On a side note. If anyone wants to do a review of Barbarian
Adventures for rpg.net, please do. Because of my involvment with the
product any review I might do will have to flag that association
(rpg.net does provide facilites for this) and an independent review
would be better (and might tell me something too).
Uz: The Trolls of Glorantha is a Hero Wars supplement, produced under license from Issaries by Unspoken Word. Written by James Frusetta, who is working on more troll volumes for Issaries. This supplement details the uz, Glorantha's trolls, for use both as player characters and by GMs.
The Uz are Glorantha's darkness dwelling humanoids, who live underground or at the fringes of human lands emerging only at night. Dwellers in the darkness their eyesight is poor and far-sighted, their primary sense bat-like sonar. They are the great eaters, their immense hunger matched only by their ability to consume almost anything, including stone, which passes through their famous rock stomach (and leads to trolls having some of the most lethal alcoholic beverages known to man). They come in many shapes and sizes from the stunted trollkin (or enlo) through the Dark Trolls to the might Great and Mistress Race Trolls.
A Bit of History
Back in 1982, in the RuneQuest days of Glorantha, Chaosium released
Trollpak. Trolls, everyone's favorite villains, were revealed to
be `people' with a history, culture, gods and biology all their own.
The trolls or Uz as they call themselves became one of the first
detailed non-human races to appear in a RPG, not just cardboard
villains. The Uz were not just monsters to kill, but an alien race
to encounter, with their own strange customs.
RuneQuest had always given its `monsters' the same attributes and
skills as player-characters, and one attraction of the game, was the
chance to play another species. With Trollpak, not only was it
possible to play trolls convincingly, but to run entire troll
centered campaign. A recent poster to one of the discussion lists
complained that Hero Wars had yet to provide the information for
playing trolls stating that, for his group, the chance to play
trolls was the major attraction of Glorantha. I hope that his group
will be satisfied when they get their hands on this supplement.
What you get
Uz is a 64-page full size supplement with a color cover. After four
pages of admin and a table of contents, there are 60 pages of game
text. There is no index. I do not mind as the product is easy to
navigate and I would rather have game text over an index when space
is short, but others may feel differently.
Uz Is What Uz Is
This chapter opens with A Tale of Uz, the history of the trolls.
Once dwellers in the Underworld, the death of the sun in Glorantha's
mythic past forced them to the surface. Uz history is a tragic story
of decline. The original mistress race trolls were stronger and more
magical than humans were, but exile to the surface damaged their
reproduction and most of the uz born were dark trolls. Dark Trolls
were still stronger than humans and ruled much of the surface world,
but after the Uz opposed the First Council's project to birth the
god Gbaji, he cursed them. The curse interfered with their
reproduction again and now most births are the stunted trollkin, far
weaker than humans are. As a result, the expanding humans have
pushed the Uz back, into marginal lands and places of shadow.
The chapter continues with What My Mother Told Me an in-character
description of troll values, which reflects brutish Uz humor and All
Kyger Litor's Children a description of the different troll races
and a map of their locations in Glorantha.
Comment: This chapter forms a good introduction to Uz history. Nine pages long this is not 60 page Uz lore of Trollpak yore, which may be a good thing as it covers the main highlights yet remains accessible to the Gloranthan beginner. Those who have the older material get a greater concentration on new material with this approach.
Playing Uz
This is at the heart of playing a troll. It details how troll
culture works from their clan based culture through gender (Uz are
matriarchal), language, clothing, and law to their biological
differences (sonar-like Darksense and indestructible digestive
systems) and how they affect how Uz behave. Calling to the
Underworld details their beliefs and explains how Uz fit into
Glorantha's four-way magic system (they are both animists and
theists). The section concludes with Out of the Darkness the
keywords for Uz character creation.
Comment: A good broad introduction to Uz life. There is enough here to run an uz clan centered campaign, including social structure, daily life, and laws. The role-playing notes on troll senses and hunger gave a good in to portraying them uniquely. The keywords are comprehensive (13 Dark Troll, 2 Great Troll and 3 Trollkin basic occupations; 4 Advanced occupations). A personal favorite is the Trollkin insect pilots who form an elite amongst the trollkin and ride giant flying insects. The keywords show the strengths of the Hero wars system, with many Uz attributes such as Eat Anything, Hungry, and Fear Daylight adding to playing Uz characters.
Powers of the Underworld: uz cults and magics
The largest chapter, Powers of The Underworld provides short form
cult descriptions and keywords for the major troll religions. The
religions covered are different in emphasis to those seen in RQ
incarnations. While the theist cults of Argan Argar, Xiola Umbar and
Zorak Zoran are here and joined by Karrg, and Vaneekara many troll
deities are Animist traditions. Thus, we have the Korasting
Tradition – Ancestor Worship (Practices: Korasting, Jakaboom, Jeset,
Hombobobom, Boztakang) and The Kropa Tradition – Darkness Animals
(Practices: Kropa, Orani Mor (Aranea), Gorakiki, Krolar, Swems) and
Gadblad (smiths) and Subere (darkness). Kyger Litor, the troll
ancestress, is a great god and not worshipped directly at anything
beyond a communal level by most people but through one of her
traditions or children.
Comment: There is comprehensive information here for adding magic keywords to troll characters. Necessity of space make these short write ups and it will be interesting to see some in a longer form in the future with a full panolopy of sub cults and heroes. The use of animism fits far better than the old all-theist cults of RQ. The images of dancing troll shamans speaking to their ancestors or insect sprits appeals to me and feels darker, more primitive, and more trollish. There are many new ideas here among the traditions that give the trolls more depth. Reading this chapter episode ideas popped into my head, especially involving evil Gadblad smiths. The Animism keywords do use revised Animism descriptions to future proof the material against HW 2nd edition. These rules are available to initiates of the Glorantha Trading Association, but for those without them treat practices as sub-cults within a tradition.
Narrating Uz
Playing Uz gives role-playing notes for Uz as characters; Narrating
Uz gives advice for Uz as adversaries. There is a two page article
on troll tactics, a map of Dagori Inkarth (two-page grayscale) and a
brief gazetteer, some troll NPC's, an Uz vignette and rules for
Trollball.
Comment: The map is a redrawing of the one in Trollpak, always one of the finest RQ era maps. The color version on the rear cover is small, but looks so good that the grayscale version in the interior seems to suffer by comparison, and loses some detail. Perhaps we will see a release of the color one separately. This section, while useful, suffers most from the inevitable space restrictions. There is no room for a troll episode or clan description. All of these have been hinted at as future products from UW though. However, I might well have traded the NPC descriptions, running the ridges vignette and advice on troll tactics for a short episode that could serve to introduce Uz into an existing campaign or showcased one of the NPCs.
Overall: Uz is a great product that will serve both as a good introduction to Glorantha's trolls for new players and provide a valuable HW look at the Uz for veterans.
Ian Cooper
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