The Inside Scoop on Gaming

CONTEXT

In the beginning of the 80's I discovered RPGs in the French magazines Jeux & Strategie and Casus Belli. It was not until 83 that, in a trip to Lion, France, I was able to buy my first game. Based on the reviews on those magazines I opted by a game called Runequest. (Yes, I just missed 'that' other game...) I also acquired my first game supplement. The shop had several on display, but I finally opted for a box called Pavis, Threshold to Danger. That's a decision I'll never regret. (What I regret is that several years latter I would have the stupid idea of selling it away.)

At that time Runequest was considered one of the best fantasy RPGs, and was one of the most successful in the market place. What made it different was a simple, elegant and complete rule system, and top quality, groundbreaking supplements like Trollpack, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands and, you guessed it, Pavis.

Pavis was part of a set that included two other boxes: the above mentioned Borderlands, and a third box called Big Rubble; and a book on gods called Gods of Prax.

All those supplements described a region in Glorantha (the game world of Runequest) called Prax. This is a semi-desertic plain crossed by a river called Zola Fel or River of Cradles. That river starts in a mountain range in the north and finishes in a sea to the south. Prax lies at the center of the northern continent of Glorantha, Genertela. To the west it confines with the mountains of Dragon Pass, and to the east with barren plains of the Wastelands. The supplement Borderlands describes the life of emigrants from the west in the valley of Zola Fel. The book Gods of Prax describes the gods of the native nomads of Prax and the Wastes.

North of Prax there's a city on the shores of the Zola Fel river. That city is Pavis. It comprises two parts: the huge old Pavis, the original city that was created about 1000 years before play begins. That city is now in ruins, and is described in Big Ruble; a new city, New Pavis, built some decades before play begins outside the northern walls of the Big Ruble, much smaller than the old city. New Pavis is described in Pavis, Threshold to Danger.

The original supplements were published in the 80's by Chaosium and were never reprinted. Latter, when Chaosium sold the rights to Runequest to Avalon Hill, parts of those supplements were printed in a different guise. Now that Runequest is nothing more than a memory, and that Glorantha is going to be reborn by Issaries Inc., this company allowed Moon Design Publications, a semi-amateur publisher, to make a new reprint of both Pavis and Big Ruble in a single book (in a line called Glorantha Classics). This is the book I'm going to review. Before I move on, just two more notes: the book includes some minor data that didn't make up to the original supplements, and it does not include the big maps of Pavis, Big Rubble and River of Cradles present in the original boxes.

STYLE

The layout of the original boxes was very good. (I'll not describe it now, since it will result from what I say below about the content of P&BR.) Moon Design Publications decided to keep that layout as much as possible (maybe because these were the instructions received by Issaries Inc.). This means that the content is divided into two parts that correspond to the two original boxes, starting with Pavis, and ending with Big Ruble. There were only some minor changes, like aggregating all the descriptions of gods. For instance, After the description of Pavis you find the scenarios that came in the Pavis box, before the info on the Big Rubble that came in the BR box. In the first part you find info on the BR that came in the Pavis box. Etc. This is unfortunate. Instead of having two documents bound together, it was possible and would make sense to integrate the content of both boxes in a new, logical manner.

The art ranges from the very good to the plainly amateurish. The latter includes the new drawings not present in the original boxes. Since this is a semi-amateur publication, there's nothing to complain about, except for one point: P&BR has a new cover that just cannot compare with the gorgeous cover of the original Pavis box (which depicted a view of Pavis and the ruble from above). It's unfortunate that Moon Design Publications didn't (or couldn't) retain that painting as the cover of this book. I just can't see no better way of presenting Pavis to players then by showing it to them.

On the overall, I give a 4 for style to this book because the original supplements were already so good stylewise, and because this is a semi-amateur printing.

CONTENT

This 316 pages book starts a general index of its content and continues with a description of the Zola Fel river valley (pages 5-18) including a small description of Corflu (a town at the mouth of the river) and a longer description of the Sun Dome Temple, one of the major towns along the river (6 pp.).

