> I only know the titles of these supplements, I am not sure
> which are scenario Packs and which are source material and
> would appreciate it if someone could identify the following
> items for me...
All five of the supplements you name are combined "scenario packs" and "source materials", to a greater or lesser degree. Even the most source-y supplement (Elder Secrets) includes many scenario ideas; even the most scenario-y ones (Strangers, Shadows) include Gloranthan background articles, cult writeups, and similarly useful things.
ELDER SECRETS - Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen and others
A boxed set containing two booklets: "Elder Secrets" (weird stuff of Glorantha, inc. big monsters, strange lands and unique places, plus great material on metals, magic crystals and the night sky, and a teaser for HeroQuesting), and "Elder Races" (much bigger, inc. Elves, Dwarfs and Trolls - with the full cult writeups for Aldrya, Mostal and Kyger Litor [again!] - followed by bare-bones detail on just about every other Elder Race you can think of, and the Tusk Riders' Cult of the Bloody Tusk and Ogre Cult of Cacodemon, *plus* a gaggle of scenario ideas [some inspired, some so-so] for using them all).
SUN COUNTY - Michael O'Brien and others
The book that kicked off the Gloranthan Renaissance: life in the uptight, anal-retentive Yelmalion lands of the Sun Dome Temple in Prax. Includes the Cult of Yelmalio, loads of local personalities (inc. Melo Yelo the baboon), encounters, and three scenarios - one festival (Garhound Contest/Melisande's Hand), one dungeon-crawl, and one amateur archaeology (or temple-robbing, take your pick). An excellent sourcepack for beginning a campaign set in Glorantha: the Sun Domers are "uptight Spartans in the Wild West", xenophobic, stoic, conservative, and very easy to get a rise out of -- whether as player or referee. Sun County is slap bang in the middle of the next supplement: "River of Cradles", making it easy to get out of your parochially-spaced wheel-ruts and see the world...
RIVER OF CRADLES - Ken Rolston, ed.
Well-orchestrated reprints, plus a campaign adventure detailing the inhabitants of the Zola Fel valley in Prax, from Corflu up to Pavis. Contains lots of reprinted material from the Pavis box and Borderlands, sensibly organised and with new stuff added. A lengthy run of scenarios, "Troubled Waters", takes new players (pregenerated characters are provided if needed) along the length of the river on a magical quest. The book also contains the complete cult writeups for a load of gods not seen since Cults of Prax: Daka Fal, Storm Bull, Orlanth, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Chalana Arroy and Zola Fel.
STRANGERS IN PRAX - Michael O'Brien, Jonathan Tweet, Mike Dawson
More scenarios than background, this time, but they're all deeply Gloranthan. The book contains three sets of powerful foreigners in Prax: the Lunar Coders (Imperial not-very-Secret Agents), the crew of Captain Barran's monster-slaying vessel, and Arlaten the Magus, a sorcerer from the remote West now house-hunting in Pavis. While the stats are deliberately gross, the scenarios are entertaining: in particular, the nautical stuff is hilarious, colourful and has a good sense of Glorantha's mythic depth.
SHADOWS ON THE BORDERLANDS - Mike Dawson, Ken Rolston, Jon Quaife
> A reprint of the Borderlands RQII campaign?
Nope: a bunch of scenarios, one new, two revised and reprinted from the old White Dwarf magazine (back before it turned into a miniatures catalogue). The new one is "Gaumata's Vision", an excellent chance to see how a Sun Domer militia file copes with Strange Goings On in the remotest parts of their county. The reprints are "Dyskund Caverns" (formerly "Black Broo of Dyskund") and "A Tale To Tell", both of which are expanded and improved from their earlier incarnations. The former is a dungeon bash, the latter has some Waste-trekking between its own dungeon-y bits. There's also a revised "Cult of Thanatar". All three scenarios are set in the same parts of Prax as previous supplements: Gaumata's Vision may be the best Gloranthan scenario ever published, bar none, if you want my opinion.
Other "recent" Gloranthan releases from Avalon Hill that you might have missed include:
Dorastor: Land of Doom chaotic campaign setting
Lords of Terror Cults of Terror, updated
There are also many high-quality amateur publications available from the Reaching Moon Megacorp, including:
ZINES: Tales of the Reaching Moon #11-16
RuneQuest Adventures #4-5
Codex #2-3
New Lolon Gospel #?
Questlines #1
Tradetalk #1-2
Book of Drastic Resolutions #1-2
Enclosure #1
BOOKS: Tarsh War Lunar military freeform
Wyrms Footprints Wyrms Footnotes reprints
Rough Guide to Boldhome City guide and history
Sog City University Guide Western guide and setting
Meints Index to Glorantha What your "box" needs!
The World's Best Tournament Ralian background book
Heroes of Wisdom (Jonstown) A very detailed library
RQ-Con Compendia, etc. Stories and transcripts
GREGS: The Glorious ReAscent of Yelm Dara Happan (Yelmic) myths
The Fortunate Succession DH & Lunar emperor lists
The Entekosiad West Pelorian mythology
NB: these last three are "work-in-progress" draft manuscripts by Greg Stafford, containing no game stats or scenario material, but greatly expanding what we know about Pelorian myth and history.
I can't guarantee the availability of any of the above products: contact David Hall <Glorantha_at_compuserve.com> for up-to-date info on what he's still able to sell you, and to learn who your nearest Megacorp distributor is. NB: the Reaching Moon Megacorp does *not* sell any Avalon Hill RQ supplements (the five described above). Ask your nearest game shop, or call Avalon Hill, to order these.
You can find more product reviews on the Web, including a guide by me on "what to buy first", at:
<http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/products.html>
Plus links to loads of other Gloranthan goodies on the WWW.
::::
Nick
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End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #141
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