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

“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)

Watch this space.

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

“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

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.

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

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.

As of issue 4, Hearts In Glorantha will be a ‘magazine’ not a ‘fanzine’. What this means that although I’ll still be getting input from the fan community and the magazine will remain for the fans by the fans, I’ll be upping the production values. I’m not talking about full colour or any thing to fancy, but simple things like making sure each article has art, has good clear maps and is pretty much playable in one form or another straight out of the book. So this means making sure that all the playable bits; such as keywords, suggested abilities and supporting adventures.

Putting together Gloranthan Adventures #1 has been a really eye opener of what can be achieved with a little bit more focus, and I want to bring that to HiG.

Another biggish change is that I’m dropping D100 support and going HQ 2 only.  Couple of reasons why. Its dead easy to write HQ2 material which contains enough pointers for a savy D100 GM to write their own stats. Also Mongoose prefer to keep any MRQ Gloranthan stuff in house. Moon Designs on the other hand have been incredibly supportive. My aim with this new improved HiG is to work in harmony with what MD is doing, supplementing the Sartar/Dragon Pass/Pavis material they are going to be producing, but also exploring other parts of Glorantha. This doesn’t tie us just to the 3rd Age, we can still write for the 2nd age since my License is for HQ & Glorantha

So inspirational rant aside what does this mean for HiG issue 4?

Well this is the proposed content’s list.

Mirror shaft hall- background with personalities by Stewart Stansfield
*Blood Red Beak – an adventure for the above

Hellwood Elves- background by Shannon Appelcline
*Into the Hellwood an Adventure for the above.

12 Days’ of Sacred Time -Jane’s Fiction

Thorula -Dr Moose’s Glacier setting
*Ice bound heart- an adventure for the above

Rumble in The Rubble – by Newt Pavis adventure with pre-generated characters, a complete pick up and try HQ 2 with Glorantha scenario, previously run as a demo

All the items marked * are short adventures 10 pages or so to support the articles they are linked to designed to make the mini-settings immeadiatly playable.

I’ve got GA#1 to get out the door first, but I expect HiG#4 to be available around the end of Feb/begining of March.

I’ll do a call for content for Issue 5 after 4 is out,  but if you are interested in helping out HiG by joining a regular staff for the magazine please let me know. I need proof readers, cartographers, writers – who can fill the gaps submissions have adding keywords and adventures. Email me at newt@d101games.co.uk

Glornathan Adventures #1 New Beginings
This is like a puzzle where all the pieces are falling into place nicely

Setting – Dr Moose has provided me with the oft delayed Balkoth Tribe. This small four clan tribe on the edge of Sartar, with their lands boardering Prax, is ideal for a starting Narator and players (and pretty damn lovely for all you existing Glorantha fans as well). Dr Moose has been putting this together for many years now and has kept to his original aim of producing a playable bit of Glorantha admirably.  Get ready for the Goat herders of

Art- this is being divided equally between Hearts in Glorantha regular Xavier Liobet (how did the awesome Jack O’Bears in HiG#2 and the Sea Monsters in HiG#3) and Moon Designs Art Director and all round working man of Glorathan Art Simon Bray.   Simon did the artwork for the Continuum 2008 Fundraiser Liber Newtus which saw HQ1 versions of three of the four adventures in GA#1 published. In fact Simon’s found three excellent pieces that were left out of that august tome, including this fearsome Vampire.

Adventures – Converting and enhancing the four adventures, which have been previously published (mainly in the limited edition Liber Newtus), to HeroQuest 2 has been dead easy and a joy to do. Now with Dr Moose’s Balkoth tribe as a setting this makes the Adventures so much stronger.

Option to play the adventure using Lunar PCs- Inspired by one of Simon’s illustrations I’ll be writing a short background of how a Lunar Association sends a group of missionaries to convert the clan at the centre of the adventure arc. This means that Lunarphiles will be able to make use of the adventures.