LordNigel

Thanks for all the help, folks!

It's clear to me that the community is a major part of enjoying Glorantha. It's very nice when there are so many people willing to help in such a short time!

I guess that to make things easier and to help my "acclimatizing" process smoother, I will focus on first understanding the system and then proceeding to enjoy all the ready-made adventures available for RQG. That should give me enough experience with the system and Glorantha to feel ready to start "adapting" classic materials.
I really want to run Apple Lane before running the new version, so I guess I'll play around with Pegasus Plateu (it's allegedly filled with adventures appropriate for starter-level characters) first. After that I might make a small foray into the original Apple Lane with my friends.

I'll try to read through the Sourcebook while I learn the system, and consult it again whenever necessary. Then, I'll try to consult Cult Compendium according to the adventures I read, to understand some details better as they show up. It's clearly not a good idea to rush this process.

Since we're all gathered here in this fine evening, I'd also like to ask you for suggestions of adventures that I absolutely MUST try (I love a good story, so all suggestions are welcome. I guess that all the typical books like Pavis & Big Rubble, Borderlands and such are part of that list, but I'm sure there are others gems I should be adding to the list.

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

Almost all Glorantha material is set late in the 3rd Age (an age is ~600 years of time and ends in some cataclysm).  RQ Classics are roughly 1613-1621, depending on location.  HQG is generally 1618-1625.  RQG is picking up at 1625. 

If you think of RQ Classics as being in the Star Wars Rebellion/New Hope/Empire Strikes Back years and RQG as starting after Return of the Jedi, you'll have roughly the time period in mind.

The only works that were set in a different age were the Mongoose RQ books.

Yes, this was extremely useful! Thanks!

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

The RQ Classics really are very compatible.  I'm in a campaign right now running RQG through the RQ Classic Borderlands scenarios.  I don't think our GM is making any stat changes whatsoever (except ignore RQ2 Defense factor).  If you get into playing and find the NPC's are getting pushed over too readily, just bump skills up by +10% or give them a couple Rune points. 

As others have noted, drop the treasure factors/rewards down significantly.

Yeah, apparently this would be the easiest way to go. Just testing to see what works and what doesn't. The players would never know that all this tweaking was going on live anyway...

The treasure dropping, though, is still a bit abstract to me. Since I haven't played any Glorantha-related systems so far (though I am used to the percentiles due to CoC), I don't know how useful things really are. But I guess that it's just a question of practice.

3 hours ago, Baron Wulfraed said:

The largest compatibility matter may be in character strength. The old Apple Lane was meant for freshly minted characters in RQ1/2 -- which tended to mean skill levels in the 25% range and an age of 16 unless you apply (as suggested in the scenario) the "Previous Experience" section of RQ2 (which is way in the back of the book -- my old group in the 80s never even realized that was an option, we started as 16 year olds with minimal armor and likely a small mace; RQ3, OTOH, put that into the character generation phase). RQ2 Previous Experience appears to assume a fixed additional 5 years of age; RQ3 used a die roll to determine age, and had experience modifications based on number of years difference from 15 (1D6 die roll meant minimum 16). Using that Apple Lane in the new rules will likely require greatly increasing the stats of the opponents, besides applying the rules in the Conversion Guide. Most of the opponents in RQ2 Apple Lane are in the 35-45% attack range.

There is about a generation between RQ1/2 Apple Lane and RQ:RiG Apple Lane (the pawn shop is a ruin in the latter). RQ2 seeming to be around 1580-1600. (I can't find any specifics for what the year is in RQ2 -- the timeline goes to 1627 which is just after RQ:RiG "begins"). GM-Pack explicitly states 1625. RQ2 Apple Lane states Gringle moved there 37 years earlier, while the GM-Pack mentions he had run the pawnshop for some 50 years -- doesn't mention when he left or the shop burned down, but a minimum of 14 years (50-37 + 1 for burning) puts RQ2 Apple Lane at 1611.

You may need to pick which Apple Lane scenarios to run due to the differences. Residents are older, pawnshop burned... In the GM-Pack Aileena is 34yo priestess of Uleria (with a 25% attack with club), while RQ2 she's just a (no age stated) initiate with 20% attack. Those NPCs common to both versions do have similar weapon skills... In RQ3's Apple Lane (which IS a rewrite of the RQ1/2 Apple Lane, same scenarios) Aillena is a 24yo "acolyte'. -- That fixes RQ3 Apple Lane in 1615.

 

So the new RQG Apple Lane is indeed a "return to" type of affair. I imagine it would be much more epic to "return" there after knowing the city as it was before.
From what I understood from your explanation, the current RQG initial characters would be too strong for the original Apple Lane, so I'd have to "pump the monsters" up a little. Maybe I could check around the other ready-made adventures I have (pegasus plateau/smoking ruin books) and inspire myself in those stats?

3 hours ago, Eff said:

Adaptation is necessary but usually in an extremely contextual way. Basically, you can run, at a rough estimate, 90% of everything regardless of time frame, and the remaining 10% is mostly a matter of light adaptation- where it says "Lunar patrol" reading "rival tribe's militia" or something. There are a handful of things that would require heavier adaptation, but those are overall rare. 

