Dungeons & Heroquests

RuneQuest is not the only game I play, despite all the time I have spent writing about it and for it. Call of Cthulhu has always been a favorite of mine, and I have a scenario for it in the upcoming campaign, The Sutra of the Pale Leaves. I've written here, here, and here about my love for Nephilim, and here about Pendragon. And those are just the Chaosium games. I've blogged about my campaigns for Numenera and The Dracula Dossier, and reviewed tons of other games, including Vampire, Old Gods of Appalachia, Spire, Kult Divinity Lost, Vurt, Nobilis, and so on. RuneQuest and I have just been a bit stapled together since Six Seasons in Sartar appeared, and I am good with that.

Like so many Gen X brats, I actually started playing RPGs with Dungeons & Dragons. I was in the 5th grade and drafted into my public school's GATE program, mainly because I was that mutant species of weird kid who spent all his time alone writing stories. The school psychologist, who ran the program, had read in a journal about a professor of neurology who had just revised and written a new edition of D&D, John Eric Holmes. Holmes asserted that the game taught communicative and critical thinking skills, and was a way for pre-adolescents to exercise social, math, and creative abilities. So she bought a set, and assigned me the task of reading it and being the Dungeon Master for the other kids in the program. Ironically, the same school district that introduced me to RPGs would ban them just a few years later as the political winds shifted and the Satanic Panic reared its shaggy head.

I ran D&D throughout the 5th and 6th grades, expanding into the Moldvay and Cook Basic and Expert sets, and then the eldritch dweomercraft of the High Gygaxian AD&D trilogy. It wasn't until I arrived in junior high school, and joined the "D&D club," that I was informed they were playing something called RuneQuest. That was the end of D&D for me. Sort of. I would later run a little of 2nd edition AD&D, and the same copy of the Rules Cycopedia that I bought in the college book store in 1991 still sits on my shelf now. But RuneQuest, Chaosium's other titles, and an ever-expanding circle of RPGs kept me occupied for decades.

When I did peek in on post-2000 D&D it was a game I no longer recognized. I am not saying it was bad or that earlier editions were better--I don't really have a dog in that fight--but the game increasingly had more to do with Star Wars, video games, Japanese anime, and the MCU than it did with the survival horror, Conan/Elric/Fafhrd-inspired sword and sorcery game I used to run. I was, however, intrigued by the rise of the retro-clones, games like OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Swords and Wizardry, which attempted to keep older editions of the game alive. As this bloomed into the OSR (another rabbit hole I don't want to meander down here), with games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess, MÖRK BORG, and ShadowDark, I found myself playing them, revisiting dungeons once again (more on the OSR and these games here).

I say all this because in my recent running of dungeon crawls once more, alongside my continuing RuneQuest campaigns, I have noticed something I hadn't noticed before. 

Dungeon crawls are heroquests, and heroquests are dungeon crawls.

Let Me Explain

Right now you are probably asking "what the deuce are you on about, Montgomery?" I'd wager the wording is a bit different, unless you actually are a 19th century upper class Brit, but that general sort of question.

As per Cults of RuneQuest, Mythology, a heroquest is "a direct interaction by mortals with the divine realm of myth and archetypes...participants enter the realm of legend and myth to interact with heroes and gods, gambling precious life force to gain miraculous powers and bring back magic" (p. 14). In other words, adventurers leave behind the world they know, enter a shadowy otherworld known only through stories and legends, to risk their lives and bring back wondrous treasures.

Sounds suspiciously like a dungeon crawl to me.

"The Shadowdark," Kelsey Dionne tells us, "is any place where danger and darkness hold sway. It clutches ancient secrets and dusty treasures...daring fortune seekers to tempt their fates...if you survive, you'll bring back untold riches plucked from the jaws of death itself" (ShadowDark, p. 7). In other words adventurers follow stories and legend into the unknown, into a lost world strange and dangerous, where they are tested. If they survive, they bring back wonders. If there is any real distinction between that a heroquest, it is one of degree and not of kind.

The line gets even blurrier when you stop and consider what a fantasy RPG dungeon is... it's the underworld, one of the oldest archetypes of the Other Side there is. Journeys by heroes into the underworld are so common we have a name for them, "katabasis." In classical mythology, the ability to enter the underworld and return is the very definition of a hero. Aeneas enters the underworld seeking knowledge of the future. Ovid describes Juno descending into underworld, reminding us of Inanna/Ishtar doing the same. Ovid also famously describes Orpheus entering the underworld to try and bring back his dead wife Eurydice, as did Indra to bring back the Dawn (also the goal of Orlanth and the Lightbringers). Heracles enters the underworld as his 12th labor, Pwyll entered in Welsh mythology, and so on. We can argue that the Shadowdark (my new favorite term for the fantasy dungeon) is not literally the world of the dead, but it is a lightless realm where death waits. Even the grandfather of all RPG megadungeons, Tolkien's mines of Moria, blur the line between mundane and myth. In those lost halls the fellowship encounters the Balrog, "a demon of the ancient world," a mythic divine being, and against it Gandalf falls only to return from the dead, much as Jesus did after his descent into hell.

Again, differences of degree, not of kind.

Old Tools, New Uses

As I started replaying old school dungeon crawls alongside RQ, it started to change the way I ran and constructed heroquests. In both Six Seasons in Sartar and The Company of the Dragon, I presented rules for heroquesting. But by the time I wrote a full heroquest chapter for The Seven Tailed Wolf, something had changed.

I had added a map.

I had gotten into the habit by then of making maps for my OSR games, something I have always found immensely stimulating to do. And doing this drives home the difference between a dungeon crawl and a story-oriented game. The latter is a linear thing, in which scene 1 is followed by scene 2, then scene 3, and so on. The characters are simply moved down the line through each. The pejorative term is "railroading." But in the former, each room of the dungeon is, in fact, a "scene." It has a setting, it has characters (NPCs and monsters), it has challenges and stakes. The crucial difference is that it isn't linear. Whether you turn right or left decides whether you walk into the goblin lair or down the hall with the pit trap. Both are scenes, but this time the adventurers have to make a choice and those choices have genuine consequences. Pick the southern passage and you stumble right into the lost shrine of the relic you were seeking. Just fight the final boss and it's yours. Go north or west, however, and you encounter a half a dozen other scenes, wearing you down, making the final boss encounter--if you even live to arrive at it--all the harder.

In The Seven Tailed Wolf I introduce the myth of the founding of the Haraborn vale. The Black Stag arrives at this mountain valley and falls in love with Running Doe. He proposes marriage, but she refused. The valley is the hunting ground of the Seven Tailed Wolf, and she will not marry and have children just for the Wolf to eat them. So the Stag vows to drive the Wolf off, and along the way (just as Dorothy Gale and Momotaro did) he meets others to aid him in his final battle.

This could be run as a story. Scene One, the characters meet Running Doe and vow to fight the Wolf off. Scene Two, they meet the Weaving Sister, and need to recruit her. Scene Three they meet the Night-Winged Bird. Scene Four, the strange hairless beast that walks upright. Scene Five they encounter the Hissing Wyrm, and so on.

