Can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet = like everyone else I found it is an incredible book, hilarious, plenty of things to love and and some Brooke-isms that will make you raise your eyebrows and snigger. This is the kind of book that JC was invented for, it may not be canon, but it brings joy.

I bought the hardback version of A Rough Guide to Glamour and it is wonderful. I have re-read it numerous times.

I am a Glorantha newbie, but was always intrigued by the Lunars during the exposure of the years. So to me it was a no-brainer buying the book.

It is just so good. The lay-out and maps and illustrations are brilliant. It is a stunning piece of work. Also it's a delightful read - the writers' voice(s) are great - and I got a really sense of the place - plenty of creative-fuel for using Glamour in my future RQG campaigns.

The thing that comes across most in the book is THE LOVE everyone has for the material. That love is infectious.

This was my first Jonstown Compendium physical purchase and it sits very nicely next to my Guide To Glorantha and lore books. Based on the quality, it is the first of many JC purchases for me.

O. M. G(s).

This marvelous book raises the bar for fan produced content. Writing, illustration, layout are all top notch. (I have a couple of typographical quibbles that are too small to worry a review with.) Do you need it? Probably not Do you want it? Yes indeedy It is I think best described as a collection of essays and ephemera by ancient and respected grognards in the fan community, some of whom have since gone to "like [Runequest] so much [they] bought the company." The topic in question is as much the Lunar culture as it is the Lunar city. So even if you never plan to visit its a compelling, and humourous, read. I love in particular the rumor boxes, with a hand truth rating... the rating system itself is worth a chuckle.

Some of the art id GORGEOUS!

Also is a rare community content title in that you can buy it POD. And I am impressed by the quality of the first POD product I have ever bought from drivethru

I'm newly back in Glorantha after many, many years away and I have to say that the place is even richer and more exciting than when I left it. The Jonstown Compendium series of non-canon books means that the land and its denizens are expanding and becoming more realised than any time in the games 50 years history. To this end, Glamour is a brilliant addition. The threat of the Lunar Empire has always hung heavy over Dragon Pass and this book allows you to really understand the mechanics of the place. A must for any campaign.

There's never enough Lunar stuff out there, and this fills a big hole very nicely. It's good writing, good art, and good layout. The type is a little larger than some books, but my aging eyes are very appreciative, and there's still plenty of content here, too. I love how rich and varied the content is here...it really is like a rough guide, with everything from people and places (there's a whole gazeteer) to cults and myths. I bought this in print and PDF, and both are of very fine quality.

This book is originally the player's guidebook for the wildly fabulous life of Moonson RQ LARP. My 2 fervent wishes are 1) that book 2 of Moonson would come out soon and that 2) both of those supplements would make it to print. Even without the Moonson stuff, though, the Rough Guide to Glamour is an excellent standalone supplement for any edition of RQ. I plan to use it for RQG. The system stuff in it (much of it is system free) is RQG.

A great product, one that's both a fun read and a useful supplement.

This could have been just another roleplaying sourcebook. At the hands of Gidlow, Brooke, Hagen, and others it still would have been brilliant. But instead of taking that staid, traditional route, the group did something entirely different and better.

A Rough Guide to Glamour is a hodge-podge of materials about the capitol of the Lunar Empire that, like the best material on Glorantha, tells its stories through both the intersections and the absences in a series of overlapping materials. (At one point, I thought this could have a been a 21st issue of the long-gone and much lamented Tales of the Reaching Moon magazine, a Lunar Special, but it's actually something much more than that.)

The major article is a rather extensive Gazetteer of Glamour, but rather than being the sort of thing you'd find in LE1: The City of Glamour, it instead reads more like a tourist guide — and it turns out to be a pretty wonderful way to view a roleplaying city, because it's full of plot seeds and ideas that you could turn into real gameable moments if your players somehow make it all the way out to Glamour.

The other most gameable part of the book is a pair of cults. The Red Emperor is one of the most extensive cults in all of RuneQuestdom, while Glamour is a fine example of a mischievous, rebellious city god. These materials could easily be used for any RQ game.

The rest of the book is made up of the rather joyfully overlapping stories that give all of this depth. There's some fiction that provides some rather interesting insights into the Lunar Empire and the Red Emperor. There's a bit of song that's more of an ode to the Queen than the Emperor but is still hysterically funny. There's also information on history, peoples, governance, and the nearby regions that's everything you wanted to know about the Lunar Empire but were afraid to ask.

