Jeff

I'm going to be a contradictory voice in this. I think the folder should remain RQ, as a quick scan shows plenty of discussion of RQ2 and RQ3, as well as discussion of ALL editions. And I suspect there will be plenty of rules discussions for the new version of RuneQuest later this year. I'd recommend that the new Design Mechanism game should get its own folder under its own name.

FWIW, this is the canon on Orlanthi sexual mores: Sex and Marriage “Sex is easy. Marriage is hard, and the Gods bless the sworn bond.” Heort’s Laws Orlanthi religion celebrates sexuality as the cup of life. Ernalda is the goddess of women and of sex, and has many lovers and husbands among the gods, although Orlanth is first among them. Orlanth and his half-brother Yinkin had many amatory adventures with countless goddesses and several gods. The fertilizing rain that makes agriculture possible is thought of as the corporeal love of Orlanth and Ernalda. Orlanth even has a female incarnation, Vinga, who is worshiped by women who wield Orlanth’s magic. Heort’s Laws recognize four sexes (female, male, neuter, and hermaphrodite) and at least six genders (female, male, vingan, nandan, helering, and none). Unmarried sex between adults is not frowned upon regardless of the sex or gender of the parties. Because sexuality is so open, the marriage oath is significant. Marriage among the Orlanthi is a mutual bond between participants and their clans. The class of the marriage and its terms are carefully negotiated between the parties and their families. Since marriage is sanctified by divine oath, violating that oath is dangerous. 

I have LONG wanted to write a campaign set in the time of the 30 Year War, which lets us have Rosicrucians and the Invisible College (why might they permit/be responsible for/be unable to stop the horrible endless war?), Athanasius Kircher's strange Egyptology, Wallenstein's astrologers (including Johannes Kepler), the Three Musketeers and schools of dueling, gambling, mercenary companies of all nations and sects trying to survive by fighting for whoever pays (and otherwise "making war pay for war"), all against the backdrop of the Four Horsemen despoiling the center of Europe.

I totally agree. The goal is to be able to take something like Dorastor or Snake Pipe Hollow and use it for RQ4 with minimum work - I've been using Dorastor's Riskland campaign for playtesting RQ4 for what it is worth. We will be keepings things like hit points per location, damage bonus progression, weapons damage, etc the same as in RQ2/3. The only dilemma comes with AP (since RQ2 and RQ3 differed on AP and ENC) - and here we are inclined to hew towards RQ2 (for reasons too lengthy to go into here).

Our design goal is to be able to take the RQ Classic adventures and use them with you RQ4 characters with fairly minimal work on the part of the GM - even if the RQ4 characters use different operating mechanics, the RQ Classic stat blocks should be 90%-95% compatible and much more compatible than with RQ6.

In RQ2 and RQ3, the rules are quite explicit that the skill must be used successfully in conditions of stress. Jumping over a stream or climbing a tree simply to get a check shouldn't cut it. Pendragon went a step further and made it clear that the GM tells the player when they can check for experience, a salutary reform in my opinion.

The various Orlanthi people speak numerous related languages (although often mutually unintelligible beyond Stormspeech), and range in social organization from hunter-gatherers (as in parts of Fronela, East Ralios, or Umathela) to literate inhabitants of a megacity like Nochet. We'd likely get a much better feel for their diversity if I didn't just use English words for king, clan, tribe, etc, (just as rex, roi, könig, basileus, and voivode all give a better feel for the diversity within Europe), and if I used local names for Orlanth and Ernalda instead of just "Orlanth" and "Ernalda". But some concessions to practicality need to be made! Religiously they all include the worship of Orlanth and Ernalda (hence the name), but beyond that include plenty of local and regional gods and heroes, as well as local and regional subcults of Orlanth and Ernalda (the split of Orlanth into Adventurous, Thunderous, and Rex is not universal).

Sandy's take on them is spot on. The Outer Atomic Explorers sought to explore "beyond" the Cosmos and into the void beyond. The "atoms" are the irreducible components of existence - but based on Gloranthan logic, not modern physics. Their atoms bore no resemblance to those of Dalton, et al.

I can't really say any more at this time without giving away the show.

The new edition of RuneQuest is built around the unique requirements of the setting and the hint is in the name.