Yet it is all much more interesting if you throw away the linear script, and spread the scenes out like rooms in a dungeon. After they make their vow to Running Deer, what next? Do they seek out the hole where the Weaving Sister lives? Do they scale the high cliffs to find the Night-Winged Bird? Do they follow the stream to the Field-Not-Yet-A-Hill? Or do they simply go straight to meet the Wolf head on, not bothering with allies? They have options now, and they have agency. Their choices shape the narrative.

And that is all fairly simple. Old school games had tons of dungeon building tools that can make heroquests more interesting. 

For example, think about the "secret door." The Weaving Sister lives in the Riddle, a sacred Earth temple which earlier in The Seven Tailed Wolf we learn was the place where Ernalda would come to speak with her aunt, Ty Kora Tek. Here they would talk and sing songs to each other, Ernalda just outside the Riddle, Ty Kora Tek just within. Imagine setting up this up as a hidden scene. When encountering the Weaving Sister, if one of them sings into the Riddle into opens a new path into the Ernalda/Ty Kora Tek myth. There they can meet Ernalda and perhaps get additional magic to fight the Wolf... but only if they answer Ty Kora Tek's riddles first. It is a separate myth, and has nothing to do with the Seven Tailed Wolf myth, but the Riddle links both. Maybe the adventurers never think to try singing into the Riddle and never find the other myth. That is fine too. It's a secret door.

Another interesting notion is the "wandering monster." When traveling from one scene to the next, they might encounter beings that have nothing to do with the myth they are exploring. Maybe they find a party of other heroquesters, and now either have to ally with them or compete. Maybe they come across beings from other stories, Broo from the Devil's legion, the dead who are wandering lost an aimless, etc. Setting up a random encounters table appropriate to the Age the adventurers are exploring is a fun way to liven up the game.

Finally, don't be squeamish about letting them get lost. The adventurers find a path up the mountain side, but it forks. Go right, and they eventually come to the Night-Winged Bird and are on the right track. Go left and they arrive at the Dragonewt nest of High Wyrm, and enter a draconic myth. Getting lost was a big part of old school dungeon crawls.

Mythology is a terrific resource for all of this, especially the Mythic Maps. Imagine the adventurers are in the Golden Age, pp. 86-90. They are seeking Aldrya's Tree. While crossing the Yellow Forest their choices might take them to Oslira who has already been tamed and redeemed, or face-to-snout with Sshorg the Blue River, itching for a fight. These are neighboring locations on the map, and two very different scenes. 

So the next time you are running a heroquest, trying drawing an old school map of it first. Be devious. Give it lots of choices and directions, dead ends and wrong turns. Detail each scene like you would stock the room of a dungeon, then let the dice roll and the games begin. 

WANDERERS IN THE WASTES: The Nomads of Glorantha

THE FINAL RIDDLE is out at long last, and while it is mainly concerned with Illumination, Chaos, and the Wastes themselves, by necessity it also reveals many of my thoughts on the Wastes' famed inhabitants, the Animal Nomads.

Perhaps second only to the infamous and iconic Ducks, the Animal Nomads seem to be the thing that non-RuneQuest gamers know about Glorantha. "Wait, is that the game where people ride zebras and bison and stuff?" Why yes, it is. These are, as the name implies, nomadic peoples who ride and herd an exotic range of non-bovine and non-equine beasts. The largest tribes are the Impala, Bison, Sable, and High Llama riders, as well as a non-human species the Morokanth that herds humans (more on that later).  There are smaller tribes where the mounts get even more exotic, such as rhinos, ostriches and lizards. These Animal Nomads predate RuneQuest: they are mentioned in 1975's White Bear and Red Moon and take center stage in 1977's Nomad Gods, and it is that latter board game that most shapes my ideas about them. There is a reductionist tendency to try and associate RuneQuest's cultures with terrestrial ones, which I see as a mistake. Nomad Gods makes this particularly hard to do. 

You see, here on the orb we call Earth, the concept of "nomad" is primarily defined by the idea of "pasture." Most definitions define "nomad" as "a member of a people with no permanent home that travels from place to place seeking fresh pastures for its herds." The English word itself comes from the Greek nomos, or "pasture." This is accurate for the nomads we know, who tend to exist in regions where there is a scarcity of resources, such as tundra, plains, or deserts. But on the lozenge we call Glorantha, the Animal Nomads are defined by a very different geography indeed... the Wastes.

Ancient civilizations once thrived here but were buried forever under divine barbarism... The God's War left much of the world a ruin, but the Plaines of Prax were the worst struck and the slowest to recover. There the dirt you walk upon is hostile to the men who once plundered it... (a)ncient spirits and deposed gods roam over the ruin of their extinguished civilization...

Nomad Gods, p. 1

Yes, the Animal Nomads have herds that they need to pasture. But these are not the ancient Hebrews, the Plains Indians, the Mongols, the Sami, or the Bedouins. These are the roaming, scavenging gangs of Mad Max. Their home is a post-apocalyptic hellscape, a region blasted and bent by Chaos. The Eternal Battle--a gaping hole into God Time in which the gods struggle eternally against the Devil--drifts around here like a sandstorm. Parts of the Devil still slither around. Reality, in the Wastes, is broken. The Animal Nomads hunt and gather, not only food and water but ancient magics and relics of lost civilizations. I have often thought that the defining ethos of the Nomads is right there in Greg Stafford's dedication:

This game is dedicated to my brothers and sisters, of blood and spirit, who have trod upon the Experience of Ruin and striven to pass beyond frailties into the magics of the Other Side.

Nomad Gods

What Greg chose to capitalize is telling: the Experience of Ruin and the Other Side. In working on The Final Riddle the last few years, I have put together notes and started toying with the idea of a sort of Six Seasons in Sartar set in the Wastes, coming of age amongst the Animal Nomads. In trying to get into the psychology of these people then, I keep circling back to those two phrases. If I had to put it into a sentence it right now it might be "This world is a cursed ruin, to survive it, look to the spirit world." Magic--not the "sophisticated spells available to more cultured magicians" but the "crude and brutal" summoning of various spirits--is a resource as important to these peoples as fuel is in Mad Max and water on Arrakis. Probably more than any other RuneQuest campaign, I think a Nomad campaign should include scavenging ruins for precious resources (mundane and magical), the constant presence of spirits, and the endless threat of Chaos.

Not that herding and raiding is not a feature of Nomad existence, we know that it is. Two of the primary deities or Great Spirits worshipped among the Nomads are Eiritha and Waha, the former being the goddess of herd beasts and the latter being the founder of Nomad society. The story goes that originally two-legged and four-legged animals lived alongside one another more or less equitably, but when the Devil blasted the land it became clear sacrifices needed to be made. Waha--Eiritha's son--essentially brokered the new order of things. Both sides drew lots to see who would become property of the other. In most cases the animals got the raw end of the deal. They would give their milk, hides, meat, and bones to the humans, and serve as their mounts. In return the animals would receive protection from Chaos (Waha's father, the Chaos-hating Storm Bull, had died killing the Devil and was no longer around to protect them). Among the tapir-like Morokanth, however, they won the gamble, and humans became their herd beast. These herd men lacked, or perhaps lost, sentience. Waha taught the "winners" how to care for and butcher their herds and organized Nomad society around the practice. Raiding other tribes for their herds was a part of that society--it is always better to eat someone else's cattle than your own--but the Wastes are a Very Big Place.  Unlike the Orlanthi, who live alongside other clans, outside of Prax the Animal Nomads frequently wander alone. When the opportunity to raid presents itself, that is one thing, but deep in the Wastes there are other concerns.

