Category: Uncategorized

To see the Monster Island and die – Monstropedia of Loral

 

Here are few new denizens of the beautiful island called Loral. It is populated by rare endangered pieces unified in their approach to life (hate the intruders). There is rather large treasure ship wrecked on the island and there used to be God Learners here long time ago so the historians are of course quite interested in the island. The below natural exhibits are imagined for RQ6 Encounter Generator. Among the less educated the island is called Monster Island.   The sources have been the Tradetalk #13, Guide to Glorantha and Men at Sea.

Some are really co-operative and are driven by the sense to please (their palates) and fulfill their heart’s desire (hate the intruders). Some of these are bad news indeed.

There are other pages on Monster Island

 

Year in Review – The Notes From Pavis numbers

Wow, what a year. 62% increase in views and 74% increase in visitors. Thank you. 

Notes From Pavis got almost 22K views from almost 7500 visitors. This was up from 13.5k views and 4300 visitors in 2014.  This is quite a bit up from the 2013 with 500 views and 211 visitors.

The site had viewers from 73 countries with 25 countries having more than 50 views.  There were 41 posts published – up from 34 in the previous year and 4 in 2013.

Here are the top 10 countries by views

  1. United States 6849
  2. United Kingdom 3642
  3. Spain 1759
  4. Finland 1345
  5. Australia 1302
  6. France 1145
  7. Canada 1084
  8. Sweden 877
  9. Germany 536
  10. Japan 417

So per capita – with 5 million people we Finns are still quite active in Glorantha and Runequest 🙂

The most popular articles were

  1. the home page view 4416 views
  2. Gloranthan Cult One Pagers – Main page 1543 
  3. Adventures in Glorantha Preview 1421
  4. Starting a Glorantha RQ6 Campaign 1289
  5. RQ6 Encounter Tool – feature recap 1145
  6. RQ6 Charts and Tables 1069
  7. Adventures in Glorantha Take 3. Cult One Pagers to AiG  – 645
  8. Guest Post: Back Under the Glowline – 531
  9. Combat Flow for Runequest 6 – 503
  10. Gloranthan Cult One Pagers for RQ6 – 371

Most visitors come nowadays

  1. from search engines (2389)
  2. Google+ (2149)
  3. Forum.rpg.net (994)
  4. basicroleplaying.org (805)
  5. design mechanism forums (707)
  6. glorantha.com (658)
  7. Reddit (566)
  8. Facebook (158)
  9. pelilauta.fi (105)
  10. roolipelit.wordpress.com (91)

 

 

 

Lunars have Adventures in Glorantha

Here are the bringers of civilisation, the light of the goddess, the sharp edge of the empire, the thin line between chaos and the world, the word that cannot be spoken, the collectors of the coin that shall be emperor’s, the foot that stomps, keepers of order that must be kept, the long shadow of the bat to come. RQ Encounter Generator welcomes the updated Lunar Provincial troops – the troops that stoutly sacrifice all in the name of the Emperor and the goddess to protect the innocent – and protect above all the interests of the empire from those who would defile it.  Convert and serve the goddess – it is in your best interest… You cannot stop the onslaught – empire (and you) can generate these encounters in unlimited numbers.

These now take into account passions towards locals and the Empire, expanded skill sets from Rq6 and AiG, the Lunar combat styles (Sagittarian Peltast, Lunar Corps Hoplite, Pelorian Cavalry, Antelope Lancer and new weaponry (Moon sword, Khopesh, Kontos and the new shields)). You can also add to your own Lunars a cult which has the common Folk magic spells for Lunar Provincials.

You will see these in Pavis, Sartar and Esrolia.

Lunar Agent

Lunar Peltast

Lunar Peltast Officer

Lunar Peltast Officer on a city patrol

Lunar Peltast on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite

Lunar Hoplite Officer

Lunar Hoplite Officer on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Acolyte

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Devotee

Lunar Hoplite Officer, Danfive Xaron Initiate

Lunar Hoplite on a city patrol

Lunar Hoplite, Veteran

Lunar Hoplite, Veteran, Strong one

Lunar Antelope Lancer

Lunar Antelope Lancer Officer

Lunar Cavalry

Lunar Cavalry Officer

Lunar Agent

Lunar Tax Collector

The parties have been updated as well

Lunar Antelope Lancer Party

Lunar Cavalry Patrol

Lunar Hoplite City patrol

Lunar Hoplite City patrol – first response

Lunar Hoplite Field Patrol

Lunar Hoplite Field Patrol, Danfive Xaron

Lunar Peltast City Patrol

Lunar Peltast City Patrol – First Response

Lunar Peltast Field Patrol

Lunar Tax Collectors

 

The rabble and the nobles (and followers of the bat) will likely follow in the footsteps of the forward troops – they always do.

 

 

RQ Encounter and Notes From Pavis futures

There has been some questions related to the RQ Encounter Generator and its content and content on Notes From Pavis – what is the effect of latest news from Chaosium and Design Mechanism about the future of Runequest.