Next comes the description of New Pavis (pp. 19-72), organized in this way:

General description and description of the neighborhoods (13 pp.);
Encounters (3 pp.);
Politics (3 pp.);
Living in Pavis (13 pp.), including taverns, inns, shops, employment, entertainment, thieving activities, important locations, and rumors;
Common knowledge (17 pp.), including the maps of New Pavis and the Ruble, a chronology, the history, the pricing lists, and a two-page panorama of Pavis, ideal to show to players that are newcomers to the region;
Powerful people (7 pp.), the politics for the whole region. This is the best part of the whole book. It opens paths for endless adventuring, intrigue, and drama.

After this comes a 4 page long story, the description of an Inn (3 pp.), and the description of 7 gods (25 pp.) which provide more context info to be used by the GM and players. These 100 pages provide info on the city and surroundings, on the people, places, administration, military, politics, conflicts, etc, info enough to allow the GM to build a very rich campaign.

From page 105 to page 166 we have the next scenarios for the GM:

Free form info, including info on researching information, scenario hooks, city patrols (3 pp.);

Welcome to the City (15 pp.), a set of related episodes that happen to newcomers to the city. Let me just say that there are here some, uh, nasty maquiavelian turns. These are rather freeform also, and can be played in the order provided or independently. Each episode can also have several developments. These episodes plus the free form info and the rumors mentioned in Living in Pavis allow the resourceful GM to keep players moving on and having fun, or to fill blanks in other more structured scenarios.

Burglary at Raus House (5 pp.). The name says it all. It can be played with a small number of PCs (it can be only one, in fact). I suggest that the GM keep this to be used in a day when not all the players show up.

The Cradle (38 pp.). The Cradle... This is one of the great lost pieces of Gloranthofilia. For 15 years generations of newcomer players to Glorantha heard tales of that out of print masterpiece, and just couldn't find a copy to become part of those that had entered the deepest secrets of Prax. It was like if you wanted to enter the restricted circle of the true Glorantophiles you had to play or read the Cradle scenario. Not anymore. Now anybody can become part of the band, thanks to P&BR. This scenario is the climax of any Pavis campaign. It has it all: treasures behind measure, politics, intrigue, war.

Three forms that are issued by the local authorities for adventuring parties.

The above scenarios and forms end the content of P&BR taken from Pavis, Threshold to Danger. The next part of the book corresponds to the Big Ruble box. After the highs of Pavis, cames the deception of Big Ruble. Where in Pavis you have intrigue, drama, politics, measured conflict, adventure, here you have dungeon crawling. But let's look at it more closely.

Pages 168-187 describe the ruble in 20 pages. Compared to the 54 pages of Pavis description, this is just the bare bones. Next come 17 pages of Encounters, in fact the "wandering monsters" of any dungeon crawl. Finally there are 103 pages of scenarios:

Griffin Gate plus Balastor's Barracks (26 pp.) is basically a seek-the-treasure scenario. Nothing very inspiring.
Wolfhead's Lair (9 pp.) is simply a fight-the-criminals scenario. The only interest is that these are important and well-connected criminals in the context of New Pavis, so this may lead to long term consequences, intrigue, and politicizing.
Raid on Yelorna (15 pp.) is an attack on an amazon temple. It can be interesting, but the GM will need to do a lot of work to develop the political consequences of such ride. Otherwise it's only more one treasure hunt.
The Devils Playground (11 pp.) is a dungeon crawl, treasure-hunting scenario. Once more, it can develop into something else, but the GM will have to do the hard work.
Dito for Krang's Table (14 pp.).
Dito for the Puzzle Canal (23 pp.).
Temple at Feroda (5 pp.) is the only scenario that doesn't take place in Pavis or the Ruble, taking players down river.

Notice that these scenarios are not bad, they're just average and don't pay homage to the quality and possibilities of the materials presented before.

After 16 years roleplaying and reading RPG supplements, Pavis, my first ever, is still one of the best I've ever seen. On the overall I still give a 5 for Pavis and no more than a 3 for Big Ruble. So, the book as a whole deserves a 4 for content.

FURTHER COMMENTS

I can only recommend that you buy the Avalon Hill supplement River of Cradles which may still be available in some stores. This supplement contains the info present in Borderlands and part of the data contained in Gods of Prax. With this and the Pavis & Big Ruble book you get the basis for endless play. (You may also consider searching for several amateur publications on Prax. Go for the Glorantha homepage at http://www.glorantha.com/ to get more info on this.)