Two other Great Spirits of the Nomads indicate what those concerns are. The Storm Bull or "Desert Wind" exists for one reason and one reason only: the destruction of Chaos, and his cult is widespread among the Nomads for obvious reasons. Daka Fal, often regarded outside of the Wastes solely as Judge of the Dead, is also the patron of shamans and the one who taught the Nomads how to deal with the spirit world. With the exception of powerful gods like Storm Bull and Eiritha, the Nomads tend to have shamans rather than priests, as they live in a place where all the gods are dead, while countless ghosts and lost spirits roam the land. Daka Fal's Runes are Spirit and Man--not Death--and he is in fact one of the owners of the Spirit Rune. Among the Animal Nomads I tend to think the line between Daka Fal and Horned Man (who is also a co-owner of the Spirit Rune) is blurred, and I often have the Animal Nomads depict Daka Fal with horns. They live in a place where "dead" has a much wider meaning than just human death. In the Wastes it is almost universally applicable.

Were I running a campaign centered primarily in Prax--a comparatively small and crowded piece of real estate--I would probably focus more on herding and raiding. And to be fair, this is how most of us encounter the Nomads, in Prax. But in a Wastes campaign I would run it more like Battlestar Galactica, a long trek across empty spaces, constantly on the look out for supplies, under fire from hostile enemies. Just with more spirits and fewer Cylons.   

 

THE SACRED TIME, An Episode

Every year, in the final weeks of Storm Season, the tension grows. The violence of the weather intensifies. Days range from sudden thunderstorms and gales to fist-sized hail stones, flash floods, and the occasional cyclone. Even earthquakes are more frequent. Then, as Sacred Time dawns, a stillness falls over it all. A silence. And in that silence, there is an intensity. Every adult Sartarite knows the danger. They know the sudden stillness does not mean peace or salvation from the violent weather, but rather the triumph of entropy. The silence that comes at Sacred Time is the silence of the Void, the silence of Death. At the end of the year the cosmos itself ends, and it is up to the gods to make it anew. 

Mortals must help them. The two weeks of Sacred Time bear the names Luck and Fate, because it will take both for the new year to dawn.

The Seven Tailed Wolf, p. 18

In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin for "threshold") denotes the middle stage of a rite of passage. In a liminal stage, you are no longer what you were, but not yet what you will become. This lack of definition is ritually disorienting and  dangerous. Order has been suspended and you are in a chaotic state. In coming of age and initiation ceremonies, this is where the candidates face trials and ordeals, often with a serious chance of harm or failure. In folklore this is when the infant--born but not yet baptized--is at the greatest danger of being snatched by fairies, and it is at liminal times (midnight) and places (at the crossroads) that the Devil appears.

Liminality manifests in Glorantha in all sorts of ways. Cults have their initiation rites, shamans confront the Bad Man, the Orlanthi perform the Summons of Evil in their worship rites. They, like us, have their rites of passage: birth, adolescence, marriage, death. Yet these experiences are personal or local rather than collective and universal. The single greatest example of liminality in Glorantha, when the entire cosmos enters the liminal state, is the Sacred Time. 

Sacred Time is a two-week period when normal activity halts, and the world ritually and really re-enacts the death and rebirth of the cosmos to replenish the world, for incorporating the entropy of Chaos into the world is part of the Great Compromise. To live, one must descend into death and be reborn. The participation of all beings in these annual ceremonies and their commitment to them integrates the participants with unconscious understanding of the cosmic balance—a major factor in the high level of magic generation and use in Glorantha.

RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha, p. 420

Time and Sacred Time

One of my favorite things about Glorantha is the calendar.

There are several out there--the Brithini, Lunars, Dara Happans, Kralorelans, and Pamaltelans all have theirs--but I refer specifically to the Theyalan calendar spread by the Lightbringers with the Dawn.

While many players and GMs don't give it much thought, it is very clear that Greg Stafford did. It is, first and foremost, a timekeeping device, and I invite you to think about that word a little differently. We use it to mean something that lets us know what time it is. But in Glorantha, the only thing holding the world together, the only thing keeping the Devil out, is Time. Keeping Time takes on a whole new meaning. The world had died. Chaos had conquered it. But the Great Compromise bound the cosmos and themselves in the Web of Time. The calendar tells you that story.

The week. Look closely at any given week. 

  

What you see here is a microcosm of the Gods Age. Darkness emerges from Chaos (Freezeday), then come the Waters. Gata the Primal Earth emerges from these. Waterday and Clayday. Now as we know, Fire/Sky came next, but when Umath was born the Primal Air ripped Earth and Sky apart to make a place for himself, thus the week has Windsday between Clayday and Fireday. But look what happens next...

Wildday is marked by the Luck Rune. No right-thinking Orlanthi is going to mark something with the Chaos Rune. But this is the day of the full moon in Dragon Pass, and the day when the powers of Chaos are strongest, and it falls after Fireday. Luck, like Chaos, suggests randomness. It falls here because Chaos entered the world after Orlanth slew the Sun. 

The final day, Godsday, embodies the Great Compromise that held Chaos at bay. It is marked by the Fate Rune, largely thought to be the Web of Arachne Solara, the Web of Time.

Each week then is a talisman, a ritual ordering of Time that repeats the story of the Gods Age and the salvation from Chaos.

The year. The five seasons of the Glorantha year tell the exact same story, just a tad differently because it focus on the Ages of the God Time rather than the emergence of the Runes. Sea Season is the Green Age, the birth and youth of the world. Fire Season and Earth Season are the Golden Age, their reign of the Solar Emperor. But his murder brings the Lesser and Greater Darknesses, Dark Season and Storm Season respectively. The destruction of the world. 

We are being told a story here. The same story. The only story that matters.

Sacred Time. The five seasons each have eight weeks marked by members of the Celestial Court. This gives the Gloranthan Year 280 days. 

I do not think that is a mistake. 280 days is the average gestation of a human being, and at the end of the Gloranthan year we witness a birth, or rebirth. The birth of Time. This occurs--hopefully--during the two-week period known as Sacred Time.

Sacred Time does not belong to one year or the next. It is outside of them, outside of Time, a cosmic and universal liminality. The previous year has died, and the world with it. The next year is not coming...it needs to be brought. Shoulder to shoulder you stand with the gods performing the rites that will ensnare Chaos and lead the world back to the light.