I agree and that is part of what we have been working on is making sure that the new scenario books not only let us explore Glorantha using the new rules, but also serve the pedagogical purpose of understanding the rules and introducing Gloranthan themes. What we consider a touchstone is Pendragon's "Grey Knight" - which fully immerses the players and GM in both the setting and the rules possibilities.

I have to say, a lot of the "news" regarding what I said in my presentation was a surprise to me!

Hey all - just a few quick comments before I head to the airport to head home: We are big believers in starting from first principles whenever we do a book, and in the case of RuneQuest, RQ2 is that foundational document. We are then building up from RQ2, incorporating concepts learned from RQ3, RQ6, Pendragon Pass, Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, the Epic System, and the RQ Dragon Pass campaign (what? haven't heard of the last two? That's because they were never published!). Sandy Petersen and Ken Rolston are both involved with this project, as is the entire Moon Design team, and as with the Guide to Glorantha, we are working with twenty years of Greg's design notes. RuneQuest incorporates many elements of RQ6 (combined Attack & Parry skills, opposed rolls, combat styles such as Sword and Shield, hit locations instead of general hit points, 100%+ scalability, actions, adding two characteristics to determine the starting values of skills, etc) while keeping the rhythm of RQ2 combat. Because RuneQuest is NOT generic, we avoid many elements of RQ3 that its own writers considered to be significant design flaws. Finally, an important design goal for us is that the rules system needs to be integrated with the setting and should reinforce and reward the player's interaction with the setting. We'll be sharing design aspects of the new RuneQuest in due course - but you are going to need to have a little faith in the ability of the Moon Design team (with lots of input from Ken, Sandy, and others) to finish writing the new RuneQuest.

With Orlanthi characters I've used relatively Lightbringer-neutral cults like Lodril or Daka Fal.

Of course the foreign dead march along as well. Do you really think Necropolis is the city of only the Esrolian dead? But also remember, most Gloranthans know we all have more than one soul. There is the body, the breath, the spark, and the lower souls (which are typically one, two, or three in number), and sometimes even a Lunar soul. Using the proper rituals, the relevant soul will rejoin the gods, but the other souls go elsewhere. So an Orlanthi whose breath-soul was released to the Air through cremation resides in Orlanth's Hall until it is returned to the material world to breathe life into something else, but his lower souls might be in Ty Kora Tek's cavern and his spark might reside in the Sky World.

And four and a half hours later, we've funded! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224590870/runequest-classic-edition/description

That's all true. But it also worth keeping in mind that all of these discussions of Gloranthan mythology have been essentially God Learner discussions.

Last I checked, Köln, München, and Sachsen are normally translated into English as Cologne, Munich, and Saxony.

Actually we regularly do translate people's names. You know Karl der Gross as Charlemagne, for example.

RuneQuest 2 was THE roleplaying game for me. Previously my friends and I had played AD&D, Gamma World, and Metamorphosis Alpha - but we also loved this trippy war game called White Bear & Red Moon. When we learned that there was a roleplaying game set in that universe, we snatched it up and spent the next fifteen years or so playing RQ and its progeny. When anyone says Old School Gaming, I don't think of AD&D - I think of RuneQuest 2. That's my Old School.

Meddling is often the wrong word. When the God Learners discovered that different peoples far removed from each other shared many of the same myths and magic, they began assembling the mono-myth. The worshipers of Aurelian - looking for his long lost volcano Twin - discovered that the worshipers of Caladra shared the same story from the perspective of the lost Twin. The stories of different land goddess were discovered to nearly identical. The rivalry of the storm god and the sun god appeared over and over and over again. Once seen, these connections are very hard to unsee!

Most people hate God Learnerism. But most educated peoples in Glorantha have adopted their conclusions, albeit usually unknowingly. Certainly everyone on this list has.

Let's make a distinction between the God Learners' magical manipulations and their basic analysis of various religions and deities. The Middle Sea Empire ruled many different peoples who worshiped often very similar gods, with different names and different stories, but who were the God Learners discovered were for all practical purposes the same god. The Mythical Synthesis Movement proved incredibly influential even outside of the God Learners - so much so that even the Old Way Traditionalists largely adopted its conclusions.

Or you could make the case that the gods (however they are later understood and experienced) predate the mortal cultures that worship them.