The new HeroQuest Core Rules are now available!

Posted from the Moon Design Development Blog, .


Moon Design is proud to announce that the HeroQuest Core Rules are now available for sale from www.glorantha.com or www.heroquest-rpg.com!

You can directly order copies of the new HeroQuest Core Rules book and download pdfs from the website. We regret to inform you that our current eCommerce vendors do not support bundles of books and pdfs. We are exploring options to fix that in the future but until then, comfort yourself with the knowledge that the money will be going to make sure we have more money to pay for art and writers!

BTW, we are still working out the kinks with Plimus (our PDF vendor). If it takes a little while for you to get an email with the download link - be patient. They are still checking to make sure that we aren't some sort of nefarious international outfit! The first dozen or so PDF downloaders are likely to get some initial weirdness (for example, you may get a phone call from Plimus just to make sure that you really ordered the PDF). Just be patient and we will make sure that you will get your PDF!

But without any further ado:

Anything you can imagine, you can play…

HeroQuest is the innovative, dynamic, and flexible rules engine by Robin Laws, suitable for play in any genre or setting. It present a simple and flexible system that allows Game Masters to make decisions the way authors and screenwriters do when creating novels, TV episodes and movies. HeroQuest encourages creative input from your players, resulting in an exciting, unpredictable narrative created through group collaboration. Its resolution methods and scalable character levels make it equally suited for any genre, from epic fantasy to satirical soap opera. Whether your next game idea draws on horror, war, westerns, martial arts, pulps, cyberpunk, cliff-hangers, giant robots, super-powered heroes, space opera, cop action, corporate intrigue, furry animals, swashbuckling adventure, Greek tragedy or even drawing room comedy, HeroQuest can handle it! You can even use HeroQuest to emulate a musical – although it won’t do the singing or dancing for you.

Completely rewritten by the Robin Laws, this new edition opens and details running the core system for any genre.

What’s in this book?

This book contains everything needed for play:

• Character Creation – describe your character and get playing in minutes.
• Overcoming Obstacles – handling conflict, be it with swords, words, magic, superpowers, guns or armies.
• Playing Stories – how to vividly run your adventures in engaging and creative ways.
• Narrating - the secrets for balancing the give and take between narrators and players.
• Followers and Support – how your sidekick, followers, horde, army or community help you.
• Creating Genres – details for creating and detailing your game world.
• Gaming in Glorantha - a separate section on applying this system to Glorantha.
• Quick Reference – so you don’t have to hunt for the information you really need.

However, the new HeroQuest Core Rules are not the only new thing for sale on the new and upgraded glorantha.com website! We will have much of the Stafford Library up and for sale in both book form and as downloadable pdfs, including:

• Glorious Reascent of Yelm - THE Dara Happan background book
• Arcane Lore - Greg's notes on the development of his thoughts concerning heroquesting and Gloranthan magic
• The Middle Sea Empire - THE background book for the God Learners and the Jrusteli Empire
• History of the Heortling Peoples - THE background book for the Orlanthi of Sartar and Heortland, as well as the Arkat Wars, Harmast and the EWF

We will also have a number of older books back in print and for sale in both book form and as downloadable pdfs, including:

• Dragon Pass: Gazetteer of Kerofinela
  
• Imperial Lunar Handbook, volumes 1 and 2
  
• Blood Over Gold
  
• Men of the Sea
  
• Masters of Luck and Death
  

With the exception of Dragon Pass: Gazetteer of Kerofinela (which is statless), these books were written for First Edition HeroQuest but can easily be retrofitted for the new HeroQuest Core Rules.

Check out the website and maybe buy yourself a book or download. Or two. Or three (or four, five, six or more!)

New HeroQuest logo

I was asked to come up with a logo for the new HeroQuest core rules and other future products by Moon Designs.
I did several designs that used the Gloranthan runic writing font of the old logo as well as other lettering styles.
None of them really worked that well though I was happy with the different textures and colours I came up with for the letter fill.

Then I looked back at the lettering styles of the old Chaosium boxsets for 'Pavis' and the 'Big Rubble'.

I did like that font style though I didn't have it myself.
So I decided to design my own from scratch, using the old font as a starting point but changing the style somewhat. I added a slight curve to the base of the serifs and fattened the letters more.
I added a metal trim to the edge of each letter to give it a 'classy look' and used the textured fills I had come up with earlier to solidify the lettering. A white highlight was added to give them a shiny look and I added a shadow to give it a solid dimension.

To finish it off I did a line of runes across the top to give it a retro look. This design has half Gloranthan runes and the other half symbols drawn from other possible genres and settings [The new HeroQuest rules are genric now, not just tied to Glorantha].

I have done variations to the main design so any colour can be used. The red does suit the cover for the core rules but other cover art may need a different colour to set off the logo. We have several different marble like textures and colours as well as some metal textures that will suit other works better.
Also for solely Gloranthan products the line of runes will be purely Gloranthan ones.






