Lev Lafayette's journal

I have just returned from the day of RuneQuest Glorantha Con Down Under III at Kryal Castle, the closest thing that Australia has to a real castle. From all accounts so far from the fifty plus attendees the event went very well, starting with panels on the new edition of RQ and secrets of Glorantha, along with game sessions of Khan of Khans, Pendragon, 13th Age Glorantha, and RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha. In addition to this, there was the usual stream of Castle events, and we all stopped our normal session to watch the joust (other Con attendees visited other facets of the Castle's exhibition). In the evening session, we started off with a game of Twilight Trollball followed by a rather impressive buffet BBQ and a freeform game, "All The King's All". Full conference attendees also received a free copy of RPG Review Issue 40, and many received the last few copies of the Mimesis Roleplaying Journal which I was involved in more than twenty years ago. The Abbey Tavern was the ideal place on the Castle grounds to hold the event and special credit must be given to the staff who were kind, professional, and provided veritable mountains of delicious food.

There are many people to thank for this conference and first off the generosity of Michael O'Brien and the Chaosium team must be stated. They collected gold coin donations from their surplus stock, had a giveaway game for the last leatherette copy of RuneQuest RPiG in Australia, the Argan Argar Atlas Collection. The White Bear and Red Moon book I donated for future Conventions sold for over $3KAUD, so that buyer is thoroughly appreciated as is the purchaser of the RuneQuest 6: Adventures in Glorantha book which sold for over $800AUD. All of this goes into a special fund run by the RPG Review Cooperative for future RuneQuest and Glorantha conventions. Susan O'Brien is thanked for her awesome work in running Khan of Khans, along with the panelists and GMs, David Cake, Pete Tracy, Justin Akkerman, Martin Dick, Hugh McVicker, Mark Morrison, Darius West, Garry Fay, Brian P, and Andrew Bean. Everyone was delighted with the conference badges by Daniel Tosello, and there was great support provided Erica Hoehn, Robbie Cameron, Michael Cole, Ivan Rajic, James Haughton, and Rodney Brown. Heck, there was a lot of people who helped out and whilst I had my own level of blood, sweat, and tears in the project, the aforementioned deserve accolades for their contribution. Chaosium, however, has instituted a new award; The Greg Stafford Memorial Award for Gloranthan Fandom, and yours truly is the inaugural winner. When the award was presented Andrew Bean said: "You went on a heroquest and brought RQ Con Down Under back from the otherworld. Greg would be proud." Kinder words could not have been spoken. For much of my life I've been questing for Runes, and on Sunday I received the most magical of all; the Greg Rune.

Went to see the Buzzcocks on Saturday night at the Corner Hotel. They played enthusiastically with a good selection of old classics and the crowd (mixed, but leaning heavily towards an older set) responded in kind. The mixing however was quite substandard; I'll readily admit that the Buzzcocks are probably not the easiest band to mix to given their selective use of feedback, others seem to be able to manage. It was a bit weird listening to guys in their fifties singing/playing "Sixteen Again" or telling us that they're an "Orgasm Addict". In the next few weeks will be seeing The Church at the same venue. Must get around to writing these up for Rocknerd.

Wrote an article for the Isocracy Network which has been reprinted on Left Focus Of State Borders, Wars and Refugees. One of the key elements of the article is the argument that significant climate change can lead to climate change refugees, who are not recognised under the Convention or Protocol. Tangentially, the Prime Minister minces no words for his justified contempt of deniers in an address to the Lowy Instutite. The opposition is in complete disarray on the subject, with a split forthcoming. Denial seems more the part of factional quest for power rather than science.

Have been playing a fair bit of a RuneQuest and HeroQuest as both my current campaigns are nearing their end; will be dedicating a fair bit of the next issue of RPG Review to said games and to Glorantha in general. Greg Stafford has agreed to an interview and there will be a range of rules options for RQ such as Divine intervention, character improvement, an extended HeroQuest 2 review (yes, extended from this) and conversion notes between the two systems.