Rabu, 11 April 2012

J is for Jorune

Jorune, or rather The Skyrealms of Jorune, was a classic Science Fantasy RPG of the early-mid 80s till the 90s and it is today's J post.

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.

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