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.