As well as Hearts in Glorantha issue 5, I’m looking to get out a book of Jamie ‘Trotsky’ Revell’s Lords of the West material by the end of the year.

This will contain a general introduction to the West of Glorantha, Malkionism as a whole and the rest of the book will contain the background to the Kingdom of Loskalm, its cults, personalities and a Gazetteer. All you need to pick up and play in the region.

Art will be done by the marvellous and talented Peter Town, who did the art for the Jurona article in HiG 4 and of course Mythic Russia.

I feel honoured to be able to put out this, and it is going to be a major Gloranthan release for D101. I’ve already been using the material for a Loskalm campaign, currently on break, and its good solid inspiring stuff. Peter Town is completely revved up to do the internal art (I’ve never had an artist continually pester me for art direction before ) While its a shame the book can’t cover all the cults in the setting due to size restrictions, you have however got the core ones specific to Loskalm, Jamie’s done a great update were the ‘missing’ cults get a few lines and their abilities detailed so you aren’t missing any playable bits. In short it might not be ‘offical’ but I’m going to make sure that it rocks as hard as I can make it.

Jamie has more to say on his blog http://jrevell.blogspot.com/2010/07/lords-of-west-update-2.html

Earlier this week I would have had one word to say after Continuum

“AWESOME”

Now I will expand that to a short phrase

“AWESOME AND FULL OF WIN!”

Which really does need to be in capitals, sorry grammar pedants, to even attempt to express how good Continuum was this time round.

A big cheer to the organising committee and attendees.

I was there running my D101 games effort, so unfortunately missed out on all of Moon Designs and Mongoose’s seminars. One thing of note which I did notice, was the constant stream of Living Glorantha games going on in the room next to ours. Well done to the GMs, John Holmes, Simon Phipp and Duncan Rowlands who ran this newcomer friendly event all weekend, and Lawrence and his writing team who organised it.

I released Gloranthan Adventures 1 and Hearts in Glorantha issue 4 at the con, both of which where well received (2/3 of stock gone) are now available via the D101 web store

On the games front a HUGE thanks to Jane Williams who ran “The Fortress of Doors” and Tim Ellis who ran “Last Seen in Pavis”, which are either in Gloranthan Adventures #1 or future issues, over the weekend.

Finally to a very hot and tired audience on Sunday night, I gave a very quick talk about the state of Gloranthan fandom these days (very healthy in my view) and some of the upcoming D101 releases. Talking of which the audience voted for Lunars over Trolls for the next collection of Gloranthan Adventures (and how the Uz Friends grumbled mightly in a way that would have made Kygor Litor proud at that result), nodded approvingly at the proposed upcoming call for content for HiG#5 and cheered (as loudly as their fatigued state allowed) at the announcement of the Trotsky’s Lords of West/Loskalm Hearts in Glorantha special “The Book of Glorious Joy” which we’ll be publishing before the end of the year. After which as Tim Ellis mentions in his post the Gloranthan Story telling took over the room and then carried on in the dining room after the closing ceremony. Alas by the end of my talk my mojo was spent and I had to retire in search of food and beer.

Overall a fantastic con with lots for Glorantha fans to do, along side a complementary non-Gloranthan series of events/games, which I’ll be back to in 2012.

Oh and one last thing not strictly Gloranthan, but definitely inspired by the mythic gaming weirdness of Glorantha, I released Monkey: The Storytelling Game of the Journey to the West at the con to much gleeful happiness
See http://d101games.co.uk/monkey for more details.

Regards

;O)Newt

Heart still in Glorantha (although he may wander else where in search of Adventure from time to time)

Just a quick note Hearts in Glorantha issue 4 and Gloranthan Adventures issue 1 are nearly finished. Quite likely it will be a case of two buses coming at once. Both will definitely be available at Continuum at the beginning of July , if not before.

Watch this space.

Got a copy of Zin letters issue#4 from my friends at the Finish Kalikos society. Its mint, with a great layout and some gorgeous art. Its a big Orlanthi HeroQuesting special. Very hardcore knowledge wise, but with issue 3 (Far Place Special) you’ve got a very tasty mini-setting. Highly recommended.

Our infrequent game of Gloranthan Knights and Wizards hit session four last Sunday. We’re playing in Kingdom of Loskalm, Land of the Hrestoli Idealists, although session 3 saw us hop over the border to wild and woolly Jurona. In this green and pleasant the land, with the occasional chilly patch, the player heroes started off as adopted ‘peasants’ working their way through the Bording Farm to toughen them up to become Soliders, which they successfully did by the end of session 2 and they are now currently Soliders of the Provincial Army of Pomas. Future episodes will see them progress up the Loskalmi social ladder through the higher ranks of the Knight class, the magical mysteries of the Wizard class and finally up to the heady heights of the Lord class.

