Let's play King of Dragon Pass, just as our ancestors did

Leave em be for now then take vengeance when Storm comes around.

Kill all ducks!

We've decided not to launch a punitive raid on the Ducks, though the consensus is that we'll give them theirs come Storm or so. This is good, since if I'm being completely honest, I already made that decision before leaving on vacation so that I could ensure I wouldn't lose this event.

LPKODP will return shortly!

Meanwhile, in 1975: There's actually a Dragon Pass board game! Who knew?

The board game is intimidatingly complicated. It features a map that shares much in common with the map in King of Dragon Pass: the horse nomads in the west, the beastfolk in the south, and the ducks near the Upland Marsh. While the map looks to cover the same area as King of Dragon Pass, the two games are apparently set in different eras. Dragon Pass has a highly populated map, with Tarsh covering much more territory than in King. Additionally, the board game is centered on Tarsh's conflict with the Lunar Empire, which is only weakly mentioned in King of Dragon Pass: if you contact Tarsh, there is a chance they will ask for aid in their war against the Lunar Empire. The Orlanthi in Tarsh are constantly in an on-and-off war with the Lunar Empire, which is apparently a longstanding enough grudge to span from the time of King of Dragon Pass until the time of the board game. The board game actually predates the pen & paper RPG by a few years, so it's hard to determine the exact chronology here, but it's interesting how much of the lore survived over 20 years to make it into King of Dragon Pass.

These days, the board game is out of print, though you can still get a copy in good condition for as little as $85. (The game retailed at about $15.)

If it retailed at $15 in 75 that's pretty damn cheap considering inflation.

Technically, "Dragon Pass" came out in 1981. It was a reprint of a game called "White Bear & Red Moon," which was also set in Dragon Pass. White Bear & Red Moon was the commercial public's introduction to Glorantha. That title will run you at least $100, though the quality of the components is much lower, particularly the map. You're better off just grabbing Dragon Pass.

Greg Stafford, the brain behind Glorantha (and a co-designer on King of Dragon Pass), tried to get WB&RM published through three different publishers which went out of business before he could release the game. He ended up creating his own company just to publish the game. Chaosium would go on to publish the RuneQuest RPG system in 1978, making it one of the earliest successors to D&D. The company is still around and is probably best-known for its Call of Cthulhu RPG, but Stafford left to found Issaries, Inc. in 1998. Stafford still owned the rights to Glorantha, and Issaries is the publisher of HeroQuest (the pen & paper RPG, not that HeroQuest).

In August of last year, Stafford transferred the Glorantha rights to Moon Design Publications (probably because he was retiring from the business; Stafford turns 66 in February). Moon Design was previously licensed by Issaries as the publisher for HeroQuest, but now they own the properties, and The Design Mechanism (publisher of RuneQuest) and A-Sharp (publisher of King of Dragon Pass) license through them instead of Issaries. Issaries, Inc. is probably defunct by now, but it's hard to tell because the relevant section of their website hasn't been updated since 2008.

And that's more than you ever wanted to know about the Dragon Pass board game!

Year 1337, part 6

So we decided to let the ducks chill. They'll get theirs soon enough, probably.

Earth 2

Now, where were we..? Oh, right. We have a trading omen. Let's trade!



We'll try to buy another treasure. I'll take the White Calf as collateral, since our herd situation is...



...right.



The Knowing God is Lhankor Mhy. Iskalli worships him, so this would probably give him a boost.



Still, it's not worth trading off the White Calf, even if our cows are going to waste. 90 cows should be enough for this.



But Korol disagrees. Oh well.

If you'd like to pursue this particular treasure, please mention it. Otherwise, we'll keep looking.

Dark 1



If Insterid has taken enough interest in our agricultural situation to form an opinion, that means it's action time. I've increased our pastures from 39 hides to 60, which shrinks our wildlands a bit. Prepare for more notices about how our hunters have nothing to do.

Over time, pastures will devolve into wildlands. Cropland devolves into either pastures or wildlands -- I forget which. It doesn't usually come into play. The fact that our pastures are overflowing is an indication that we are extremely well off. Maybe I should've offered more for the Greysage Mask.

However

Inganna, the daughter of a thane, is causing trouble for the ring. She seems to do nothing but agitate against your decisions. She has convinced the carls that you favor the weaponthanes, and the weaponthanes that you favor the carls. She says that you have dishonored clan ancestors, that your rulings are unjust, and that your management of the clan wealth leaves much to be desired.

Yerestia: Her complaints are unjustified, but the mood of the people will continue to deteriorate if we do not take strong action. We must outlaw her. Recommends #3 or #5.
Harvar: She is consumed by spite, and no one knows why. It is unlikely that any argument will satisfy her. Recommends #3.
Insterid: Everyone says that the weaponthanes love her, but I can think of no particular weaponthanes who do. Recommends #5.
Iskalli: She shows disrespect for our chosen leaders. We are well within our rights to outlaw her. Recommends #3.
Valensta: Errath, the Tragic King, failed to act against an enemy in his own clan. That enemy turned out to be mad; she triggered an avalanche, and many of Errath's tribe were buried. No recommendation.
Arene: She says the carls love her, but secretly they wish she would shut her mouth. Recommends #5.
Heortarl: Oh, she doesn't really mean any harm by her words. I admire her gumption! Recommends #1.
Mogri: I'd go for a permanent solution to this problem unless we want to see Inganna again in a few months.

