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This is the second in a series of reviews of adventures and supplements published for 2nd edition Runequest in the period between 1978 and ca. 1985. My purpose with these reviews is to spread the good word about some classics of good game design that are long OOP and unknown to many. I also want to expand upon the several excellent reviews of the 2nd edition Runequest core rules already available on this site. I chose Borderlands to review second because Rick Meints has announced that he is selling a reprint of it, as the fourth in his line of excellent reproductions of 2nd edition Runequest materials. You can view and order this product line at: www.glorantha.info
My first review was of the ‘early adventures’ (Apple Lane, Balastor’s Barracks, and Snakepipe Hollow), and included a long introductory section on the availability of 2nd edition Runequest materials and the diversity of core rules that could be used to roleplay in the Gloranthan setting. You can find this review at: www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9695.phtm ———————————————————————————————— Overview ‘Borderlands’ is a boxed-set supplement published in 1982 by Chaosium. It provides a detailed regional-scale (i.e., several hundred square miles) setting and seven adventures for an area near Dragon Pass (the central geographic feature of role playing in the Gloranthan setting), as well as additional new information of broader use (e.g., new cults appropriate to the region covered by the supplement but also of interest for the broader campaign). Borderlands is one of four such supplements published by Chaosium for the Gloranthan setting; the others are Griffin Mountain, Pavis, and Big Rubble (a fifth, similar-looking boxed set, ‘Trollpak’ also contains adventures and settings but is more broadly aimed at exploring all things trollish). Borderland contains a range of challenges, but is fundamentally a ‘low level’ setting—a careful player could introduce an inexperienced character to this region and expect him or her to survive.
Physical contents: Borderlands includes the following: (1) A large, hand drawn map printed on heavy paper (almost as nice as the paper used for old Judges Guild maps prepared for the City State setting). This map is characteristic of those prepared by Chaosium for Runequest at this time: Detailed and evocative, but spare. It is just an inked black and white map, but the landscape, diversity and flavor of place names, and scale of detail is effective—pondering it inspires adventure ideas for players and game masters alike. The area covered by this map includes the lower River of Cradles—a relatively large river draining the foothills of the mountains comprising the eastern side of Dragon pass and flowing through an arid region populated by nomads. Imagine the lower Nile emptied of Egyptians and you will have a feel for the physical setting.
(2) The Referee’s Handbook: A ca. 50 page soft-cover, staple-bound book detailing the geography of the region and its important NPCs, racial groups and monsters, and outlining the suggested campaign. This book, like most Chaosium supplements published at this time, is surprisingly durable and high-quality for a paperback. They used a heavy, stationary-quality paper, a thick cardstock cover, a large, easily read font, the printing is quite good, and the layout is effective. After 22 years of use, my copies look and feel better than most of the D20 supplements I see on the shelf at my local gaming store.
(3) The Referee’s Encounter Book: A ca. 30 page soft-cover book providing statistics and brief descriptions of a wide diversity of people, creatures and monsters one might run across in the Borderlands, plus a ‘wandering monster’ table one can refer to if you wish to randomly determine chances of encountering these critters in various terrain types. Pre-generated NPCs and monsters are an absolute necessity for running Runequest (of any edition) because the game system assumes every being—humanoid or creature; player- or GM-run; powerful or weak—is fully detailed with statistics, skills, hit locations, hit-location-specific armor, spells, items, etc. Naturally one cuts a few corners when writing up new NPCs, but the work load can be enormous. This feature of the game is the reason why several of the first, and most important, supplements published for it were compilations of NPC stat blocks (the best and most complete of these is Foes; the only such book that I really enjoy leafing through for the artwork and funny quirks found in many of the creature descriptions).
(4) The adventures are described in a set of thin modules (from several pages to perhaps two dozen) printed and bound separately on heavy paper. They are the size and ‘feel’ of the original pastel AD&D modules, and I find them far more useful and interesting to leaf through than a single thick volume. I suspect that authors of these short adventure booklets were forced to be spare to save page count, and as a result avoided the word bloat that infects many (most?) modern game books.