The two weeks of Sacred Time are unique. While all seasons have weeks marked by the same Runes, only Sacred Time has Luck Week and Fate Week. Thus the end of a year and the beginning of the next is marked by the same Runes that mark the end of the week and the start of the next. Again. We are being told a story. Luck and Fate. In Sacred Time, the Devil must be bound.

Just a quick word on "Sacred Time"

In our world, the term "Sacred Time" was coined by Romanian philosopher and historian Mircea Eliade. Building on the work of French sociologist Emile Durkheim, Eliade proposed that "traditional man" (i.e. humanity prior to the Enlightenment period and industrialization) recognized two levels of existence...the Sacred and the Profane. The Sacred was the realm of gods, myths, and heroes. It existed outside of time and was eternal. Sacred Time was the essential, the hub around which the cosmos turned. The Profane was the mundane, everyday world, the world of history and time. Through rites and rituals, through hearing myths, traditional man could "return" to the Sacred Time, and experience timeless, universal truths first hand. In other words, in Glorantha Eliade's "Sacred Time" is in fact the "Gods Age." 

It is probably not coincidence or error that Greg Stafford borrowed the term to apply to the two weeks between Gloranthan years, however. Gloranthan Sacred Time exists, just like the God's Age, outside of time. Here the Web of Time unravels, here the veil between worlds is thin. This is why so many heroquests are performed in this two-week period...it is easier to reach the Other Side. The gods and their world are closer to Mundane Glorantha in this period, standing together with mortal beings to save the world from Chaos once more.

Playing Through Sacred Time

The core RuneQuest rules abstract Sacred Time in the "Between Adventures" chapter, pp. 420-427. But there is no reason, given their prominence in the life of the adventurers, not to play through the rites and rituals of Sacred Time. This is probably more true if the adventurers are community leaders, and would take a more active role in leading this ceremonies.

The rituals of Sacred Time are all heroquests. Broadly speaking participation in them can be divided into two roles: the heroquesters, who take on the roles of gods and heroes, and the worshippers who provide magical support. As a frame of reference, I will be using the heroquest rules from The Company of the Dragon (pp 164-170) but those in Six Seasons in Sartar can be used as well.

Communities spend the entire year preparing for these rites, setting aside offerings and sacrifices, building up magical resources, making costumes and props, practicing the dances, the piping, the drumming, etc. 

 

In the week leading up to Sacred Time, people engage in ritual purification, abstaining from sexual congress, the use of intoxicants, etc. This varies from culture to culture and cult to cult, however. I like to imagine the worshippers of the Storm Bull having a Mardi Gras like orgy of sex and intoxication before the final battle with Chaos comes. 

The entire adult community takes part in the rituals, unless they are too infirm or injured. Children are excluded. They witness the rites, but do not magically contribute to them. The solemnity of these rituals are impressed upon them, however, and they watch wide-eyed and in wonder as they are performed. 

For the entire two weeks the myth of "how the world was saved" is re-enacted. Among the Orlanthi this is the Lightbringers' Quest. Yet among the Dara Happans and Pelorians we might imagine the murder of Murharzarm, Yelm's descent into Hell, the Rebel Gods coming and begging at his feet, the trials and tests he set for them, and his glorious re-ascent replacing the Lightbringers' tale. In the Lunar Empire, local myths are likely observed, but in the most Lunarized and urban eras the quest of the Red Goddess might be re-enacted (she saved the world by "reinventing" Time). Yet universally what is being re-enacted is the saving of the world. For simplicity, we will focus on the Lightbringers here.

The Orlanthi day begins at sunset, not midnight, so the Sacred Time rituals are performed then. In Disorder Week they are conducted each night from sunset to past midnight, symbolizing the descent of the Lightbringers into the Underworld. In Fate Week, they are conducted from before dawn to late morning, symbolizing the return. A number of cults have their holy days here, and these usually happen from midday into the afternoon. Adventurers who participate in both Sacred Time rites and worship rites probably end the day exhausted!

Mechanics & Procedures

Sacred Time rituals are "community" level heroquests, designed to bring a boon to the community. The success of each individual community contributes cumulatively to saving the world, but for the sake of your gaming table, focus on your clan, neighborhood, or community.

The Boon: the Boon being sought during Sacred Time is continued existence. Time has died and you are rebirthing it. Succeed and the world is reborn. Fail, and entropy reigns. 

To model this, replace the "Omens" table on p. 421 with the following. The community will perform a heroquest. Successfully passing each stage results in a cumulative +5% bonus. Failing a stage results is a cumulative -5% penalty. These cancel each other out, so if you pass four stages and fail two, you end up with a +10%.

This number replaces the Harvest modifier on the Omens table. If you are using the Community Characteristics rules from The Company of the Dragon, this modifier is additionally applied to all Community Characteristic rolls made the next year. For example, a clan with a Community CHA of 12 is negotiating with a neighboring clan. Unfortunately, they have a -15% penalty from Sacred Time. Instead of rolling against 60% (12 x 5) they now role against 45%.

If none of the stages are passed, disaster befalls the community. For example, the harvest is threatened by grain blight. Heavy rains cause flooding and landslides. Lack of rain threatens famine and drought. The cattle are plagued by particularly powerful disease spirits. The community wyter falls silent and cannot be contacted. No children are conceived that entire year, etc, etc. This is in addition to the penalty mentioned above. 

If all stages are passed, the community is blessed. Add 1D3+1 to three Community Characteristics. Add the bonus to all "Childbirth" and "Child Survival" rolls for community members that year. The GM may add any other blessings they desire.

The Myth: for simplicity's sake we will assume our community is an Orlanthi clan and the Myth being enacted is the Lightbringers' Quest.

There are several versions of this now available in print. For example, pages 12 and 13 of The Lightbringers or pages 45-47 of Mythology. It is critical to understand, however, that different tribes, different clans, different cities, will all have slightly different versions, and the episodes of the myth they re-enact will differ. Feel free to embellish, modify, and alter to create a version unique to your community.

The Hero's Journey: as described on page 169 of The Company of the Dragon, your heroquest will begin with "The Call to Adventure," a series of trials and tests, a "Supreme Ordeal," and "The Return." 

On pages 19 to 25 of The Seven Tailed Wolf I present a version of this, portraying Kallyr's disastrous attempt at a nationwide Lightbringers' quest. On Freezeday of Luck Week, the "Call to Adventure" begins with Orlanth recognizing the danger the world is in and vowing to set it right. On each subsequent day I stage a different episode drawn from the myth. 

For your Sacred Time re-enactments, I recommend starting the same. "The Call to Adventure" can simply be Orlanth vowing to set things right. After, you will want about 4 scenes or episodes from the Lightbringers' Quest to provide the trials and tests, each performed on subsequent days. Then comes the Supreme Ordeal, the gods confronting the Devil in the Underworld, the forging of the Great Compromise, and the birth of Time. The Return is the final day, with the Lightbringers returning through the gates of Dawn.