Sergio

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Pavis and Big Ruble
Author: Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, and many other Category: game Company/Publisher: Moon Design Publications Line: Gloranthan Classics Cost: UKP £25.00 Page count: 316 Playtest Review by Sergio Mascarenhas on 08/27/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	CONTEXT In the beginning of the 80's I discovered RPGs in the French magazines Jeux & Strategie and Casus Belli. It was not until 83 that, in a trip to Lion, France, I was able to buy my first game. Based on the reviews on those magazines I opted by a game called Runequest. (Yes, I just missed 'that' other game...) I also acquired my first game supplement. The shop had several on display, but I finally opted for a box called Pavis, Threshold to Danger. That's a decision I'll never regret. (What I regret is that several years latter I would have the stupid idea of selling it away.) At that time Runequest was considered one of the best fantasy RPGs, and was one of the most successful in the market place. What made it different was a simple, elegant and complete rule system, and top quality, groundbreaking supplements like Trollpack, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands and, you guessed it, Pavis. Pavis was part of a set that included two other boxes: the above mentioned Borderlands, and a third box called Big Rubble; and a book on gods called Gods of Prax. All those supplements described a region in Glorantha (the game world of Runequest) called Prax. This is a semi-desertic plain crossed by a river called Zola Fel or River of Cradles. That river starts in a mountain range in the north and finishes in a sea to the south. Prax lies at the center of the northern continent of Glorantha, Genertela. To the west it confines with the mountains of Dragon Pass, and to the east with barren plains of the Wastelands. The supplement Borderlands describes the life of emigrants from the west in the valley of Zola Fel. The book Gods of Prax describes the gods of the native nomads of Prax and the Wastes. North of Prax there's a city on the shores of the Zola Fel river. That city is Pavis. It comprises two parts: the huge old Pavis, the original city that was created about 1000 years before play begins. That city is now in ruins, and is described in Big Ruble; a new city, New Pavis, built some decades before play begins outside the northern walls of the Big Ruble, much smaller than the old city. New Pavis is described in Pavis, Threshold to Danger. The original supplements were published in the 80's by Chaosium and were never reprinted. Latter, when Chaosium sold the rights to Runequest to Avalon Hill, parts of those supplements were printed in a different guise. Now that Runequest is nothing more than a memory, and that Glorantha is going to be reborn by Issaries Inc., this company allowed Moon Design Publications, a semi-amateur publisher, to make a new reprint of both Pavis and Big Ruble in a single book (in a line called Glorantha Classics). This is the book I'm going to review. Before I move on, just two more notes: the book includes some minor data that didn't make up to the original supplements, and it does not include the big maps of Pavis, Big Rubble and River of Cradles present in the original boxes. STYLE The layout of the original boxes was very good. (I'll not describe it now, since it will result from what I say below about the content of P&BR.) Moon Design Publications decided to keep that layout as much as possible (maybe because these were the instructions received by Issaries Inc.). This means that the content is divided into two parts that correspond to the two original boxes, starting with Pavis, and ending with Big Ruble. There were only some minor changes, like aggregating all the descriptions of gods. For instance, After the description of Pavis you find the scenarios that came in the Pavis box, before the info on the Big Rubble that came in the BR box. In the first part you find info on the BR that came in the Pavis box. Etc. This is unfortunate. Instead of having two documents bound together, it was possible and would make sense to integrate the content of both boxes in a new, logical manner. The art ranges from the very good to the plainly amateurish. The latter includes the new drawings not present in the original boxes. Since this is a semi-amateur publication, there's nothing to complain about, except for one point: P&BR has a new cover that just cannot compare with the gorgeous cover of the original Pavis box (which depicted a view of Pavis and the ruble from above). It's unfortunate that Moon Design Publications didn't (or couldn't) retain that painting as the cover of this book. I just can't see no better way of presenting Pavis to players then by showing it to them. On the overall, I give a 4 for style to this book because the original supplements were already so good stylewise, and because this is a semi-amateur printing. CONTENT This 316 pages book starts a general index of its content and continues with a description of the Zola Fel river valley (pages 5-18) including a small description of Corflu (a town at the mouth of the