Jonstown Jottings #92: Night at the Sunshine Inn

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?

Night at the Sunshine Inn is a scenario inspired by Night of the Living Dead for use with RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha in which the Player Characters are hired by an Issaries merchant to guard a shipment of ore being transported from Jonstown to Boldholme.

It is a possible sequel to the scenario, ‘A Rough Landing’, from the RuneQuest Starter Set.

It is a full colour, seventeen page, 3.66 MB PDF.

The layout is a bit tight and it is lightly illustrated.

The cartography is excellent.

It needs an edit.

Where is it set?

Night at the Sunshine Inn begins in Jonstown, but will take the Player Characters east to the Old Tarsh Road and from there to a stop at the Sunshine Inn overnight, before (supposedly) travelling onto Boldholme.

It is set after Scared Time, 1625.

Who do you play?
Night at the Sunshine Inn does not require any specific character type, but Player Characters who are capable warriors are highly recommended.

What do you need?
Night at the Sunshine Inn requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack, and the RuneQuest: Glorantha Bestiary.

What do you get?

Night at the Sunshine Inn sets up a tale of revenge as the Player Characters find themselves at an inn which is suddenly attacked in the night. their initial challenge will be in properly arming themselves and donning their armour as the Chaos of the attack plays out around them. The Player Characters will need to hold off three waves of attacks from a band of Scorpionmen and their allies over the course of the night. Effectively, this is ‘tower defence’ style scenario, though much like the Zombies mode for the Call of Duty computer games, the Player Characters have access to timber, nails, and a hammer so that they can board up broken doors and windows between attacks. It echoes the classic ‘Gringle’s Pawnshop’ from Apple Lane.

By the time morning comes, the fact that their employer never turns up—he was supposed to join them at then Sunshine Inn—and the person he wanted them to meet at the inn is not there, should suggest to the players and their characters that something very odd is going on here. The likelihood is that the Player Characters are going to want to ask him some questions. He is a rather shifty-looking character, so that may tip the players and their characters off to the fact that he is up to no good.

Night at the Sunshine Inn is a simple scenario, primarily combat focused, though there is opportunity for roleplaying and interaction with the other customers at the Sunshine Inn. The Game Master may want to reduce the Reputation reward as it is a little high and since its climax is the defence of a single location, actually run it as a battle with miniatures to keep track of everything as there are a lot of combatants. One aspect not explored is what happens to the Sunshine Inn afterwards and what effect the attack has upon the fortunes of the Goodhaven clan that own it.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Night at the Sunshine Inn is a quick and dirty scenario that provides a single session of action and combat that can be easily inserted into a campaign or run as a side mission when a player or two cannot make it.

No—Night at the Sunshine Inn is simplistic and combat-focused and the antagonist may be too shifty for the players to trust him, let alone their characters. Plus, the Game Master may not yet have run the scenarios from the RuneQuest Starter Set.

Maybe—Night at the Sunshine Inn is easy to run and add to a campaign, and may serve as a change of tone and pace between more interesting and sophisticated adventures.