.

The problem is that The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever really opens with a lot of background material that is useful, just not necessarily useful in this first part of the campaign, and content that the players and their characters are very unlikely to interact with starting out. This includes the full details of the New Pavis Knowledge Temple—run jointly by the cults of Lhankor Mhy and Irrippi Ontor—and their various subcults and factions; full details of the Lunar military presence in and around Pavis and their regimental magic and spirits; a history of Pavis, the founder of old Pavis and his cult, as well as the Flintnail the Dwarf Father subcult of the Pavis cult; details of Old Pavic magic and alternative means of a Praxian shaman gaining his magic as well as the Raven as a Praxian spirit cult; the Flintnail Dwarves in Pavis; the Cult of Donandar as full cult rather than a subcult; and details of the the criminal underworld in Pavis. The latter very much expands upon the information given in Pavis: Threshold to Danger, suggesting new criminal occupations such as the Confidence Merchant, Pick-Pocket, Roofer, Strong-Arm Specialist, and even Assassin! Plus, it details various gangs in the city, including details of The Hidden One, a Lanbril subcult worshipped by the Hole Lords Gang. In addition to the various gangs, Jorjar’s Trollkin Nightwatch, almost as criminal as the gangs and all of its members open to bribes, is detailed. There is a section on the general knowledge that any local will have of the Big Rubble and a gazetteer of Pavis County, plus full stats for the numerous NPCs to accompany the descriptions of the various factions and organisations. This includes the notable members of the Knowledge Temple, soldiery of the Lunar regiments present in the city, the auxiliaries and mercenaries found outside the city in Pavis County, the members of the criminal gangs, and Jorjar’s Trollkin Nightwatch.

It is a lot to take in, and none of the information is actually bad or uninteresting. Rather, it is not easy to tell what is relevant and what is not. Or rather, what is relevant right now and what is not. There is a lot here that the Player Characters are more likely to interact with later in the campaign, including the Knowledge Temple, the Cult of Pavis and the Flintnail Dwarves, and the Cult of Donandar. Initially, it is possible to play a character who worships Lhankor Mhy and wants to join one of the subcults or an entertainer who wants to join the Cult of Donandar—and this is seen in some of the pre-generated Player Characters that the campaign provides. Later in the campaign it will a different matter, as it will be very likely that the Player Characters will have interacted with these various groups and factions and learned more about them. To that end, the campaign makes two suggestions. One is that if Player Character dies, then his replacement can have stronger ties to or even be a native and a member of one of these cults, whilst the other is that each player create a second character who is native to Pavis and be member of one of these cults. Again though, this is for later in the campaign.

The second half of the book focuses on the campaign and its set-up. It is thus more direct and there are elements during the set-up and in the opening stages of the campaign that make use of the content previously presented and so begin to provide some much-needed context. In terms of character creation, beyond requiring that they be new to Pavis, The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever does actually suggest a lot of options. Suggestions in terms of Race include Baboons, Crested Dragonewts, Ducks, Dark Trolls, Dwarves, Elves, Morokanth, Newtlings, and more. The creation process is streamlined, there not being available the family history tables for this period as there are for ST 1625 in RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and to this it adds two new skills, Streetwise and Pavic Philosophy, both of which will factor in the campaign. Included here too, are the game details of the local Lhankor Mhy subcults discussed earlier—Cobrin the Reseracher and Marlogh the Investigator,* plus Mercario the Street Entertainer, a subcult of Pavis and Donandar, and Thandros the Trader, a subcult of Pavis and Issaries. This is followed by information about the Zola Fel Riverfolk and their Cult of Zola Fel, the Aldryami of Old Pavis out in the Big Rubble, the Yelmalions of Pavis and Sun County, their associated cults, and if the Game Master and her players wants to cut to the chase, six pre-generated Player Characters. These are very nicely detailed and ready to play as well as offering a diverse range of characters.

* Yes, really.

