From: David Gadbois (gadbois@cs.utexas.edu)
Date: Mon 20 Aug 1990 - 09:56:33 EEST
Conjunction I was held in New Hall College, Cambridge, on July 27-29.
The guest of honor was Greg Stafford. There were a number of very
good panel discussions, the usual movies, an auction (the Glorantha
encyclopedia went for 290 pounds), a reading of Griselda stories by
Oliver Dickinson, an SCA tournament, and a keynote speech by Stafford.
It was not much of a gaming con due to a lack of space and preparation
-- I got to play in only one RQ scenario.
Stafford had much to say about Glorantha and seemed very encouraged that there was so much interest in it. He went into some detail about the plans for the HeroQuest game that shed quite a bit of light on the mythical structure of Glorantha. I shall try to put together a posting describing what he had to say.
David Hall hosted the Eat at Geo's food tasting. Prizes were awarded in each of three categories: Savory, Sweet, and Weird. I made a list of some of the entries:
stuffed Aldryami in runner skin (dolmadas),
fried runner brains (meatballs),
Caladra and Aurelion (a messy goo with fruit and yoghurt),
chocolate-garlic brownies (No kidding. They were nasty.),
Aldrya's sweet spinach tart (a strawberry and spinach pie),
Newtling tail cake,
powdered Mostali cake,
blood worms,
Trollkin blood pie,
Troll mushrooms,
Elf cakes (a specialty of the Traders' Tavern in Pavis),
Dwarf niblets,
Weretiger claws,
Tusker milk cheese (goat cheese),
and my personal favorite,
Powzie (190 proof Polish grain alcohol made into a garlic and cinnamon liquor)
One of the most fun events of the con was the Miskatonic University class reunion party. 1990 is the 300th anniversary of the founding of the august university as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of H.P. Lovecraft. Events included a insane laughing contest, an invocation of the great slimy one himself, a pinata bashing, a spelling bee, and a scream of terror contest. It was a blast.
Info gleamed at the con:
o The Avalon Hill situation is not very good right now. It seems that they and Chaosium haven't talked for over a year now, and Stafford himself has not worked on RuneQuest in a couple of years. (The stuff becoming available now has been in the pipeline for a couple of years.) However, AH are supposedly getting serious about RuneQuest and plan to hire an new editor to handle FRP games. Stafford recommended writing to them asking about contributions -- it may make them get on the ball. It turns out that there are several groups working on scenario packs, including Sartarpak and Pentpak, so there may be some new RQ material in a few years :-(.
o Chaosium is now publishing an irregular newsletter called "Ab Chaos." The first issue is available now. It has info about Chaosium history, their current staff, planned projects, and other stuff. To get a copy, send them a long SASE with the number of the issue you want in the lower right corner. You can send SASEs for future issues if you want. Their address is:
Chaosium Inc. 950A 56th St. Oakland, CA 94608
o I saw copies of two fanzines that looked interesting. I am not sure if either is still being published. Both are pretty amateurish. The first, "Pavic Tales," is devoted to RuneQuest. The address I have for it is:
60 Browning Close Popley 1 Basingstoke, Hants, RG24 9DQ U.K.
The other, "Misers Hoard" is a general interest FRP rag but does have some RQ material. Contact:
Richard Osborne 47 Trent Avenue Upminster, Essex [Sorry, I didn't get the postal code] U.K.
o An amazing factoid: 50% of sales RuneQuest-related material is in the French marker. This info comes from Fabrice Lamidey, the guy who does French translations of RQ material. On a related note, the French fanzine "Broos" is still being published irregularly. For info, contact Lamidey at
190 rue de la Convention 75015 Paris France
o There are two companies that may be doing reprints of RQ material. Clash of Arms may do a reprint, ala Dragon Pass, of Nomad Gods. I don't have an address for them, but they are said to advertise in most of the gaming magazines. Another company, Apple Lane Publishing, may do reprints of Wyrms Footnotes articles under the name of Wyrms Footprints. These are not yet available, but you may want to write to them to prod them to action. Their address is:
Apple Lane Publishing 3901 Piedmont Av. Oakland, CA 94611
o John Dallman and David Hall have put together a small biography called "The New Stafford Compendium," which lists Stafford's known publications. It sells for #1.50 (one pound fifty) and is available from David Hall. The address is:
21 Stephenson Court Osborne Street Slough, Berkshire, SL1 1TN U.K.
o I met a couple of Digest subscribers at the con (Hi Henk!) and found a couple of people with net access who were interested in subscribing. I hope they can fill in any information I have left out or gotten completely wrong.
--David Gadbois
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