18 November 2015

The Hanging Garden, Issue No.4

Howdy dear readers. (Yes, I know I'm late.) The fourth issue of my supposedly bimonthly 'zine, The Hanging Garden, is available for your perusal and enjoyment.

Issue No.4 is a single-themed issue as it is 100% devoted to the description of the city of Swenstown in the mythical world of Glorantha. It features a kind of mini-sandbox with random tables, enabling the referee to use the city for 'urbancrawl' adventures, or as a base for your adventurers whilst they explore Sartar and/or Prax. The 'zine also includes a short scenario set in Swenstown and appropriately titled Swenstown's Sour Secrets. It is quite dark and adult and, as a result, may not be to everyone's taste. I GM'd it twice for two different gaming groups, and it was well-received both times, despite some unsavoury elements.

I have tried and kept the rules-y parts to a minimum. Whatever stats are present are for RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha, and they can be easily converted to other D100-based FRP games or even to other Old School systems.

Well, anyway. Feedback and comments are welcome, as usual. Cheers!

11 November 2015

Classic RuneQuest Reprint

As revealed at The Kraken, Chaosium is going to re-publish the classic 2nd edition of RuneQuest as a hardback in 2016, to celebrate Glorantha's 50th anniversary. The first images have been leaked to the G+ RQ2 community:





And, for an old grognard like me, it is a dream come true!

06 November 2015

Random Dragon Pass Wilderness Generator


This Random Dragon Pass Wilderness Generator is a hack of Éric Nieudan's own more generic classic fantasy random wilderness generator.

What you need:
 - A standard 52-card deck with French suits (♠♥♦♣); remove the jokers and the 2's.
 - Dice.

1. Draw cards to make a 7×7 grid; leave centre of grid empty. The centre is your main point of interest (city, dungeon, whatever) and is up to you — see picture below:


2. Terrain the remaining 48 areas according to card suit; face cards mean there is a steading. See tables below:

 Terrain 
  plains or plateau 
 ♣ woods or swamp 
  hills or dunes 
 ♠ mountains or canyons 

 Steadings 
 Jack: village, hamlet or camp 
 Queen: temple, shrine, other holy place 
 King: tower, keep or fortress 
 Ace: town or trading post 

3. Encounters and events. For each card, roll d20 and compare to card value (Jack = 11, Queen = 12,  King = 13, Ace = 14) on the main table below. Choose or draw another card for subtypes.

Variant: Use a d12 for step 3; use a different type of die in the light grey rectangle around the centre of the grid, see above; e.g., if the centre is a city (civilised) then use a d10 in the light grey area; if it is a dungeon (wild) then use a d20.

 Die   Civilised Encounters
Die roll < card value 
 Events
Die roll = card value 
 Wild Encounters
Die roll > card value 
 1   Farmers travelling ♣foraging poaching ♠fleeing 
 2   Fishermen working ♣mending nets famished ♠building a dam 
 3   Merchants caravan ♣lost being robbed ♠loaded with gold   Ambush or trap 
 4   Acolytes preaching ♣looking for help begging ♠on a pilgrimage   Impromptu market   Aldryami elves ♣dryadpixies ♠runners 
 5   Men-at-arms mercenaries ♣soldiers at war militia ♠recruiting   Freak weather   Dwarves industrious ♣wise hungry ♠curious 
 6   Ducks assassins ♣traders confidence artists ♠family   Blocked roads   Newtlings scared ♣hostilefriendly ♠on a pilgrimage 
 7   Wizards master & retainers ♣illusionists necromancer ♠witch   Fire   Animals herbivores ♣wolves pterodactyls ♠mountain lions 
 8   Adventurers bruised & beaten ♣hostile friendly ♠richly equipped   Flood   Monster dinosaur ♣manticore jack o'bear ♠minotaur 
 9   Barbariansin battle ♣on a heroquest raiding ♠hiding from foe   Battle   Nomads Grazelanders ♣Pol Joni Praxians ♠Morokanths 
 10   Trolls merchants ♣patrol messengers ♠raiding   Ghosts   Spiders hive ♣parasites with hosts giant ♠sentient 
 11   Bandits river raiders ♣on the run hiding ♠carrying plunder   Country fair   Trolls slavers ♣Zorak Zorani Tusk raiders ♠cave trolls 
 12   Thieves street thugs ♣running from the law spies ♠burglars   Chaos nest   Bandits pirates ♣folk heroes highwaymen ♠mercenaries 
 13   Dragonewts ambassadors ♣warband mercs ♠travelling   Siege   Humanoids baboons ♣centaurs satyrs ♠wind children 
 14   Plague   Thanes visiting ♣prisoners at a wedding ♠travelling 
 15   Undead wraiths ♣vampires zombies ♠ghouls 
 16   Chaotic broo ♣dragon snail ogres ♠scorpion men 
 17   Lycanthropes Elurae ♣tusk brothers wolfbrothers ♠tiger sons 
 18   Abomination gargoyle ♣basilisk walktapus ♠cockatrice 
 19   Elemental gnome ♣salamander undine ♠sylph 
 20   Special cultists ♣demon magical sheep ♠sky bulls 

As always, I welcome any feedback for improvement.