ffilz

22 hours ago, Raebon said:

Hi everyone!

New referee to 2e, running some new players through a moderately homebrewed campaign.

Had a couple logistical questions for the venerable grognards.

The cult requirements are a big one. They're all over the place, and some practically preclude adventuring as more than a hobby (looking at you, Lanhkor Mhy and The Seven Mothers). Do you enforce them? I've more or less decided on merely requiring tithes from initiates and rune level characters, the idea being that proper adventurers are rare and valuable commodities to cults. My players are averse to running a rotating cast of characters and, for the moment, I am too. Maybe when someone unceremoniously dies we'll change our minds.

Even requirements for being a lay worshipper can be stiff: mandatory attendance at weekly worship scenarios is tricky in a campaign where I'm enforcing travel times, and random encounters, bad weather and getting lost can all slow you down.

How do you handle cult/tribal relations? While the cults seem to be entities unto themselves, loyalty to one's tribe could come into conflict with cult loyalty. And for cults that are part of tribal life (Waha, Daka Fal, etc), what happens if your tribe comes into conflict with another tribe, but all the leaders are part of the same cult?

Lastly, I've been debating using the optional character creation rules for any replacement characters. But I've noticed sometimes you end up with a character who's ostensibly been trained in weapons they don't have the stats to wield. Any suggestions? Handwavium? Perhaps they were instead trained with a roughly analogous weapon?

Thank you for your wisdom Ancient Ones, and may Arachne Solara bless thee!

 

I don't do a very good job of enforcing attendance and such... I guess in my campaign adventurers are exempt... I would definitely agree that lay members should not have much obligation other than in a few very select cults. I've had an adventuring Lhankor Mhy before, though I'm not sure the PC ever made initiate, or if she did, it was near the end of the campaign. Since i never got into the cultural anthropology aspects of Glorantha, the tribal stuff really a factor.

Note that even with high tech lights, you really don't see a huge amount of a cave at once. If you've seen pretty pictures of caves, they probably involved a large number of flashes scattered throughout the cave.

An argument as old as the game...

I remember early complaints about golf bagging. I've never seen it in my games. For a while I did allow players to accumulate additional checks, each additional check was +1% to the chance to improve or something like that with the intent to reduce golf bagging. But the truth is most players are good players and they don't just try different weapons for the sake of earning more checks. Now some do go into some situations with a different weapon with the intent to improve that. Cool. On the other side, I actually sometimes encourage players to have everyone make certain checks to increase experience. Nothing really wrong with that.

These days I find it hard to care much. We play for 2 hours every other week. And get to actually make experience checks every couple of months at best, well, maybe it was a BIT more frequent recently while adventuring in the Rubble where they could trivially get back to "town". Still, other than the elf who rolled ridiculous stats who has now qualified for Rune Lord (already Rune Priest) in an RQ1 campaign using previous experience, no one has really advanced that far. And far more advancement has been due to training.

10 hours ago, RhinoDino1973 said:

Oh, that's very reasonable.  I was thinking you wouldn't end until 12am or 1am which is waaay too late for me on a school night.  I could do that timeframe.  Well, let me know if you have an open spot and how you'd like to proceed.  Thanks!

Oh, that would be way too late for me. It isn't too late for some of my players, I have one on the East Coast and several in Central Time Zone. Part of the opening may be the East Coast player not being able to sustain the schedule now that he's graduated from college...

2 hours ago, Godlearner said:

I do not currently run one, although I have in the past. There is a site called RPOL.net which hosts such games. You need to create and account, but its totally free. You can search for games in their forums. I have seen RQ games there. The play by post has the advantage of the player not having to be online at eh same time, in fact a lot of times players and the GM are in vastly different time zones. The posting rate differs by game from multiple times a day to once a week. Its up to the GM to fix that.  

There have also been RQ games on Unseen Servant ( https://www.unseenservant.us/forum/ ). I did try running one there, but realized that running detailed combat in play by post was going to be tortuous.

7 hours ago, RhinoDino1973 said:

Hi, ffilz.  Thanks for reaching out.  8pm start time may be too late for me.  How long are your sessions? 

2 hours, sometimes running up to 30 minutes longer.

Start time is so late to make sure kids are into bed by the time I start, and that I have at least a bit of time to get out of dad mode and into GM mode.

