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It was kind of a bust, so no.
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Oct 2, 2021 23:43
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Last I heard, Escalation Magazine was working on something, but that was last year.
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Oct 2, 2021 23:46
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wiegieman posted:Last I heard, Escalation Magazine was working on something, but that was last year. Yeah, that's Red Moon and Warring Kingdoms. The author, Evan Franke, posted in May that it's still in editing, and may possibly be out by the end of the year.
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Oct 3, 2021 15:20
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Where can I find a primer on the cosmological backstory stuff you're discussing? Yelm is only tangentially mentioned in the stuff I got.
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Oct 3, 2021 15:27
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Probably in the Guide to Glorantha or Glorantha Sourcebook. Are you reading 13th Age: Glorantha currently? It's a bit Orlanthi-focused. Yelm is a solar deity and universal emperor worshipped in Peloria. Orlanth killed him, turning the sun off and forcing the trolls out of the underworld, but Orlanth decided to fix his mistake and went on a quest with his buddies the Lightbringers to free Yelm from Hell. In modern Peloria he's been kinda supplanted by the Red Emperor, but the Lunar Empire has no real problems with his cult (because the Lunar Empire is built on the Pelorian Empire's bureau- and theocracy).
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Oct 3, 2021 16:04
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Tias posted:Where can I find a primer on the cosmological backstory stuff you're discussing? Yelm is only tangentially mentioned in the stuff I got. Start with the sourcebook then branch out. For Yelm: The Glorious Re-Ascent For Sedenya: The Entekosias For non-Orlanthi non-Lunar beliefs: Revealed Mythologies
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Oct 3, 2021 16:08
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Do not read the Entekosiad with the expectation of understanding it. The entire thing may well have been Jeff loving about.
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Oct 3, 2021 16:44
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Josef bugman posted:Do not read the Entekosiad with the expectation of understanding it. The entire thing may well have been Jeff loving about. It drove me mad, but also enlightened me.
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Oct 3, 2021 16:52
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Does anyone have a discord or community you recommend finding games to play in? The lore was a bit too much for my players, and Runequest was too lethal for them.
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Oct 3, 2021 17:38
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Sounds like my jam, thanks!
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Oct 4, 2021 08:36
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I started writing a 13th Age Glorantha class called Sun Archer of Estangtang, a Ranger variant meant for a Pavis campaign I'm planning.
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Oct 4, 2021 21:25
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Posted here: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/14902-sun-archer-of-estangtang/ It's still a work in progress.
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Oct 5, 2021 12:37
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King of Dragon Pass is half off on the app store and more than half off on Steam, if for whatever reason you read this thread and don't own it/just want it on another platform: https://twitter.com/KingDragonPass/status/1454088898888482821 One day I'll get that physical copy and also figure out how to get that physical copy to run, I guess Wine or whatever.
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Oct 29, 2021 17:38
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I love KODP but I wish there was like a mod or something to bring the aesthetics more in line with Glorantha as a whole. Like less whitewashed vaguely Celtic/Nordic barbarians, and more brown and olive skinned Mycenaean/Minoan bronze age lads.
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Oct 29, 2021 17:44
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At the point the game came out Orlanthi were very much portrayed as shirtless be-mustached white people in trews and Miscellaneous Anglo-Norse. The aesthetic has shifted a bunch over the years, the current one is def the best tho I agree. It could use maybe like, 10% more fantasy kitsch if anything. EDIT: I'm also a real big fan of SNES/PS1 RPG-lookin Glorantha as seen here: https://external-content.duckduckgo....jpg&f=1&nofb=1 Though, that's Suikoden II I guess. ainda_ fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Oct 29, 2021 |
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Oct 29, 2021 18:06
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ainda_ posted:
I *might* have that CD somewhere still. I have not seen it at least for a decade or so though. edit: If I find it, it is yours for postage (from Finland!) - I don't even have a cd drive anymore.