The campaign proper begins with ‘New Faces in Town’. For whatever reason, the Player Characters have come to Pavis to start afresh and so they arrive with only the barest of knowledge of both the city and the Big Rubble it abuts, unsure of where to start and what to do. The campaign strongly recommends that the very last thing that the Player Characters do at this stage is run off and look for adventure or treasure in the Big Rubble, since their ignorance and lack of skill is likely to get them killed. So instead, the opening sequences all about the mundane steps of settling into a new place—finding food, looking for somewhere to live, and getting a job or two. Several infamous establishments are described here, including Gimpy’s Tavern, Geo’s Inn, and Rowdy Djo Lo’s, as possible places to eat and stay. Here the campaign is grounding the Player Characters in the city, beginning to make it their home, and backs this up with small encounters and small job opportunities that the Game Master will need to tailor to her players and their characters, giving them a slice of life in Pavis.

The first full scenario in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is ‘Ghost In The Darkness’. It is a classic set-up in that the newcomers to the city get got up in a fracas, picked upon by one of Pavis’ many criminal gangs, and find themselves under arrest by the city watch for a breach of the peace. Since they are new here, the judges are surprisingly lenient, sentencing the Player Characters to civic duties befitting their talents and temperament for at least one season. Which is why, with intervention of a priest of the Pavis Cult, they find themselves attached to Captain Draximedes, a Yelmalion officer posted to the city as part of the treaty with Sun County. Draximedes is a soldier through and through, but takes the Player Characters in hand and gives them time and money to prepare for their first assignment. This is to ride out into the contested eastern borderlands between Pavis County and the Sun Dome lands where independent settlers have their home in the rough, frontier country. Out towards Vulture Country some of the settlers have organised the building of a sturdier bridge over the White Rock River to facilitate both travel and trade, but there has been a series of deaths at construction site and the work crew have called for aid.

This is primarily a travelogue scenario in which they accompany Captain Draximedes out into the countryside and onto the frontier, interacting with fellow travellers, stopping off at various settlements, solving some of their problems, and so on. The last part of the scenario takes place at the bridge construction site where they can learn what has happened so far and perhaps begin their investigation, but what the Player Characters cannot do at this point is resolve the scenario. This is because the finale is actually contained in the next part of the campaign, The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 02: New Pavis: The City that Time Forgot. There is no denying that this is disappointing, because what it means is that there is no closure to The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever and that it is not a complete chapter. And arguably, there is content in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever which could have been saved for the next or a subsequent volume in the series and the resulting space been devoted to enabling the Game Master, her players, and their characters to complete the introductory chapter to the campaign.

The scenario, what there is of it, is a solid affair with opportunities for roleplaying and even some combat. Ultimately, what it is providing several sessions of tempering, both in game and out, as the characters learn to work together under the watchful eye of Captain Draximedes, the players learn about their characters and the rules, and both learn a bit more about the setting.

What this all means is that The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever presents the prospective Game Master with not so much problems, as impediments to play: the requirement for a large number of source books, the amount of setting material presented in the first half of the book, and the anti-climactic scenario. Some of these are less of an issue for some Game Masters than others, and get past at least the first two, and what Game Master has in her hands is a very enjoyable introduction to roleplaying in and around the city of Pavis, accompanied by advice and lots of options and help in creating Player Characters and getting them involved in the street life of Pavis. If the rest of the campaign is as decently done as the actual start in The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever, then the campaign will be worth investing in.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever is a good start to the campaign that will ultimately reward its high buy-in and investment.

No—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever requires too much of an investment and buy-in, falls too much under ‘Your Glorantha Will Vary’, and it is probably set too far away from where the Game Master’s own campaign is set.

Maybe—The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion – Director’s Cut: Vol. 01: New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever does not make its set-up easy to get to and really get going, but the Game Master willing to make the investment and who wants a campaign away from the roleplaying game’s current focus might want to take a look at it.

Jonstown Jottings #90: Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon

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.

—oOo—

What is it?

Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon is a supplement for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which details an insula or city block with the ruins of the Big Rubble in Prax. It includes a complete description of an atypical city block in the Old City and an example city block, the eponymous ‘Insula of the Waning Moon’, plus four scenarios.

It is a ninety-four page, full colour hardback.