I see! Yeah, it makes more sense that way!

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

You should be OK.

However, it depends on what kind of GM you are.

If you get annoyed because a SIZ 13 CON 13 NPC has 13 Hit Points in RQ3 but 14 Hit Points in RQG then it might drive you crazy. 

If, however, you can get over, or ignore, that then you should be fine.

Yeah, I really don't mind that sort of difference. As long as it WORKS at the table, I'm fine with it.

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

As a percentile, since that is RQ through and through:

• RQ2/RQ Classic: 90% Compatible (Just reduce treasure by a factor of 10, remember that some skills are renamed and NPCs won't have Runes or Passions)
• RQ3: 80% Compatible (Just reduce treasure by a factor of 5, remember that some skills are renamed, NPCs won't have Runes or Passions and will have odd Strike Ranks, Hit Locations and Hit Points, I just use the stats in the books and let the Players tell me the location they rolled)
• RQ6: 50% Compatible (Major differences in spells, skills and almost everything)
• RQ4/5: 50% Compatible (Major differences in spells, skills and almost everything, but 70% Compatible with RQ6)

I don't bother converting and just use the NPC stats in the books, making up spells if I need them.

This is great!

When you say "I use the NPC stats in the books, you mean the classic books you're using, or similar stats in the new books? That part wasn't extremely clear to me.

39 minutes ago, Eff said:

The big difference is that the Lunar presence in old adventures set in Prax and Sartar will not be there in the "present day" and vice versa. This is not really a huge factor for most individual scenarios, because you can just switch things over to the current governmental authority and change the descriptions a bit. The biggest difference will be the Borderlands campaign, which you may or may not have, where you would probably need to do a lot more work to change Duke Raus and his household from Lunars. You could probably use individual adventures from that without large changes, though. 

From what you are saying, it's a question of adapting, so therefore I can assume this adaptation is necessary? My point was actually running other ages "as is" in the same system. In other words, it the system doesn't deal with Lunars, having them even so, etc. It sounds a bit limiting to have such a vast universe of stories and possibilities and having to limit ourselves to a certain time frame.

Thank you so much for such quick and detailed replies!

I'm glad to know it's not a big deal to use classic adventures with the new system! The idea of running CoC modules in Glorantha is surely interesting! Maybe "stealing" ideas from the "Cthulhu Invictus" book and substituting Lunars for the Romans!

Hey there! I am positive that this has been asked previously, but from my searches I couldn't find explicit answers, so since I've learned that the community has a "we are all us" philosophy, I hope I won't be a bother for asking this...

I am absolutely in love with the idea behind Glorantha and I have read some things here and there to get in touch with the myths and names, but as usual it's hard to know where to begin (don't worry, that's not the crux of my question).

I have purchased all current RQG books in physical form and have the PDFs as well. I also have the HeroQuest main book (the most recent edition) and the Sourcebook. In terms of PDFs, I have basically acquired everything that I could. I have Cult Compendium, Pavis & Big Rubble, etc, as well as the Sartar/Sartar Companion/11 lights books, some old classics like Apple Lane, Dorastor, etc etc. Everything that people say "Oh yeah, that one is  a must", I think I have it.

I also am more or less aware of how to proceed in getting to know the lore. I should read the main Runequest Glorantha book as well as the Sourcebook at first. Then I think I will explore the Cult Compendium as I need.

So what is the problem? The problem is that people mention the importance of infinite volumes but I don't see people discussing their compatibility. I hear a lot about the Apple Lane adventures, but I don't know how compatible that is with the new RQG system. I AM aware that the system is different and that we already have an official document for converting character stats, but that doesn't tell me if this alone makes those adventures "GM-able" with ease.

I want to know to what extent I can use "classic" material at the table, basically. I assume that as far as lore goes, I can use whatever I want, because it's the info that counts. But what about classic adventures? Is it easy to just get some modern monster/NPC stats from current material and just follow the old books? Will I run into some deadly pitfalls?
One of my greatest interests is to run Apple Lane, because I know it's a fond memory for old-school fans, and I want my table to have that memory. I know that the current Gamemaster Pack (which I own) has a "revamp" of Apple Lane (at least it's what it looks like), but I don't know if they are interchangeable of if they're completely different animals.

Then I go to Heroquest stuff. How easily can I get story ideas from Heroquest books and apply them to Runequest. Or, considering that I HAVE the Heroquest main book, would it be more interesting to alternate between systems and just GM The Red Cow and such adventures directly in Heroquest for my players?

I also get quite confused when it comes to the ages. As far a I can understand (from the books and discussions), each iteration of Glorantha RPG systems focuses on a specific time. How big of a deal is that? Does that make Heroquest adventures difficult to play in RQG due to different ages being expected by the mechanics? How easy is it to use a different age as a setting without changing systems?

Well, I think that's it.
Please forgive the ominous wall-of-text™ and I hope somebody finally helps me put these questions to rest.