Casting a wide net: new RuneQuest creators and their work for The Pegasus Plateau

The Pegasus Plateau and Other Stories is Chaosium's newest release for RuneQuest. 

When putting together the design brief for The Pegasus Plateau, creative director Jason Durall decided he wanted a bring together a diverse group of contributors – including people new to Glorantha – to best spotlight the many different approaches to playing RuneQuest and in Glorantha. 

"I cast the net wide when it came to contributors: some people who I’d worked with on other game lines, some people who’d inquired about writing RuneQuest materials, and a few who submitted materials cold, with no query letter", says Jason.

Here, some of those contributors introduce themselves, and we ask them a few questions about their work on the book:

L - Dimitrina Angelska
I am a freelance concept artist and illustrator. I have worked for White Wizard Games, NISEI (Net Runner) and have also illustrated a couple of indie board games, funded on kickstarter. History, literature and music are my main sources of inspiration. Designing and illustrating fantasy worlds is my passion. I enjoy teaching kids to draw from time to time and my greatest professional goal is to create my own IP one day. You can find more of my work at my Artstation page and on Instagram.

C - Jason Brick
I'm a gamer, father, journalist and martial artist. I've done work for Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, Conan!, Paranoia, Pathfinder, GURPS and more. My most recent project, Safest Family on the Block interviews everybody from Navy SEALS to suicide counselors about how to keep our children safe in a sometimes frightening world. 

R - Antonia Doncheva
I am a freelance artist and a board game club owner in Sofia, Bulgaria. You can look up my art at ArtStation and my shop at Facebook or Instagram. I love my three cats and all the wonderful people life keeps throwing my way. 

L - Chris Harris
After a career in mental health and an educational background in forensic science, I began working on role-playing games over a decade ago as a freelance game designer, developer, and editor for Kobold Press, earning an ENnie award and several nominations. I have spent the past two years editing for Modiphius Entertainment and Chaosium. I live in the woods outside of Austin, Texas, accompanied by a cute dog with a questionable attitude.

C - Helena Nash
I have been tabletop roleplaying since 1981 and died on paper many times at the hands of formless horrors, faerie knights, and at least once by explosive decompression. As well as RuneQuest, I've written adventures for Call of Cthulhu, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium and Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. I'm one of the original developers of the cult film and television game 7TV, created the official roleplaying game of Robert Rankin’s Brentford books, and wrote a Choose Your Own Dinner Party gamebook combining elements of a Mike Leigh play and an Alfred Hitchcock film. I Iive in Hertfordshire by the River Lea, about 30 miles north of Mama Thames as the duck paddles, with my wife and far too many comic books.

R - Diana Probst
I am a professional artist and engineer who has been playing and running games since I was 12. My other RPG work is for Beer With Teeth on the Jonstown Compendium.

L - Tobias Trannel
I started to draw some maps for an old Swedish roleplaying game as a hobby. I was discovered by the Free League and after that everything just went forward, working for Modiphius, Chaosium, Free League and a couple of independent writers and authors. Here's a link to one of my city maps.

C - Dom Twist 
I'm a long term gamer, starting with RPG starting in the 80’s and quickly discovering Chaosium via Call of Cthulhu. I'm a Medieval Historical Reenactor and Historical European Martial Arts enthusiast. I live in the woods of Cornwall UK with my gamer wife:- both serving our multiple cats and occasionally finding time to do some blacksmithing and make charcoal. I am the co-founder of Beer with Teeth, publishing in the Jonstown Compendium including The Dregs of Clearwine. 

R - Steffie de Vaan
I am a Dutch author and developer of role playing games and short stories. I developed the Legendlore RPG and V5: Fall of London. In addition to RuneQuest, I write for many other settings including Vampire the Masquerade, Changeling the Lost, Exalted, and Harlem Unbound. Find me at Twitter and my website. 

Q: What was your role in The Pegasus Plateau creative team?

Dimitrina: I did most of the character portraits and the festival gathering illustrations for the book.

Jason B: I wrote about the Woods of the Dead, including its environs and a bizarre, fun adventure set in its eerie bowers.

Antonia: I was an illustrator for book, mainly of items and treasures this time.

Chris: I was the book's editor, working under Jason Durall, the line editor.

Helena: I wrote the beginner adventure 'The Rattling Wind', in which the adventurers are asked to defend the fearful hamlet of Farfield from a strange destructive force that comes in the night. 