This totals 7 scenes. Obviously Sacred Time is 14 days in length, but unless you are feeling really ambitious or really masochistic, I don't suggest 14 full scenes. Assume that other re-enactments are going on the other 7 days, but don't weigh yourself down (particularly at first). Note also that in Mythology, in the description "What Happens in Sacred Time?" (pp. 51-52), the Lightbringers' Quest lasts only 7 days. The other days are given to other gods. If you wish to conform to that outline, you can still use all of the following to portray the Lightbringers' Quest. 

Also, focus on the player characters. If you have an Orlanthi, a Lhankor Mhy, and an Issaries in the group, make sure to pick episodes from the Lightbringers' Quest that showcase these deities. 

Following the Lightbringers' Quest as presented in Mythology, your re-enactments might look something like this:

Day 1: The Call to Adventure. Orlanth looks upon his blasted and empty hall and vows to set the world to rights.

Day 2. Orlanth heads west and gathers the Lightbringers. They cross the sea on the back of the Turtle God and confront the purple-skinned Luathelans and the bloody goddess of Dusk, finally finding the entrance to the Underworld.

Day 3. They descend into the Underworld, facing terrible trials and ordeals.

Day 4. The Lightbringers seek the Halls of the Dead, confronting wraiths and shades, darkness spirits, and finally King Griffin, who they must challenge to enter.

Day 5. Orlanth confronts Yelm at last. The Lightbringers endure the requirement of Proof, and Trial by Combat.

Day 6. The gods swear the Great Compromise and perform the Ritual of the Net. The Devil is faced, defeated, and devoured by Arachne Solara.

Day 7. The gods make the dangerous return journey, this time with Yelm and other dead gods. They endure further tests and challenges before returning victorious through the Gates of Dawn. 

This is the structure. Now let's focus on the performance.

Performance: at sunset on Freezeday, Luck Week, the entire clan gathers. Community leaders and important members have been selected to portray the roles of the Lightbringers, Yelm, and other important characters. They will be costumed, painted, and dressed as these gods. For the next two weeks they will not be referred to by their names. Instead they will be called by the name of the god they embody.

The rest of the community will lend magical support, watching the re-enactment of the quest, singing along with the verses of the story, performing ritual gestures at critical moments, and the like.

On that first sunset sacrifices are offered. A prized bull. Jewelry. Beloved possessions. Locks of hair. If the last year was particularly bad omened, they might even sacrifice a horse. 

Following the sacrifice, prayers are offered to the gods. Player characters must make Worship rolls. If you are using the Community Characteristic system, Community POW and CON are rolled to represent the magical and material sacrifices being made. The entire community sings and dances. If the player characters are supporting the rites, and not playing the roles of gods, they must all make Dance and Sing rolls, and sacrifice at least 2 magic points.

Start keeping track of who succeeds and who fails. Those who succeed most of their rolls should be awarded a blessing at the end of the day. Those who fail most of their rolls gain a bane. See the boxed text on page 171 of The Company of the Dragon for details. Keep track of the total number of rolls as well...do most pass or fail? This is important to test and see if the community passes the stage. 

If player characters are portraying the gods, they must come out, costumed, and deliver their lines. Have them make Act, Sing, or Orate rolls (the myths are ritually chanted along with drumming and piping). They cross over to the Other Side and now speak and think as the god they portray.

As a very general rule, I have the group face 2 or 3 tests each stage (day) of the quest, 1 or 2 if there is a combat. This is because I run following the "1 Season 1 Adventure" rule and am counting all of Sacred Time as a single adventure. Further, I like to play one adventure per game session, so I try to keep things moving. There is no reason why you cannot increase the number of challenges faced each day, however. Also, I try to think of broad tests that everyone can face, but also ones that spotlight specific cults and characters. Give Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Eurmal, and the others a chance to shine. 

Looking back at our myth what is being re-enacted here is "Orlanth Vowing to set the World to Rights." I presented a version of it in The Seven Tailed Wolf  page 19, drawn from Stafford's Book of Heortling Mythology with my own elaborations. Present it however you like, but this opening session should be briefer and less challenging than the trials ahead. You are merely setting the stage, and a number of rolls have already been made, enough to calculate the results of the day.

If the majority of rolls pass, the community gains +5% that day. If not, -5%.

The second day (assume Clayday, Luck week, skipping every other day) we have "The Westfaring," Orlanth heading west and gathering the Lightbringers as outlined in the myth above. The community gathers at sunset, and after songs and prayers are offered, the quest resumes.

This is the first of the trials and testing stages of the heroquest. In Company of the Dragon I broke these down into three: facing a foe, making an ally, and beating a challenge. There are plenty of opportunities to make allies as Orlanth encounters and recruits each of the Lightbringers. They then must convince the Turtle God to carry them across the sea. This is probably beating a challenge. They confront the Luathelans, leading to either facing a foe or beating a challenge, and then the bloody goddess of the Dusk, whom they must convince to let them into the underworld. This is probably beating a challenge. 

At this point, however, it might be best if we digress for a second. Consider the following a "sidebar."

What is actually happening here?

Always keep in mind that this is a re-enactment, a performance. The performers have one foot in this world and one in the Other Side, so they actually see and experience the myth as if it were real. For example, in confronting the Luathelans above, the questers see towering, purple-skinned demigods looming over them on the God Plane. When they fight, Orlanth hurls his Lightning Spear at one with a terrible flash of light and crash of thunder...

...but at the same time, those "Luathelans" are fellow clansmen painted purple, and the Lightning Spear Orlanth carries is a prop. The entire clan is looking on, chanting, cheering, lending magical support to the gods. 

You are not, then, actually testing the character's Javelin or Spear skill. They are not attempting to wound or kill their clansmen! So what are we testing then?

As a general rule, you primarily want to test Rune affinities, performance skills like Act, Dance, Orate, and Sing, and knowledge skills like Cult Lore. Passions come into play when appropriate (Devotion to the god you are personifying, Hate of an enemy you are facing). Magical skills like Worship and Spirit Combat are also common. Most other skills are irrelevant. This is a magical and religious ceremony, not a physical adventure. 

Continuing our example, then, when Orlanth throws the Lighting Spear at the Luathelan, the character might...

...test Orate, as they declare "And lo He Who Wields the Thunderbolt did unleash his Spear of Lightning, and smote his enemy in wrath."

...test Dance as in the performance they dash gracefully around the Luathelan in circles, tapping them with the Lightning Spear prop.

...test Act as the performer bellow and roars so convincingly that the audience sees Orlanth before them.

...test the Air Rune affinity or Devotion Orlanth, as the performing calls upon their god's magic to smite the enemy on the God Plane.

There are exceptions to this. In The Seven Tailed Wolf to simulate the Turtle God bearing the Lightbringers over the sea, clansmen portrayed the Turtle by carrying the Lightbringers on shields raised over their heads, while other clansmen played the roll of the sea (!!!) throwing buckets of water at them trying to make them drop the Lightbringers. Meanwhile the Lightbringers had to stand on the shields and try not to fall. These were tests of STR, CON, and DEX, with a few other physical skills as well. But the primary thing is that it was a ritualized game, not an actual fight.