I might have room in one of my RQ first edition games on Wednesdays at 8:00 PM Pacific Time...

17 minutes ago, David Scott said:

Apologies, here are the old rules:

 

RuneQuest 2, page 18. 1980. 

If you were referring to an earlier set:

 

RuneQuest 1, page 22. 1978

I don't remember if a Q&A clarified things, but giants swinging big tree trunks sever whatever hit location they hit even though it's crushing damage. You really hoped it was a limb... PCs don't tend to recover from severed heads, chests, or abdomens... 🙂

I do appreciate the RQ2 clarification of severed OR maimed, but it was always clear to me that 6 points over was bad news and you needed Heal 6...

I've almost never had a party without Heal 6, and it's pretty clear from the RQ1 rules (which is what I still run) that you need Heal 6 no matter what kind of weapon maimed/severed your limb.

Also, you only have 1 week to get back to town and Heal Body/Regrow Limb...

In my current campaign the PCs had to do that despite Heal 6. PC got nasty poison in arm. Would have died except he cut off his arm. But using Heal 6 to put the limb back on would have negated that save from the poison...

Even with the way Rune Magic works in RQG, I think I would still want at least one party member to have Heal 6.

39 minutes ago, soltakss said:

I managed to generate a macro that seems to work:

/roll {(1d100-(?{Attacker|0})*5+(?{Defender|0})*5)}<50

 

Thanks, I just added that to my campaign.

8 hours ago, Deanjday said:

 

RQ1.5 (RQ1 plus some choice bits from RQ2 and RQ3)

Almost 3 years now

1621 or so (I’m really not up on the timeline)

Started in Apple Lane with Rainbow Mounds headed to Alone for training then Wyrms Ghost Ruins then Jonstown for healing then follow the roads to Torkan’s Last Fort. Then off road to Tada’s High Tumulus then to Pavis and the Big Rubble. Soon to head downriver to Dyskund Caverns. 
 

PCs from Sartar and Prax

Apple Lane (RQ1), Lair of the White Wyrm (White Dwarf magazine), Pavis and Big Rubble (RQ2), map from RQ3 Trollpak, various other bits. Big use of the Trolls and Trollkin, Militia and Mercenaries, Creatures of Chaos and Foes. 
 

Started as “here’s the adventure” but more sandbox now. 

My Glorantha is my Glorantha. Definitely not canon. 
 

Old school adventure. 
 

Listen to others advice 🙂 mine is to grab RQ1 or RQ2, Cult of Prax and done classic adventures... I think fir newbies these days RQG and some adventures for it are the best way to go unless you really like old school. 

I did a good read, not all of it but what I have read is wonderful. Thanks for all of this. 

Looks cool, will spend time to absorb. Thanks for sharing.

33 minutes ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

Well, you could say the same of D&D - lots of people know what Mind Flayers, Beholders, Perytons, Xorns, Kobolds are, and they are nothing like terrestrial creatures. Similarly for Hra, Jagji, Vringalu, Mrur, Serudla etc in Tekumel - once you know them you know them.  Hard thing no do, Do thing no hard.

Sure, it's no harder to learn those Tekumel monsters than the more esoteric D&D monsters. But D&D also has things that have shown up in a variety of fictional media in some way. Plus it has lions and tigers and bears. Tekumel doesn't have lions and tigers and bears... So if I wanted the PCs to stumble on something in the jungle, I don't know what it is other than being forced to use an exotic creature.

1 hour ago, Scorus said:

I think Glorantha is easy to play in but hard to GM, like EPT (I really miss playing in Tekumel!). For someone completely new to RQ, the GM boxed set that includes the main book, Bestiary, and GM Adventures and Six Seasons in Sartar from the Jonstown Compendium would give you what you need to get started! And to start the addiction that will make you buy more stuff! 🙂

I find Glorantha easy to GM. But I've been GMing it since 1978 and my Glorantha is not the cultural anthropology high myth Glorantha of today. My Glorantha more resembles a pseudo-medieval fantasy campaign (D&Dish) with some unique creatures and sentient beings and some interesting cults so I find it no harder to run than D&D using whatever setting. But that's me. Someone wanting to get into the Glorantha of today has more work, but I also think there are lots of great things to get started with and if you pick one of those and concentrate on the region that is set in, you can learn that little bit and you don't need to learn the cosmic mythology instantly. The Starter Set should be a great start!