The layout is tidy and it is decently illustrated and comes with extensive floorplans. The Greek style illustrations are nice touch.

The PDF includes floorplans which can be used with miniatures.

It needs an edit.

Where is it set?

Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon is set in the ruins of Big Rubble in Prax. It is set after the liberation of Pavis by Argrath.

Who do you play?
Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon does not require any specific character type.

What do you need?
Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary.

The Big Rubble: The Deadly City will also be useful.

It is a suitable addition to New Pavis: City on the Edge of Forever and the rest of The Pavis & Big Rubble Companion series with some adjustment.

What do you get?

Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon draws upon archaeological plans to present a type of building block found across the old city of Pavis and the Big Rubble, which can be found in various states of repair across the ruin. This is a large, square city block complete with businesses and residences. In the case of the Insula of the Waning Moon, these consist of food sellers, an oil seller, stables and a carter, and an inn, plus residences and a sunken garden. These are mapped out in some detail with a series of large, easy-to-read floor plans measured in one Mostal (or metre) squares.

The insulae were standard designs across the whole of Lord Pavis’ city and details the history and general features of the design, the history of their ownership and how that changed from being municipal to hereditary, and how the design changed as the city’s fortunes declined. Thus, they can be in various states of repair, from simple walls to fortified strongholds in various locations throughout the Big Rubble. This is a possible subject for expansion and a table of ideas as to what might be found in insulae across the various building phases their design would have been useful.

The supplement also address the change in attitudes to adventuring in the Big Rubble with the liberation of Pavis. Where the Lunar administration encouraged adventuring, now it is seen as looting the city’s cultural identity. There is also the push to clear and resettle parts of the Big Rubble. This presents other opportunities for work, though, and building materials from the insulae are still worth salvaging. In addition, a group of Player Characters could actually settle in the Big Rubble, finding an insula that they can occupy and fortify. This is not without its risks as their presence will attract the attention of predators—both human and non-human—from the surrounding area.

There are four adventures in Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon. The first two short, one-session affairs and both involve vermin and both involve the Player Characters simply walking past the insula. In ‘Thirsty Work, the Player Characters come to the aid of a family living the ruins which is using the well in the Insula of the Waning Moon as its source of water, but it has dried up. There is not much to reward the Player Characters if they help, except the gratitude of the family and the knowledge that they have rid the Big Rubble of one more Chaos beast. The second scenario, ‘Lucky Snake Ball’, begins when the Player Characters see snakes slithering across their path and into the insula. Inside they discover a ball of writhing, fighting snakes. Dealing with the odd phenomenon reveals a second problem, one very common to the Big Rubble. It should also expose the cause of the ‘snake ball’, which a rather neat little magical item.

The third scenario, ‘No Good Deed’, is the longest and most heavily plotted of the four, as well as the most traditional. The head of one of the Pavis Survivors clans employs the Player Characters to find his daughter who he thinks has run off to become a Lunar convert after she saw the good work that their missionaries were doing in the Big Rubble. Which is made all the more difficult because the Lunars have fled Pavis. The Player Characters will need to deal with some of the poorer inhabitants of Pavis that live in the ruins and who are very wary of strangers. Eventually, they can track her down to the Insula of the Waning Moon, where she is not living with Lunar missionaries, but has been captured by a gang looking to hold her to ransom. The gang is on the make, so seasoned adventurers will not find its members to be two much of threat, although they could get lucky, plus they have the benefit of being holed up in the insula. How the Player Characters deal with the problem is left up to them, obvious solutions such as paying the ransom or mounting a rescue are described in detail.

The fourth scenario is more of a set-up than an adventure. In ‘First Rule of Fight Club’, the Player Characters are hired to escort a party overnight out into the Big Rubble to a ruined insula. As the title suggests, a fight club is being run. Not though, with the Player Characters, but with slaves. How the Player Characters deal with this is left up to them, although a rescue attempt would be very dangerous. They could take the money or they could devise a solution, it all depends on how they feel about the moral dilemma presented to them.

