Considering the consistent quality of their publications, I’m a big fan of the indie RuneQuest publisher Beer With Teeth (BWT). Skimming over my archive, it looks like I haven’t actually reviewed their work on my site! A travesty, I tell ya. I love how their Clearwine books delve into Sartarite daily life on a personal level to provide grounding for the adventurers’ heroism, and I admire how BWT’s adventures hit that sweet spot between evocative conflicts and clear directions for the gamemaster.
This week’s review dives into a book I’ve long hoped might come to the Jonstown Compendium: an omnibus of BWT’s Praxian adventures, Sacred Earth, Sacred Water. Let’s saddle up, and see where the bison leads us!
Disclaimers:
- I received a free PDF copy of Sacred Earth, Sacred Water from the publisher. Thank you! I feel it’s worth noting that I’m a prior purchaser of all the collected adventures.
- This review may contain spoilers.
- I contributed to playtesting and proofreading “Stone and Bone,” and I am included in the additional thanks for this volume.
What’s Inside?
Sacred Earth, Sacred Water collects together the following adventures:
- In Stone and Bone the adventurers meet the shaman Erhehta and confront a scorpion man nest while helping retrieve sacred mud to cleanse him of the Bone Curse.
- The Gifts of Prax sees the adventurers wander across the Plains of Prax to prepare for a ritual taking revenge on the Impala Tribe shaman Maserelt.
- Finally, the mini-campaign of Erhehta and Maserelt’s feud concludes with the adventurers confronting The Lifethief in the magic-less Dead Place.
- Meanwhile in The Temple of Twins the adventurers heroquest into a wounded temple to discover the fate of its Rune Priestess.
The volume also contains a new, comprehensive description of the Straw Weaver Clan of the Bison Tribe. This 20-page chapter is densely packed with useful information about Praxian myths, culture, family structure, cults, and politics. By providing additional context about life in the Bison Tribe this chapter helps the gamemaster play Praxian non-player characters within their own worldview. There’s no implication that the gamemaster must get something “right.” Rather, I see this content as designed to help the table roleplay engaging with an imaginary culture distant in time and space from our own.
It’s also worth emphasizing this chapter’s value for inspiring new adventures. Clan and tribal rivalries offer excuses for raids (and why raids might go wrong), while myths like “The Stone that Spoke” provide an intriguing starting point for a heroquest. Many of the non-player characters in this chapter are not tied into the adventures. I see this as a strength, because it offers the gamemaster freedom to use them without accidentally mucking up a later plot.
The “Notable Personalities” section, in my mind, has an interesting parallel to Chaosium’s Lightbringers book. Lightbringers provides a great deal of context and setting through its description of the included religions. In compliment with that, the characters in Sacred Earth, Sacred Water demonstrate how those cults are lived by actual people. By providing concrete examples of Khans of Waha and Storm Bull, Praxian Humakti, Herd Mothers, and shamans, this book highlights the emotional experience of worshiping these religions. Few—if any—characters struck me as molded wholly by their cult. For example, Erhehta is a Daka Fal shaman, but his Water Rune defines his mercurial personality. The secret sauce for the personalities is that they’re provided within their own context. Their hopes and fears are tangible.
The stories in Sacred Earth, Sacred Water focus on the adventurers as outsiders assisting the Straw Weavers with various problems. These mostly revolve around the shaman Erhehta and his feud with the Impala Tribe shaman Maserelt. Together, those three adventures form a mini-campaign with ample hooks by which the gamemaster can hang additional adventures. “The Temple of Twins” also involves the Straw Weavers, but does not have the same focus on Erhehta.
As BWT’s promotional material states, Sacred Earth, Sacred Water contains “four acclaimed scenarios.” This acclamation, in my opinion, is best explained the adventures’ diversity of conflict. It’s easy to boil Praxian activities down to “raid someone” or “fight Chaos.” Throughout the whole book, BWT resists that urge with aplomb. There’s a great deal of horror in Sacred Earth, Sacred Water—but there’s also strangeness, and compassion, and magic. Some of my favorite examples include the gleeful way scorpionmen babies “bite with cute, tiny toddler teeth,” the possibility that one’s sacred duty is not saving the Rune Priestess, and the various problems of feeding a condor chick while in the chaparral.
