kaydet

Honestly, I like that Gloranthan warfare is roughly analogous to Terrestrial modes, with magic in a decisive but nevertheless supportive role. I have always pictured Glorantha as a world that functions "normally" except where magic penetrates into the world to change it. Perhaps that is because Glorantha, to me, is Earth With Gods: the Iliad and Odyssey as Truth.

Of course, as time passes on and the Hero Wars wax into fullness, magic becomes more and more the dominant arm of warfare, until eventually mortal soldiers become essentially irrelevant. So, as it has shown before, Glorantha has something for everyone.

For example, I can easily see an Orlanthi hero having a helmet which warns him of an enemy's presence.

Obviously, this would take the form of a Detect Enemies spell, but the duration is short enough that it doesn't really fit the bill. I know I could just make it so by GM fiat, but I was curious if there was a mechanism within the rules to create such an object.

Is there a way, using the Runequest rules and framework, to create an item which has a spirit magic spell that is always on? 

Good thought to replace the beast rune with plant. Captures the dichotomy of the aldryami pretty well.

@jeffjerwin got it in one.

I agree with @JonL. I just can't picture a Yelmalio cult of foreign origin and emphasis on conformity and chastity being successful among Orlanthi.

And who cares if Elmal is subservient to Orlanth? So are all the other gods. Elmal has a worthy place; he is trusted and admired as a loyal and skilled thane. He is a warrior and a leader in times of trouble. He is the constant light and the watcher in the darkness.

What is Yelmalio? He is a martyr whose main mystical teaching is that endurance of suffering improves a man, and that the union of man and woman is a weakness to be minimized. That does not sound like an Orlanthi perspective.

@Jeff I'm curious about this too. Why would the Orlanthi abandon "their" sun god for an import from Peloria?

10 hours ago, davecake said:

I’m with @Jeff. It makes sense that the West in general, and the God Learners in particular, would have a lot of Runes for things, and it makes sense that other cultures won’t rigorously stick to the God Learners core runic ontology and will create their own symbolism and iconography (much as human cultures do). But for game design, we are much better off with a restricted core set - and this should be understood as a game design artifactory not taken too seriously as a statement about Gloranthan use of Runes (though the core set will be familiar to everybody)

I don't necessarily disagree, but I think that it is less easy to disentangle "the rules" of the game from the way Glorantha works than is implied here.

@Rick Meints I misunderstood, then. I thought that the intention was to release a Runequest publication one per month following release of the main rules.

@styopa Pretty sure that the date prior to the quick start was gen con 2017.

Wasn't it also supposed to be released at Gencon 2017? It kinda makes me doubt the one release a month schedule that was touted a while back.

Sadly the date seems to be as elusive as that for 13th Age. I had hoped the switch to Chaosium would improve the scheduling issues.

Inshallah.

Keep in mind that what artwork there is in the book comes almost entirely from King of Dragon Pass, which was released something like twenty years ago.

GURPS Low Tech has a supplement that contains all the math and tables you need to build whatever custom bow your mind could possibly imagine.

Certainly one must tailor one's expectations to the content at hand.

That's pretty damn incredible.

@Richard S. Dragons are weird.

I ignore the gonzo stuff, because while I detest the overly self important attitude taken by some, I also prefer to run my games with a serious tone (which admittedly sounds self important...)

Other than that, I try to stay close to Glorantha as written because I like the challenge and novelty of portraying different cultures. I do tend to elide stuff like "Loko Moko", which just makes players laugh and robs the moment of any gravity.

Really great piece of art. Can't wait to see what the rest of the book looks like.

10 hours ago, simonh said:

Glorantha was mentioned in 29 threads in November on RPGNet forums. Runequest was mentioned in 41. It’s has nowhere near the mindshare it once had, but there’s still a lot of goodwill and potential interest out there. I’ve been spending my a bit of time there in the last few weeks and they come up all over the place when good systems, game mechanics and settings are being discussed.

Simon Hibbs

Sure.

Who's talking about the new game? Who's excited about RuneQuest: Glorantha? For a game that was supposed to be coming out at the end of this year, there's not much talk. The only reviewers of the Quickstart that I saw were people who are already Glorantha devotees.

Look, I'm not trying to be a prophet of doom, and I'm sure RQG will sell just fine, but let's not walk down the primrose path.

@g33k It's a cash grab in that his conversion to the Flat Earth belief is a blatantly calculated move to generate funds for his pet project.

@g33k It's almost embarrassing how blatant of a cash grab it is. From what I remember, he failed to get funding for this a few years ago, before his "conversion" to the truth of the Flat Earth. He then re-branded his space program to be an exploration of the atmosflat, and tried again -- successfully.

I suppose I can admire his dedication, if nothing else. Perhaps he makes up in a certain sort of animal cunning what he lacks in common sense.

6 hours ago, simonh said:

Until the game is out, there is no RQG fold to bring people into. Make a fuss about it now and we’ll just bow away any momentum between now and Q2 2018. We need to keep the flame burning, but keep our main store of powder dry.

There is the RQ Classic line, Glorantha Classics and that’s it for right now. Soon there will be 13th Age Glorantha though and hopefully then things will begin to kick off again for Gloranthan gaming.

Simon Hibbs

I don't really think there is a flame to keep burning, as I certainly don't see people taking about this game online except to comment on the silly name debate or to dig into the kerfuffle  between Chaosium and The Design Mechanism.

I've got to say it's a little concerning that the top Google result for Runequest Glorantha is a Chaosium blog post from April 7th of this year.

I could certainly be wrong, but it doesn't seem like people are talking about this game anywhere other than here. I'm going to buy it, people on this forum are going to buy it, but for those people who don't already know about it... how are they being brought into the fold? 

16 hours ago, David Scott said:

I would disagree that he was Stasis. Given his cyclical reincarnation, I like to suggest the idea that he was starting to wane, his balance of his magical bases were slender.

Isn't he like Sedenya in that way: though he changes form, he is always Belintar -- and isn't that a kind of Stasis?

Though Sedenya has many names and many shapes through Her lives, She is always One.

@g33k You're introducing a whole different subject -- my points were aimed at the discussion concerning how to "teach" Glorantha as a world, not how to teach game mechanics.

Obviously the GM has to provide some up-front discussion about how to play the game, and I never said otherwise.

You may have better or more dedicated players than I have had, but I have never had anyone read "prep" material prior to a game. Perhaps that's just my bad fortune.

I think it is the wrong approach to try to "teach" Glorantha to your players; no one participates in an RPG to learn -- many can't even be bothered to learn the rules. It is a lost cause to try to give them a lecture about the world, or to ask them to read preparatory material.

Let the adventures you run inform them of the world. If your game is about an Orlanthi clan, focus on behaviors that match the culture of your clan. Are they axe or sword Orlanthi? Restrict their weapon usage. Have adventures in the Spring about protecting cattle from young men of rival clans, or perhaps questing to fix a planting ritual gone wrong. Show xenophobia with some foreign adventurers passing through, and the Lunar occupation with a local official interfering in clan business. In summer have the clan go raiding, and maybe display the start of a bloody feud that spirals out of control. Have your NPCs push your players to act in accordance with the Orlanthi way of life; get your PCs involved in the world around them.

You can have your players read as much background material as you want, but it will never be real until you sit down and play with them.

Show, don't tell.