6 hours ago, d(sqrt(-1)) said:

 

I'd actually argue that Tekumel is not really that difficult - I've run it for people who know nothing about it before and they can pick it up quickly. It does need a GM who knows a bit about it and is prepared to say things like "Well you CAN do that if you want but your clan might object". I think it's a lot more accessible now than it was to people in the 1970s purely because there is more awareness of other cultures. 

The difficulty I have with Glorantha sometimes is that it's a bit of a big wobbly jelly where nothing is definite. That's a strength and a weakness.

Playing in Tekumel is a lot different than GMing. Beyond my lack of much background in the inspirational cultures, what I found broke down my ability to relate was the almost total lack of any Earth flora and fauna. And no handy guide "bleebleblorps are like deer". So now not only do I have to do cultures I don't know, I also have to invent an ecology.

In Glorantha, I run using culture I'm familiar with, and if I need a deer or a wolf or whatever, I can do it (Gateway Bestiary helps for my RQ1/2 era kinda guy). Yea, there are some weird monsters, but they provide spice rather than being the norm that needs to be maintained.

14 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

In that case you should stick to RQ1 or invest into RQ3 or BRP as it supports that style of play. You would still be interested with various published scenarios published for RQG. 

Yep, I'm sticking with RQ1... (I do have RQ2 and RQ3...). And yea, I will be interested in the scenarios. I will eventually get RQG for better understanding of the scenarios.

I had two reasons for popping into this thread:

1. To point out that deep setting knowledge is NOT necessary to enjoy RuneQuest.

2. To point out that one COULD get into RQ and Glorantha for cheaper than RQG by picking up some RuneQuest Classics offerings.

And then I noted that gee, RQG actually turns out not to be more expensive than D&D 5e...

There has long been a complaint about the depth of Glorantha. The truth is anyone new coming in is going to be lost by the weight of over 40 years of setting development. But the answer is that actually that HAS been taken into account and we have the Quick Start and an upcoming Starter Set to give people an entry point. And then we can highlight that NO ONE expects you to follow canon unless you decide to write for the official line, which you aren't going to even think about doing before you have lost yourself in immersion in the setting, meanwhile Johnstown Compendium would be a great place for anyone who got the RQ bug and wanted to publish an adventure in the same way adventures were published in White Dwarf magazine or by Judges Guild or anywhere in between (with most of the JC content probably trying to hew close to canon).

We need to break the mystique of Glorantha. I'm confident that it is NOT in the same realm as Tekumel though it may seem so. It IS an approachable setting, and there is a variety of offerings that guide you on your path to whatever level of immersion you desire.

6 hours ago, Darius West said:

Actually, RQG is really good.  Unlike previous RQs it is a lot more bronze age in its inspiration, and incorporates enough new mechanics on top of the old RQ2/RQ3 foundations to make it well worth the purchase imo.  It has cults that we know and a couple that are new including Odayla the Sky Bear, Engizi, and Sun Horse Yelm (Yu-Kargzant).  It has new and improved Shamanism rules, which are great.  The sorcery rules are similar to RQ3 but not the same.  Overall, Runes play a much larger part in the game, and they are invoked in similar ways to Passions.  It also includes some economic and downtime rules.  While elements of character creation draw heavily on RQ2, there is a lot more detail there, and it has a family history section that draws on similar elements of Pendragon, but in a Gloranthan setting (sans glory too obviously).  The other important factor is that the game world has now progressed to 1625 and the history of Glorantha has reached the point where the Hero Wars are actually "on", not just prophecied.  Finally, the illustrations are very good, and the maps are excellent; beautiful even.  As an old time RQer, I heartily recommend it to old school skeptics like yourself.  I definitely feel I got my money's worth.  Yes there is redundant info that you might find elsewhere, but this is a loving update with plenty of fresh stuff. 

