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Journey to Jonstown #74: 'A true labor of love' - Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome

Posted by Michael O'Brien on 15th Aug 2024

Community Ambassador Nick Brooke writes:

In 1992, my friend Michael O’Brien’s first book was published by Avalon Hill [for RuneQuest 3rd Edition]. Called Sun County, this acclaimed campaign setting and scenario pack for the RuneQuest TTRPG was set in a patriarchal theocratic dictatorship, a few days’ journey from the city of Pavis in the world of Glorantha.

32 years later, two new Jonstown Compendium authors have published a 300-page “supplement” all about everyday life in MOB’s imagined Sun County.

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome by Malin Rydén and CJ Håkansson examines their social classes, gender relations, religious rituals political tensions, nuances of dress and diet and popular culture, and more besides.

Designed to support RuneQuest campaigns, the book bulges with random event tables (road and river encounters, regional events, seasonal weather), adventurer generation (inc. family history) a cast of 100 potential acquaintances and rivals, and new rules for tracking factional influence.

Whether you’re playing as Sun County natives or merely hoping to pass through their xenophobic, intolerant regime without untoward incident, Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome will bring your game vividly to life. It’s a phenomenally detailed look at everyday life in a sophisticated, highly-cultured and proudly independent Gloranthan society, and a true labour of love.

Out now from the Jonstown Compendium at DriveThruRPG, Chaosium’s community content programme for RuneQuest and Greg Stafford’s world of Glorantha. $19.95 for 300 pages!

Life and Traditions of the Sun Dome sample page

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome
Malin Rydén and CJ Håkansson ($19.95, 300 page PDF)

Come foreigners, visit Sun County, the only nation in Glorantha that passed The Solitude of Testing. See the living light of Sun Dome, travel the easily accessible road network, enjoy our surplus of food, our stoic unity, and our fully adequate culture. Come for the holy days, witness our drill parades, leave when we tell you to! Sun County - the safest, hardest working and most envied nation in Glorantha. You wish you were us! -The Sun County Travel Bureau.

Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome explores the history, culture, and customs of the citizens of Sun County, a small Yelmalian enclave in the Zola Fel valley, south of Pavis, across the plains of Prax. Designed for both gamemasters and players, this book is a must-have for anybody who wants an in-depth look at what daily life in Glorantha might be like. Written in the style of “Daily Life in the [insert Ancient Empire here],” this book is an in-depth exploration of the minutiae of existence coupled with a generous dose of humor.

Use with the Sandheart series

This new work perfectly compliments Jon Webb's best-selling four-part Sandheart series of Sun County scenarios, available in the Jonstown Compendium in PDF and print formats. Combined you have many months or even years of RuneQuest adventuring ahead of you!