It was recently suggested on the list I could get a better overview of Pelorian history by playing Keith Nellist's
boardgame "Peloria" which was published in Rule One magazine (issue 3 I believe, with an FAQ in issue 4?)
I took up the challenge, and first set about making a set. "First catch your rabbit"... Everything you need to know is in the pdf - you don't even have to possess the parent game, Britannia, though I do, as all the rules are in the pdf. There is one minor error - swap Doblian for the duplicate province in the Pelorian set up.
Making a set was fairly easy. I was not keen on the idea of printing a big paper map, so I decided to redraw it, elongating things to fit some rectangular art board I had laying around. My map has he feel of a Mercator Projection I think, which is a shame as Glorantha is flat, but hey-ho all the provinces border correctly and are in right relationships, but square would have been better!
So first I sketched out the map with pencil, making endless corrections to get it right, then drew on the borders with marker pen, then coloured in the regions with acrylic paints. It now looked like this --
http://jerome23.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/peloria1.jpg
Oh yes I have cats. Cardboard counters would probably not be a great idea. I bought some coloured paper, (should have gone for darker shades), and created a Word Document for each Nation, with then shamelessly stole artwork for each Nation, as this is only for my personal use and I did not think the artists would be too upset! (Assyrians, Greeks, Persians etc from old books are used, as are little Phoenician ships for the Pelandans, as they can alone move through sea areas,and the counter acts as a visual reminder of that!)
http://jerome23.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/peloria2.jpg
Next up I went to the banks, and changed £3 in to coins, two bags of pennies and one of two pence pieces. The pennies are used for infantry, the 2p pieces for population track markers and cavalry units. Then it was just a matter of pasting the coins on to the paper counters, which I printed off in four colours, one per player. (So all Player One Nations are pink, and so on.) PVA Glue stick does this - glue coin to piece of paper, then cut carefully round it with nail scissors. (The coins can be easily reclaimed by tearing the paper off in a fiscal emergency or if I am charged with destroying currency!) :)
OK, this took a long time - possibly a couple of days, but I did it over a week in spare moments.
Playing the Game
OK, an admission. So far I have only played the first three turns! Trying to get four players together is actually hard work, and my Runequest group is big enough but has one player who loathes boardgames and refuses to play them ever, because he was horribly brutalized by one in his childhood that crept in to his room and chewed his hair off or something - at least I assume that is the explanation! (OK, actually it was exposure to Games Workshop in his youth he says...)
Fortunately I have a wargaming friend Hugh, in fact my best friend, who is very familiar with Glorantha, likes Britannia, and wanted to play. Unfortunately our first attempt started badly when David turned up very ill, got steadily worse, and by the end of turn one had to be taken home. I then caught his cold, and was horribly ill for a week losing several days work. I blame the baleful influence of Malia emanating from Dorastor! That turn showed us something though - we needed to try and stop the Theyalans just walking in to Dorastor. (oh and that Hirenmador (sp?) chariot lords should avoid fighting other warlords, it's simply not worth their time.) The other big thing we grasped is that Pelorians die in droves if attacked, and don't stand an earthly if they attack cavalry, the -1 meaning they can't even hope to hurt defending cavalry in the first round of any battle.
http://jerome23.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/peloria3.jpg
Anyway a week passed, and we tried again. David has to be up at 4am, Hugh does not finish work till 7.30pm so we only had an hour to play between eight and nine when they were both free. we got three turns in, and have recorded the positions to continue at the start of turn 4. Here is the map, with one regalia which does not appear to the Pelorian turn placed on the map as well.
The game so far is excellent fun, even if Tom has had no counters on the map for an entire turn since the Hyalorings were destroyed. The Aldryami show up this turn though!
I hope this will inspire some of you to give Keith's excellent game a go if you have not already...
But this is the world of Glorantha List...
And most of the above is shamefully off-topic. It has however led David and me to rethink what we "know" about early Dara Happa, and mainly to wonder if the Antirius cult was actually the main solar god of the Warlords (the cavalry units - specifically the Hirenmador and Hyalorings) and Yelm does not come in until the Denesiods. We are both planning to reread Fortunate Succession and Glorious Reascent tonight with our new found understanding of the geography and having a better idea of the whole history now...
Anyway many thanks to Keith, Roderick, Greg et al, and really do try the game it is lots of fun!
cj x
CJ's uneventful life is now blogged: http://jerome23.wordpress.com/
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