RE: "Pavis - Herowars. Epic Adventures in the Legendar y City" - a reviewette

From: Richard, Jeff <jeff.richard_at_...>
Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 15:26:02 -0800


So where do I purchase this wonder?

Jeff

> ----------
> From: Angus M McLellan[SMTP:angus.mclellan_at_...]
> Reply To: HeroWars_at_yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 3:33 PM
> To: HeroWars_at_yahoogroups.com
> Subject: "Pavis - Herowars. Epic Adventures in the
> Legendary City" - a reviewette
>
>
> 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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