Skyrealms of Jorune

[Grey Mouser]

Anyone remember this wierd and wacky RPG. One of the most novel game worlds ever created (owing a little at least to ERB I would think) with its floating islands, Isho magic, almost forgotten earth tec, Shanthas, mual orbs, dyshas, Shanthas, and the Jorune equivalent of the T-Rex the Dhar-Corondon? Had quite a novel dice system too, based on d6 and d20.

Here's a link for the curious:

http://www.jorune.org/history.html

[Ian]

I do, and I love it.

There is a very active Yahoo group, one of the guys involved in the
3rd edition (and owns the site you mention) is a major contributor.

Ian

[Grey Mouser]

I remember buying this game in its original incarnation as a boxed set (with revisions). Very outre science fantasy setting with a novel dice system and some great illustrations. Never got a chance to try it as in those days it was so off the beaten track not many people I knew were interested. Good to know that it' still has a following.

[Shalenak]

I regularly kick myself over the fact that I gave my copy of Jorune away to a friend, as I had too many RPGs and was going abroad and didn't have much space to store my games. The artwork, by Miles Teves, in the game was awesome. I never had the chance to run it though.

[The English Assassin]

I've got the game, although I've never played it. The setting is indeed great and it contains by far the most beautiful art ever seen in a roleplaying product.

[Grey Mouser]

The artist Miles Teves went on to become an illustrator for the movie biz.

His webpage is here:

http://www.milesteves.com/

Some of his Jorune stuff is here:

http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v/...lms/?g2_page=8

Wonder if the Avatar design team knew about Jorune?

@Shalenak. I let my own copy go to a 2nd hand game dealer many years ago when I was short of cash.

Our own Kyrinn S Eis has an RPG in the pipeline called Urutsk: World of Mystery which looks every bit as novel and outre as Jorune:

http://www.thegrandtapestry.blogspot.com/

[Shalenak]

The artist Miles Teves went on to become an illustrator for the movie biz.
His webpage is here:

http://www.milesteves.com/

Some of his Jorune stuff is here:
http://www.milesteves.com/gallery/v/...lms/?g2_page=8

Thanks for the links. Teves art is always a treat!

@Shalenak. I let my own copy go to a 2nd hand game dealer many years ago when I was short of cash.

It seems that Jorune was a game more owned than played....

[The English Assassin]

Probably worth mentioning that Journe is obviously massively influenced by Tekemul/Empire of the Petal Thrown. My only problem with both these settings is they some how felt more like zoos populated by a game designer rather than living worlds... obviously that's true as both (I think?) these setting have some element of genetically modified races in them, but still both feel today more like 'game worlds' (with their host of player races, critters and forced rationales for the players to go on adventures ) rather than something more subtle that say a decent literary setting would present. Only a minor criticism really, as different mediums obviously produce different results, but when I look at a lot of RPGs today, the influence of the 'game' on the 'setting' seems a little ham-fisted at times.

[Shalenak]

I love the Tekumel setting and I like MAR Barker's fiction set in Tekumel, but I've never even attempted to run a game in that setting. The Tekumel background has influenced my games though.
I was surprized to discover that the Elric books had spawned an RPG, since it was pretty much doom laden, and not exactly full of different races to play.

[The English Assassin]

I love the Tekumel setting and I like MAR Barker's fiction set in Tekumel, but I've never even attempted to run a game in that setting. The tekumel background has influenced my games though.
I was surprized to discover that the Elric books had spawned an RPG, since it was pretty much doom laden, and not exactly full of different races to play.

Chaosium made up for the limited races by supplying stat modifiers for every nationality in the Young Kingdoms... quite ludicrous ones in the main with very little notion for game balance... you rolled your nationality randomly, so you might have a warrior-noble sorcerer from Melniboné who can summon gods, etc... or a Nadsokorian beggar with no arms... all in the same party! I don't suppose there's any reason why there has to be game balance in character generation... certainly there wasn't any in Stormbringer! Possibly an example of a literary setting that didn't transfer well to a gaming one - although saying that I had some fun Stormbringer games in my hallow youth...

[Grey Mouser]

Shalenak, there's a long running thread on the Stormbringer RPG over in the Terminal Cafe section:

http://www.multiverse.org/fora/showt...?t=2544&page=4

My only problem with both these settings is they some how felt more like zoos populated by a game designer rather than living worlds... obviously that's true as both (I think?) these setting have some element of genetically modified races in them...

Part of the "zoo" impression might be because most of the flora and fauna for some of the more richly envisioned environments are cut almost from fresh cloth, thus each species stands out more than it otherwise would, whereas in a setting drawn from more familiar terrestrial environs, many of the species would go unremarked.

[Shalenak]

Thanks for the link Grey Mouser. I've gone off the idea of talking about the old Elric games. It seems to be a Moorcockian minefield. I'll stick to asking questions about the official Mongoose game. That at least isn't ripping MM off.

[Shalenak]

Probably worth mentioning that Journe is obviously massively influenced by Tekemul/Empire of the Petal Thrown. My only problem with both these settings is they some how felt more like zoos populated by a game designer rather than living worlds...

In the book Flamesong the past of Tekumel is touched upon. The world was the enclave of rich terrans that imported extraterrestrial menageries to the world, and game to hunt on their estates. So the multiple creatures and races is rationalised.

[The English Assassin]

In the book Flamesong the past of Tekumel is touched upon. The worls was the enclave of rich terrans that imported extraterrestrial menageries to the world, and game to hunt on their estates. So the multiple creatures and races is rationalised.

Of course, both games set up a rationale which is fine, but (maybe for Tekumel more than Jorune) it always felt to me like an excuse to bung in a load of unlikely creatures to give the PCs something to kill rather than a believable ecosystem, therefore it remains zoo like even if the zoo is deliberate (unlike D&D where the zoo was just a product of a total lack of imaginative control). I guess both game worlds are slightly products of their time (when endless monsters ruled) and I don't begrudge either game as both have more charm than most other RPGs.

[spaceranger]

I ran one actual game of Jorune over a weekend, oh, 20 some odd years ago. As I recall, it was some fun, but the mechanics felt awkward (never got a chance to get familiar with them, I suppose). A wonderful, rich setting for an RPG, very unique.