Islands of the Lost is the third volume in a series of publications focused on a small archipelago of the East Isles, published in the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha. To fully use this book, you need the preceding volumes: Korolan Islands and Fires of Mingai. While the first volume includes the general background of the archipelago, and the second two of the five islands plus 4 scenarios, Islands of the Lost describes two more islands and includes 3 scenarios more, plus some other content. Hannu Rytövuori, one of the authors together with David Cake and Nils Weinander, provided me with a copy of the book, but I have tried my best to review it objectively. Please tell me if you think otherwise. Let's have a look and beware of the spoilers!
The look
The content
In the 140-page-long Islands of the Lost PDF you get a variety of content: some ships rules taken from RuneQuest 3rd edition (with Chaosium's permission) and ship stats, 6 cults, the description of 2 islands in the Korolan archipelago, and 3 long scenarios.
The ship rules are incomplete but usable: they only include the description of the ships' stats and how they work in game terms. They are a portion of the navigation rules in RuneQuest 3rd edition (published in 1989) and reprinted in the BRP supplement Magic World. The authors have included that together with the stats of 8 ships your players can encounter and use in the course of the campaign in the East Isles: from humble canoes to powerful warships with 40 rowers. Each has its Seaworthiness, Hull Quality, Structure values, etc. Hopefully, Chaosium will provide a full set of official ship rules for the current edition of RuneQuest at some point. Moreover, Ships and Shores of Southern Genertela includes some additions to the seafaring rules to make them more Gloranthan. However, if you own RuneQuest 3rd edition (long out of print) or Magic World, you can use those, so their absence is not that problematic. See also my review of Pirates of the East Isles for more info. But if you don't, you can still use the pieces included to play the scenes in the second scenario.
As for the cults, they are short descriptions in two pages each, with some myths, the skill bonuses for creating characters, holy days, requirements for rune priests, and the magic they provide. Some spell descriptions refer you to The Red Book of Magic, so having access to that supplement is essential. One of the most interesting cults is Enevar, god of Victory, because there is no similar god in central Genertela where the RuneQuest ruleset is focused. His myths are from Revealed Mythologies, but they have been expanded a bit. Curiously, this cult provides very little spirit magic, but quite a lot of Rune magic, even three new Rune spells. Of these, Protection Breaker looks useful to defeat powerful enemies, which is fitting for a god who studied hard to learn his enemy's weakness. In fact, all the spells map well onto the god's myths. Another good thing is most of these cults offer certain Rune spells provided the initiate follows certain austerities or taboos, which makes them feel a bit different from the ones in central Genertela. Finally, I have found some errata, like the missing cult requirements for rune priests of Mairnali, or the fact that Enevar provides a Rune spell as an associated god to Mairnali, which he does not teach to his own initiates, but probably these have already been spotted and corrected by now.
Out of the 5 islands in the Korolan archipelago where the campaign is set, here the islands of Tamoro and Luvata are described in 4-5 pages each, with some general background, short gazetteers with details that may spark adventures, and color maps of both islands made with Inkarnate. Each section also includes some key NPCs of both islands, fully statted and with background, plus an extra martial arts school. Finally, the sections "What Your Grandfather Told You" are a great addition, because they showcase cultural elements of each island explained from the point of view of an inhabitant, in a dialogue, in the best tradition of the Gloranthan Voices from the old Genertela and Gods of Glorantha supplements for RQ3. They are useful to understand the people and their way of life, so you can have a better idea of how to roleplay them.