Adventurers of both martial and spiritual archetypes (or perhaps Waha and Eiritha?) have a meaningful impact on each adventure. Despite playing out around a feud between two powerful shamans, these adventures place a strong focus on the players’ choices. The players absolutely have a say in the plot’s resolution. Heroic adventurers are needed, not mere assistants. For example, “The Gifts of Prax” culminates in Erhehta’s ritual to stampede Maserelt with a herd of ghostly bison. However, Maserelt’s apprentice has informed the adventurers of why she cursed Erhehta in the first place. The adventurers influence the story’s outcome by choosing the extent to which they assist Erhehta—or indeed, if they persuade him that looming Chaos is more important than the irascible shaman’s vengeance.
Each adventure’s outcome is not fixed in stone (or bone). They revolve around the players’ choices and their adventurers’ deeds.
Finally, Sacred Earth, Sacred Water is supported by a whopping 40-page appendix of Praxian encounters. These encounters can be used to extend any of the adventures—especially “The Gifts of Prax,” which involves the most travel—to offer problems while adventurers are traveling from A to B, or to inspire longer adventures. What if that hill claimed by a squadron of peccaries has the only spring in the area?
These encounters are largely drawn from the original publications of Gifts of Prax, The Lifethief, and The Temple of Twins. Working from memory of when I read the originals, I believe that a handful of new encounters have been added, more have been illustrated, and that many have been revised. This appendix really is a goldmine for anyone venturing into Prax. Much like the conflicts in the adventures “proper,” the encounters are creative and diverse. Some of my favorites include a tumbleweed Aldryami, a honey badger with “Give a Damn 0%,” and a stodgy Pure Horse People ghost.
In the wintry mood, and looking for a more seasonal adventure? Check out my Electrum bestseller The Throat of Winter! It’s a site-based adventure which blends Scandinavian and Gloranthan myth. You get more adventure, I get to keep writing cool stuff—sounds like a win-win!
Production
Sacred Earth, Sacred Water is produced to a high standard of prose quality, textual polish, and graphic presentation. BWT’s accomplishment shares the same space as books like Ships & Shores or The Voralans whose production quality blurs the line between “independent” and “full-scale” publisher. Speaking from experience, getting a book this tidy with a small team is hard work.
BWT’s prose in particular deserves a shout-out. I can tell their work is very well edited because it is generally—but not always!—concise and straightforward. That last 10% of flash is not a mistake. It’s the little bit of flash which really helps a book of adventures shine. There’s lovely little gems throughout Sacred Earth, Sacred Water which improve its “armchair” quality without getting in the way of the gamemaster. That’s a difficult target to hit, and the team has done it admirably.
The text’s polish is strong as well, though perhaps a dash less than the editing. I’m compulsive about proofreading, I know. The main typo ninjas I noticed were the occasional missed capital on spell or season names.
On a related note, I do think the book would have benefited from a bit more uniformity in presentation. For example, spell names seem to be italicized in “Temple of Twins” and “The Straw Weavers,” but are roman in the other adventures. As another example, I suggest that the “Aftermath” and plot hooks could share unified presentation at the end of each adventure (whether it’s a chapter or a heading, whether or not to use bullet points, etc.).
The art in Sacred Earth, Sacred Water is excellent. My favorite piece is probably the cover (shown above). Throughout, there is a focus on single-figure illustrations—especially portraits—with each adventure’s cover art used as a full-page plate on the adventure’s first spread. Most of the new art is in the “Straw Weavers” chapter. I believe there’s a few pieces in the encounters appendix which are new as well.
Sacred Earth, Sacred Water‘s illustrations work well with the book’s focus on usable and informative content for the table. The art features details of Praxian culture within portraits and scenes which the players encounter. As a gamemaster, I’d feel encouraged to show players images from the book without fearing spoilers about the story. Line illustrations throughout the volume add an additional charm to the publication. These typically feature animals, Runes, or objects as they might be drawn by the Praxians themselves.
The only critique which comes to mind concerning graphics is that the primarily black and white art of “Stone and Bone” contrasts with the color art in the rest of the book. Naturally re-illustrating an entire adventure is a waste of time, but I think an extra bit of color in that chapter could have gone a long way.
(Yes, I am saying that I want color art of the scorpion man toddlers.)