Both the blog and generator with its contents  will continue normal operation as is without interruption – now and in future. I will continue to add content, Gloranthan and otherwise to both the generator and the blog – so stay tuned for new and updated content. When I asked about all the content I have created for these +Jeff Richard has stated today that these are covered by Fan Policy also in future. It is too early to say what ADDITIONAL systems in addition to RQ6 and Magic World will be supported in future, this depends on when rules are available and what the developer decides about additional support. Based on information from +Lawrence Whitaker the changes to future Design Mechanism rules after next July will most likely be errata level changes so system will support that generation of rules as well.

Currently almost all known Gloranthan creatures as we know them today exist as templates to generate enemies from as do almost all cults where there is enough data and even some where data has been extrapolated . There also exist a fair variety of non Gloranthan enemies for example for Mythic Britain. So feel free to add content or generate away from existing content – service works as usual – this is crowd sourced.

More than 2100 templates to generate enemies from. By today more than 126000 enemies generated…

Spirits in The Night – Beast, Darkness, Death, Chaos and Mastery Spirits in AiG

Spirit societies for Adventures in Glorantha was presented in a previous post. Here are the first adaptations of that for RQ Encounter Generator. Spirits in the Night indeed – the new rules for spirits in Adventures in Glorantha give lots of variation for the spirits to the already great rules for spirits in Runequest 6. The aspect of Runes is shown to much greater extent in the new spirit rules. The rules there are not final yet – so they could change in the Runequest Glorantha book.

Spirit combat can look less deadly with the new rules but variation for the spirits is significantly greater. There are new rules there but here is an adaptation of the AiG spirits that can be used both with or without the new ruleset.In this first set there are spirits for just a few of the runes.

You can find all new spirits in the Spirits in the Night Party if you want to generate just spirits. All the work has been done for you – just generate away…

Spirits who are of Grand status are usually intensity 4 which can be interpreted as run away – fast as you can and hope they do not notice you.

For Mastery rune

  • Mastery Curse Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Gloranthan Blessing of the Mastery Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Gloranthan Mastery Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Ruler spirit – Mastery

For Death rune

  • Death Curse Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Disease spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
    • These are now separate from Sickness spirits. Disease spirits carry only have Gloranthan diseases currently
  • Death Curse Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Death Passion Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Gloranthan Death’s Blessing Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Gloranthan Death Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Gloranthan Death Spell Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
    • Larger varieties of these can have Rune spells
  • Ruler spirit – Death

For Chaos rune

  • Gloranthan Chaos Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Ruler Spirit – Chaos

For Beast rune

  • Gloranthan Beast Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Ruler Spirit – Beast

For Darkness Rune

  • Gloranthan Darkness Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Darkness Passion Spirit
    • Lesser, Typical, Major, Grand
  • Ruler Spirit – Darkness

Malia initiate, acolyte and high shaman spirit societies have been updated with the new spirits. You can get the new spirit society into use just by generating any of the current foes who use that – for example: this nice Broo Shaman. The other way is just to attach one of the ranks of Malia spirit society into your template. Same goes for Waha (initiate, shaman and high shaman). With Waha I have retained the earth and law spirit association even though Waha does not have Runes for those. I have also retained the ancestor spirits here for the meanwhile. The rest of the spirit societies will come later.

New additional features

  • Spirit Abilities for all the Runes
  • Blessing of the spirit abilities for Death, Mastery
  • Spells for Death rune
  • Gloranthan Diseases contains only the Gloranthan Diseases.

 

Guest Post: Back Under the Glowline

A long time gaming buddy of mine Tom Zunder wrote such a great post on his Gaming Tavern forum that I asked his permission to reblog it also here. There is so much choice that we friends of Glorantha have now. So here is his post. 

So, time to return to Glorantha I feel. It’s been years, maybe a decade or more, since I’ve gamed under the Red Moon, faced the terrors of Thanatar and charged with my Enlo against Blue Moon Moth Riders. You know what, I kinda bloody miss it, and purged of all the accumulated cruft of the Glorantha nerds and the mismatch between myself and Hero Wars, it’s time to worship the Dark Mother, riddle with Nysalor and embrace the endless history of Darra Happa.

But, and this is lovely, there are so many choices.Firstly, and I don’t mind saying this, there is HeroQuest with the tailored match between the the recent setting books, all redolent in simple d20 keywords and meshed neatly between culture and game. There is some truly lovely stuff in the sources that meshes with HQ, and yet.. I’ve never really enjoyed a game of HQ, although a lot of that might be from the Hero Wars action point economy that bored me to tears. Also, and although I can enjoy the depth of Glorantha cultural minutia, it has been what turned me off the setting for so long. I am, and always have been, more of a greatsword swinging Zorak Zorani than a Lhankor Mhy, and so I don’t think it’s HQ for me.