Overall, a wonderful bit of Glorantha lore, highlighting the Lunar Empire as seen by its biggest fans in the '90s.

Oh, and it's wonderfully produced with beautiful art and great design. Get the POD, it's a great looking hardcover.

Awesome quality stuff, and also you get a lot for this price. Incredible layout, gorgeous full color art pieces. I'd pay even a higher price for this book if more full color art would be included inside. Best price-quality ratio in my opinion in whole Jonstown Compendium.

Plase comission more Antonia Doncheva stuff for future releases, good work!

Not sure how I missed this before (I guess the blessings of having family landed about the period I stopped playing Runequest). Wasn't sure what to expect from looking at the cover, but it is a delight. Didn't expect it to be so er...entertaining. The write up on what happens if you dont pay your taxes is very different.

I liked the PDF so much I got the book as soon as it came out. Delivery was prompt and they kept me well informed of the delivery status. The book is very nice, lovely cover art and well bound etc. Cannot complain.

Let's first be clear about what this book is not. It is not a legitimate attempt to make a serious and playable sourcebook for the Lunar Empire in Glorantha. Then again if you bought a book with Elvis on the cover and expected a serious tome, I don’t know what to tell you.

What it is is an ecstatic and passionate account of what the city of Glamour feels like. This book is equivalent to Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, complete with modern pop culture anachronisms. It paints a city that is inebriated on its own propaganda, and reveling in nonstop parties to rival the infamous Studio 54. If you read this book you will understand the soul of the City of Glamour. (With the stated caveat that you probably won’t learn much about the reality of Glamour.)

I admit I had a serious hesitancy over the celebrity characractures. That is not the Glorantha I fell in love with or how I interact with the setting, but I am happy to admit that the tone of this book actually manages to carry it off. This is a book seeking to capture the electric feeling of a place so that we as outsiders can understand it. In that respect this book is perfection.

If you are planning a serious minded and full campaign in the Lunar Empire, I am honestly not sure this book will do you much good. If you are looking for an energetic read written by people with a deep love for this setting, and are down for a thoroughly enjoyable though highly aesthetic experience, this book is a must buy. Pick an evening, pour yourself your favorite intoxicating substance and be swept away by the red spectacle that is A Rough Guide to Glamour.

The Jonstown Compendium—Chaosium’s community content program for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—has on offer a variety of fan-produced game supplements, all in digital formats. Until now! A Rough Guide to Glamour, from Nick Brooke, Chris Gidlow, and Mike Hagen, is the first release on the storefront available in hard copy, printed on demand. Consequently, this review will address the book’s content and artwork, but also discuss the physical item. I’ve ordered some print on demand offerings from DriveThruRPG before, but never a hardcover, nor have I reviewed one. Further, I suspect the object’s quality may be of interest for other customers of the Jonstown Compendium.

Before digging into the Rough Guide, a few quick disclaimers: while I was not involved in this work’s production, I also publish on the Jonstown Compendium, and generally do benefit from other contributors doing well. I’m also acquainted with some of the persons involved in this publication.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get started.

This is a strange book.

Overall, I like it. But it’s a strange book, and it’s very open about that.

Perhaps it’s best to start with some background. “A Rough Guide to Glamour is your indispensible (sic) companion for any visit to the capital city of the greatest empire the world of Glorantha has ever known,” claims the back cover. Originally published in the 90’s, the Rough Guide reprints the original material and more, alongside a wealth of art. It is one of several works born from the collaboration of Glorantha’s fans, and published in small runs at various conventions. Several of those persons—including some contributors to the Rough Guide—now actually run Chaosium. Yet this is and remains a fan publication, written with a knowing wink in its eye. At times this edition feels like an enormous in-joke which the community at large is just now being let in on. But at the same time, the Rough Guide remains newbie-friendly.

For newcomers to the setting of Glorantha, the Rough Guide provides a strong, slightly idiosyncratic, picture of the Lunar Empire. This empire is traditionally the setting’s antagonist, the force which players are struggling to overcome. Using a peculiar melange of mythology, subtext, and pop culture, the Rough Guide is the best currently available introduction to the Lunar Empire and its capital city, Glamour. Glamour is the wholly magical capital of a wholly magical empire, a city built from illusions and dreams. This leads to a great deal of strangeness, apparent both in the method of presentation, and in the city itself. The “magical capital of a magical empire” has become something of a trope in fantasy, but I’ve never seen it done quite this way. And certainly not for the setting’s antagonists!

