The Rulesgiver Speaks!

I had some rules questions about Five Leagues From The Borderlands, and so I decided to email Ivan Sorensen, the genius behind Nordic Weasel Games.

My email to him read:

"Hi, Ivan

You know me as El Conejo Malo on your blog, Coyotepunc on The Wargames Website, and Conejo Kruger on FaceBook.

Regarding the “Creatures Most Vile” section of the Five Leagues From The Borderlands 2nd Edition rulebook (page 142,) I have a question.

Does killing one of these “strange, vile, and dangerous creatures” affect any of the threat ratings of the village our warband is protecting?

I am finally getting around to playing a bit, and I will need to know this soon. As my campaign is set in Glorantha, I kind of imagine all those horrors being somehow related to Chaos and thus on the "Dark Secrets" spectrum.

Thank you,

- Harry"

I have corresponded with him before, and he is usually pretty prompt in his replies. This one came less than 24 hours later:

"Cheers friend.

My assumption with “Monsters” is that they are outside the eco-system of hazards. The outlaws certainly keep away and the assorted cults and fanatics can’t control them, so no.

THAT BEING SAID, if they are Gloranthan chaos creepy crawlies, I’d do something like roll a D6 + the Monster Point value of the monster. On a 6+, it removed a point of Threat."

Notice that he called me "friend." That's right, the Rulesgiver considers me a friend. Satisfying Sunday, indeed!

He then followed up with a second email reading:

"To compensate for the broo or whatever having these sorts of creatures in their arsenal, raise all Dark Secrets by +1 when creating the campaign region."

And this is what I love about Ivan. He explains that his first impulse is to just say no, and then he decides to throw me a fish and come up with a ruling for it anyway. And then he goes ahead and adds a bit more for my specific campaign setting. Granted, his old email was runequester@ so he probably has more than a working familiarity with the Glorantha setting, but I still appreciate the effort.

Thus, the ruling can be written as follows:

When a Monster is defeated, roll a d6 + the Monster Point value. On a 6+, a point of Dark Secrets threat is removed. To compensate for the Dark powers having these creatures in their arsenal, raise all Dark Secrets by + when creating the Campaign Region.

So, I am off to raise all the Dark Secrets threat levels by one.

Five Leagues From The Borderlands and the supplements are available here.