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Oct 29, 2021 18:30
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ainda_ posted:At the point the game came out Orlanthi were very much portrayed as shirtless be-mustached white people in trews and Miscellaneous Anglo-Norse. The aesthetic has shifted a bunch over the years, the current one is def the best tho I agree. It could use maybe like, 10% more fantasy kitsch if anything. Oh man, I love that JRPG aesthetic for it. Is that meant to be Jar-Eel or just some rando? And got more like that?
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Oct 29, 2021 18:59
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Letmebefrank posted:I *might* have that CD somewhere still. I have not seen it at least for a decade or so though. uh hell yeah tysm! yea lemme know if you find it, that's ridiculously generous of you. RoboChrist 9000 posted:Oh man, I love that JRPG aesthetic for it. Is that meant to be Jar-Eel or just some rando? And got more like that? https://twitter.com/ialdounet/status/1281266619684212736 The third one here that's either Argath or Starbrow or an anonymous Vingan in particular is sick as hell. EDIT: idk who that first one I linked is supposed to be, I've just assumed its an anonymous moon sorceress of some kind. I'm gonna say she's from the Sister's Army, cuz Deneskerva is cool. ainda_ fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Oct 29, 2021 |
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Oct 29, 2021 19:13
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Since this thread has flickered to life like the Flame of Sartar, I'll point out that the RuneQuest Starter Set finally has a release date (November 10). https://www.chaosium.com/blogrunequest-starter-set-we-have-a-release-date/
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Oct 29, 2021 19:21
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ainda_ posted:uh hell yeah tysm! yea lemme know if you find it, that's ridiculously generous of you. holy poo poo those are good
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Oct 29, 2021 20:06
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ainda_ posted:EDIT: idk who that first one I linked is supposed to be, I've just assumed its an anonymous moon sorceress of some kind. I'm gonna say she's from the Sister's Army, cuz Deneskerva is cool. I think that might be Yana Arranis, the horse devouring Goddess that is a daughter of the red emperor.
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Oct 29, 2021 20:45
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Tulip posted:holy poo poo those are good Glorantha does seem to have a Japanese fanbase, even if there isn't much evidence of it in the english-language fan scene/mailing lists/etc. I remember the crowdfunded Hero Wars books had a bunch of Japanese names as high-tier backers. CoC is very strong in Japan, and I know that CoC-descended BRP has become the basis for a lot of Japanese RPGs. I'd love to know more about the history of RQ/Glorantha in Japan.
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Oct 29, 2021 20:51
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There's a huge runequest influence in Suikoden.
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Oct 29, 2021 22:26
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wiegieman posted:There's a huge runequest influence in Suikoden. I always meant to but never did play any of those. Do they have an actual sequentially narrative story or are they like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest where each one, despite being numbered, is a completely stand-alone story that can be approached and enjoyed devoid of context? If it's the latter, which game is a good jump-in place for a newbie to the series? Bonus points if it's somehow available on the Switch or Steam.
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Oct 30, 2021 00:49
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RoboChrist 9000 posted:I always meant to but never did play any of those. Do they have an actual sequentially narrative story or are they like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest where each one, despite being numbered, is a completely stand-alone story that can be approached and enjoyed devoid of context? So a thing about Suikoden is that it's inspired in part on Outlaws of the Marsh, so there are 108 recruitable characters for 108 stars, and a fair number of those are shared between games, a very small number of which are major characters. However I don't think you really need to play any one in particular to play any of the others, they largely stand on their own as narratives. I'd say any Glorantha fan (and really anyone, they're some of the best RPGs ever made,) should play Suikoden II & III at least. Also here's some Japanese fanzines from the 90s a friend of mine dug up, I can't read any Japanese but the art rules: http://www.ac.cyberhome.ne.jp/~yaraityo/vvm/fanzine/fanzine.htm ainda_ fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Oct 30, 2021 |
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Oct 30, 2021 06:15
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The guy who designed Demon/Dark Souls listed the Dragon Pass board game as one of his top influences. Keeps a copy of it in his office and everything. It informed his style of environmental storytelling, apparently.