Secondly there is RuneQuest. We approach a time of possibly the best moderately complex version of RuneQuest that we’ve ever had, one that fixes the old issues about divine magic, montheism in a polytheistic world, makes a bloody good stab at sorcery and delivers a folk magic that actually feels folksy and useful to a carpenter or potter. We don’t have Adventures in Glorantha yet, but Hannu Kokko and the Finns are making a very good stab at it with their proto-cult write ups and the joy that is the RuneQuest Encounter tool online.. a party of Chaos cultists heading out from SnakePipe Hollow, I don’t mind if I do. Only problem, I think RQ6, like earlier RQs, doesn’t scale to Heroic, which is, after all why HeroQuest was first conceived.

Thirdly, and this isn’t as mad as it sounds, is OpenQuest. Combined with the RuneQuest Classics RQ2 reprints from Rich Meints, or a selection of RQ3 adventures, one can run an OQ game in Glorantha with barely a flutter. The spells have the same names, the stat blocks are very similar, and OQ is lighter and involves less rethink that RQ6. I know Simon Bray runs all his Glorantha with OQ these days and if that isn’t a recommendation I don’t know what is. So, possible and do-able, but one also can’t help wondering if maybe a copy of RQ2 or RQ3 might also fit in this camp, they’re easily pickupable in the UK on ebay, if you haven’t already got them all on the shelf, which I have.

Fourthly, and here the ZZ beserker in me wails in joy, 13th Age Glorantha! This riot of a d20 game that won me over to D&D after 34 years just made me think of Orlanth, the Red Goddess, Kyger Litor, Yelmalio, etc. as I turned the pages. This is a game for the Heroic, and by setting it in the Hero Wars when Argrath wages devastation on the Lunar Empire, and the Red Moon wages it back in an apocalyptic frenzy that cracks Glorantha from Choralinthor Bay to Valind’s Glacier, is the time for the power and crazy that is a 13th Age player character. So, and this is a defininte, the d20 will come to my Glorantha table, but it will be rolling high and not low.

But that’s not all.

Oh no.

I have a steadily growing collection of skirmish minis and skirmish rulesets. I know Sandy Petersen is playtesting a Gloranthan Gods War game, and I suspect that like his earlier Cthulhu boardgame, this may lead to a big fat bunch of 28mm Gloranthan minis.

So how to skirmish in Glorantha?

Well the Glory Geeks, that brave band of Gloranthan wargamers, have valiantly field Hordes of the Things Gloranthan armies in the HOTT fields of war, and indeed Rich Crawley’s Goranthan HOTT bands are great to play. Just ask him, or Jane, for army lists and where to get the rules and you too can be playing Gloranthan battles in under an hour a time on your dining room table. I am odd though, I don’t like to base my figures in blocks, since I am a roleplayer first I like them singly based. So, not HOTT for me, although always up for a game.

Rich and I have been enjoying Song of Blades and Heroes from Ganesha Games in recent years. A fast 28mm/15mm/any scale skirmish game free of any tie in with any minis maker, SoBH or SBH is enjoyable, wonderfully generic, quick to learn and play, and leaves your minis free for any other use since it has no basing needs. I know Rich has done Glorantha with it and I was almost there until I saw..

Of Gods and Mortals, or OGAM. Published by Osprey this is in fact a superset of SBH, where gods (40mm+), avatars (28-40mm) and their forces (28mm) battle it out on the field of war. What could be more Gloranthan? Cacodemon and his warband facing down Storm Bull and his? It’s appealing isn’t it, and I think I shall have to lay down the ten quid to get OGAM and see how it’ll work if and when some good Gloranthan minis come out, so come on Sandy!

And that’s not all.. after all, if Sandy P does get the Glorantha boardgame going, is there any chance of resisting that?

Must go, Cragspider is calling..

The Troll

HQ: http://www.glorantha.com/product/heroquest-glorantha/
RQ6: http://www.thedesignmechanism.com/runequest.php
OQ: http://d101games.com/books/openquest/
13th G: http://www.13thageinglorantha.com/

SBH: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3080 … and-heroes
OGAM: http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=159&page=1

Tom Zunder: tom at zunder.org.uk
Encourage the Awesome!

RQ6 Encounter Generator

RQ Encounter Generator (for RQ6) (the creation of +Erkki Lepre) has grown lately to have quite a bit of new features and content. Content is crowd sourced. So for the hard working GM’s there is now an easy way to generate many types of enemies.
You need a herd of allosaurs – click, select number press generate and unleash doom. The characters finished them off – need a bigger reserve herd – click a number and generate again. Other beasts got attracted to the noise – perhaps a tyrannosaur – click a number and generate again.Endless supply of Lunar more what you need – pick from the list – generate again. In units nicely formed of up to 40 individuals – they will march to restore peace and order in the name of the Moon again.

Town guards noticed your character’s getaway from the second story job – click a number and generate.

Serpent People to fill your jungle with silent death – select from the list.

A number of templates have already been created for Gloranthan, Monster Island, General Fantasy settings by the users of the system.

Need a new kind of enemy – use the templates from existing races and templates, modify to your heart’s content and create away.http://skoll.xyz/mythras_eg/instructions/

Need new feature that does not exist – there is a discussion thread at the Design Mechanism forum to discuss new features.