All four scenarios take place in then Insula of the Waning Moon. This, though, is not all at the same time and the only factor linking the four scenarios is the city block itself. So, they do not form a campaign. Instead, the insula is somewhere that the Player Characters might pass again and again and nothing happen, but very occasionally it does or they have reason to go there. This makes Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon easy to drop into an ongoing campaign set in Pavis and the Big Rubble.

Where the scenarios could have been improved is in the presentation of the set-up and possible consequences. The set-up for each is written for the player’s benefit rather than the Game Master’s, so it does take a while for the Game Master to actually find out what is going on, and the consequences of the scenarios are also always fully explored, especially, in some cases, the consequences of the Player Characters doing nothing.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon is a solid addition to any campaign set in Pavis and the Big Rubble, with a building type that can be easily customised and four scenarios to slot in between the major plots of the campaign.

No—Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon is ideally suitable for campaigns with extensive urban and ruined areas, such as Pavis and the Big Rubble, and that is not where my campaign is set.

Maybe—Rubble Redux: Insula of the Waning Moon because the Lunars and the war against inflicted a lot of damage, so the insula could be relocated to any formerly Lunar-occupied town or city that has city blocks and its scenarios adapted to the new locations.

Jonstown Jottings #51: Grungnak Fearless

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Grungnak Fearless presents an NPC and his entourage, and trinkets for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

It is a twenty-eight page, full colour, 1.83 MB PDF.

The layout is clean and tidy, and its illustrations good. It does need an edit in places.

Where is it set?
Grungnak Fearless is nominally set in the Big Rubble where the NPC is feuding and scheming to be the fifth ‘Great Clan’ of Trolls or Uz, in the ruins of the city in an event known as the ‘Foreign Bully Feud’. With some adjustments, it could be set elsewhere, and suggestions are included as to where and how to include this NPC in those regions.

Who do you play?
No specific character types are required to encounter Grungnak Fearless. 

What do you need?
Grungnak Fearless requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the Glorantha Bestiary, and The Red Book of Magic. In addition, the RuneQuest Classic supplements, Pavis: Threshold to Danger, Big Rubble: The Deadly City, and Trollpak: Troll Facts, Secrets, and Adventures for RuneQuest will information which will be useful for using Grungnak Fearless in a Game Master’s campaign.

What do you get?

The second volume of ‘Monster of the Month’ presents not monsters in the sense of creatures and spirits and gods that was the feature of the first volume. Instead, it focuses upon Rune Masters, those who have achieved affinity with their Runes and gained great magics, mastered skills, and accrued allies—corporeal and spiritual. They are powerful, influential, and potentially important in the Hero Wars to come that herald the end of the age and beginning of another. They can be allies, they can be enemies, and whether ally or enemy, some of them can still be monsters.

The second volume comes to a close with Grungnak Fearless, a brutal Death Lord of Zorak Zoran, the God of Hate and Vengeance. From her beginnings as a bandit, she has arisen to be a true monster, reveling in murder and mayhem, selfishly pursuing the novel and the new as she schemes, but mostly bludgeons her way to the top. Having amassed a number of followers in her leaden grasp, she is hellbent on taking out her rivals—using any means necessary, but ultimately and preferably at the end of her great hammer, and then eating them. Both as revenge and to see what they taste like. Multiple suggestions are included on how to use Grungnak Fearless. This is as an ally or an enemy and includes a pair of scenarios, one for each option. Both scenario outlines are well written and will help the Game Master develop them further for her campaign.

Grungnak Fearless is herself given full stats and a write-up, including her powerful bound spirits, one of which is a fire elemental! Her darkness elemental is nasty enough, but her command of a fire elemental gives her an edge that is utterly hostile to the outlook of other Trolls. A nice touch is that this is not instant, but takes time and Grungnak Fearless’ Trolkin must carry the wood and kindling to set a bonfire of sufficient size ablaze to summon the fire elemental. She also possesses Stolen Fire, a Zorak Zorani cult artefact which is won by defeating a Rune Master of a Fire/Sky cult in a heroquest, and then drinking his blood. Stolen Fire grants great gifts for any Troll who bears it. 