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Oct 30, 2021 12:47
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Haystack posted:The guy who designed Demon/Dark Souls listed the Dragon Pass board game as one of his top influences. Keeps a copy of it in his office and everything. It informed his style of environmental storytelling, apparently. There was a cut boss in Dark Souls 1 named Jareel.
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Oct 30, 2021 13:57
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There was also a cut Crimson Bat in DS3, which still has music on the disk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGEtVNG1B9I
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Nov 2, 2021 22:57
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That track rules holy poo poo I've been thinking about Loskalm a lot again lately, as well as fantasizing about running RuneQuest or something for my coworkers. I'm very fascinated by Loskalm - I kinda understand it in a few different ways: In a more Buddhist since, a process occured whereby (un)skillfull means were used to falsely cease the generation of Karma - shortcuts were taken with and without knowing and what was done instead is that all that karma was shunted off Over There, onto other beings, and now it's coming back in the form of a bunch of cartooninsh demons and ghosts who are going devour them all and send them to hell. In a Marxist since, a sort of impossible revolution happened where ideology beyond ideology has been created - it is essentially the dictatorship of genuine mystics, philosophers and ascetics, which should be categorically impossible; worldly government and rulership is failed mysticism and utterly horrific, as demonstrated by Sheng Sheleris. And yet it exists, and more than that it exists and is perfect unto itself in every way - everything about their society is actually as they say it to be. Ideology, rather than arising from contradictions, has been imposed to nullify them utterly, without actually transforming society in the way that would be necessary to, and without the accompanying strife. Of course, this didn't actually happen. Parallel to the Ervuthan Rites, they took those contradictions, stuck them in a pot and buried them without even realizing it, and now they exist a psychic wave named Lord Death on a Horse about to come and rip them all apart. As much fun as this stuff is to think about, it's kinda hard to conceptualize what it means for people on the ground, and thus for PCs. In the case of Dragon Pass Orlanthi, you and your kin are being enslaved, all that you hold sacred is being violated, and the practices that you have always relied upon aren't enough to put a stop to it. Violence is always an option, there is always another way. For sympathetic Lunar PCs, there is a grevious injustice at the origin of the world that is the origin of all suffering, and that injustice and the wounds it has caused are being healed, painfully. The practices that you have always relied upon have been oppressing you and yours, and the new gods and the new language and the new magic show the way to transform them, yourself, and the world. We Are All Us, we will heal the world. For theoretical Loskalmi or at least Fronelan NPCs though I find it a lot harder to gel what's interesting for me with the immeadiate exestential and emotional stakes - like in some sense it's all a great sin against yourself, against your mind, and if it can't be addressed and transformed into what comes after, all your hopes and struggles and faith are for nothing, I guess? I just find it hard to sum up, and also to make room in it for anyone who is not a strict ideologue of some kind - that would describe any given Men-of-All and any Wizard without much effort at least, but yeah. I guess the question is what does the transformation of the Kingdom of Loskalm in to this utopia mean for the people who theoretically benefited from it most, who's genuine gains and peace are threatened to extermination by the people who actually benefited from it most? That's not even really what I mean I'm just kinda spitballing. ainda_ fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Nov 4, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2021 23:54
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I would argue that any sympathetic Lunar character is one who has to confront that the Empire is corrupt. If the Empire was created to protect the Way, and if the Way has been perverted to become a tool of empire, then the Way too has become corrupt. If all you do is give someone a beatific smile while you feed them to the Bat and tell them that their sacrifice is holy because it will help heal the world, you're not much of a hero. Similarly, a Loskalmi character has to confront that they have grown hubristic and are dangerously close to the stagnation they once decried. They may have overcome the chains of hereditary caste, but are they really bringing themselves and their fellows closer to Solace with every sunrise? Does expelling your own Disharmony via ritual really stand in for the hard work of reforming a society from the ground up, or was it a crutch that the returning world will kick out from under them? Certainly they can't just lay down and accept what a dude who literally calls himself Lord-Death-On-A-Horse wants to do to them, but is the duty to protect the Kingdom important enough to do the kind of damage that they would undoubtedly do if they cracked open the God Learner wizardry that they are flirting with? Is it virtue to be so eager to try out their powers? Loskalmi culture in general is balanced on the edge between justice and imperialism. How they act in the war to come will define them for a long time.