She seems to have some sort of skin condition, but it's impolite to dwell on that.

As much as I do admire her gumption, she's annoying. 3.

If we outlaw her, she'll be back soon enough, won't she?

But I can't see paying the Danegeld to be of any use and I can't imagine marrying her off will improve our relations with whatever clan that we send her to (to say nothing of her opinion on the matter), so outlawing is probably the best bet.

No, outlaws are gone for good. Only very rarely will a clan allow someone who has been outlawed (although one of our neighboring clans is famous for reforming outlaws and bandits, but I don't think that has any story implications).

We wouldn't see her again if we managed to marry her away, either, but you're probably right that it wouldn't help relations.

Outlaw 3 her or dump her onto another clan 6

5 is threatening to outlaw her. Is that intended to be 3?

No idea what you're talking about Mogri...

#3 Looking at the expressions on the people in the back of the picture I'd say we outlaw this scallywag.

I am disappointed that there is not a violent way to handle this situation.

And I doubt that we can marry her off to the hated Duck clan, so we'll just have to go with 3.

Hrm... 3 & 6 scream future trouble. Maybe a well worded threat will stifle her rabble rousing. #5. Assuming she DOES try this chicanery again, then we can banish her smart ass.

The clan needs to see some strong leadership, so #3.

Year 1337, part 7

I was totally gonna do this last week, but then I realized I had forgotten to upload the images. Whoops!



This event is a bit of a trap, though the answer is fairly obvious and your ring is likely to recommend it. Ignoring her, offering compensation, talking with her, and threatening her all have no beneficial effect, and you'll just have to deal with her again. Outlawing her can fail if you have a really terrible lawspeaker (her supporters will throw a party and say that she should be the lawspeaker -- you can't actually put her on your ring, though). If your leader is unskilled, it will cause a morale hit, as it did here. It's probably still the better option, since attempting to marry her away will either fail or worsen relations with the clan of your choice.

Dark 2



What? The clan mood is worried? How persuasive was that loser, anyway?

Well, you know what this means.



Yep, time for a feast.



Oh yeah! Feasts: we have them.

Storm 1



We need to squeeze some value out of our trading omen, so let's go for another trade route.



And... the Herani attack? Haven't we pulverized them enough for one year?



Out of nowhere, this guy!

My (perhaps controversial) decision will be to go all in here. This guy is an unknown, so if he dies, no big deal. On the other hand, maybe he'll score big and get a boost to some stats.



Ooh... guess not. Good hustle, though, Rostalos!



And we win anyway, naturally. "Our magic blew away theirs," despite not actually spending anything for this battle. Most of their weaponthanes and half of their footmen got in the way of our blades.

Storm 2

Even so...



...let's recruit a few more weaponthanes. I disagree with Insterid's assessment, but more can't hurt.



So... that omen? A total crock. Too bad.



Okay, guys. You're just embarrassing yourselves now.



We have a busy Fire season ahead of us next year, with both the Osgosi and the Herani to loot and plunder.

"Smote them mightily." I love it!

Sacred Time



Here's the tula report. Despite our swelling ranks and meager harvests, we're still in the pink on food, but perhaps not for long (although we did spend some of that feasting). The rearrangement of our fields might help our situation this year -- at the very least, it means we can still boost our cattle numbers, and cattle are a food source, too.

We have a preposterous number of horses.



And now, for the least threatening bad omen possible. (I'm not counting the one that threatens your birth rate. That's a good omen.)


A 1338 approaches. What do you do?

kill stuff?

Can we kill stuff?

We were gonna leave the questing along for a few years, right? Explore everywhere, sacrifice to Issaries, try the trade route again, get more cropland if we need it, have a raid or two, do we need any shrines?

All exploring and raiding all the time, also if we can build a shrine to Humakt.

Trade! War! Mysteries!

Mysteries! War! Crops!

We have one, actually -- it's the one that looks like a tombstone near the northeast end of the tula. We could expand to a temple, though the marginal utility decreases very quickly because we already have the best blessing available.

Oh right. I'm down for sacrificing cows to learn all the mysteries of the universe as well.

All this beef and no one's invented the Steakhouse? I wonder about the clan's priorities.

Let's totally go kill those dudes and take their stuff.

hey mogri

Real Life happened!

The LP will return next week.

Quick update: I'm running into some technical difficulties (also I am lazy) which I hope to work through soon. If not, it's back to the old computer, which isn't so bad except that it's winter and I never go downstairs because it's winter. I said this week, though, and I'll do my best to make that happen.

Worst case, it's not like this LP is going to start updating more slowly.