Jonstown Jottings #105: Applefest

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?
Applefest is scenario for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is intended to be used after the events in and around Apple Lane as detailed in the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack.

It is a thirty-three page, full colour, 1.410 MB PDF.

The layout is tidy, but there are no illustrations and the text does need an edit in places. The single map is decent.

Where is it set?
Applefest is set in Apple Lane and takes place early in Fire Season over the course of Harmony week in the run up to the Ulerian holy week.

Who do you play?

Applefest is designed to be used with any Player Characters, ideally ones who have played through the events of the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. It is assumed that by the end of that, one of the Player Characters will have been appointed the Thane of Apple Lane, although the scenario accounts for the possibility that this has not happened or has not yet happened.

What do you need?

Applefest requires RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. The Glorantha Bestiary and The Red Book of Magic may be useful.

What do you get?
In the wake of the Dragonrise and the Lunar Empire being forced out of Sartar, there has been an understandable resurgence in Orlanthi religious practices and the village of Apple Lane is no exception. Every Fire Season for decades before the Lunar occupation, the community would hold a three day festival which celebrated its most well-known crop in conjunction with the village’s renowned temple to Uleria. It was, until the Lunars invaded, a quiet local affair, but this year it will be different. It will take on a greater significance than ever before as omens speak of ill winds flowing south still from the Lunar Empire, the Storms gods intimate that the old practices be taken up again, and guests from far and wide, including the great and good, and the unknown and the malicious. It will be up to the Player Characters to help marshal events, keep the peace, guide several children on their first ‘hero quest’, help save the day, and ultimately make sure everyone has a good time.

Playing out over the course of three days and nights, Applefest is a busy affair that brings a classic festival scenario to Glorantha and Apple Lane in particular. What would have been an ordinary affair quickly balloons in size as unexpected guests arrive, including a band of Telmori, an Earth Priestess from Kero Fin and her entourage, and Queen Leika and her entourage! In addition, there are traders and entertainers, and significantly if the Player Characters have played through the events of ‘Gringle’s Pawnshop’ in Apple Lane, the return of an old band of foes. Thus, there will opportunities for a barroom brawl, diplomacy, shopping, entertainment and games, a little mystery, some madness, and some active childcare in the field!

Although any ordinary band of adventurers can play through Applefest, this is a scenario that is really going to both interest and benefit a group that includes the thane of Apple Lane amongst their number and which makes the village their home. It is highly detailed and it involves multiple plot threads, both major and minor, plus a lot of NPCs, so the Game Master will need to need to prepare it carefully and be prepared to keep those threads moving and the Player Characters involved. The effort will pay off, ideally with the thane and the other Player Characters burnishing their reputations and helping to restore the spiritual strength of Sartar and its people.

Is it worth your time?

Yes—Applefest is a thoroughly entertaining addition to any campaign set in and around Apple Lane.

No—Applefest is too location specific and too story specific to work elsewhere with ease and the Game Master may be running a campaign set elsewhere.

Maybe—Applefest is too location and story specific to adapt to elsewhere with ease, but there are plenty of ideas and events that could be reworked for a similar event.