Grungnak Fearless’ entourage is also fully detailed. This includes her ‘lover’, Bazzik Fineteeth, a Rune Priest of Argan Argar known for the unfaceted jewels embedded in his teeth; the mantis-obsessed Fenhield Mantis-Friend; and Waggul, Fenhield Mantis-Friend’s favouritist Mantis—because he is soooo cute. Stats are also provided for the general Zorak Zorani Warriors and Trollkin Slingers in the would be ‘Great Clan’. As with the other entries in the ‘Monster of the Month’, full stat sheets are provided for all of the NPCs in Grungnak Fearless.

Lastly, Grungnak Fearless details a short-form Rune cult of Gorakiki the Insect Mother in her aspect as Gorakiki-mantis, the subcult worshipped by the Kugurz Clan in the Big Rubble. For use by NPCs or Player Characters, this expands upon the Gorakiki cult with guidelines as to how intelligent manitises can initiate, what is expected of initiates, cult skills, Spirit and Rune magic, associated cults, and a pair of new Rune spells. These are Foreclaws and Transform Head (Mantis), and are as nasty as you would expect, in line with similar transformation Rune spells.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Grungnak Fearless presents a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters, or a particularly challenging ally to keep on side, especially if the Game Master is running a campaign set in Pavis and the Big Rubble.

No—Grungnak Fearless presents a potentially interesting ally or enemy, plus supporting cast, should the Game Master want to include a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters. However, if the Game Master’s campaign does not involve Trolls or is set in the Big Rubble, and she does not want to adjust the content, it is of relatively little use.

Maybe—Grungnak Fearless presents a monster of an enemy to face the Player Characters, or a particularly challenging ally to keep on side, but the Game Master may simply not want to involve the Trolls in her campaign, take her campaign to the Big Rubble, or necessarily make the adjustments to brings it content into her campaign.

Jonstown Jottings #39: Rivendell Maps

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Rivendell Maps is a publisher of maps drawn from RuneQuest Classic supplements.

Map of Apple Lane is a map of Apple Lane, the village in Dragon Pass as described in Apple Lane: Two Beginning Scenarios - Gringle’s Pawnshop & The Rainbow Mounds (Scenario Pack 2).

It is 4.99 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of Tin Inn is a map of the Tin Inn, the inn located in Apple Lane, the village in Dragon Pass as described in Apple Lane: Two Beginning Scenarios - Gringle’s Pawnshop & The Rainbow Mounds (Scenario Pack 2).

It is 499 KB, full colour PDF.

Map of Gringle’s Pawnshop is a map of Gringle’s Pawnshop, the trading house located in Apple Lane, the village in Dragon Pass as described in Apple Lane: Two Beginning Scenarios - Gringle’s Pawnshop & The Rainbow Mounds (Scenario Pack 2).

It is 4.82 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of The Rubble of Old Pavis is a map of a section of The Rubble, the ruins of Old Pavis, as described in the boxed set, Big Rubble.

It is 3.83 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of Zebra Fort in the Big Rubble is a map of a location in The Rubble, the ruins of Old Pavis, as described in the boxed set, Big Rubble.

It is 5.66 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of the Topside of Balastor’s Barracks is a map of a location in The Rubble, the ruins of Old Pavis, as described in the scenario, RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks.

It is 3.12 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of Balastor’s Barracks is a map of a location in The Rubble, the ruins of Old Pavis, as described in the scenario, RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks.

It is 4.93 MB, full colour PDF.

Map of The Sea Cave is a map of the location east of Corflu on the coast of Prax, as described in the scenario, RuneQuest Scenario Pack 2: SP8 The Sea Cave.

It is 288 KB, full colour PDF.

The majority of the eight are generally clear and easy to understand, mostly done in tones of brown and grey. The exceptions are the Map of the Topside of Balastor’s Barracks and the Map of Balastor’s Barracks, both of which suffer from a lack of detail and are not easy to understand.

Where is it set?
The Map of Apple Lane, the Map of Gringle’s Pawnshop, and the Map of Tin Inn are all set in Apple Lane in Sartar.

