Hi folks -
I got Questlines (the latest pub from our favourite Megagorp, the Retching
Moan) from John today, and i thought i'd tell you why you should all go out
and buy when it comes commercially available.
Graphics and layout is very good. Art by Dan Barker, all of which are
reprints, though, except Bloody Jeff, the RQ Con Down Under Official
Mascot; and lots of cool computered graphics from John's twisted mind.
Throughout the book there are marginal notes by the scribe, Afal Aldusson,
also called the Pagemaker, who has compiled the whole book. Finally, we can
find out what Trollkin urine is used for.
FICTION AND MYTHS (Always welcome in any glorantha book):
- Four Answers - another excerpt from The Widow's Tale by Penelope Love,
published by Chaosium. Good piece of fiction with cultural friction between
Orlanthi and Yelmalians. It left me wanting for more. Anybody know if
Widow's Tale is available or when it is going to be published?
- Trickster and Hoolar - two short doraddi trickster stories by Sandy, who
usually writes good stories. These two are no exception. Trickster gets to
eat his own tricks.
- How Vinga joined Orlanth's Household - a myth from Ralios by Dave Dunham.
It's a paraphrase of a celtic myth i've read, but can't remember the name
of. Still, it's a very good myth. I think you can find it in the RQ FTP
archives, but if you buy the book, you won't have to.
- Arkat and Aeol: a henotheist murder mystery by David Hall. More stuff
from Ralios. The first Aeolian myth i've seen, and it's a good one. The
final sentence makes me wonder if Argrath wasn't Arkat reborn.
- Frog Boy - a gloranthan fragment by Greg, wherein people get slapped on
the head with dead frogs. Wonderfully weird fiction.
FACTS (Or, they pretend to be facts):
- Gloranthan Genesis - Greg tells how and why Glorantha came to be. A
reprint from RQ Con II program book. For us who weren't there, we can now
read all about how to charm women with Gloranthan myths.
- The Cult of Trickster - the chaosium write-up. Essential stuff. I guess
Erik Sieurin, the Eurmalite, will plead and beg to get his hands on this.
This write-up is precisely what a write-up should be - filled with Good
Stuff.
- The Cult of Hunter - the hunting cults of Glorantha by Greg. More
essential stuff. No mention of Yinkin, though, but we get the Zong Hunting
Chant instead.
- The Tribes and Population of Sartar - by David Hall. We get a footnoted
lunar survey of the population for 1610 and 1621, plus maps of the Sartar
and Far Point tribes for the same dates! The numbers look allright to me.
- Home of the Bold - Kevin Jacklin tells the hows and whys of the main
event of the RQ Con Down Under. I've never played HotB, but sounds like it
was a sisyphean task to create the LARP. This was the least interesting
article in the book, but it was still an interesting read. Which says
something about the rest.
VIVISECTION TABLE:
* King of Sartar - a critical review by Olvir Nitpicker/Oliver Dickinson,
who presents some justified vivisections of Argrath(s). If you didn't know
who Argrath really was, you probably still won't, but know you have quotes
for it.
PRAX(IS) - A GAMEMASTER'S HANDBOOK. Three antipodean suggestions for
exploring the old lozenge:
- Maximum Game Fun - MOB offers good advice on how to add excitement and
flavour to a gloranthan setting, and shamelessly plugs the Lunar Army Book
and Sun County at the same time. David Hall offers a preview of the Lunar
Army Book with a write-up of the Red Dragoons. Though i fail to understand
why an infantry has the rune spell Hold Horse, and not something more
infantry-like. Also i wonder who the Pentium nomads are - nomads who can't
count? Nomads with silicon armour?
- How i learned to stop worrying and LURVE the Crimson Greg - Peter
Metcalfe gives a crash course in cultural relativism and how to bend the
sources into unrecognizable shapes without breaking them, all in metcalfian
detail. Plus definitions of 'greg', courtesy of Michael Morrison.
- Campaign Myth-Management - by John Hughes. If you, as a GM, are into
storytelling, this article is for you. John presents techniques for making
your campaign spiritually meaningful.
ON SNAKEPIPE'S EDGE - A CAMPAIGN BASE. Though all of the material is about
Far Point, lots of it can be adapted for other orlanthi campaigns:
- TarosKarla - an example of how to turn the relatively dry text of CHDP in
to a living, breathing myth. The Song of the Far Place. The Quest of
Odayla. The Journey of the Far Walkers. The Chant of the Animal Twins. By
John Hughes. Easily the high point of the book.
- Spirits of the Far Place - this is a collection of strange and wonderful
spirits. Plus some campaign hooks. I wrote the collection myself, so i
won't say how good it is. A few of these spirits have appeared on the
Digest.
- A Far Point Stead Calendar - easily the most useful part of the book.
Lots of suggestions for what happens when during the orlanthi year. By
John.
- Far Point Chronology - describes what happenend between Sunrise and
Starbrow. Useful, concise list of years.
- Rituals of the Far Place - three big non-cultic Orlanthi rituals by
myself. Good for inspiration and campaign-flavoring.
- Exile 1614 - wonderful Far Point lyrical fiction by John. An orlanthi
skald reminisces about the time before Righteous Wind.
- Tribes of the Alda-Churi - a closer look at the land and its population.
Good introduction to the Gors and Gallt.
- A visitor from Prax - Jaxarte Whyded sends a postcard. The local food
obviously didn't agree with him.
- Bluefoot Orlanthi - John gives us a detailed look at the Tovtaros tribe.
Not that the Tovtaros is the most representative of the Orlanthi tribes in
Dragon Pass, but you can still loot lots of good ideas.
Lastly, Andrew Bean surveys the unofficial Gloranthan sources available
today and points us to where we can find them. Which is pretty useful for
people who are unfortunate enough not to know about this Digest.
This was not an in-depth review, but my impressions of it. The book
contains nothing bad, and most of the stuff is eminently useful. David Hall
will take a load of copies of Questlines back to Europe from RQ Con Down
Under, so presumably he will also be the European distributor of them. For
the US i don't have a clue. I also don't know the price tag of a copy, but
money spent on a copy of Questlines are well invested.
So, go out and buy it when it becomes available.
- -------
Michael Raaterova <Sig omitted on legal advise>