Jorune was not like anything I had ever seen before. By the mid 80s I considered myself knowledgeable, but not yet worldly in my RPG knowledge. I knew the big players, could ID the smaller ones and knew enough to know more existed. But Jorune was new. It was weird and different. And the art blew me away.
Have a look at the cover.
Look at the creature lying prone, he is obviously a great person and he is passing on his knowledge/magic/Isho to the older male. The female is caring for him and the large reptile man. Well while he could be seen as scary, he is obviously here giving comfort to the grieving.
Jorune was a planetary romance. Humans had inhabited the planet of Jorune and then lost contact with Earth. Add some advanced genetic engineering, local wildlife and a heavy dose of magic and you get islands floating in the sky 20 years before Avatar hit the screens.
I do not have many regrets in my RPG career. I have played some epic games. Worked on some fantastic games. But one thing I do regret is I never got a chance to play this game. Though to be fair on myself, I never knew anyone that had played this either.
Jorune was published in 3 editions by two different companies till 1992, sadly none of the copies are still in print. You have to find them on eBay or sellers like Nobel Knight Games.
Nothing represented the Silver Age of the RPGs better in terms of really cool, lets get as far away from D&D as we can sort of game.
Links
- Wikipedia
- Return to Jorune fan site
- Grognardia Retrospective
- Skyrealms of Jorune at Nobel Knight, Skyrealms, 1st and 2nd editions
- Skyrealms of Jorune at Nobel Knight, Chessex/3rd edition
- Gomo Guide To Thoneport, the newest Jorune product that you can still buy.
I don't think I ever got around to playing Jorune, but I was always a big fan of the concept.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of that one but I was in the Navy during the timeframe you mentioned, sounds like a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteRPG are still very popular,(I know because some of my students play them). I was more of a theater girl myself while my siblings played DAD.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea though that adults can still play.
I am a bit of a SITM.
Cheers and thanks for the eye opener.
I don't recognize this game. It sounds like it was ahead of its time.
ReplyDeleteOne of my great regrets was selling my original Jorune box set.
ReplyDeleteNot because I ever thought I'd get round to playing the game anytime soon (it was my original "this is the game we should all play when we're retired" game) but because I picked it up from the publishers at a Games Day in London. It was their last copy and it was actually one of their own; it had handwritten notes on it as well as some extra booklets etc
Sometimes I can be a bit heavy-handed in my gaming purges :(
I used to have the boxed set back in the day. It had beautiful art but I felt the setting was not as detailed as it could have been and there were some serious typos as I recall.
ReplyDeleteI onced owned the boxed set. Beautiful artwork but some serious typos as I recall. Also, the setting wasn't as well fleshed out as I felt it should have been. Could use a new edition.
ReplyDelete