HeroQuest
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Glorantha Trading AssociationTALES OF THE GLORANTHA TRADING ASSOCIATIONAll is Ripening (MidSummer, 2004)Greetings to Tribe Members of the Glorantha Trading Association. In the hot days of summer, all recall the rivalry between Elmal and Heler for the affections of Esrola. Gather 'round the feast & hearken to the word on Glorantha, Issaries Inc., its partner publishers, and GTA activity. Welcome new members in from afar; thanks again to those who contribute that the Tribe may work towards a bountiful harvest. In this newsletter you'll find:
An Apology from Issaries AN APOLOGY FROM ISSARIESDelivered by Stephen MartinGreetings to the tribe! As you may note, this newsletter is a bit shorter than usual, and is definitely missing several important sections. I and Issaries apologize for this. At the best of times, the GTA Newsletter suffers from delays caused by production and business issues, but this time the delays have been particularly harmful. Rather than delay the newsletter, we have decided to send it out with less information than normal, so that the tribe does not have to wait even longer for news. Several particular events have consumed much of our time, and I would like to mention those briefly. We hope to have more information on several of these subjects in the near future. First, we have had a very busy time preparing for the summer conventions, particularly Origins and Continuum. (In fact, my presence at Continuum is one reason the newsletter is going out now, rather than waiting.) Additionally, Mark Galeotti, Issaries' Acquisitions Editor, resigned and Nils Weinander, our primary webmaster, has been experiencing some medical problems that have limited the amount of time he can spend on the web site. Both of these events have required that Greg and I take over some functions we normally rely on these loyal people do. Also, as many of you may have heard, we are also in the process of updating and formalizing our Fan Publication Policy. This has required both Greg and I to spend much time in discussion with each other, performing research, consulting with lawyers, and communicating with the many fan publishers who seek to support Glorantha and HeroQuest. All of these tasks have taken up far more time than most people realize. Nonetheless, we are making progress despite the delays of having to schedule meetings with lawyers who stubbornly refuse to cater only to us. We appreciate the patience and support we have received and beg your continued patience. Finally, various production and editing issues have consumed more time than Greg or I had planned on at the beginning of the year. While these issues are mostly sorted out now, they took much of our energy and attention, at the expense of other projects. Such as the newsletter. So, please read this newsletter with these issues in mind. We will continue to report information to you when it is available, and again I apologize for any questions or concerns caused by our lack of communication or ommissions from this newsletter. As always, if you have any questions or concerns about Issaries, submissions, or other topics, we urge you to contact us directly. GATHERING THUNDER IS HEREThe post brought my copy of Gathering Thunder this week. More than delight ... I am beginning to understand the Hero Wars. As the time line expands (and the authors tell more), it is easier to see some of the wherefore of developments to date. The Empire has been hurt, but not defeated. Now the rebels must find new allies and magics to stand any chance of defeating the Empire's latest scheme: the construction of a new Temple of the Reaching Moon to subjugate all of Dragon Pass to the Glowline. This book culminates in the epic Boatraising, as heroes accompany Kallyr herself on a mighty heroquest to reshape the skies.MORE TO COMEProvided by Stephen MartinUnfortunately, our publication schedule for the rest of the year is still in flux. We have several unfinished manuscripts in the process of being completed, including UNDER THE RED MOON, the second volume of the Imperial Lunar Handbook; MEN OF THE SEA, the Player's Book for Sailors; BLOOD OVER GOLD, Adventures Among the Trader Princes; and HEIRS OF MALKION, an overview of the West of Glorantha. Work also continues on DRAGONRISE, Volume 4 of Sartar Rising, being worked on by Merlin Cox; SUN SON CITY, a book of adventures set in the city of Raibanth, helmed by James Maliszewski; and OAK AND PINE, the Elf Player's Book being written by Shannon Appelcline. As soon as we have more details on the publication schedule, we will let you know. In the meantime, go to the product pages for information on these and other upcoming products. CONTESTSSadly, Issaries did not receive enough entries for The World of Glorantha Art Contest to judge the contest and award the prize. Thanks to those who did submit.The winners of the latest GTA Observers drawing are Hans Torstensson and Darin Christensen. Each received a copy of Masters of Luck and Death. Luck indeed! If you know someone who would like to keep up on all happenings Gloranthan, and maybe score a free prize sometime, have them contact us so that we can add them to the list of Observers. Or just send them to Observer mailing list self-management page to add themselves! SUMMER CONVENTIONSFrom Stephen Martin and various Convention CoordinatorsGreg was at ORIGINS 2004, in Columbus, OH, June 23 - June 27. Greg was a Guest of Honor and held forth in several seminars, on both Arthurian subjects and Pendragon as well as HeroQuest and other matters Gloranthan. He ran several gaming events. In addition, Jeff Kyer ran a massive tournament: a multi-session first round for "Distant Thunder" (which follows "Sheep, Clouds, Thunder") followed by a final round for "Black Cloud Castle," a heroquest in the Sky World to gain an ally for the Storm Pantheon. (Both of these scenarios are slated to appear in Dragonrise.) CONTIUUM, the successor to Convulsions, is booked for 23-26 July, in Leicester, UK. Glorantha and HeroQuest will be at the heart of the event, which includes tabletop games, freeforms, seminars, and displays. Stephen Martin of Issaries, Charlie Krank of Chaosium, and Mark Gaelotti and Simon Bray of the Unspoken Word are among the guests. The Con book looks impressive: MAGNUS LIBER RERUM includes many articles for RuneQuest, HeroQuest, and Glorantha, and will be available at the convention. There will also be a HeroQuest tournament, 'The Dark Heart of the Dragon Lands' by Darran Sims; a massive convention-long miniatures game; and more.
