This was my second time at Ropecon, and third time for Kalikos - the Finnish Gloranthan Association. I and two other members of Kalikos organized the panel discussion named "Glorantha esoterica" on Friday. There were many really esoteric subjects: Kloisari (Badger Hsunchen) Rituals, God Learners, Orthodox Mysticism, Kralorela during the Hero Wars, Dwarves, Malkioni Elements, etc. About two dozen listeners had come to listen us, and they also took part in discussion.
I also run three tournament games with RuneQuest rules: Yövalon varjossa ('in the Shadow of Darklight', an interesting Thanatar scenario by MOB, published in the Finnish RQ book, Kauhun ja pimeyden kultit) on Saturday, Meriwyrmin tanssi ('the Sea Wyrm's Dance', i.e. Wet and Wild in Seapolis by Simon Bray, Martin Hawley & Duncan Rowland, in ToRM #17) on Saturday, and Hullu Prax on Sunday ('Mad Prax (- Beyond Sun Dome)', a nice scenario by MOB). The players in Yövalon varjossa were all quite experienced role-players. PCs were Thanatar Lay Members who were going to pass their initiate rites: to bring their enemies' heads back to the temple. :) The atmosphere was great, and PCs finally ended up to a situation they couldn't go back to their temple because Than worshippers had taken over it.
Meriwyrmin tanssi was probably the best game I run at Ropecon. There were five PCs, who were the bodyguards of the Lunar Empire ambassador, Amatus Gillus. The ambassador was kidnapped, and the PCs were blamed because they couldn't prevent kidnapping. Finally, they rescued the ambassador after many troubles and reasoning. They even thought that harmless fishers would had kidnapped the ambassador. :)
Hullu Prax had five PCs, but an extra player created the sixth PC before the game started: the PC was a 74 years old Priest of Yelmalio, who had all Yelmalio's Geases. Perhaps there were too many players, the atmosphere wasn' t as intensive as in Meriwyrmin tanssi, but, nevertheless, we had fun.
The most humorous incident happened when PCs were attacking to the Cradle. Melo Yelo, the silly baboon, was the first person on the Cradle's deck. Melo was then Demoralized, he quickly escaped and jumped from the deck. And fumbled his Jump, and broke the spear shaft, which was shot to the Cradle, so the Cradle broke away.
The Zin Letters # 2 was published at Ropecon. The members of Kalikos got free copies, so Kalikos got many new members at Ropecon. Some copies were sold to non-members in Kaubamaja, which was a kind of bazaar full of RPG books and stuff related to RPGs. Kalikos also gave its own brochures to everyone who liked to read it.
The Zin Letters # 2 will be soon available from Tradetalk. Its website can be found at http://zin.kalikos.org/. There is a list about the magazine contents, and a bit additional Daran material for ZL #2. Big thanks to those who wrote or proofread The Zin Letters # 2!
There were a lot of interesting lectures and games (some HQ games, too) at Ropecon, but I had time to listen to two lectures only. One was an interesting lecture about the RPG theories (GNS, Threefold Model, The Big Model, etc.) by two members of Kalikos, and the other was a lecture about "Roudan maa" ('the Land of Frost'), a new Finnish source book, which describes the fantasy world similar to the world of the Finnish Kalevala. I think some ideas in "Roudan maa" can bee used in Glorantha, too, especially among the Orlanthi or Tastolar Uncolings.
Anyway, Ropecon 2004 was a very great event, and there I met many new persons interested in Glorantha. I was a bit tired after running games about 16 hours on Saturday and Sunday, but it was worthwhile. I hope there will be even more Gloranthan games and lectures next year, and perhaps even more persons will get interested in Glorantha. :)
Matti "Nysalor" Järvinen
RuneQuest and Glorantha Page:
http://nysalor.daug.net/runequest/indexeng.html
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