Léonor Jean Soulas d'Allainval (1696-1753) died unknown and penniless at the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris, a public hospital with the distinction of quite perhaps being the oldest continuously running hospital in the world. The author of more than a dozen plays, d'Allainval never had any real success with any save the first. That play, though barely remembered, gave d'Allainval a sort of immortality by contributing a phrase to the English language, one still in use today. It was called L'Embarras des richesses, or in English, an embarrassment of riches.
We start there because the expression is an apt description of the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium's community content program for its RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha RPG. Like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, the Jonstown Compendium allows authors to use the Glorantha setting and the RuneQuest rules to publish their own scenarios, sourcebooks, and related projects. Chaosium maintains a fairly laissez-faire relationship with these publications, beyond a few guidelines, and this gives authors tremendous freedom in what they create. I have said before, the move was a smart one. It ensured that before Chaosium was able to publish any scenarios for RuneQuest, the community was publishing their own. I happen to know a little about this, ahem.
But the Compendium is, by the estimation of numerous RQ fans, an embarrassment of riches. Both in quantity and in quality, the Compendium contains almost too many treasures to count. I have blogged about many of them here, but this has been just the tip of the iceberg. And the treasures keep coming. Like Ilmarinen's Sampo in the Kalevala, the Compendium keeps churning them out.
Ricardo Shankland's Skull Ruins - Tusk Riders Need Blood! is a terrific example of what the Compendium offers. Gloriously illustrated by Dario Corallo, this 76 page PDF (Compendium books do not qualify for print until they reach Electrum status, so if you want a copy you can hold get over there and buy a copy pronto) this is a rip-roaring, RQG adventure with a very classic feel and a distinctly classic villain. Hint...the title gives them away.
Queen Leika of Sartar's Colymar tribe has managed to take a Tusk Rider alive. "A Tusk Rider," you ask? Dating all the way back to White Bear and Red Moon, the Tusk Riders are "half-trolls" who ride giant, savage boars. Think of them as Orcs, yet like everything in Glorantha infinitely cooler than that. To maintain their bond with these giant mounts, the Tuskers perform blood sacrifices to Gouger, the Divine Boar. They are renowned for their savagery, their combat skills, and most of all the secret paths and roads they use to seemingly spring out of nowhere and fall upon their prey. With this captive, Leika has a chance to learn these paths, as well as other Tusker secrets, for the good of the Colymar.
There is a catch.
Penjurlhi--the captured Tusker--is losing control of his giant boar mount. To maintain it, he needs to perform a blood ritual at an appropriate temple. He knows of one, the Skull Ruins. Leika charges the adventurers to escort him there, perform the ritual, and bring him back.
This sets up a trek across Sartar, along various potential routes, with a number of challenges and enemies. There is combat (including a large scale battle and rules to conduct it), there is new magic, there is diplomacy, there is a new cult, and a lot more. As with any review of an adventure, the less I say about the particulars the better, but there is a goldmine of ideas, NPCs, magic items, and lore in here.
Go here for more detailed information (I will share the back cover just below as well). Instead of repeating all that, which is the limit of what I can say without getting spoilery, this is simply a terrific RuneQuest adventure that could easily be dropped into any Dragon Pass campaign with very little work. Swap out Leika for any other patron and you are ready to go. Skull Ruins exemplifies what makes RuneQuest scenarios great...it has well thought-out characters, believable complications and motivations, unique magic items and treasures, and multiple consequences for player choices. There is nothing railroady about it.
The writing, the editing, the lay-out is polished AF as the kids say. Shankland knows Glorantha and knows how to write an adventure for it. Where I tend to lean maudlin (what Nick Brooke likes to call "schmaltz"), Shankland's writing is clear, concise, and helpful. The scenario itself is a challenging one, but there is so much support that an inexperienced GM would feel in good hands and confident to run it. For long time Glorantha fans, the author's treatment of the Tuskers, the new ideas this book brings to the table, is, well, an embarrassment of riches.
Please people. Buy this book so it can hit Electrum and I can get a print copy on my shelf. You are going to want that too.
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