Also, there may be times (as we will see when we reach "The Supreme Ordeal" stage below) that actual fighting may occur. In The Company of the Dragon I talked about a Storm Bull initiation ritual in which the initiate had to act out Storm Bull's destruction of the Devil. This was done by placing the initiate into a ring with a captured Chaos creature (typically a Broo) and having them fight. There are similar episodes in The Seven Tailed Wolf. Further, the Orlanth use of "Summons of Evil" also brings real danger to the test.

To sum up, 90% of the time you want to test magical and performance skills. There will be times, especially in those who focus all of their attention on their character's weapon skills, when players complain about this. I like to remind them characters in RuneQuest are not only fighters, they are also magic-users, and that even the deadliest samurai practiced poetry, noh, and flower-arranging!

Now back to our quest...

Day three falls on Fireday, Luck Week. Again, at sunset, the clan gathers at the ritual space around the performers. Prayers are sung, and the drumming and piping begins.

In this stage, the Lightbringers descend into the Underworld, facing trials and tests as they go. There are any number of options here. The safe path must be found (Issaries or Eurmal might test Devotion to their god, Issaries as the Pathfinder and Eurmal as the one who knows the way into Hell). The Lightbringers might be attacked by Underworld demons or the Dead. The performers may have to test their Darkness Rune affinities to not get lost in the blackness, or their Water Rune affinities to cross the Styx. They might meet Darkness spirits they might ally as a guide (Orate, Act, etc). 

Day four falls on Godday, Luck Week. As usual, the clan gathers at sunset, prayers are offered, the music begins. On this day the Lightbringers cross the Underworld, seeking the Halls of Yelm, and must pass King Griffin to enter. Perhaps Chalana Arroy must heal the blind and hungry dead so that the Lightbringers may pass (Devotion or Worship Chalana Arroy, or test the Harmony or Fertility Rune). Maybe Eurmal must trick the way past them. Maybe Flesh Man finds his father amongst them and must convince his father to aid them (test the Man Rune affinity). Whatever the case, the journey ends with King Griffin. They must persuade him to let them pass (Orate, Act, Sing) or answer his riddles (Cult Lore).

Day five falls on Waterday, Fate Week. This time the clan assembles at dawn, and will for the rest of the days. After the usual opening, the re-enactment begins. At this stage they must face Yelm in his Halls. 

Mythology is pretty specific here (p. 47) in what they face, and it is mostly Orlanth centered. It beings with a tense series of negotiations with Yelm, and these could be re-enacted by having the Orlanth performer and a fellow clansmen skilled in oratory "orate" against one another (a rap battle!). Or a clansmen with a high Fire/Sky Rune and the Orlanth performer might have a Rune Affinity contest.   

After this Orlanth endures the "acidic hatred" of his assembled enemies. Perhaps the Orlanth performer is splashed with a bucket of lye water (yes, we know it is a base and not an acid, but I doubt the Orlanthi make such a distinction) and must dodge it (a time the actual Dodge skill is used) or suffer a certain amount of actual damage (a low amount, say 1D3...the performer has failed the test which was the point, not blinding or burning them). Alternatively it could be handled the usual ways (contests of skills such as Orate, Sing, or Act against one another). 

Then comes trial by combat. Again this could be pure performance (a Dance contest), or non-lethal fighting to first blood using Fist or Grapple). If Orlanth is wounded, give Chalana Arroy the chance to heal him (another test).

Day six comes Windsday, Fate Week. This is the Supreme Ordeal, the confrontation with the Devil in Hell, his devouring and binding, and the swearing of the Great Compromise. The clan gathers at dawn and after the usual rites the tests begin. 

This is a perfect example of when actual combat might occur. "Summons of Evil" might be used, or a captured Chaotic foe might have to be fought and defeated to re-enact the defeat of the Devil. Once defeated, the ritual of the Net might be performed, with each performer holding threads, weaving in and out of one another to form an elaborate web (all must pass Dance tests). 

The seventh and final day falls on Wildday, Fate Week. It begins again at dawn. After the opening rites and rituals the performers re-enact the return of the Lightbringers, with Yelm, to the world.

The final day of Sacred Time, Godday, Fate Week, is a time for celebration, feasting, and rejoicing (tempered by how well the rites were performed!).  

Final Notes

None of this, of course, is a full scenario, just an outline to give individual GMs ideas. As mentioned, I give full scenario examples in The Seven Tailed Wolf (though these are Kallyr's larger pilgrimage version of the rites) for further ideas. 

Also this post focuses solely on the Lightbringers' Quest, and if your group is made up mainly of members of other cults, take a look at Mythology, "What Happens in Sacred Time?" (pp. 51-52) for ideas on things they might be doing. 

Trial and Tribulation: A look at Kalayde Waters

Over the years I kept a binder full of what I would eventually call "episodes," reusable mini-adventures and encounters for RuneQuest that could be used to fill in gaps between adventures or add color and texture to campaigns. Many of these made it into Six Seasons in Sartar, and others into The Company of the Dragon. "A Battle," "A Birth," "A Cattle Raid," "A Funeral," "A Marriage," "A Raid," "A Rescue," etc. One of the episodes that never made it into print was called "A Trial," and was meant to show the Orlanthi system of justice. I am pleased now that this particular episode fell through the cracks, because Sean Fitzgerald just published an entire scenario about an Orlanthi trial, and it blows my episode out of the water. 

Kalayde Waters is a new scenario for the Jonstown Compendium that digs deep into the subject. An 81-page PDF, it is organized into six episodes, three of which are an Orlanthi trial in which the adventurers represent the defendant. Two lovers, engaged to be married, have vanished and are believed by their kin to be dead. The problem is that these are Orlanthi we are talking about here, so of course the families of the two lovers have been engaged in a long and volatile rivalry, and now blame each other for these deaths. Demands for compensation are high, and could spiral out of control into an open feud and kinstrife.

Kalayde showcases what I enjoy about both Glorantha and the Jonstown Compendium. It takes advantage of the rich "anthropological" aspects of the setting, using the quirks of Orlanthi culture as a spring board for adventure, but while offering plenty of opportunities for traditional whacking things with weapons also lets you play the equivalent of Law & Order: Sartar. To that end, Kalayde offers complete rules on running and participating in an Orlanthi trial, rules that will have great replay value beyond just this adventure. I can easily imagine a legal drama campaign with players in the role of Lhankor Mhy lawspeakers, for example. More pragmatically, these rules will be valuable in any Orlanthi campaign where the adventures get into trouble, or clans have disputes...so basically any Orlanthi campaign. There is also an expanded section on Orlanthi hospitality and greetings drawn from Stafford's writings but not yet included in any Chaosium RuneQuest publications.

My general policy on reviewing scenarios is to avoid all spoilers, so if you want to know what "Kalayde" is buy the book. But what I can talk about is the writing, the layout, and the art.