The 2 scenarios start on page 46. "Pirates on the Horizon" is 18 pages long (not counting the NPC stats), while "Islands of the Lost" is roughly 34 pages long with around 11 pages in each of its 3 parts (also not counting NPC stats). Be warned there are SPOILERS AHEAD. The first one takes place in Tamoro island when a small foreigner fleet is seen approaching, and the PCs are sent to investigate. In the first half of the scenario the adventurers will meet some important NPCs who will appear in later scenarios (some allies and some recurring villains). Then there is a tense scene where the players get to decide whether to have a risky fight or negotiate with pillaging pirates to save some villagers (no right-thinking adventurer should be willing to risk the lives of two innocent villagers just because they are itching for combat, so the negotiation is far more likely, but with players being players, you never really know!). After that, the adventurers will have to negotiate some more with the leader in charge of the fleet, so there is quite a bit of roleplaying and the use of social skills.
In the second half, the PCs are tasked with retrieving a stolen holy mask which turns out to be in a pirate ship beached nearby. The adventurers will need to be stealthy or come up with a smart plan. There is no suggestion as to how exactly to accomplish the task aside from trying to stay undetected and fleeing with the mask as fast as possible, so the scenario is open-ended and can go many different ways. It includes a map of the ship and the location, as well as a table to include some unexpected events to unnerve your players with, such as "one of the pirates goes below decks looking for something unrelated to the adventurers, just when they happen to be there", which can provide opportunities or more tension. All in all, it is a fairly simple scenario that can provide 1 o 2 two fun sessions of play. It also introduces the ransom tradition, which is cool because it teaches players that capturing enemies is far better than killing them. Finally, I like that it emphasizes talking and thinking over fighting, because too many scenarios focus too much on combat already.
A minor detail confused me: the keet in the group of pirates who cause trouble at the stead is found again on the queen's ship right after the adventurers deal with the trouble, and go back to her to negotiate. That keet shouldn't be able to cover the distance between the coast and the ship so fast! Also on the section about Wapato stead, he is referred to as a pelican keet, but in his stats and art he is described as a seagull keet. That is probably just a typo, and it is easily fixed by just making him be two different NPCs.
As for the second scenario, the first half starts in a rather classical way with the disappearance of the princess, who they met in the first scenario, so they need to track her down as fast as possible. Therefore, it starts as an investigation and mostly on the island of Luvata (described in this book), so it is a fun way to introduce the island and its main places and personalities. At the end of this first half, the adventurers will get on a ship to follow the clues leading to the princess, only for a sea monster, and a sudden storm to hit the ship. This is handled through a series of urgent tasks the PCs need to take care of by succeeding in a series of rolls like Jump, Climb, or Shiphandling. If everything goes wrong, the storm will destroy the ship, and the adventurers will need to return to Tamoro. They will also return there for repairs even if the ship is not destroyed, although this is not spelled out in the scenario. There is no explanation why the person they are looking for would go in that direction knowing there is a storm coming. On top of that, the attack of the sea monster seems rather random: it attacks the ship once and then departs. Therefore, although the storm and the chain of shiphandling rolls are very exciting, it lacks some reasoning behind it all.
Still, the worst part is that after they return to shore and repair the ship or use a new one, or even keep going, the next scene is another (this time 100% unavoidable) shipwreck, which can feel repetitive and frustrating for some players because, even if they make all the rolls and come up with clever ideas, their ship will get wrecked anyway. As a player, I don't mind losing agency now and then, provided it is for a brief period of time, and the trade off is a cool enjoyable scene afterwards. In this case, the shipwreck is a way for the adventurers to enjoy the experience of being castaways in a small island, and trying to survive for as long as possible. Instead, when I run this scenario, if the players get good rolls and have clever ideas, I will skip the forced shipwreck, and just let the adventurers reach their destination. The castaway scenario can always be played at some future point in the campaign when the players fail to weather a storm.
The small island where the adventurers are shipwrecked is full of cool ideas though. It is inhabited by strange creatures and two giant intelligent animals who hate each other. One mysterious castaway remains hidden from the adventurers, and two NPCs vanish at the start, and only later the adventurers may or not be able to rescue them. On top of this, the authors have devised an interesting subsystem to handle the survivalist experience on the island. At the end of every day spent on the island, the PCs need to roll their Survival skill or lose points of CON, but even if they fail, they can avoid that by spending "survival points". There are several ways to acquire these points, like finding fruit or fishing. Players can also spend their time building a raft by generating "Crafting points", but the details are left fuzzy, as it is up to the GM to decide how many points every successful Craft skill roll generates. What a missed opportunity to devise a crafting system for RuneQuest! On top of that, the book describes small events that happen in each of the 15 days the adventurers are expected to survive on the island.