river) and a longer description of the Sun Dome Temple, one of the major towns along the river (6 pp.). Next comes the description of New Pavis (pp. 19-72), organized in this way: General description and description of the neighborhoods (13 pp.); Encounters (3 pp.); Politics (3 pp.); Living in Pavis (13 pp.), including taverns, inns, shops, employment, entertainment, thieving activities, important locations, and rumors; Common knowledge (17 pp.), including the maps of New Pavis and the Ruble, a chronology, the history, the pricing lists, and a two-page panorama of Pavis, ideal to show to players that are newcomers to the region; Powerful people (7 pp.), the politics for the whole region. This is the best part of the whole book. It opens paths for endless adventuring, intrigue, and drama. After this comes a 4 page long story, the description of an Inn (3 pp.), and the description of 7 gods (25 pp.) which provide more context info to be used by the GM and players. These 100 pages provide info on the city and surroundings, on the people, places, administration, military, politics, conflicts, etc, info enough to allow the GM to build a very rich campaign. From page 105 to page 166 we have the next scenarios for the GM: Free form info, including info on researching information, scenario hooks, city patrols (3 pp.); Welcome to the City (15 pp.), a set of related episodes that happen to newcomers to the city. Let me just say that there are here some, uh, nasty maquiavelian turns. These are rather freeform also, and can be played in the order provided or independently. Each episode can also have several developments. These episodes plus the free form info and the rumors mentioned in Living in Pavis allow the resourceful GM to keep players moving on and having fun, or to fill blanks in other more structured scenarios. Burglary at Raus House (5 pp.). The name says it all. It can be played with a small number of PCs (it can be only one, in fact). I suggest that the GM keep this to be used in a day when not all the players show up. The Cradle (38 pp.). The Cradle... This is one of the great lost pieces of Gloranthofilia. For 15 years generations of newcomer players to Glorantha heard tales of that out of print masterpiece, and just couldn't find a copy to become part of those that had entered the deepest secrets of Prax. It was like if you wanted to enter the restricted circle of the true Glorantophiles you had to play or read the Cradle scenario. Not anymore. Now anybody can become part of the band, thanks to P&BR. This scenario is the climax of any Pavis campaign. It has it all: treasures behind measure, politics, intrigue, war. Three forms that are issued by the local authorities for adventuring parties. The above scenarios and forms end the content of P&BR taken from Pavis, Threshold to Danger. The next part of the book corresponds to the Big Ruble box. After the highs of Pavis, cames the deception of Big Ruble. Where in Pavis you have intrigue, drama, politics, measured conflict, adventure, here you have dungeon crawling. But let's look at it more closely. Pages 168-187 describe the ruble in 20 pages. Compared to the 54 pages of Pavis description, this is just the bare bones. Next come 17 pages of Encounters, in fact the "wandering monsters" of any dungeon crawl. Finally there are 103 pages of scenarios: Griffin Gate plus Balastor's Barracks (26 pp.) is basically a seek-the-treasure scenario. Nothing very inspiring. Wolfhead's Lair (9 pp.) is simply a fight-the-criminals scenario. The only interest is that these are important and well-connected criminals in the context of New Pavis, so this may lead to long term consequences, intrigue, and politicizing. Raid on Yelorna (15 pp.) is an attack on an amazon temple. It can be interesting, but the GM will need to do a lot of work to develop the political consequences of such ride. Otherwise it's only more one treasure hunt. The Devils Playground (11 pp.) is a dungeon crawl, treasure-hunting scenario. Once more, it can develop into something else, but the GM will have to do the hard work. Dito for Krang's Table (14 pp.). Dito for the Puzzle Canal (23 pp.). Temple at Feroda (5 pp.) is the only scenario that doesn't take place in Pavis or the Ruble, taking players down river. Notice that these scenarios are not bad, they're just average and don't pay homage to the quality and possibilities of the materials presented before. After 16 years roleplaying and reading RPG supplements, Pavis, my first ever, is still one of the best I've ever seen. On the overall I still give a 5 for Pavis and no more than a 3 for Big Ruble. So, the book as a whole deserves a 4 for content. FURTHER COMMENTS I can only recommend that you buy the Avalon Hill supplement River of Cradles which may still be available in some stores. This supplement contains the info present in Borderlands and part of the data contained in Gods of Prax. With this and the Pavis & Big Ruble book you get the basis for endless play. (You may also consider searching for several amateur publications on Prax. Go for the Glorantha homepage at http://www.glorantha.com/ to get more info on this.) Sergio Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)