Sean Fitzgerald wrote the text and laid out the entire book (Joshua Wright and Brian Duguid supplied the editing and proofreading). This is impressive enough, but the art credits go to Fitzgerald and Hunter Fitzgerald, and there is a lot or art in this book, and it is good. Add to this that they also produced a VTT edition and you can see how much work went into this. It is a fairly long adventure (I had the chance to run it, and it took a half dozen sessions), but meticulously explained and detailed, full of all the player handouts you would need. Even beginning GMs could run Kalayde with the amount of support given. I spoke about this in a recent interview, but compared to a lot of community content out there, so many Compendium offerings look, read, and play like professional efforts. Kalayde is one of them. 

In the end Kalayde Waters is a scenario with a memorable twist, and the kind of "fairy tale" elements that I am partial to in my own work. The trial portions were my favorites, and great fun to play out. This is yet another Jonstown offering that you are going to want in your collection.

   

The Return of "Sun County" The Re-Release of a Classic

The Obligatory Introduction

Over the many years, around gaming tables, in Internet chat rooms, here on this blog, and anywhere else one might find me flapping my gums, RuneQuest 3 has endured an unwarranted amount of abuse from me. 

Understand: I met RQ2 the year before RQ3 replaced it. I had fallen in love with Glorantha, with the mechanics, and suddenly here was this new edition that committed all sorts of unspeakable sins. The mechanics were different--the calculation of skills and hit points, and what in the world was fatigue--but the unpardonable sin was that the default setting was...ugh...Earth. The gods were generic. Prices were listed in pennies. Rurik was replaced with some idiot Pict called Cormac. And my gaming group decided they hated it. Twelve year old me did too.

(Bonus rant: the Runes are the integral building blocks of Glorantha and the source of all magic...why in the name of Sheng Seleris are you calling the game RuneQuest when in Fantasy Earth there are no longer Runes to quest for? Drew shakes his fist in indignation, frothing at the jaws.)

Insult was added to injury when Earth-based products like Vikings and Land of Ninja began to appear. We had been spoiled in those halcyon RQ2 days with products like Cults of Prax, Trollpak, Cults of Terror, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands, Big Rubble, and Pavis. Now we were getting vikings and samurai? Weren't there already other games doing that? Yes, I am conveniently ignoring Gods of Glorantha and Genertela: Crucible of the Hero Wars, two boxed sets that were Glorantha-based and pushed the setting forward, but this is my rant so I am allowed. Generally speaking, there was throughout the 80s, a real fear that Glorantha had been abandoned.

There is more to the story, a lot more, but when you buy your copy of Sun County you can read Shannon Appelcline tell it. Trust me, he tells it better than I do. The point is that for nearly a decade I associated RQ3 with the neglect of Glorantha.

And then, out of nowhere, salvation came.

The First (and Second) Coming of Sun County

Again, buy the book and let Shannon tell you the story, but the gist is that in the early 90s publisher Avalon Hill seemed to realize that RQ was on life support and something needed to be done. The solution was, as it always should have been, "focus on Glorantha." Ken Rolston was brought in as line editor (yes, that Ken Rolston) and saddled with the task of bringing the game back from the brink. No easy task. It was going to take a game-changing product, something absolutely phenomenal, to pull this off.

Well, miracles do happen.

Michael O'Brien and Trevor Ackerly's Sun County (1992) hit Glorantha fans like sunstroke, just in a good way. I was a senior in college, and had been playing RuneQuest for a decade (though sticking with RQ2). At this point I was now GMing rather than playing, and the first version of Six Seasons in Sartar was being formulated. When I saw a copy of Sun County in my local game store, my jaw literally dropped. For the most part, Avalon Hill had served Glorantha to us in boxed sets, and there is simply no polite way to discuss the art. But here was Sun County, a thick softcover book, and it had that Roger Raupp cover. People lie when they say you can't judge a book by its cover. You can. And in that painting we had the most realized image of Glorantha we had ever seen. You could feel the hot sun on the back of your neck. You felt you could almost just step through the cover like a doorway and be there.

The cover that launched a thousand campaigns

Poor struggling student that I was I bought it on the spot (heck, I could skip a few meals). And as soon as my group finished proto-Six Seasons I was looking for ways to lure them to Prax's Sun County.

It feels a bit ridiculous to sit here in 2024 and have to say nice things about Sun County. Telling you Sun County stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the greatest RQ game books (or heck, game books in general) feels like explaining that water is wet and chocolate is really good. It feels like something we just all know. Yet RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha has initiated a lot of new members into the Glorantha Tribe, and they need to know how good this book was (and now "is"). So let me talk first about the book in general, and then about this bright, shiny new release of it.

For starters, Sun County threw open the doors on a culture that we had all heard of, but never really explored. RQ had long lingered in New Pavis, but Sun County took us south into the lands of the Praxian Sun Dome. These were the followers of Yelmalio, Son of the Sun. We had met him much earlier in Cults of Prax, but this was a deep dive into the culture of the Sun Domers, how they lived, their customs and laws, their outlook and beliefs. Up until that point, Avalon Hill had largely been content to recycle what we had seen before, Sun County was proof that the setting was alive and still growing. In fact, alongside Griffin Mountain, it was early proof that Glorantha had more cultures to explore than the one around Pavis.

The book starts with general information, describing the land, its key figures, and its people. We are given an overview of the history of the region, its laws, customs, and governance, trade and currency, and the military. Attention is given to the "contraband euphoric herb" hazia, and how it is illicitly grown, smuggled, and sold in the region. Statistics are provided for the movers and shakers of the area.

In the tradition of Biturian Varosh and Paulis Longvale, "Jaxarte's Journal" is next, giving us a first-hand look at the region through the eyes of a young Lunar official. Unlike the "flavor text" that haunted so many game products in the late 80s and 90s, these are in-world documents, with their own provenance and history. They take on the task of not only adding verisimilitude, but introducing us the culture of Sun County through the eyes of someone new to it.

There is a write-up of the cult of Yelmalio, which in the original edition mainly served the function of updating the RQ2 cult to RQ3, but as the religion is to integral to the culture of Sun County it needs to be here. In the current 2024 re-release, it should easily hold fans over until the official RQG version of the cult appears. But more on that in a bit.

Next we have detailed maps and descriptions of the Sun Dome, the central temple and seat of governance. These are accompanied by selections from another in-world text, Hector's Yellow Book, working to flesh out and bring the setting to life. This is followed by a detailed chapter on Sun Dome Templars and their militia, much needed and appreciated given the long tradition of the Sun Domers as being famed mercenaries. 

It is then that we get into the real "meat" of the book (were the initial chapters not meal enough!), Sun County encounters and scenarios. This is where I have to get vague, so as not to spoil anything. But the adventurers in Sun County are legendary in the RQ community. "The Garhound Contest" is a terrific bit of culture building, detailing an annual competition held at the Harvest Festival the adventurers can participate in. "Melisande's Hand" expands and builds on this with a full scenario.