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Nov 4, 2021 00:43
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That's a helpful way to sum it up, ty! In that spirit here are a few things I might expect Loskalmi heroes to do in the Hero Wars: -Prostrate themselves mightily before Elves. -Feed Brithini and pre-Ban Wizard-caste families to Lord Death on a Horse. -Adopt Lunar Sorcery and the Moon Rune in desperation, to eat and synthesize War and Logic.
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Nov 4, 2021 01:00
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ainda_ posted:-Prostrate themselves mightily before Elves. I'm particularly curious about this one, since there's so little info about Elves out there outside of 2nd Age sources. Elven life seems pretty thoroughly at-odds with human life, given that humans basically always need to have non-forested land on which to grow crops or raise herds, and Aldryami seem to prefer that all land everywhere be completely covered in their cultivated forests. What have the Loskalmi done that would make them turn to the elves for forgiveness? Apologies if this question comes off as ignorant. There's not all that much official info about Loskalmi compared to Orlanthi, so if there's something I'm overlooking I'm happy to have a source to review in order to get a better understanding.
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Nov 4, 2021 06:32
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Mostly just there's a lot of Greggy-Arthurian stuff going on with thematically with Loskalm (reading King Arthur Pendragon will inform your understanding of the Kingdom of Loskalm/The Kingdom of War a lot,) as well as with aspects of Prince Snodal's story, and I just think high romantics with Green Elves slots nicely in there. It's also the case that even the relatively "egalitarian" (I just don't like that word in any context) New Hrestoli Idealism is deeply, deeply anthropocentric. It places specifically human intelligence as the only connection in this gross material world to the truth of the One, everything else belongs to the demiurge, including the body. One of the most most radical and unthinkable things any Loskalmi could do would be to show submission and humility to an Elf forest specifically; they are an intelligence that exists soley to exist, and to reclaim its lost place in this material world.
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Nov 5, 2021 07:23
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I think the ultimate conclusion of a campaign focusing on loskalms occult harmony is that Lord Death-On-A-Horse can’t be defeated by the current society and men of all, so the heroes need to change/transcend. Depending how illuminates you want to be you could conclude that the most Man of All thing to do would be to do what you’re supposed to be doing. Though that’s very argrathy so it’s either a better story for a different context or going to cause Problems.
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Nov 5, 2021 10:39
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ainda_ posted:For theoretical Loskalmi or at least Fronelan NPCs though I find it a lot harder to gel what's interesting for me with the immeadiate exestential and emotional stakes - like in some sense it's all a great sin against yourself, against your mind, and if it can't be addressed and transformed into what comes after, all your hopes and struggles and faith are for nothing, I guess? I just find it hard to sum up, and also to make room in it for anyone who is not a strict ideologue of some kind - that would describe any given Men-of-All and any Wizard without much effort at least, but yeah. I guess the question is what does the transformation of the Kingdom of Loskalm in to this utopia mean for the people who theoretically benefited from it most, who's genuine gains and peace are threatened to extermination by the people who actually benefited from it most? That's not even really what I mean I'm just kinda spitballing. I like to believe that Loskalmi society really does work as advertised because I'd like a note of optimism in Glorantha, so the main conflicts for PCs in a Fronelan campaign would be- well, not entirely external i.e. stopping people from killing you but externally driven. Like, you got socialism working in one country but now the world is knocking on your door and you have to figure out what to do about that and what your role should be in world events. The big flash points to me are: •The history of Loskalm is the triumph of the man rune over the beast, but not in ways the Loskalmi would like. The Seshnelan Silver empire genocided the native Enjoreli culture in the first age. The God Learners did the same in the second. In the third, Snodal destroyed the fabric of reality rather than lose a war to the White Bear Empire. Loskalm is now finally emerging as an independent state with its own culture, but how does it protect itself from Harrek and bring enlightenment to the Hsunchen without falling back into its old ways? Basically your PCs have to find some way to reckon with their country's genocidal history with the end goal being to create another Fronela-wide alliance between cultures like Siglat was able