The setting and campaign: Borderlands presents a coherent ‘schedule’ of adventures that constitute a single campaign, rather than the collection of unrelated adventures one finds in other volumes in this line (e.g., Pavis or Griffin Mountain). The characters are assumed to enter the employ of Duke Raus, a former soldier in the Lunar empire who has been appointed governor (and tamer) of the new imperial territories along the lower river of Cradles. He presents the characters with a Mercenary contract, and then acts as the dues ex mechina that leads the characters through their set of adventures. One could imagine playing Borderlands without working for Raus or going on his adventures, but I suggest one play along as a way of getting to know the setting (plus the adventures are good), and then take advantage of the rich background material for running more free-form campaigns later.
The adventures are, in chronological order: Scouting the land: The characters travel through Prax, meeting strange nomadic tribes. This sounds boring and can be in the wrong hands, but there is much to enjoy here. The setting includes many distinctive tribes (bison riders, morokanths, etc.) and a challenging wild fauna (Triceratops, anyone?), so a creative group can have a lot of fun simply wandering around learning who and what is in the neighborhood. Think this one through before running, and spice with one or more of the excellent ‘random’ encounters.
Outlaw hunt: The characters get to chop up ducks gone wild. ‘Nuf said.
Jezra’s rescue: The characters must rescue a young woman who has been kidnapped by Tusk Riders—vile troll-like humanoids who ride savage giant boars. Tusk Riders are the closest thing the Gloranthan setting has to orcs, and most players who get involved in the setting come to despise them. This adventure involves lots of blood letting, and can be quite dangerous to an incautious band.
Revenge of Muriah: The characters must come to grips with a repulsive band of disease spewing Broos. Icky fun; be sure to use protection.
5-eyes temple: The characters must face down a band of newtlings (think child-sized newts on two legs that are trying to stab you) who believe they have what it takes to be the dominant force on the lower river of Cradles. This is the most extensive dungeon crawl in the campaign setting, and is deceptively difficult because of the unfamiliar magical powers possessed by some of the temple inhabitants.
Condor Crags: The characters must travel into the barren wilds and recover condor eggs from dangerous spires of rock.
To Giantland: The characters serve as trade emissaries to Gon Orta, a truly colossal giant living far to the north of Raus’ lands. This adventure is great fun because Gon Orta and his castle have to be experienced to be believed. It also provides a natural reason for the party to leave the Borderlands and travel to other developed adventure settings (The Big Rubble, Pavis, Troll lands, Griffin Mountain).
There really isn’t a weak adventure here, and they complement each other wonderfully. This campaign is arguably the best single way to rear a party of characters run by players who are new to Glorantha.
Finally, the book of encounters is an easily over-looked gem: It is presented as an old-fashioned random encounter list, but a game master can harvest from it many, many hours of action, dozens of adventure hooks, and flavorful events to spice up a boring part of an adventure.
New creatures cults, and races: Borderlands presents descriptions and attributes for roughly two dozen new types of creatures and monsters (dinosaurs, condors, etc.), new races, and fleshed out races. These include Newtlings, Tusk Riders, Morokanths, Broos and Ducks. The original 2nd edition Runequest rulebook contains introductory information about these races, but much more is found here. Finally, Borderlands presents a detailed description of a new race, the Agimori, or ‘men and a half’, a race of gigantic, powerful humans most like the masai. The men and half are an interesting addition to the Gloranthan setting, but unbalancing if permitted as player characters. Even a beginning adventurer of this race will make your other players regret having sunk years into cultivating their pathetic humans, elves, dwarves and dark trolls. If you want to tell whether a new addition to your gaming group is a closet power gamer, tell him about the Agimori. If his eyes defocus and he starts to rant about his possible species-maximum attack bonus, get rid of him fast.
Weaknesses: The Borderlands campaign setting is the natural starting point for any 2nd edition Runequest campaign, and a must-have for anyone who loves old games. Nevertheless, it has several deficiencies. Most noticeably, there is little here to challenge a highly experienced group of adventurers. This is not a weakness in modules containing a single adventure, which are generally written with a specific party strength in mind. However, the best broad campaign settings contain a little something for everyone. Borderlands should be played by characters that have 0-5 adventures under their belts before beginning. Runemasters might enjoy passing through, but will soon want to move on to something more interesting.
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