Rather than a straightforward description of the city as you might find in any other guide to a tabletop RPG city’s setting, the Rough Guide is more like a work of fiction. Its primary tool is in-world texts: descriptions, short stories, fictitious journals and letters written by visitors to and residents of Glamour. The classic “map and described locations” is included, yes, but as one facet of a varied document. It’s with the in-world documents that the book’s occasionally tongue-in-cheek sense of humor comes to the front.

The most persistent example of this is prominently displayed in the center of the cover illustration. The Red Emperor, ruler of the Lunar Empire, holder of many titles, is Elvis. And not just Elvis, but decrepit, obese Elvis. Illuminated with not one, not two, but three scatologically-fixated vignettes the Emperor’s faded glory stands as the symbol of the Empire itself. Swaddled in layers of silk and illusion, he is the empire’s avatar. Even the prose itself reflects this in obscuring the Emperor’s foul “deeds” behind a veil of erudite vocabulary. I never expected to learn the word “micturation” through an RPG supplement! (And I’ll let you go discover that definition yourself.)

While the Red Emperor is the most prominent blend of fantasy and pop culture throughout the book, he’s not the only one. The front and back cover includes multiple celebrity lookalikes, which are reproduced in the article “Very Important People” within. Notable among these, for me, are Danny Devito as the leader of the IRS (Imperial Revenue Service) and commander of the Tax Demons, and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, who portrays the “Red Dancer of Power,” the Empire’s economic organizer and Chief Missionary of the state religion. These ongoing allusions to Earth continue in the text as well. Most notable of these is “Pelorian Rhapsody,” a stupendous parody of Queen’s immortal song, which tells the story of the head of the Empire’s pantheon, the Red Goddess.

It’s not only the sheen of pop culture which makes the Rough Guide unique. Strip away that layer of this multi-textual work, and we’re still left with a subversive image of the evil fantasy empire.

And the Lunar Empire is an evil fantasy empire. There’s no doubting that—it has a demon bat the size of a football arena which devours souls, for crying out loud!—but despite near-monolithic hegemony and a vice-tight grip on its subject states, the Empire’s core concept entails an inherent hollowness. This is typified by the Emperor, as suggested above, but also repeated in the portrayal of its capital city. The city’s goddess, Glamour, provides magics to create illusion and splendor; the city shines brightly, but has a wicked underbelly. Glamour isn’t the City on a Hill (although it has three), but is presented as such. All of the in-world texts are purportedly pro-Lunar, but are clearly meant to be read with the reader’s eye toward what they overlook. There’s a shadow in the heart of Glamour.

This shadow doesn’t make the bright places false, and these contradictions are intentional. They’re a key aspect to what makes the setting, Glorantha, so compelling for fans. The Lunar Empire is a paradox, just like many real-world cultures are. It has ways it is bright, and ways it is dark, and Glamour (and the people who live there) reflect this.

These elements and more spun together are why I previously stated that the Rough Guide is more similar to fiction than to an RPG supplement. It’s a book you can sit in an armchair and read—believe me, I’ve done it. It’s not a reference document. It’s something more.

But it’s not marketed as fiction. It’s marketed as a game supplement. How does the Rough Guide hold up?

A Rough Guide to Glamour claims it is “indispensible.” I’m inclined to agree. I’m also inclined to think it isn’t a great RPG supplement. If a newcomer to the setting came to me and said “Austin, where should I go to learn more about the Lunar Empire?” I would immediately answer with “the Rough Guide.” It does a terrific job presenting an overview of the Empire’s history, religion, and culture through the lens of its capital city. But if they asked “Where should I go to play a campaign in the Lunar Empire?” I’d have to shrug and babble incoherently.

The main question I consider, when trying to critique an RPG supplement—a guide to setting or an adventure, for example—is “how much work does the gamemaster have to do to use this product?” For me to take the Rough Guide and try to start a RuneQuest game set in Glamour would take quite a bit of work. Though I’m not an expert at this, I’m far from being a novice, either. What’s missing is rules content: creating adventurers, antagonists, adventure seeds—no, I’m sorry, the “Rumors” sidebars are entertaining, but they don’t count—and so forth. Paradoxically, and fitting given the subject, the Rough Guide‘s strength is also its weakness. A gamemaster with the Rough Guide and the core rulebook would have to create a lot of content before beginning play.

Then why do I agree that it is “indispensible”? Because of how strongly it provides cultural context—showing, rather than telling, in writer-speak—the Rough Guide is an excellent read for gamemasters playing other material from Chaosium or the Jonstown Compendium, which interacts with the Lunars. It shows you everything you need to know about how they behave. Although playing a game in Glamour still requires a lot of work, using the Rough Guide to gain an insight into roleplaying Lunar antagonists requires no work at all—simply an enjoyable read.