On the negative side, these events are mixed with ideas your players may come up with in order to find resources, which is jarring. For example, it looks like the PCs can only start fishing from day 5 onwards, which does not make any sense. Therefore, it would have been far better if the authors had provided two lists: one list of activities the PCs can spend time on, and how long do they take to acquire Survival points. And separately, the other events happening each day. Instead, mixing the two just gives GMs the extra work of having to separate them.
Finally, on the second half of the second scenario, the adventurers reach a second small island to find the princess. On it, they will have to explore a cave that is basically a dungeon with 10 locations, with the twist that the monsters living here are being attacked by another group of monsters, while the adventurers need to sneak in and rescue the princess. There is also an old temple that is not fully described here, but in volume 5: Bezarngay Boil. A deeper part of the caves is also described only in that other book, as the adventurers are supposed to return there in a future scenario. This is the final scene, and it includes lots of combat if the adventurers are not cautious, or only some if they are. If they are clever, they may be able to avoid it entirely. For example, one of the rooms includes an "unlimited supply" of enemies, so if the PCs decide to fight, the GM is encouraged to use the Battle rules instead of normal combat. Finally, the scenario ends with a detailed chase scene between the PC's ship and a ship full of monsters. Although in the scenario the PCs are supposed to steal an enemy boat to get out of the island, and convince a huge water elemental to help them, when I run it, if the adventurers manage to weather the storm, they will be able to flee with their own ship. The bound elemental may be found in a magic item in the caves, instead of bound to one of the enemy ships. All in all, this can make for an exciting scenario, I only wish the authors would have described how the monsters move through the caves instead of being locked in their locations waiting for the PCs to arrive. On top of that, the fact that part of the caves and temple are described in another book can be frustrating if your players insist in going to those places and you do not have it yet.
Wrapping up
As in Fires of Mingai, this third installment in the East Isles series is chock-full of gaming material, two more of the islands, and exciting scenarios set there, so your players can get to know them by playing. The combination of background and playable material is great. Moreover, the fact most scenes are not combat-oriented is refreshing, although there is some, particularly at the end, and there are plenty of original ideas, with my favorite part being the island where the characters can end up shipwrecked. On top of that, it is well presented, particularly thanks to the amount of art and maps.
On the negative side, some details in the scenarios could have been better detailed. Additionally, it is a bit annoying that the content of the 5 islands of the Korolan archipelago is spread between the 3 first books, as you have to remember in what particular book the information you are looking for is found. For example, the rules for creating Varanids (a race of lizard-men) are found in the middle of the second scenario, not even mentioned on the contents page. Despite that, if you want to play in a different part of Glorantha, far away from Dragon Pass, Islands of the Lost will provide you with many sessions of entertainment. I hope to be able to run these scenarios at some point!
The best
- The scenarios make it easy to play in the East Isles and get to know the islands described.
- In most scenes, negotiation, stealth, and investigation are more common than combat.
- Lots of art that provide cultural details on clothing and appearance.
- The 5 pieces of art by Joel Sammallahti are awesome.
The not so good
- You need the precedent two volumes plus The Red Book of Magic to make the most of this book.
- The full seafaring rules are in another book: Magic World.
- Most maps lack a scale. :_)
Islands of the Lost: Hero Wars in the East Isles Vol. 3 is available in PDF from DrivethruRPG for just 10$. Hopefully, there will be a print version available soon. What do you think of my review and this supplement? Have you run or played the scenarios? How did it go? Are you planning to run a campaign in the East Isles? Please let me know in a comment below!
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