I must say, it was well worth risking Mr Hall's retribution. This is a musthave product!
Let's start with the cover - a full-color glossy of the Red Emperor, Jar-eel, Beat-Pot, the Crimson Bat and (I think) a tax demon. The legendary Dan Barker hits another home run with this one (do non-Yanks appreciated baseball references like that?). His interpretation of the 'young' Jar-Eel is especially interesting, and maybe a little unsettling if you think about it... I'll let you in on a little secret, for those who haven't met him; Beat-Pot Aelwrin bears a certain resemblance to Dan Barker himself.
ORIGINS OF THE PRODUCT
The contents, as advertised, are a reprint of some of the best articles from
the grossly-expensive-at-auctions _Wyrms Footnotes_. For those of you newer
to the RQ fold, WFnotes was Chaosium's house organ magazine from 1976 to 1982.
Fourteen issues appeared over that time, all dedicated to Chaosium product.
Early issues had boardgame articles, for games like _White Bear and Red Moon_,
_Lords of the Middle Sea_, _Nomad Gods_ and _Elric!_ (the old board game, not
the current RPG). {Us old-timers remember that Chaosium started out as a
board game company; _RuneQuest_ isn't given coverage in a Footnotes article
until issue #4!} Early issues also gave us cultural material, fleshing-out
the world of Glorantha that we saw only in _White Bear & Red Moon_ and _Nomad
Gods_. As the house-zine evolved, it concentrated more on RQ and less on
board games, mirroring Chaosium's product line.
WHAT YOU GET
Anyway, back to _Footprints_. Here's a list of the articles. The number in
parentheses is the issue where the article first appeared:
Walktapus Cookery (#2) Red Moon in Prax (#4) A Village Near Alone (#5) Temple of the Wooden Sword (#9) Sea of Neliom (#11) The Carving of Tarsh (#2) The God Learners (I know I've seen this, but where?) Introduction to the Surface World (#4) The Last Song of Horned-Ulf (*new*) Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha Myths of Pre-Creation (#4) The Celestial Court (#5) Deities of Darkness (#7) Spirits of the Sea (#8) Goddesses of the Earth (#9) Gods of Fire & Light (#10) Yelm (#11) Gods of Storm (#12) Orlanth and his Kin (#13) The Halfbird (*new*) Convince the Examiners (#13) Starbrow's Rebellion (#12) Famous Trolls of the Hero Wars (#6) Sartar High Council (#7) Dragons Past (#14) Character Stats (#2) Last Word (#14) Scattered throughout: William Church Dark Troll jokes & Gloranthan art
WHAT YOU DON'T GET
At first I wondered how they could possibly get all the good WF stuff into one
reasonable-sized book. But now that I see it, I think they've done an
excellent job. Most of the material you don't get relates to board game rules
and errata, letters to the editors, stats of house campaign characters,
reviews of other games and such. There are two notable omissions, however.
"Dragons Past" was a regular column detailing exploits in the Chaosium house campaign. Footprints includes "The Crown Test of Leika Ballista." Personally, this was my least favorite of the series, so I wish they'd picked a better one (or included them all).
"The History of the Lunar Empire" was another multi-part series. Each 'wane' of the Empire was detailed in a separate article. But, since this material was already reprinted in Avalon Hill's _Heroes_, I can understand the decision not to include it in Footprints.
GUSHING PRAISE - PRESENTATION & ARTWORK
First off, the layout. Steve Thomas did an excellent job making the material
very eye-pleasing. Mr Hall tells me that some folks wanted the original WF
articles scanned and reprinted exactly as they appeared. I'm glad they chose
not to go with this idea.
By my count, Dan Barker adds about forty pieces of art to the effort. Their impact cannot be understated. We're given portraits of:
The Watchdog of Corfu Londra of Londros Hon-Eel the Artess Queen Kallyr Starbrow General Fazzur Wideread Queen Leika Ballista Harrek the Beserk Jar-Eel the Razoress Jaldon Toothmaker ... and a bunch of other less famous folk
Dan's pictures of various Gloranthan pottery, jewelry and artifacts add a particular 'scholarly' feel to the Gods & Goddesses section. The greyscale rendering is especially well done.
Barker's crowning achievement has got to be the cover to the Gods & Goddesses section, however. A young girl and an older priestess re-enact the ritual meeting between the Red Goddess and Gorgorma. The two-color presentation (black and red) is used to particularly striking effect. The piece is exceptional, even better than the Jar-Eel T-shirt many of you have seen (and can still order from Reaching Moon). I hope this work goes up for auction at a future RQCon or Convulsion, and pity the fool who bids against me!
We also see a lot of previously-unpublished William Church artwork. These, and some of his classic Dark Troll jokes, are welcome additions.
Ralph Horsley, the guy who's done the _Convulsion_ Program Book covers, adds a few nice pieces too. I especially like the duck (but you all know I'm a duck sympathizer).
GUSHING PRAISE - TEXT
Those many of you who don't have the old Footnotes will love this stuff. It's
the kind of material that made us all Glorantha fans in the first place.
You'll probably appreciate the Gods & Goddesses section the most (52 pages!).
Especially good for gaming purposes is the chapter on the many facets of
Orlanth. If you're not using this material yet, it will add new richness to
your Sartarite/Orlanthi characters. (Read it after seeing _Braveheart_! ;-)
Those few of you who do have the old Footnotes will love this stuff too. Not only does it provide your material in one handy reference, but it protects the collector's value of your original magazines.
And, there's a good bit of new stuff. The G&G section is updated, edited and supplemented by superior art. The entirety of the "Sartar High Council" material is present (all the characters common and secret knowledge), so you can run this as a 12-player scenario yourself. The "Starbrow's Rebellion" material adds a detailed map of Sartar, with lots of places named. You can now see exactly where the Valley of the Chalk Man and Two-Pine Ridge are. Redbird's treaty with the Lunar Empire is also an excellent addition. It ends with: "This treaty is valid for as long as there is a King in Sartar and a Moon in the Sky." Get it?
All-in-all, there is no bad material here. (Well, OK, I already said I didn't like the "Queen Leika" article, but those of you who appreciate Glorantha-on- acid are free to disagree with me.)
WHERE CAN I GET MY HANDS ON THIS MUST-HAVE BOOK? Hall & O'Brien have already given plugs, but I'll save you the effort of combing through your Digest archives.
In Great Britain and Europe
UK Price: L 9.50 including postage (!) Other Europe price: L 10.45 Outside Europe: L 12.35 Cheques to "David Hall" please 21 Stephenson Court Osborne Street Slough Berkshire SL1 1TN ENGLAND 100116.2616_at_compuserve.com
In Australia, New Zealand & other Pacific locales
$25 + $2.65 postage (Australian Dollars) Cheques to "Michael O'Brien" please 48 Barcelona Street Box Hill Victoria 3128 AUSTRALIA MOBTOTRM_at_vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au
In the United States
Call Chaosium directly at (415) 547-7681 and have your credit card handy
IN CLOSING
Watch for the full-color 'Hunks of Reaching Moon Megacorp' Swimsuit Calendar,
printed in the U.S. by Krashtkid Press, a subsidiary of RMM. My apologies
beforehand for the less-than-photographic-quality of the images; I can't
afford a top-of-the-line scanner at this point. But the august photo of MOB,
standing erect and skyclad atop Ayers Rock in Australia's Northern Territory,
is an image that cries to be made public!
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