That’s not to say the Rough Guide is flawless, despite its quality. Looking at it from the perspective of fiction, rather than as a game, my biggest critique is that it is repetitive. This is most prominent in its accounts of the history of the Lunar Empire. The topic’s first touched upon in “Sultanate of the Silver Shadow,” a brief description of the lands surrounding Glamour excerpted from the official publication The Guide to Glorantha. It’s then treated with more detail in “A Brief History of the Lunar Empire”, then once again in both new RuneQuest cults, the cult of the Red Emperor and the cult of Glamour. By this last iteration the history has unfortunately grown dull and over-read. It varies slightly in details and emphasis, but is largely the same topic, touched upon three times.

Likewise, the book’s tone as a whole rarely varies; the dark, seedy underside of Glamour is mentioned early in the work but never discussed in depth. This is also a consequence of much of the book’s framing as in-world documents. The negatives of the Lunar Empire cannot be shown because, of course, the Lunar Empire cannot be in the wrong. But at some stage this becomes bland. Sections of the Rough Guide, particularly the “Gazetteer to Glamour”, suffer from a similar issue. Every locale is splendid, and has arcane, unspecified significance, and is the best thing, the most spectacular thing, the most Thingiest Thing. Just as the repetition of “thing” in that sentence grinds at my own ears, so too does the unwavering tone of sections of the Rough Guide. While this serves an intentional aesthetic purpose, I think this choice is incorrect because of how the text consequently drags.

The book also needs a bit of proofreading. There aren’t any egregious errors, but a handful of typos, and so on.

These are overall small issues. As I said at the start, I quite like this book. Most of it was a joy to read, and I hope that comes through distinctly in this review. Totally stunning to find something of this quality as a fan publication—a fact which, frankly, I kept forgetting as I read and as I contemplated the book. It’s an odd creation, and probably the best work of Gloranthan fiction I’ve read despite its mask as an RPG supplement.

(And yes, that includes King of Sartar.)

The Rough Guide claims to be “lavishly illustrated” and lives up to that claim without qualification or quibbling. Art’s great, and I hope the excerpts I’ve shared help highlight that. My only complaint—and this really is just whining, not “reasonable critique—is that so little of the art is in color. Much of it is reprinted from prior non-digital editions of the Rough Guide, and holds up well, but is from black and white printings.

The new art matches well the style of old, to the point that I’m not personally certain where those lines intersect. The only pieces I’m certain are new are those in color.

My rule of thumb is, if my only comment on something is “I want more,” that thing was probably pretty good. That’s certainly true of the Rough Guide‘s art. I don’t have a lot to say; it’s excellent, and I want more.

A Rough Guide to Glamour is an 8.5″ by 11″ hardcover book with a glossy cover. The cover art has good resolution, although I’m not certain if a high resolution is necessary due to its cartoon-like style. It is clear and distinct. While the book doesn’t meet the quality of Chaosium’s official publications, this is a fan publication. Further, the Jonstown Compendium does not provide, to the best of my knowledge, bespoke options for content creators making print on demand titles. The physical quality of this product should not reflect on its writers, artists, and publishers.

That said, the hardcover about meets my expectations. I’d love it to have all the little extra details which Chaosium uses, but I know that’s not an option. It feels a touch flimsy, but not distressingly so.

The one other note I have for the physical product is that, to my surprise, I found the page numbers in the center of the page (as they are on the PDF) mildly irritating. Like a little buzzing fly. Not a big deal, but odd—and something I should remember if I transform my own content to print on demand. I suspect its not something the creators expected either.

As I plan to put this review up on DriveThruRPG, I need to give it a starred rating, out of five. This is a process I typically dislike, since I don’t think most media can be distilled to a simple numeric value unless really good, or really, really bad.

If this system was out of ten, I’d give the Rough Guide a nine. I really enjoyed reading it, I think it has good potential for use by gamemasters, but it does have flaws. Considering the high quality of this fan publication, and that in many ways its treading new ground on the Jonstown Compendium, I’m going to give it the difference, and note this as five stars.

This review was originally posted at https://akhelas.com/2020/06/10/review-a-rough-guide-to-glamour/.

This is the Fifth Inspiration of Moonson.

