I wasn't even planning to run a Hsunchen character - just had an idea for a NPC for a campaign I GM. For no particular reason, I picked Puma. A friend recommended this book, so I bought it.

Absolutely wonderful! Scholarly, with facts, great speculation, and deep delving into "old Greg threads", as to what makes Puma hsuncnen special. Why they tick. I'm hooked - definitely want to run this character as my next PC!

And the other types look great too, though I didn't read through all of them. Well presented. The art is limited, but well targeted and useful. It depicts their tools and society in action.

As a player and GM, I greatly appreciated how the author realized where some of the standard RQG rules, which assume some organization in society, don't quite work for hsuncnen. He suggests minor modifications, well within the spirit of the rules and Glorantha, to make these character playable.

It may be worth buying just for the bibliography. It is certainly well worth it if you have even a fleeting interest in Gloranthan Hsunscen life or characters. I really can't recommend this highly enough.

This book adds several Spirit Magic spells, and many Rune Spells, to those presented in Runequest, Roleplaying in Glorantha (henceforth, RQG). Rules for terminology, learning, casting, augmenting, and just plain "how do the spells look and sound" are given, in a much more focused manner than in RQG. Many spells have wonderful illustrations to highlight their visual effects and enhance the overall "feel" of Glorantha and its magic. Some of the illustrations, including the cover, are "PG".

Most of the new Rune spells are from non-Lightbringer dieties: runes of Solar/Fire, Darkness, Plant, Chaos and Moon feature prominently. Depending on your campaign, these would mainly be used by antagonists to your RQG PCs. GMs can now amp up any encounter with hostile trolls or chaos!

One minor disappointment is that there is no table of which cults offer which of these new rune spells. However, that would be huge, and very hard to place within the organization of this book. You'll have to make reasonable decisions, or just wait until the upcoming Cults book.

I remember roughly 40 years ago playtesting Griffin Mountain and thinking wow. Just wow. Here is an expansive setting, with interesting inhabitants, with interconnecting plot lines. And those are real characters with hopes and fears and actual personalities, not just "3rd level chaotic neutral wizards". What an eyeopener for how a source book could and should be.

The Dregs of Clearwine follows the same inspiration. No, it is not an expansive wilderness, at 50 pages (two column PDF) it cannot be. It covers roughly a city block in the poorer section of Clearwine. But it is full of characters that "feel real" and have some interconnecting plotlines. Plenty of content for a good GM.

Production quality is good for a fan produced work. Nice color cover art, basic maps, grey scale illustrations of major NPCs, and an excellent Table of Contents. There is no index nor PDF "bookmarks". The outline is "top down", starting with the location in Clearwine, 11 general areas, then detailed information on the inhabitants of each area.

Leading characters are richly detailed with a concise physical description, backgrounds, skills, spells, Runes and Passions, and, where appropriate, weapon skills and hit locations. Lesser characters still get a couiple of paragraph background and description, but any further details must be filled in by the GM. (There are aids in the Standardized NPCs section at the end) To help GMs and players track the numerous characters, many have memorable and colorful names: who can forget Rastin No Impala, Smelly Kalarl, or Diryin not-a-Thrall?

If you are doing much day to day "down in the dirt" roleplaying in Clearwine, this is a must. Frankly, any other "city" in Sartar would work fine - just change a clan name here or there and these NPCs will transfer easily. Any "down on their luck" adventurers would be right at home with this lot.

Even if your player characters are wealthier, and live in the ritzier sections of town (like mine!), there are several plot hooks for them. Smuggling, drugs, trade, hired hands, lost items. And the authors cleverly tie in to the standard RQG "Family History" and other scenarios. Some of the NPCs fought at the City of Wonders and Hate Harrek, others are known by prominent NPCs from The Smoking Ruins, etc.

If your campaign styles run towards grander heroic quests, this may not be the ideal sourcebook for you. You won't find anything to save Kallyr, help Argrath, or defeat the Crimson Bat. But this is still an excellent example of how you could run some smaller scale scenarios, and plenty of ideas for character or plot sketches. Need a random lower class NPC for a city encounter? Plenty here.