Conclusion
Sacred Earth, Sacred Water collects and expands upon some of the best RuneQuest adventures produced for the current edition. It deftly blends a narrow focus on the Prax Homeland with easy accessibility to groups throughout the core Dragon Pass region. BWT’s work lands firmly on the “table” side of my “armchair or kitchen table” spectrum, yet retains a great deal of armchair entertainment value.
Apart from a bit more unity of presentation, just one other critique comes to mind. I feel the “Straw Weavers” chapter could use more explicit support for creating Praxian adventurers from the clan. For example, saying something like “Players who wish to play Straw Weaver adventurers should use the RuneQuest core rules for creating Praxians.” I also think there’s some space to expand on Straw Weaver adventurers (such as a Praxian trinkets table, or a unique Straw Weaver event during the Family History). Sacred Earth, Sacred Water doesn’t need a comprehensive adventurer creation section (as in the excellent Duckpac), but additional player options would have been a fun bonus.
Overall, I esteem this book among works like The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories or Six Seasons in Sartar which are not, strictly speaking, mandatory. Nonetheless, all of these works offer enormous fun and utility to RuneQuest gamemasters, players, and readers alike.
If you haven’t explored BWT’s Prax before, Sacred Earth, Sacred Water is the perfect entry point. It is available in the following editions:
- PDF: $19.95
- Hardcover, Standard Color: $35.95
- Hardcover, Premium Color: $49.95
At around 170 pages, any edition is an absolute bargain.
That said, this is an omnibus of prior content. I do think it’s valid, as a consumer who has previously purchased the PDFs, to consider if the PDF price is worth the new content. For me… probably not, actually. A lot of invisible work goes into revising, collating, producing, and print-prepping a book like this, and I don’t want to trivialize that. But the “Straw Weavers” chapter is the most overt new material, and I honestly don’t think I’d pay $20 for it.
With that in mind, I do believe $20 is the correct price for this book! The Jonstown Compendium just doesn’t really have the backend support to provide a more nuanced approach. That’s not the fault of BWT, or Chaosium, or anyone else involved in the program. (Hey, maybe DriveThruRPG’s ongoing rework will change that!) $20 is expensive for “Straw Weavers,” but as I said before, it’s an absolute bargain for new customers.
Further, I love that this work is finally in Print on Demand. It’s a product I’ve wanted to put on my shelf for a while, and now that opportunity’s available.
The real question: when does Sacred Air, Sacred Fire come out?
Want to keep up-to-date on what Austin’s working on through Akhelas? Go ahead and sign up to the email list below. You’ll get a notification whenever a new post goes online. Interested in supporting his work? Back his Patreon for early articles, previews, behind-the-scenes data, and more.
You can also find Austin over on Facebook, and a bit more rarely on Twitter.
Akhelas 
Hi,
Nice review, made me seriously think about getting the book, even though I am downsizing my collection!
Question. How flexible do you think the adventures are? Could you change the tribe, place or time? Could you change the orientation of the protagonists, to lunars or other?
Thanks in advance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad to hear the review was helpful!
The particular tribe and clan is pretty flexible, along with the physical locations visited during the adventure. The location of places like Stealer’s River or the Temple of Twins is described, but not specified, so the gamemaster can place them as they see fit. The adventures are loosely situated after the Lunars are kicked out, but the timing is flexible. The plots should fit fine during the Lunar Occupation, with maybe a dash of tweaking.
The default protagonists are “outsiders,” so there’s a lot of flexibility. It’d be tricky, however, to play as Lunar adventurers – the Bison Tribe *really* doesn’t like those guys. If you wanted to do that, I’d suggest reskinning the Straw Weavers to be a clan of the Sable Tribe (who are more friendly to the Lunars) or the High Llama Tribe (who, if memory serves, were basically neutral). You’d have to change some of the narration, setting, and detail, but I don’t think it’d be too difficult.
I don’t think these adventures would work well outside of Prax (or possibly Pent). It’d be pretty easy to adjust them to fit the table within that basic region and context, but moving them to, say, Loskalm in the west or Fonrit in the southern continent of Pamaltela would be pretty hard. The core concept is adventures going on in the harsh Praxian chaparral. Considering the proximity to the Dragon Pass area, it’s not too hard to get adventurers involved from the core region. But outside that region the book will be less relevant to your campaign.
Hope that helps!
LikeLike
Yes, thanks.
LikeLike