The Map of The Rubble of Old Pavis, the Map of Zebra Fort, the Map of the Topside of Balastor’s Barracks, and Map of Balastor’s Barracks are all set in the Big Rubble.

The Map of The Sea Cave is set east of Corflu on the coast of Prax.

Who do you play?
None of the maps have specific play requirements in terms of the Player Characters.

What do you need?
All of the maps from Rivendell Maps require RuneQuest: Classic Edition, but can also be used with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. All eight are designed to be imported into the virtual tabletop, Roll20. (Other virtual tabletops are available.)

The Map of Apple Lane, the Map of Gringle’s Pawnshop, and the Map of Tin Inn require Apple Lane: Two Beginning Scenarios - Gringle’s Pawnshop & The Rainbow Mounds (Scenario Pack 2).

The Map of The Rubble of Old Pavis and the Map of Zebra Fort require The Big Rubble.

The Map of the Topside of Balastor’s Barracks and the Map of Balastor’s Barracks require RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks.

The Map of The Sea Cave requires RuneQuest Scenario Pack 2: SP8 The Sea Cave.

What do you get?
One of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown is the rise in online gaming, such that in some parts of the world, this is the prevalent way in which many roleplayers now play, whether one-shots, regular games, and virtual conventions. So Virtual Tabletops have become platforms on which roleplayers game, their handling elements which would have physical form when playing at the table (pre-COVID)—dice rolling, handouts, miniatures, and maps, and more. In some cases, publishers work with Virtual Tabletops to make their scenarios available, but in others, the Game Master creates and imports her own content, the handouts, the maps, and so on. This is where the maps from Rivendell Maps are useful. Each one was designed to be imported into Roll20, one of the more popular Virtual Tabletops. This is their primary advantage.

There are eight maps available from Rivendell Maps. They are of locations detailed in titles explored in RuneQuest: Classic Edition, so not locations immediately associated with the more recent RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. This limits their usefulness, as does the fact that beyond the confines of their individual scenarios, they are unlikely to brought to the Virtual Tabletop again. Of the eight maps, the Map of The Rubble of Old Pavis, the Map of the Topside of Balastor’s Barracks, and the Map of Balastor’s Barracks are rough and indistinct, again impeding their utility. To be fair, the map of Balastor’s Barracks given in RuneQuest Scenario Pack 1: Balastor’s Barracks is plain anyway, but this map is not an improvement. Of the eight maps, the Map of the Sea Cave is the most pleasing, being clearly and simply drawn, makes good use of colour, and is free of clutter.

Is it worth your time?
Yes—The maps from Rivendell Maps vary in quality and are often a little too dark to read clearly. However, should the Game Master require a map in an emergency for her Virtual Tabletop game, they offer a solution at least.
No—The maps from Rivendell Maps vary in quality and are often a little too dark to read clearly. They are also an expensive option, when it may be simpler for the Game Master to draw and upload her own.

Maybe—The maps from Rivendell Maps vary in quality and are often a little too dark to read clearly. Serviceable at best, they are also an expensive option, when it may be simpler for the Game Master to draw and upload her own.

Jonstown Jottings #38: The Gifts of Prax

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
The Gifts of Prax is a short scenario set in Prax wherever Shamans may be found.

It is a sequel (or prequel) to Stone and Bone.

It is a forty page, full colour, 39.94 MB PDF with a three-page, full colour 10.99 MB handout.

The Gifts of Prax is well presented with decent artwork and clear maps. It needs a slight edit in places.

Where is it set?
The Gifts of Prax is set in Prax amongst the Straw Weaver Clan of the Bison tribe during the wet season. Notes are included to enable the Game Master to set it elsewhere.

Who do you play?
Praxians who are members of the Straw Weaver Clan. A shaman may be useful, as well as a mix of genders amongst the Player Characters. Notes are included to run the scenario using other character types, including non-Praxians.

What do you need?
The Gifts of Prax requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Access to the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary may be useful, but is not essential to play.

