Jonstown Jottings #61: Day’s Rest

Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition, th 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?
Day’s Rest is a supplement for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha which describes the first stop along the Caravan Alley, a trade route running from Sartar to the Eiritha Hills in eastern Prax, its inhabitants, and their daily lives.

It is a twenty-seven page, full colour 2.82 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy and the artwork excellent.

Notes are provided to enable the content to be used with QuestWorlds (HeroQuest).

Where is it set?

Day’s Rest is set at an oasis in Prax whose lake is sacred to Waha.

Who do you play?
As an oasis and trade stop, Day’s Rest is a location designed to be visited. So any character may do so, whether travelling from Sartar or from the nomadic Praxian tribes. The waters of the oasis are sacrosanct, so any tribe can visit, including the reviled Morokanths, to water their beasts. Waha worshippers will also visit the lake as its waters have received the blessing of Waha.

What do you need?
Day’s Rest requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha  and The Book of Red Magic.

What do you get?

Day’s Rest presents what is in effect a mini-sandbox (literally!) location, one of the many oasis along the trade route between from Sartar into Prax. It sits amidst the harsh chaparral of the plains, providing a respite where travellers can stop and rest, water their animals, and even trade. It was the first place that Waha stopped after he rescued the Protectresses of the Herds from the Devil and is one of the founding locations of Praxian culture, a small and pitiful remnant of the Garden that once covered the lands.

Notably it is also a possession, being under the control of one of the tribes of Prax, currently the Bison tribe since 1624. This extends to the oasis’ inhabitants, part the Oasis Folk of Prax, who farm the fields that the oasis irrigates and thus support their masters with the goods and foods that they cannot source elsewhere. No matter who holds Day’s Rest, the nomads look down on the Oasis Folk, considering them pitiful and insignificant, worthy only for exploitation by their betters—those that ride. The Oasis Folk have their culture which they practice quietly and in a subdued manner, including worship of Daka Fal. Where the nomad tribes do not accept outsiders amongst their numbers, the Oasis Folk do, accepting them and their children as slaves alongside themselves. This occurred in numbers during the recent uprisings against the Lunars in Sartar and Tarsh.

In addition to providing a decent description of the oasis, Day’s Rest details fourteen NPCs, including members of the Bison Tribe, loyally, but unhappily assigned to protect the oasis against raids from other tribes and to keep the peace, slaves of the Oasis Folk, and visitors, most of the latter being merchants. These are each given a full page of details and stats, and there is a sold cast of personalities given.

Rounding out Day’s Rest is a description of Oasis Folk and the means to create them as characters, whether Player Characters or NPCs. It notes that they do not make good Player Characters as they are limited in what they can and the lives they lead. The guidelines here are better as a means to create NPCs as occupants of oasis and trade stops in Prax.

As solid a description as Day’s Rest gives, there are two or three issues attached to. A minor issue is that the map of the oasis could have also been placed at the front of the supplement for ease of reference. A few story hooks would have not gone amiss either. There are a few written into the descriptions of the NPCs, but a few more to get the Player Characters more readily involved in the doings there would have been useful. The main problem with the supplement is that it does involve slavery. Now this is part of Glorantha as a setting and whilst the treatment of the Oasis Folk as slaves is not necessarily a poor one—in game or out, this does not mean that everyone is going to be comfortable with either its portrayal or even its inclusion in their game.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Day’s Rest is a useful addition for any campaign set in or passing through Prax, or involves Praxians or worshippers of Waha. 

No—Day’s Rest is specific to Prax and a Game Master’s may not be set there or may not want to enter an area of Glorantha where slavery is obvious.

Maybe—Day’s Rest is a useful addition for a campaign involving Prax or Waha worshippers, but it involves themes which not every player will be comfortable with.