The new HeroQuest logo

Sunday Scimitar - 14

his week's scimitar is a short cutlas!

Continuum 2010

The dates for Continuum 2010 are
Friday 2nd to Monday 5th July 2010.

The Yahoo Group is at:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Continuum2010/

The Facebook event is at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=94299599526&ref=mf

More news will follow over the next few weeks!

Role-playing Questionnaire

So a quick role-playing questionnaire I have stolen off Facebook.
Basically details my role-playing history and my likes and dis-likes in runing games. I hope that you may it informative?

1. What was the first RPG you ever played?
RuneQuest II

2. How long ago?
1981.

3. Tell us something about it?
I was introduced by my older brother as I had been drawing some treasure maps. The first scenario was from Chaosium's Apple Lane supplement 'Rainbow Mounds'.
I was playing a Black Fang Brotherhood Assassin who managed to fall off the bridge into the water. The GM, a friend of my brother, then switched to dealing with how my sister was doing with her character.
Only after an hour did he reveal I had been rescued by Newtlings.
After that I brought the rule book along with the RQ box set miniatures from Derby's CoOp. I do remember doing my English Speaking Board exams on Glorantha every year while at school. Since then I have been playing RuneQuest, I remember clubbing together to buy one copy of RuneQuest III from Games Workshop in Nottingham as it was too expensive.
I only switched to Hero Wars in 2000, then onto HeroQuest.

4. How soon after did you start playing a regular session?
Straight away.

5. Which genres have you played?
I tried a bit of most but I prefer good settings rather than genres.

6. Which games have you played?
I am a Chaosium fan boi so I have played all their games - QuestWorlds, Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, ElfQuest, RingWorld, Worlds of Wonders and RuneQuest. Now I mainly play HeroQuest.

7. Give a list of some or all of the PC's you've played.
Darsimis, a Yelmalian mercenary who is guarding a couple of dodgy dealing, Lunar merchants who want to make a trade route to Kralorela over the Rockwood mountains in Griffin Mountain.
Keelhaul Whyduh - Bloodbeard Pirate with his own set of Sea Dogs and knowledgeable on the infamous Pirates Code!
Ashanara - A Lunar swirling twin scimitar swordswoman devoted to the Lunar Way and emancipating women everywhere.
Manushi Many-Flight, a noble from Teshnos who is visiting a small charming town next to a delightful ruin. Along with his gigantic Phomia [elephant] called Nippletooth and his Orangatag 'man' servant he has visited several interesting locations in Pavis and the Big Rubble.
Sir Kaulth, an Esvulari knight from Durengard. Started working as a guard for Sir Guis de Brut in Caldvale Manor, a nice pleasant place with no real problems. Then it got really dark quite fast. Ended up wearing vampire armour and fighting machines.
Duran Duranis - a Sartarite warrior and spearman who ended up travelling the whole of Glorantha.

8. What's your favourite genre?
After Glorantha I would say Spaceships with ashtrays like Firefly.

9. What's your favourite game/system?
HeroQuest.

10. What's your favourite supplement?
King of Sartar by Greg Stafford.

11. Who are your favourite PC's?
see 7 above.

12. Have you GM'ed?
Yes.

13. Which game did you GM first?
RuneQuest II.

14. How did it go?!
It went well though hit a few snags.
Every time the players defeated a bunch of foes they would sell off the armour and weapons. They would spend the money to get better so I would have to send more foes at them with bigger and better armour and weapons. They would defeat them, sell the goods and get better again so I would send even more enemies with more armour and weapons against them. It just kept going on and on.

15. Which is your favourite campaign that you've GM'ed?
I ma enjoying my Air & Motion campaign for my HeroQuest game as well as my Left For Dead series in my Firefly game.

16. Do you prefer to GM or PC?
I prefer to GM.

17. Which genre that you haven't tried would you most like to try?
I would love to run a party-less game based on War & Peace but with some serious fantasy elements.

18. Which game/system that you haven't tried would you most like to try?
Nephilim RPG.

19. Do you play a typical character of any kind?
I usually play the dark and savage one usually who often plans.

20. What do you like best about role-playing?
The creating of stories together.

Sunday Scimitar - 13

So this week's scimitar is in fact a Falchion type sword. It has a single-edged broad blade with a single fuller and though it has a sharp stabbing point this is a slashing weapon. Most of the blade is straight with only the tip being curved to allow a better slash attack.
The crossguard is a large, simple bar with an elegant curve to it. The hilt is bound in leather and pommel is heavy and allows for a two-handed grip if necessary. Though this weapon looks crude it is in fact a very efficient sword and suits being used against armoured foes.

Sunday Scimitar - 12

So missed last week's as I was away in Germany for Tentacles but we'll have another now.
This one is another fantasy sabre with moon-curved handguards and an inverted cresent moon as a prommel.
An excellent example of a Lunar Trooper's sword.