Diana: I co-wrote 'Crimson Petals' with Dom Twist. It was originally so we could run a session and give our GM a break, but I also used it to learn how to be a Glorantha GM. At that point, I had been playing for a few months and I wanted to gain the tools for running games.

Tobias: I was drawing some of the maps.

Dom: I co-wrote "Crimson Petals" along with Diana Probst.

Steffi: I wrote the 'Pegasus Plateau'! The eponymous adventure, I mean. I wanted to explore what a spiritual connection (between mortals and hippogriffs) looks like, and the developers gave me free rein and full support.

Q: What things do you find interesting about the world of Glorantha?

Dimitrina: The rich context of the world of Glorantha is just fascinating! The characters live in their cultures and also have their own stories and personalities. To tell all this about the characters visually is a great opportunity for me to develop my skills as an artist.

Jason B: I've loved the more mythic vibe of the game for decades. Since I was a kid, I preferred sword and sandal stories to the pseudo-medieval LOTR tone of most fantasy adventure games.

Antonia: I like Glorantha for its vivid world and the richly interwoven actual history and mythology.

Chris: The answer to that could fill a book, and I've recently edited that book, so keep your eyes peeled! In short, the initial appeal was the focus on Bronze Age technology, culture, and so forth, but that's changed in favor of the anchoring of adventurers to their communities, families, and faiths. That element, the community being such a large portion of what comprises the character, offers so much potential for roleplay and adventure creation that I'm surprised it hasn't become more widely disseminated in the world of RPGs.

Helena: I'll be honest and say 'adventurer ducks' first and foremost. After that, it's the rich, deep background that only comes from decades of creative work.

Diana: That it's completely different to other RPG experiences. I find it fresh and new, and there is always something to explore, and that something is always unexpected. It's a fractal setting, too; I could stay in one tribe or clan or village and in one cult, and still always find new details. The notion that Your Glorantha Will Vary is very freeing.

Tobias: The details and the diversity.

Dom: I love Glorantha's inconsistency! Let me explain:- In other worlds you have one viewpoint or perspective. The good guys and the bad guys. The cosmology and mythology. Evil monsters and shiny hero types. It's too "designed" it feels constructed and pat. Glorantha has grown organically. Many perspectives and truths contradict each other and yet are equally true depending on where you are coming from as a view point. This makes it much more a living and breathing world. The richness and layering are such that other worlds, that are the creation of one perspective, just pale in comparison. We are all Us. 

Steffi: Glorantha has such a rich history. That allows you to seed so many little plot hooks and follow-ups in any adventure.

Q: What would you like to explore next for RuneQuest?

Dimitrina: In the future I hope to have the opportunity to create complex illustrations similar to the 'Festival Gathering'. I am also very interested in the mythology of the world of Glorantha.

Jason B: There are some naval stories I'd love to tell when the production calendar works its way around to coastal regions...

Antonia: I am curious where RuneQuest will take us next - I would love to see more of the Lunar Empire.

Chris: I am always ready for more books of adventures, even when holding a brand new one in my hand, but other than that I look forward to the further exploration of heroquesting.

Helena: Somewhere a long, long way from Dragon Pass, where few characters (and fewer players!) have been before. Some undiscovered nook or cranny with its own culture, people and perils.

Diana: Beer With Teeth have many things we would like to produce. We are all looking at a follow-up to the Dregs of Clearwine, and thinking about the workshops further up the city. We've also got several projects active among the team, which happen as life happens. For Chaosium itself, I want to keep writing adventures that sit well in the world, and maybe a sandbox book for the Greyrock Clan.

Tobias: As a mapmaker, I like to draw dungeons and regions.

Dom: Oh there's just so much I want to explore and do here! I am already working with Chaosium on some future products for Glorantha which you may see in the not too distant future. But also thanks to Chaosium's very generous boon to self publishers at the Jonstown Compendium on DriveThruRPG me and my friends are already exploring some of the fine detail such as the city of Clearwine (as depicted in our release The Dregs of Clearwine).

Steffi: I would love to explore more lgbtq+ and feminist representation in Glorantha, and what that looks like given how important spirituality and deities are to the setting. 

Order your copy of The Pegasus Plateau today! This scenario collection is available now from Chaosium.com in full colour hardback and special edition leatherette, includes PDF. 

Also available in PDF from DriveThruRPG.