First off, when I got into this hobby I asked for a place that was considered to be one of the biggest cities in Glorantha. Than I was forwarded to this book.

First off, I can tell Herald Smith gave this book his all, and I very much enjoyed the information presented. It really gave me a feel for the City of Nochet/Esrolia and just how special it truly is. The layout is great, the information is easy to find, and the adventure seeds are very thought out. I could see myself walking through the city and exploring its many walks of life and architecture. The maps are a must because they help give context to each location in the city. You can view Nochet in its entirety from entire area to blocks with more detailed maps.

Overall if you want to explore a huge city that doesn't follow the general tropes of many other fictions, check this thing out! It could probably be used in Non-Glorantha setting, and feel extremely unique and together.

About as perfect as a supplement can be. Insane amount of detail, intrique, fun, mayhem, politics, people and cults in a logical and exciting setting. My only complaints are that I can't give 6 stars and now I have to change my campaign so that the players end up in Nochet. Not really a problem since this books oozes ideas for roleplaying.

this is, without a doubt, one of the most richly detailed urban settings i've seen in rpg and it's honestly one of the best rpg supplements i've seen in recent years.

I don't even know where to begin or what to say except this is such awesome and informational tome. I've been playing RQ since the early 80s and have always wanted to know more and adventure in Nochet. Now, I can play a whole campaign in the city and discover something new every time. The city maps are so greatly detailed. This is a must have for me and I highly recommend it.

Top-bloody-noch! - did you see what I did there.....

Absolute instabuy - usually I wait for the PoD (sorry) - but couldn't wait for this. Another level of complex city building, a Ptolus for Glorantha (assuming you like Ptolus)

I first put this under discussions, but there is no discussion. I am a VERY old time gamer, one of the things I always collected were city supplements. The scope of this work is right up there with City State ( world emperor or invincible overlord), Haven etc. . But much more integrated as a community and to the game. This is a Glorantha piece, not just a bunch of places put together. I truly enjoy it.

Throughout my career in fantasy roleplaying I have been collecting city descriptions, and this book is a great addition to my collection. Nochet - Queen of Cities is a city supplement presenting the most popuilous city in central Genertela, with nearly as many inhabitants as the core territory of Sartar. Located in Esrolia in the Holy Country, you get an introduction to the politics of the country and its peculiarities beyond the regional information in the core rules. While it is impossible to give a building-to-building description for a city of this size on 280 pages, the major portion of this supplement gives information about 1294 notable buildings or building complexes in the city on 175 pages, listed by districts. As such, it gives a lot more detail than the Rough Guides we have seen for other important cities of Glorantha, like Glamour (also available on the Jonstown Compendium), Boldhome or Sog City, but unlike those supplements for freeform roleplaying this book addresses the needs of a GM directly, much like the classical Gloranthan city of Pavis does. The city map shows the general nature of the city districts, with about 50% of the area defined as building outlines and the intermittent space left anonymous. Each district gets a general introduction following a color plate setting the mood for the district, an enlarged portion of the overview map, and a whole lot of house descriptions. Before you dive into the details on the districts, you learn about the movers and shakers of the city and of the major temples of the city, with their factions and agendas. In addition to using the map or portions of it inside the book, the product comes with four separate map pdfs, one of the city and one of the underworld of the city, in two versions each – one with the index numbers, the other with clear text labels for the most prominent features on the map. While you get an introduction to the recent history of the city in this book, it doesn't re-hash the earlier history from the Stafford Library book "Esrolia - Land of 10,000 Goddesses" but gives references to this book instead. The later part of the book provides the GM and the players using this city as the backdrop for their adventuring a bunch of informaiton and tools how to integrate player characters with the setting by asking the players about seven people important to their character - from Best Friend and Current Mentor to Biggest Pain in the Bottom, providing a random list of characters from which to pick randomly or by joint selection, listed with a short paragraph what you know about them, notable runes, passions and skills, and a positive and negative attitude and quote each - just enough to start making them come alive. There are a couple more GM tools, like random tables for dates, locations and encounters, a calendar outlining the typical annual events and festivals, four lists of 100 rumors each sorted by type and one of urban legends, and a chapter dealing with recent and future changes to the city, outlining the major events around 1623, the date chosen as the now for this publication. This date allows you to play out some of the recent experiences of characters for 1625 as many will have participated in the Siege of Nochet or events surrounding it prior to returning to their homes elsewhere, e.g. in Sartar.

There are no ready-to-play scenarios in this book. GMs experienced with GMing in an urban environment are given more than enough information to tailor a campaign to citizens of Nochet. VIsitors to Nochet may be overwhelmed by the multitude of impressions in this city which is just the effect that a visit to this bustling metropolis should have on any visitor.

This might possibly be the best addition to the JC yet. Why? This supplement honours the traditions of the Pavis and Thieves World boxed sets from the 80s but on a grander scale. 'Nochet: Queen of Cities' opens up Esrolia to play by providing a richly detailed guide to the quarters, streets, buildings, landmarks, great families and customs of its capital city. This supplement is well produced, imaginative and begs to be played. If you buy only one thing from the JC, buy this.

This is an amazing addition to the Jonstown Compendium and is essential for anyone who wants to run games in Esrolia and even more so for games set in Nochet. The artwork is great and I'm massively impressed by the work that has been done to find and match public domain art to the page contents. Nearly every page is littered with adventure ideas and the depth of thought that has gone in to the development of Nochet's society is stunning.There are also some good game extensions relating to Passions and character generation.

My only qualm would be that it's probably not a product for a Gloranthan newcomer, i.e a first Gloranthan campaign, but with a Nochet Starter Set of adventures that would deal with that problem. Overall, I think the term an embarassment of riches si the way I would describe Nochet: Queen of Cities!