to do to defeat the God Learners. •The slow lifting of the Syndics Ban means Loskalm is slowly being reintroduced to its neighbors one at a time and re-establishing its connections and relationships to them, and the Loskalmi do not all agree on how to deal with them. Most seem to agree that Loskalm shouldn't be an imperial power, but should they try to convert and proselytize? Should they go to war against reactionary forces in other nations? What happens when Junora, which has a nominally Irensavalist ruling class asks Loskalm for help dealing with an Orlanthi uprising? What happens if Seshnelan peasants flee to Loskalm and their feudal lords come demanding them back? What is the role for socialist interventionism? •The Kingdom of War exists, of course, and has all the worst aspects of modern capitalism; it consumes all the resources to fuel a horrific war machine and leaves behind a blasted wasteland. In canon, Loskalm eventually "wins" the war by backsliding and becoming almost as barbaric as them. If your PCs want to avert that outcome it will probably take serious heroquesting against the concepts of entropy and disorder to change things. Of course, due to their single mindedness I don't really see them as being the biggest campaign enemy, preferring instead having the climax of a campaign to be a fight against: •The Lunar Empire, who invade during the late hero wars. The Lunars are basically already the synthesis between the Kingdom of War and Loskalm, having this notionally egalitarian society fueled by imperial conquest and justified by mystic belief in a remote god. Nobody's really mentioned it but the concept of Irensaval being this eternal power outside creation matches up to chaos pretty well! I don't think the Loskalmi have really had a cultural reckoning with chaos, the land was pretty free of conflict during the Gbaji wars and it was mostly contained in a knightly conflict between Talor and Varganthar over who got to rule. Once the Staff of Arinsor makes it to the citadel of Sog City and releases the fire god though, that all changes, and PCs will have to decide what the role of chaos is metaphysically and whether or not it can be incorporated into the world or not. Of course, going through all of these would require a campaign to take like 60+ in game years, but that's possible with a lot of time and certain systems.
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Nov 5, 2021 19:59
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I desperately want some modern material about the Arthurian philosopher knight-sorcerers from Plato's socialist republic but it's just the same Orlanthi books forever.
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Nov 5, 2021 20:14
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Any other Goons thinking about heading to Ann Arbor for the Con in April? https://www.chaosium.com/blogsave-the-date-the-inaugural-chaosium-con-is-coming-to-ann-arbor-mi-89-april-2022/
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Nov 6, 2021 13:17
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I've been doing some more thinking and for a theoretical campaign I might actually pop the PCs somewhere in Junora, just before the Ban lifts on their city/state/'Polity'; so they'd get to experience the effects of life under the Syndics Ban, the process of figuring out what's changed compared to their historical knowledge from during/before the Ban, and they get to interact with Loskalm's utopia in a much more relatable way; on the outside looking in, in the path of the Kingdom of War. The peoples of Junora are in a really interesting position, they're all just outside the grasp of the big homogeneous states of Genertela, and so are really diverse for such a small region. They're caught smack dab between the Kingdom of Logic and the Kingdom of War, and the Lunars aren't too far off either. Multiple of these states are already struggling to undergo a transformation of consciousness and society spurred on by their proximity to these powers in one way or other (or more pessimisticlly their rulers are trying to impose it on them to varying degrees of success,) feels like a really good spot for a campaign to start. Also there are sedentary cattle herders out here who don't even worship Orlanth at all how sick is that? ainda_ fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Nov 7, 2021 |
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Nov 7, 2021 01:50
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I stitched together a map of Fronela a while back for my own use and also made one where I highlighted the different polities (excepting the KoW, as they're a spoiler). If you want them, here they are: 
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Nov 11, 2021 06:10
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Nanomashoes posted:I stitched together a map of Fronela a while back for my own use and also made one where I highlighted the different polities (excepting the KoW, as they're a spoiler). If you want them, here they are: That's dope ty! I also read ur writeup from a few pages back it was really good
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Nov 11, 2021 07:18
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