"Rabbit Hat Farm" brings the taint of Chaos to the sun-drenched lands of the region, and has long been a fan favorite. It sets the stage for two more chilling scenarios, "The Old Sun Dome" and "Solinthor's Tower," both of which dig deep into the history of the region. Both of these are "gothic" in the finest sense of the tradition, the power of a shadowy past to haunt the "enlightened" present. I have written about both of these before, particularly "The Old Sun Dome," which stands out in my mind as a contender for one of the finest RQ scenarios written. The curious can scour my blog if they want spoilers. But I am going to assume that a lot of you reading this are new players, so I won't ruin the thrills or chills. What I can say is that they are both models for RQ scenario building. They tell stories without being railroady. They show that the setting can stretch into more genres than just epic fantasy. And they are unforgivingly brutal, which the best RQ adventures tend to be.

The New Remaster

The new release is not just some simple scan of the original text, but remastered from the ground up to be clear, crisp, and up to modern industry standards. As of this writing I only have the PDF, but comparing it to my battered original copy you can see how necessary the remastering was. The text and art "pops." Text sections are hyperlinked. It is easy to read.

As I mentioned previously, the book includes a history of Sun County, and the role in played in the "RuneQuest Renaissance" of the early 90s, by renowned game historian and author Shannon Appelcline. This introduction puts the book into the greater context of RuneQuest publications and the relationship between original publisher Chaosium and RQ3 publisher Avalon Hill.

But new players and GMs need to be aware this is a classic product written for the 3rd edition. This is not an updated text for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha. Given the tremendous backward compatibility of RQ products, and with the "Conversion Guide" provided in the core rules, this should not be too much of an issue.

Available now as a PDF from DriveThru.RPG, with print on demand copies imminent, Sun County is a must for Glorantha fans, particularly those who enjoy its spiritual successors like the Sandheart series or Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome. With any luck, this might open the door for the eventually re-release of other classic titles as well

   

 

Apocrypha Now: A look at Dark Side of the Moon

IN THE DVD EXTRAS FOR PETER JACKSON'S The Fellowship of the Ring, Ian McKellen (Gandalf) talks about working with Ian Holm (Bilbo). Holm would intentionally play each take a little bit differently than before, varying his line delivery or mannerisms, so that Jackson could then look at each variant and chose which "Bilbo" was right for his film. 

I mention this because it is how I think about the Jonstown Compendium. Official Chaosium publications are "canon," inasmuch as anything in Glorantha can be, but the Jonstown Compendium is the place for alternate "takes." Here creators can present different versions of Glorantha, and GMs and groups can use these variants, or the mainline canon versions, as they see fit to fashion their very own Gloranthas. Both Nick Brooke and I have presented alternate takes on the Battle of Dangerford, for example, he is his The Duel at Dangerford and myself in The Company of the Dragon. Both are very different takes, and when Chaosium gets around to theirs it will be different as well. But all are out there for gamers to pick which they like best. Likewise, I know my portrayal of the Dragonrise presented in The Company of the Dragon is not the canon version of events. My Kallyr Starbrow spends six years planning the awakening of the Brown Dragon. The canon version woke the Dragon by accident. Yet this is the joy of the Compendium. Back in June, one of my talks at Chaosium Con Australia was for aspiring Compendium writers, and this was a point that I emphasized. Don't try to do canon, do something different and give the tables out there a choice.

Dark Side of the Moon is a brand new release from many of the people who brought you A Rough Guide to Glamour, including Chris Gidlow, Mike Hagen, and Nick Brooke. Other writing credits include Margaret Gill and Jeff Erwin, as well as a lengthy piece from the late Greg Stafford. The stunning wrap-around front and back cover comes from John Sumrow, with the interior art provided by the tireless Katrin Dirim, whose work turns up in so many books I suspect she might have clones of herself working at the same time.

Dark Side is a case study of what I have been talking about. Billing itself as a "compilation of heretical Lunar apocrypha," arguably the only "canon" document in the entire 141-page pdf is Stafford's own "The Life of Sedenya." With the recent release of The Lunar Way, however, Dark Side of the Moon doesn't need to adhere to canon, and does what Compendium books are good at, offering personal and alternative takes on the Lunar religion. Some of this material has been around awhile, going back to Tales of the Reaching Moon, but all of it has been updated for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha and a lot of other material here is new.

Let's start with what Dark Side isn't, other than canon I mean. This is not a replacement or stand-in for The Lunar Way. There is not, actually, a lot of "crunch" here (some, less than the Cult books). It also isn't a a book for beginners. What I mean by this is that if you are new to RQ and want to know what the deal is with the Lunar Empire and the Red Goddess, start with The Lunar Way. Likewise, there are no adventures here, no new monsters or NPCs.

However if you love the Lunars, and you want some deep, fascinating Lunar content, this is the book for you. I hesitate to call it either an "art book" or "coffee table book," because there is a meaty amount of content here. But it is a book that is designed to be flipped through, repeatedly, and absorbed in small bites. Dark Side is not a text so much as inspiration. Case in point, throughout the book Katrin Dirim's work accompanies passages from Stafford's Zero Wane History. Now, you could just go read most of this elsewhere, but the passages combined with Dirim's work make it a meditation exercise. No, there are not "kewl powerz" to buff your adventurer, but these passages and images will get you into the headspace of your Lunar adventurer.

The same can be said for Gidlow's "Seleric Verses," which with a trick near and dear to my heart is in-world literature that critiques current Lunar policies by comparing modern Lunar figures to heroes of the Zero Wane. No one eats up the use of invented books and scriptures more than I (and perhaps that eccentric fellow from Providence). 

Notable too are Jeff Erwin's "White Moon & Blue Fox" & "Ulurda Fragments," and Margaret Gill's "The Seven Sayings of Sedenya." These are, essentially, "flavor text." Now, I have a bizarre relationship with flavor text. 90% of the time, I skip it (the White Wolf books of the 1990s were the worst offenders). Unless it is illustrating a rule or a mechanic, I can do without it in my game books. But the point I am driving at here is Dark Side is not exactly a game book as it is a setting book, a "Glorantha" book. These separate pieces are all deep dives down the Lunar rabbit hole, but so long as you go into the book knowing this, and Sedenya is your vibe, you will derive a great deal from these. In this way, Dark Side has more in common with the books in the Stafford Library than it does the main game line, and I was fine with reading (and re-reading) those over and over again.  

However you also get alternative write-ups for each of the Seven Mothers cults, and this brings me full circle back to the beginning. Having the versions from The Lunar Way, and having these, is what the Compendium offers...alternatives. These alternate takes might offer the most to the most "game-oriented" reader.

A Rough Guide to Glamour and The Lunar Way are more foundational texts for the Lunar religion than Dark Side of the Moon. For example, if you wanted your Lightbringers to go visit the Lunar capital, or just wanted to know what those Lunars you are fighting believe, they are the first places to go. Dark Side is a bit more focused. It is for Lunar fans looking for more lore and myths, and in this respect Dark Side serves its audience particularly well. It is also for those of us who dig The Book of Heortling Mythology, The Glorious Re-Ascent of Yelm, and similar examples of in-world Gloranthan writings. It is a book you think about, talk about, ponder, and puzzle over. Less a meal and more a feast. And I think the Compendium needs more of this, particularly as the Cults books and Lands books come out and lay down the canon. The Compendium is for flights of fancy and alternate takes, and that Dark Side of the Moon does very well.