Absolutely fantastic!! A supplement many fans have been waiting decades for. The largest metropolis of Glorantha fully described in all the spelndid details it deserves. I mean, more than 1300 buildings and locations! The scale is truly tremendous. One area in Nochet is almost equivalent with the city of Pavis in scope and descriptions. And the guide contains over ten such areas, each with say, six to eight neighbourhoods and over a hundred buildings described. Be aware, when reading this bewildering mass of descriptions and thousands of name, you actually risk being as befuddled as your Sartarite PCs probably will be in the real Nochet. Here is not one or two temples of Ernalda. No, here are dozens of them. Each dedicated to some obscure sub-cult or aspect (Bevara the Medic, Kadone the Grounder, Kev the Visionary, etc, etc.) And here are the twenty Enfranchised Houses and their hundred of client houses. And here are tables of personalities, tables of events, tables of rumours and intrigue. Everything needed for years of sand-box play. This supplement is clearly on the same level of knowledge and writing as any official supplement Chaosium releases, and a tribute to the Master level writers such as Nick Brooke, Martin Helsdon, Andrew Logan Montogomery, and now Harald Smith has reached. Greg Stafford should be proud of the accomplishments of his younger, but veteran, adepts. Nochet: Queen of Cities is glorious, glorious, glorious!!!

Fantastic! I've been waiting years for someone to give Nochet the same treatment that New Pavis received in the old Pavis boxed set and Mr. Smith has exceeded my expectations. He has managed to bring this greatest of cities to vibrant, glorious life! Its 280 pages practically hum with possibilities for characters of any level as the tensions generated by religion, local politics, commerce, imperial espionage and the occasional blood feud send ripples of magic and violence through the crowded streets of Nochet.

Having a city this richly described (the maps are great!) in your campaign world will start to influence play in a number of ways. Here, anything can be bought, anything can be sold and almost any kind of secret can be found out (with enough patience, time and money). Nochet is the commercial crossroads of the world and where the traders gather, news, rumors and lies will grow and spread as fast as any summer storm. Open the gates of Nochet to your players once and you will find them returning again and again.

Highly recommended.

A phenomenally detailed, beautifully presented sourcebook for adventures and campaigns set in the Queen of Cities. Nochet is a sprawling ancient metropolis, and this 280-page book brings it vividly to life. After an introduction and overview, the main body of the text (over 150 pages) describes ten major districts of the city, including what local residents and outsiders make of it, prominent personalities, local legends, an overview of the many neighbourhoods in each district, and specific details for practically every building shown on the city map. The book is lavishly illustrated with well-chosen public-domain artwork of ancient cities and temples, for the most part, and comes bundled with a set of high-resolution maps. The last sixty or so pages introduce several established Houses of Nochet that could serve in various roles for adventurers in the city, whether as patrons, kin, allies, rivals or villains; a roster of common city-folk, complete with personalities and catchphrases; a detailed system for generating random events by hour, day, week and season; more than 400 rumours; and a playable outline for the Lunar siege of Nochet, laden with adventure hooks and event tables. It is quite impossible to conceive of anybody running a game in Nochet without referring to this rich, lovingly-crafted and eminently play-centred resource

Nochet, Queen of Cities: A guidebook. A “sandbox” setting for your Runequest adventures in the greatest city on Glorantha.
There are explanations of Enfranchised Houses and Grandmothers, and Nochet history and myth. Of trade and markets, leaders and healers and beggars too. Of militiias and markets and baths.

Do you want maps? Here you have a master map, two maps of Nochet under ground, and maps of each area of the city. Neighborhoods and sub-neighborhood are detailed with leading residents, dominant and client Houses, and economic activities. Buildings are numbered, and there is a substantial text description of the residents and activities in each one, organized by area and neighborhood.

Do you want atmosphere for your campaign? Deep thought has gone into the descriptions of places and people, and a set of calendars of events, which are full of potential plot hooks for your campaign. There are tables of news and rumors and omens. There are calendars of seasonal events.

Do you want to make Esrolian Adventurers? Here is plentiful background material and GMing guidance: iI you want, the Adventurer can have NPC friends, an enemy, a mentor etc., there is a plan for that. Do you remember how often the RQG character generation tables have the Adventurer – including the Sartatite, not just the Esrolian - involved in the siege of Nochet or the battle of Pennel Ford? Why let those be dry die rolls? There are sections to help you GM the Great Winter, the siege, or the battle.

I have always been a sucker for impossibly large fantasy cities. I think a lot of this came from reading Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser stories early on. I have also been having fun with Glorantha for a fair few years now. So, when I heard that Harold Smith, who had so recently given us the excellent Edge of the Empire book, was writing a book about Nochet, the largest city in Glorantha, I knew that I had to get it.

Let me simply start by saying that I am duly impressed.

Smith has taken on a huge and complicated topic. Naturally, as with his previous work, this is based on a house campaign, but that does not explain on its own the scope of this volume. He has gleaned every fact available from the canon sources and then pushed it to 11.

In this book you will find a breakdown of the city by specific areas, but you will also find fascinating NPCs (not statted out, so easy to use under any system or setting), political and social groups, mercenary units, religious groups with their own peculiar forms of in-fighting, notes of items for trade, histories, alternate names for areas and gates, culture high and low, underground passagesways and sewer systems, along with an excellent collection of maps. You will learn by Disease Spirits tend to crowd into cities and why not every merchant is going to be fair to you. There are taverns, there are libraries, there are temples (so many temples!), shops, training halls, guilds, crime families, street gangs, mercenaries, wharves and so much more ... all in a city that claims no central government.

If you have even a passing interest in this locale you will find something to enchant you, to boggle you, to perplex you, and to astound you.

I look forward to any future works from Harald :-)