GENCON INDY (formerly known as just GenCon) will be held August 19-22 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Issaries invites individuals to run events there. Issaries can provide scenarios and prizes, but needs
reliable narrators to help bring the Word to those lost in the Darkness that is d20. Email
Check out the Issaries conventions pages for officially sponsored
events and also the events page (for other conventions).
Lokarnos has moved his wagon! Lokarnos.com has moved to a new server. To reach it reliably, type
http://lokarnos.com/ (not http://www.lokarnos.com, which goes astray).
From Charles Corrigan: Do you want to know how to kill the Bat? Are you more ambitious?
Do you want to know how to kill Orlanth? The Whitewall project
(Wiki) and
(Yahoo group) can show
you how to achieve both of these and much, much more.
The online 'zine Sequential Tart
is looking for women gamers familiar with comic books as well to be reviewers. If you
are a woman, are familiar with comic books, and want to get some free games to review
(including HeroQuest books), or know a woman who meets these requirements,
please contact editor-in-chief Marcia Allass.
And check out HeroWars.pdf,
a combined Contest Results grid that shows Simple and Extended Contest Results along
with Recovery.
If you like mapping as much as I, do not miss
these marvels.
SONS OF KARGZANT is out, fun from Unspoken Word: 64 pages of nomad nastiness
and fun, subtitles 'the bloody saga of the Char-Un warlords of the savage steppe.'
Says it all, really!
TRADETALK #14 "Outside Genertela: The Southern Continent" is the latest offering from
the Chaos Society. David Dunham does a short overview of "Umathela", accompanied by
an Umathean Myth; Simon Bray describes the "Kumanku Islands" (includeing a HOMELAND
spread), and the narrator character of "Red Ravaal"; "Golden Kareeshtu" is an article
written by Martin Hawley & Peter Metcalfe; "The War beneath the Waves" by André Jarosch
gives an overwiew of the Marthino Sea, plus scenario ideas for land dwelling characters,
a plunder item, and two new creatures; Martin Hawley's "Laskal" shows us Harreks future
Kingdom before the Hero Wars or Harrek himself have reached this region. "Legends of the
Embyli" tell myths of the yellow elves and "Homeland: Errinoru Jungle" is the first
HOMELAND spread for an Aldryami area, both by Shannon Applecline. Artists include
Simon Bray, Dario Corallo, and Sarah Evans.
Path of the Dammed #3, the Glorantha comic, will be available very soon.
A new PBeM has just launched, thanks to Rich Willard.
Details here. If
you've not got enough players in Adelaide, reach out.
If you want to pursue HQ rules and context, visit the
HQ forum on Forge,
which contains informative and helpful posts on a variey of subjects.
Just as the rules book has limited space to include things, so we at Issaries have
limited time to put these together. So, please allow me to solicit examples from all
of you, so that we can expand our on-line examples to infinite size. OK, not really
infinite. But I would like to solicit YOUR input for the site.
Please write up examples of what you think ought to have been given. If we get
umpty-ump combat examples, we will just select some of them to use. So be creative and
give us examples to help those new players! (If you have rules questions, please ask
them before sending us an example illustrating one interpretation.)
Send examples by email.
We will sort them out, make sure they are correct, and post those which we feel will
do the most good. Please, NO RULES VARIANTS. We know you have them, we know you use
them, but for the official site, plese keep within the published rules. Thanks!
The GTA Tribe welcomes new members. Currently the GTA has 2 Demi-Gods, 36 Heroes,
47 Runemasters, and 178 Initiates, for a total of 263 members. There are also over
800 Observers. If you know anyone else who might want to join the Glorantha Tribe,
have them contact us.
New Initiate: Eric Vanel
The legions and missionaries have gathered to spread the Way by sword and word, and
they are dedicated individuals all. We especially welcome back members once lost who
have returned to us. We are sure their presence back in the fold will enrich us all.
But some Travelers and Journeyers have been long lost in the alien Otherworlds, and we
fear that, like the Goddess before them, their path through hostile realms and ages
has become difficult to follow home. If, like brave Yanafal Tarnils, any of you can
embark on your own journey to find and rescue them, please inform us of any result,
either by emailing contacting information
or by asking them to contact us once they have recovered from their quest:
Michael Abbott
However, additional T&Jers have been so far lost that even their names are in danger
of disappearing from the tribe. Unless you keep your contact information current, you
will regularly miss out on special offers and all sorts of insider stuff.
Like mine, your players might like to use something physical to realize
Action/Advantage Points or Hero Points as they are wagered, lost and won. I've printed
up Hero Point currency on business card stock (with a Extended Contest grid on the
back) in different colors for different denominations. And I've been experimenting
with plastic chips in gold, silver and bronze for AP bidding. They mimic the Heortling
valuation from Thunder Rebels, as if they were Issaries-blessed trade
tokens: gold is worth 20, marked with a cow; silver is worth 4, marked with a boar,
and bronze is worth 1, marked with a barley sheaf and MinLister's basket. The gold
trade token is a Mastery; the others "make change." What do you think?
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