As Julian Lord pointed out several digests ago, jaded anglophone RQ grognards aside, Pavis/Glorantha and Pavis/Herowars represent the first visit to the city of Griselda, Sor-Eel the Short and Krogar Wolfhelm published in official French Glorantha. Hopefully the thousands of new players attracted to Hero Wars might be interested in this subject as well, seeing as how they haven't been part of Greg's Gloranthan adventure very long. So, the million franc question, is Pavis/HW any good ? Yes, but I'll be long-winded and tell you why.
Firstly, Yelm is not Idovanus and Pavis Herowars isn't a reprint of some long lost RQ supplement any more (indeed less than) River of Cradles was. Yes, the adventures include defending the Cradle from the slavering Lunar hordes - or capturing it for the Glory of the Great Red Father. But the other scenarios - In the Eye of the Gods and The Renewal of Pavis, this featuring Count Julan and the Coders from SiP - are new, and so is a lot more too.
I'll be more than happy if the physical quality of Thunder Rebels approaches that of Multisim's latest offerings. Alas, Pavis/HW is not in the beautiful hardback format of the first two books. Instead it's a nicely bound card-cover book. The cover, showing a golden mask of Pavis, is rather handsome in the same manner as previous Multisim books. Inside the look is exactly the same as the Herowars and Glorantha books. There isn't a great deal of Bernard Bittler's artwork inside, which is a pity, but what's there is excellent. The layout is quite clear, in spite of the book being rather dense. Unfortunately there are a few places where the Mastery rune was replaced by a "5", but that shouldn't cause more than a moment's head scratching.
Appropriately enough for a French product Pavis/HW is, like Gaul, divided into three parts. The first part - the Hero book - provides character keywords and magic keywords for the peoples of the Oases and the River, for the Praxian tribes, for the inhabitants of Pavis and Sun County and for the Lunar settlers, voluntary and otherwise, of the Valley. Most of this is as you might expect, but there are a few quite big surprises which I shan't spoil for you. One point which did stand out was that the Praxian magic keywords are rather simple compared to the diversity of magic that the Grazers have access to. I assume that this is a short form only. Even so, there's just as much game detail for Waha, Eiritha and the Storm Bull as there is in any other official source.
There is a good deal more information on the religion of Sun County than we've seen before, even if Somash is strangely missing. Sun County's Dominicans in the form of the followers of the Monrogh subcult get a look in, and so does backward Sun County's equivalent of Buserian, Togtuvei the Truth-Seeker. Yelmalio's cult is well done, with the gifts for the truly dutiful being somewhat changed and far more mythic in style than before. Who wouldn't be glad of Ernalda's Love, Monrogh's Lantern, the Beauty of the Light or the Secret Fire ? Much nicer than the bland gifts of Humakt.
The only obvious omission from this section is anything in the way of heretical religions for Lunar deportees - no White Moon, Invisible Orlanth or whatever.
The second, Narrator's book contains a host of characters, well known and otherwise. All our old friends are here. Gimgim, Sor-Eel, Duke Raus, Krogar Wolfhelm, Kost the Tracker, Fleeter Nemm and dozens more. There are plenty of stock characters as well, as well as plenty of local worthies to flesh out your Pavis without making you sweat.
Everyone's favourite tough gal at last gets the write-up she deserves.
Whatever's happening, she's the first to know (4M3), she's as tough as
old boots (2M2) and she can put on a face tbat'll scare the hell out
of you (16M). Her friends turn up just when you didn't expect them to
(16M), she's got old flames all over the shop who'll help her out (4M)
and she's in with those Lanbril guys (17). She speaks the languages of
Dragon Pass (14), she's a devotee of Orlanth's red-headed daughter
(11M) and an initiate of Pavis (15). She's pretty handy with a sword
and shield (1M2) and not bad with a dart (19). She's Wolfhead's
special friend (2M) and well in with the Rubble Trolls through Pikat
Yaraboom (18) and the Sable riders too (18), she's even mixed up with
Sor-Eel (18). Admittedly everyone isn't as interesting as Griselda !
The second half of the Narrator's book contains four hero quests. They
offer the chance to follow in the footsteps of Pavis the Founder, to
emulate the Ordeal of Purification first followed by the Cleansed One
(River of Cradles), the Ascent of Tada's High Tumulus and the Alliance
of Sun and River aka the Sun County River Ritual. All four offer a
variety of challenges to the Quester (or Questers in the case of
Tada's High Tumulus). Without the chance to play these through, it's
hard to know how they would work out. They certainly seem to have a
great deal of potential.
The third part of the book - the Hero Wars - begins with seeds for all sorts of campaigns, some new, some not. The majority of the section contains three scenarios. The story of the Cradle is probably quite well known and in any case appeared in Moon Design's Pavis/Big Rubble reprint. The transfer from RQ to HW reduced the page count by a good third, no bad thing. It's suggested level is from 5M and up.
The second scenario, In the Eye of the Gods, is set during the preparations to marry of Pavis and the Goddess. The Lunars have discovered that Genert's Eye rests under the Rubble and have decided that it's just the thing to have for this special occasion. However, that's not the only Divine Ocular Apparatus to be found in and around Pavis. And with Gimgim the Grim being very helpful to the Eye-hunters, the players will certainly find an Eye, only it won't be the one they want ... Suggested level around 10M.
The third scenario, designed to follow on from the fun and games with the Eyes of Wakboth and Genert, sees the arrival of the Coders. I don't believe that SiP was translated by Oriflam, so this is a first appearance of Count Julan and friends. Plots are afoot and together - or in competition - with the Coders, the players have to try and figure out what's going on. The scenario is fairly short, but could easily be stretched out and made more confusing. By the end of the episode, Pavis *might* have a new governor.
I was very favourably impressed with the quality of this release by Multisim. I hope that Xavier Spinat and his team will not be resting on their laurels. There's more of Good Old Glorantha which never appeared in French. Griffin Mountain for one. And if Borderlands is set too far in the distant past to be worth translating, M. Spinat and his team have neatly left the door open to a Herowars-era campaign in Raus Domain. One of the campaign seeds suggested is the struggles of the Lunar colonists and deportees after the victory of the Praxian savages (*spit*). Obviously the Duke, with the aid of a few good men and women, is just the man to lead the heroic struggle.
Obviously, if you don't read French Pavis/HW is pretty well useless unless and until it's translated. You could always ask that it is. If you do read French (or German if Multisim translate it) and fancy running a campaign in Pavis and the Valley of Cradles, it's 160 pages of effort saved in converting old stuff and coming up with new. It's well worth 24 euros (around GBP 15 or USD 22) of anybody's money if it wasn't for the cost of shipping it to distant foreign lands. I hope it's a hit.
Angus
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