I’m really liking playing in the Gloranthan West. Since all the characters are Sorcery using Atheists – ok so they follow the Invisible God but every one knows its a sum expression of logical laws of magical reality in Glornatha – there’s no ‘God/Goddess of the week’ syndrome. In short its a break from the Gloranthan norm of “101 Gods whose names/mythology I can’t remember”.

The HeroQuest 2nd edition rules are really groking with our group, and we are beginning to squeeze the most out of the game engine. Lingering benefits/penalties, were if you win/lose a contest the effects carry over until you lose/win your next contest, got the spot light this session. Oh and we had many occasions where the players failed their contests. Sure hero points bail you out,flattening out fumbles to simple fails, but the ‘I win, I Win and I WIN AGAIN’ syndrome of HQ1 is truly gone.

Plus we’ve got some new players in the group which is making us rock harder and upping the fun quotient

I too had my doubts when Jeff Richard of Moon Designs revealed to me that they we’re initially going to start the new HQ 2 Glorantha line with Pavis and then those doubts doubled when it shifted to Sartar (which was originally planed as a 100 page cults book).

“Why why oh why, are we getting what we’ve already got?” I thought.

Jeff was kind enough to send me an early draft (when it was only 300 pages long ) and I was immediately blown over! I’m not a big Dragon Pass/Sartar fan, but this has made me want to run a long campaign there. As a fan publisher it also inspired me to make the first Gloranthan Adventures book (a collection of adventures with a bit of supporting setting info, like RuneQuest Adventures if you remember that) set in Sartar. Hence Gloranthan Adventures #1 New Beginnings , a collection of four adventures centred on a Sartarite clan of the Balkoth tribe (which gets a full write up in the book) which leads into the campaign in the Sartar book. I’m hoping to get out Mar/Apr (subject to me finishing off layout and getting art in on time).

Quite simply its all the information that was previously scattered over many sources in one place, in a clear and playable form with tons of new info.

Highlights from the book for me.

• It has a clear newcomers introduction to Glorantha which it gently builds on.
• Easy to follow yet flavoursome character generation with copious examples.
• The Clan Generator which allows the players to make fundamental decisions about the game’s setting, which leads to a heightened investment and interest in the game as a result.
• The cult write ups, both a quick overview of the whole range of deities worshipped by the Sartarites and detailed write ups for the major deities.
• The sections which detail clearly and simply, without becoming an pseudo-academic paper, the everyday life of the Sartarites.
• The Campaign – Got to Delecti’s upland marsh, big life changing HeroQuest to the Underworld, all in the name of wooing a Priestess. Big stuff not the timid ‘herding sheep’ type scenario that HQ1 peddled at times.

This is coming from a long time Gloranthaphile,who has piles of books, but believe me when I say that its puts the setting firmly in the hands of a newcomer who just needs the HQ core book and Sartar to play in Glorantha for years and years and years.

Its just full of awesome and win, and my copy lives on the bookshelf next to my RQ2 Gloranthan Classics. That’s how good it is

Latest issue of OneRule magazine is out

Issue three is now available at http://ruleonemagazine.com/

In this issue, we present not one, not two, but three contest results! Matthew Cole’s Chaos Feature competition from January 2009, and Ian Cooper’s Sartar, Kingdom of Heroes Character and Feat contests from December, 2009.

We also have a look at the hexads of Kralorela, a First Age story by Greg Stafford, a FAQ for issue 2′s Peloria boardgame modification, and an Ogre cult from Carmania by Roderick Robertson.

Also in the latest issue of RPG Review (Dec 09) there’s serveral Gloranthan articles and an Interview with Greg Stafford.

After much uming and arring on my part, I’ve finally kicked off on producing Hearts in Glorantha issue 4

Here’s the rather splendid cover by John Ossoway

HiG #4 cover by John Ossoway

Here’s the contents.

“Junora: The lost province” by Jamie “Trotsky” Revell
“Mirrorshaft hall” an adventure location by Stewart Stansfield
“Thorula” an adventure location/homeland by Dr Moose
“12 Stories of Sacred Time” Fiction by Jane Williams
“Flotsam and Jetsam” Ships and Creatures from Glorantha’s oceans by Nick Davison
“The Hellwood” the most vile and corrupted Aldryami forest in all of Glorantha by Shannon Appelcline

Feature: All under the Red Moon
“Vastar” a Lunar Heartland Town by Newt Newport
“The Great Egg hunt” an adventure by Newt Newport
“Moon Boat Down” an adventure by Nick Davison

Expected release date March/April 2010

Two of the simply amazing pictures Xavier Llobet has done for GA#1

The Silverwind Clan Ring by Xavier Llobet

Ok as promised here’s a quick update with what is happening regarding D101′s Gloranthan publications (aka Hearts in Glorantha and Gloranthan Adventures).

Hearts in Glorantha #4
Most of the content for this is written and over XMAS I will be comissioning the Art.

I’ve also had a rethink about what I’m doing with the magazine, and that I think is the core realisation.
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