What do you get?
Erhehta, shaman of the Straw Weaver Clan has been attacked by a rival, Maserelt of the Impala Tribe—and he must have his revenge! This will take the form of an attack upon her in the spirit realm, using a bison herd. However, to do this, he requires several items and he requires that the Player Characters fetch them. These include a stone to sharpen horns, flood water from the Stealer’s River, Graro plant and sand mushrooms, and more. Each of these will enhance the shaman’s attack upon his rival and obtaining each of them is a mini-quest in itself. The Player Characters are presented with a Map Bag, which will not only serve to carry each item as it is collected, but as a set of directions to where each is located. However, the Map Bag is women’s magic and if there are no female Player Characters in the group, the male Player Characters will have to handle it with great care.

There are two parallel strands to The Gifts of Prax. One is following the Map Bag to each of the locations where the items that Erhehta needs can be found, the other is a series of encounters along the way, each of which may bestow upon the Player Characters a ‘gift of Prax’. These can help or hinder the Player Characters in their progress—having to look after a baby Condor for example will prove to be something of a challenge, for example, but by finding the items that the Straw Weaver Clan shaman wants and by bringing him the ‘Gifts of Prax’, the Player Characters will underpin and bolster his chances of success in taking his revenge from the Spirit World upon his rival. Both searching for the various items and especially receiving the ‘Gifts of Prax’ make good use of the Player Characters’ Runes and each of the encounters is accompanied by notes suggesting ways in which the Game Master can scale it up for more experienced Player Characters. Ultimately though, as much as Erhehta needs to take his revenge upon Maserelt, for both his standing and that of the Straw Weaver Clan, the Player Characters will be faced with a dilemma—just how far should this revenge go? This brings in a degree of morality that the Player Characters will need to address, one which nicely counterpoints the physicality of the quests they undertook to set up the revenge attempt.

The Gifts of Prax also includes a colouring-in sheet for the pleasure of the players.

Is it worth your time?
Yes—The Gifts of Prax is a well written, entertaining, and challenging scenario if you are running a campaign set amongst the Tribes of Prax. Especially if the Player Characters include a shaman amongst their number.
No—The Gifts of Prax is set in Prax, and if your campaign is not set in Prax, then the scenario is harder to use, especially as the time of year and the environment plays a strong role.

Maybe—The Gifts of Prax is potentially flexible enough to be set elsewhere away from Prax, but the Game Master will develop much of the geography and details herself to successfully adapt the scenario.

Jonstown Jottings #9: Stone and Bone

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.

—oOo—

What is it?
Stone and Bone is a short scenario set in Dragon Pass wherever Shamans may be found.

It is a twenty-four page, full colour, 20.30 MB PDF with a one-page, full colour 2.79 MB addendum.

Stone and Bone is well presented with decent artwork and clear maps. It needs a slight edit in places.
Where is it set?
Stone and Bone is set in Prax amongst the Straw Weaver Clan of the Bison tribe during the dry season. Notes are included to enable the Game Master to set it elsewhere.

Who do you play?
Praxians who are members of the Straw Weaver Clan. A shaman and at least one Storm Bull worshipper will be useful. Notes are included to run the scenario using other character types, including non-Praxians.

What do you need?
Stone and Bone requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. Access to the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary may be useful for information about Scorpion Men, but is not essential to play.

What do you get?
Stone and Bone is a scenario with a strong focus on survival, stealth, and combat. It takes the form of a guard mission to accompany the clan’s shaman, Erhehta, on a journey to a ritual place in the No Salt There hills. The crotchety old sod will not reveal the exact reasons for the journey, nor will he prove to be particularly quiet—he is festooned with bones, and they rattle—or helpful. If necessary, the reasons will be revealed and if the player characters seem reluctant, there is room for negotiation in terms of reward.

The journey itself will be challenging and the player characters will need the Survival skill and hunting-related skills as it does take place during the height of the dry season, so there is little water to be found or food to be foraged. The likelihood is that this will place them at a disadvantage when they find something blocking their path—an old mining village cut literally into the rock of a ravine which has been occupied by a brood of Scorpion Men. One option would be to sneak their way through the village, but the player characters will have to do this on the way to the ritual site and on the way back… If they fail, a fight or a chase scene may ensure, but anyway, who wants a nest of Chaos on their doorstep?