Honestly, much of what I have heard about RQG turns me off. Part of that is because my Glorantha is NOT the Glorantha of today. It is the Glorantha of RQ1 with Cults of Prax added on. The implied setting of RQ1 is NOT bronze age, it's more medieval, or at least "D&D-like fantasy" (with skills instead of classes and levels...). That's the setting I've played on and off, with at least some play in every decade, since 1978. I don't NEED all that stuff that ties RQ more mechanically to Glorantha because it isn't making ties to MY Glorantha. Sure, my choice NOT to buy RQ2 a year after I bought RQ1 set me on a path of sticking with the original, but it's what I am comfortable with and like. I don't need to absorb hundreds of pages to run my RQ. Picking up RQG for me would actually put me in the deep end just like the OP. Or worse because I'd have to unlearn something...

All that said, that's ME. For others, I'm confident RQG is the right game for them.

And the Starter Set will help people get in. And I'm going to buy it for the cool content. And I will eventually buy RQG to see if there's anything I want to steal.

7 hours ago, Darius West said:

I hate to admit it, but this is a perfectly fair complaint.  The time and money a GM needs to invest to really get a working understanding of Glorantha's innards is a bit prohibitive.  On the other hand, you can rest assured that a fix is on the way.  I attended a Con in easier pre-COVID times where I was reliably informed by Chaosium staffers that a "GM's Guide to Glorantha" is on its way.  That being said, it isn't here yet.

Part of the problem here is the weight of the setting. You COULD pick your choice of RuneQuest 1st ed ($10 PDF, $25 POD) or 2nd ed ($15 PDF, $20 hardcover, $25 POD) and Cults of Prax ($13 PDF, $20 POD) and have enough material to run a nice Gloranthan campaign. Toss in the Old School Resource Pack ($13 PDF, $25 print, $20 POD) and you have 2 scenarios and a bunch of ready to go NPCs.

Optionally if you want to get on board cheap, wait for the Starter Set this summer for $30...

Now it may be a more fair complaint that RuneQuest Glorantha is more of a buy in. But is it that much more than other games? D&D 5e is $50 a book and you need 3 books and that doesn't get you any scenarios. Add GM screen for $15, that's $165. For $165 with RQG you get core book ($55) GM Screen ($30), bestiary ($40) and source book ($40). Granted you don't get an in depth GM guide, but you get more than enough to play for the same price and that includes some deep setting info.

But don't go for a deep dive. Pick up a rules set. Pick up a scenario. Play that. Then get more and absorb slowly. That was the only choice we had when I started in 1978... And don't worry if you're playing Glorantha "right".

Seriously, although I'm not interested in RQG I understand it's a great way to get into RQ and Glorantha. I will eventually purchase it because it might have some tidbits for me to absorb into my campaign. In the meantime, I grab bits and pieces of other stuff (Bestiary, Sourcebook, Red Book of Magic, a Johnstown Compendium adventure, and I'll order the Starter Set as soon as it's available, also the cults book). But I'm on my way into the deep end of the pool. You don't have to be to enjoy RQ and Glorantha.

28 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

Unfortunalely Impromptu Con is on my sons birthday. 

Family before hobby... 

I hope that i will fi9nd a summary of every new news here or on Facebook on sunday. 

Yea, I'm scheduled to power wash the deck...

51 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

IIRC, it was an early Tales of the Reaching Moon issue.

Different Worlds Issue #1

Picked this up, haven't had much time to read it yet, maybe tonight. I look forward to pulling from this for my player's quest to find and take out a Thanatar rune priest who is basically a floating skull. They chased him out of the Big Rubble several sessions ago and are looking for him. I'll probably use something from Shadows on the Borderland for the actual adventure, but I'm sure this will have content to use.

I probably should pick up Secrets of Dorastor also... 🙂

I've been running my RQ1 campaign on Roll20 for a couple years. I don't do too much fancy. I don't try and use any of the character sheet stuff, we keep track on the PCs in a separate Google Sheet. We use Google Meet for audio/video connection, so if I really needed to share something, I could share my screen or a window to that. I upload the occasional map or do crude drawings. I don't have a plus account so I just use fog of war which is sometimes an annoying effort but works pretty good. For SR tracking, I just keep notes on scratch paper. Most of the PCs tend to go before most of the bad guys, or they delay SR so they can adjust hit location...

Very cool, I look forward to ordering this.

Canon, is that all that stuff that came after the holy bible of Glorantha, AKA RuneQuest 1st ed.? 🙂

Well, I do use a heck of a lot more official (and some non-official) stuff than that, though MOSTLY from the RQ2 era.