You know a piece of writing is exciting you when you find yourself reading it in a voice of some sort or another. I cannot help but read the entries in the style of Peter Sellars' "Bal-Ham: Gateway to the South." They are hugely amusing and packed with references, but in no way sacrifice the playability of an RPG supplement in the process.

The Rough Guide reminds me of my other favorite bizzarre city setting, Fever-Dreaming Marlinko. As with that work, the humor may not appeal to everyone. If you aren't impressed by the idea that the Red Emperor may act a bit like late-stage Elvis, then this probably isn't for you, but you can't say you're not warned by the cover.

Talking of which, the art is top-notch, but in the portrait of the Goddess Glamour it reaches a new height for community content in my book.

As they say in New Pelorian, Double-Plus Good.

There is so much goodness packed into A Rough Guide to Glamour. There is a vivacity to this publication, and it is obvious that it has been written with a collective passion. The layout is impressive and is over-brimming with great art both of the city and the characters within it. I particularly liked the profiles of the Very Important People in Glamour. The panoramic view of the city is also superb.

After an introduction to the great city, a map and gazetteer stake out areas of interest, many with accompanying images. This is admirably supported by the Rough Guide section.. On a first read through I was struck by the opulence of the city, but the more you read it is clear illusion hides much urban decay, even in the Lunar Capital. The Centre for Strategic Research sounds very intriguing but I was drawn in by the decadent image of the baths

There are a series of great little storeys. It was nice to see Jaxarte pop up again (from Sun County fame) and I did much enjoy the Letter from a Monopolist.

And of course, there is also two superb Cult write-ups – one for The Red Emperor and the other for the glorious Glamour herself.

There is so much in this book - lovingly written, great illustrations - I would thoroughly recommend it.

Does the song "A kind of magic" means something to you ? For my part yes, and that guide is something like that : a kind of magic (moon magic ?) ! First, I would like to tell the wholesupplement is clear, well written and really beautiful, very easy to read and use. I think that book gives all the keys to understand and depict Glamour but beyond that, the lunar philosophy and central organization. And also, that is deliciously fun ! I highly enjoy it and I think i will higly rely on for lunar questions. Long life to moonson, the red emperor !

Et pour les français qui se questionneraient, l'avis en français ! Est-ce que la chanson "A kind of magic" signifie quelque chose pour vous ? Pour moi oui, et ce guide ressemble à cela : quelque chose de magique (de la magie lunaire ?) ! Tout d'abord je voudrais dire que l'ensemble du supplement est clair, bien écrit et vraiment beau, très facile à lire et à utiliser. Je pense que ce livre donne toutes les clés pour comprendre et décrire "Glamour" mais au-delà de cela, la philosophie lunar et son organisation centrale. Et il est aussi délicieusement divertissant ! Je l'ai beaucoup apprécié et je pense que je m'appuierai beaucoup dessus pour tout ce qui concerne les questions lunar. Longue vie au fils de la lune, l'enpereur rouge !

Crazy, nuanced, absolutely essential. Unlike Pavis or one of the citadels of Balazar, Glamour is a huge city, with fascinating characters, factions, and intrigues all playing off each other. The possible reasons to go here for adventures seem endless, and it's also an excellent starting point for campaigns. The history, mythology, and attention to detail make this a required purchase.

A pleasant trip down memory lane into the years when Glorantha publications were mostly limited to fan publications, taken into modern times.

I pulled out my old copy of the "booklet" that accompanied the "Life of Moonson" freeform (whose character sheets are available on the author's web-site - check them out for plots and scenario hooks!). A stack of photocopies with a colored page as cover...

More than two decades later, this product comes with all the glory and experience of desk-top publishing available since. And there is new or improved content, taken from official sources.

So welcome back to the glorious (but not always functional) Red - sorry, Lunar Empire and its hotbed of intrigues.

As with all freeform games of the era, this combines whimsy pop culture references with highly mythical Gloranthan themes. Quite a few of the ideas presented here make sense first and foremost for the interactions of that freeform, and won't be found in a strictly canonical Glorantha. And that's fine.

The Reaching Moon Megacorp freeforms have contributed strongly to the fan development of various regions of Glorantha, and I expect this publication to do the same for heart of the Lunar Empire.

The gazetteer of the city gives a useful introduction to one of the most populous and most important cities of Genertela. Enough to take a closer look at some section and start to build your own urban game there, if you put in some work to detail your faction and a few allied or rival ones.

I would have wished for a separate file showing the map and its keys (to avoid having to hold my computer screen sideways), but otherwise this booklet has production quality of the highest standard of the community program.