The Scorpion Men-occupied village is the key action scene for Stone and Bone and so is described in some detail and accorded a nicely done map. There is solid advice for the Game Master on running encounters both in and out of the abandoned village, enabling her to scale them according to the danger encountered by the player characters so far. Along with a full write-up for Erhehta—an experienced NPC, Stone and Bone includes stats for some bothersome NPCs, the scenario’s antagonist, and some scuttling monsters.

The extra PDF lists adaptations to RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha of Bagog Rune spells taken from the RuneQuest Classic supplement, Cults of Terror. These are spells used by the protagonist in Stone and Blood.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Stone and Bone is a well written, useful, and challenging scenario if you are running a campaign set amongst the Tribes of Prax. Especially if the player characters include a shaman amongst their number.
No. If your campaign is not set in Prax, then Stone and Bone is harder to use, especially as the time of year and the environment plays a strong role.
Maybe. Stone and Bone is flexible enough to be set elsewhere away from Prax, and there is advice and suggestions to help the Game Master adapt the scenario to her campaign, although she will have to provide the specifics.

Jonstown Jottings #8: Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters

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.

—oOo—

What is it?Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is a collection of fifteen NPCs and almost eighty members of the supporting cast and scenario hooks.

It is a thirty-nine page, full colour, 5.97 MB PDF.

Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is well presented and reasonably well written, but needs a thorough edit from start to finish. The illustrations are decent, being photographs reworked by the author.

Where is it set?
The content of Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is set in Pavis and civilised Prax, specifically in the years 1625, 1626, and 1627 after Prince Argrath White Bull has defeated  Lunar forces at the Second Battle of Moonbroth and liberated the city and drove out it Lunar occupiers—mostly at the point of a sword.Who do you play?The supplement primarily consists of NPCs, though some NPCs can be used as player characters.

What do you need?
Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and a whole lot more. Being set in New Pavis and its environs, to get the full benefit of this supplement, the Game Master will require access to various supplements including Cults of Prax, Pavis, Big Rubble, and Borderlands for RuneQuest II or River of Cradles, Sun County, and Shadows on the Borderlands for RuneQuest III.

Note that this is at the time of publication of Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters and will change when a new supplement dedicated to Pavis and the Big Rubble is published. 

What do you get?
Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is a collection of fifteen NPCs, each of which is accompanied by five or six associates and contacts—their supporting cast and five or six encounter and plot hooks. Every NPC includes a half to full page description and background, full stats for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, an illustration, and the aforementioned supporting cast, encounters, and hooks.

Many of the characters in Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters are connected to each other, either directly as friends or family, or through the members of the supporting cast they have in common. Yet what really connects this diverse range of characters in the supplement is that they have all been affected by the bloody expulsion of the Lunar occupation. In this the supplement draws its inspiration from the Wild West following the American Civil War, as well as the cinema that it inspired. That said, the nastiness and antipathy expressed by and towards some of the NPCs in this supplement echoes that of occupied Europe following its liberation at the end of World War II.

One further limiting factor to the supplement is not the setting itself, but the nature of that setting. Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is predominately a city supplement and there few cities in Glorantha which are large enough and urbanised enough to support this range of characters and their elements. Nevertheless, if the Game Master has such access to such a setting or is using New Pavis, this supplement is a ready-made cast into which the Game Master can draw her player characters, involve them in each other’s plans and objectives, and so help build towards an ongoing campaign.

Is it worth your time?
Yes. Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is a solid set of inventive NPCs, a good mix of contacts, friends, foes, employers, and more. Particularly useful for the Game Master running a campaign set in New Pavis.
No. If the Game Master is not running a campaign set in New Pavis—or planning to take her campaign to New Pavis, Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters is not a useful supplement.
Maybe. Even if the Game Master is not running a campaign in New Pavis, the content of Rubble Runners - A collection of Pavis Characters may still be of interest. Some of the characters contained in its pages can be used as player characters, pulled out and used in other settings, or simply used as inspiration for NPCs of the Game Master’s own design.