Unferth

This question came up on rpg.net as well - https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/runequest-glorantha-quickstart-questions.831589/. From my comment there (which is not purely in favor of it being a clear rules call!): Well...for one interpretation, the "Common Rune Magic" block on P. 317 says: It also lists Summon Cult Spirit as a common Rune spell.Summon Cult Spirit, in turn, says: From this, one reading is that Summon Elemental can be cast with any rune of the cult that granted it, as common Rune magic. The same logic would apply to other cult spirits - an Orlanth cultist could, if the identification of Summon Cult Spirit as common Rune magic is correct, summon an Air elemental using their Movement rune rather than their Air rune if they preferred. On the one hand, this doesn't fit very well with Gloranthan metaphysics - the power runes don't have anything in particular to do with elementals. On the other, the alternative is that the example character is wrong, and that the list of common Rune magic is wrong.Contrary indications are that the summoning spells are called out as "Special Rune Magic" in the cult writeups, and that Summon Elemental just says "the rune depends on the elemental being summoned" rather than listing the Magic rune. Although circling back to arguments for allowing it, Summon Elemental never actually says it always matches the specific element - it seems at least arguable given the example to assume "the granting cult's only elemental rune" rather than always "the rune for the summoned elemental".

There's a Quickstart ruleset and basic adventure available as a free PDF here: https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/RuneQuest/CHA4027 - RuneQuest Quickstart.pdf It's not the full system - in particular it lacks character creation and full magic rules. But it might let you get more of a sense for what the full system looks like before deciding whether to purchase or not.

13G focuses on combative Sartarites and on trolls. As you say, the classes mostly correspond to cults, though someone knowledgable could rework their flavor a bit. And some are more specific than others. As written, Orlanth gets several classes. There's a class just for Humakti. Storm Bull berserkers and Zorak Zorani share a class with some cult-specific traits for each, and there's a Trickster class. There's an Earth Priestess class for Ernalda worshippers, and a Hell Mother class for priestesses of Kygor Litor. Also a generic troll warrior class that could work for a follower of any of the troll gods, and the generic Orlanthi warrior class could be fine for (eg) an Elmal follower. There's nothing non-generic for the more peaceful Lightbringers - no Lhankor Mhy, Issaries, or Chalana Arroy support - and nothing for other cultures. There are also some conversion notes for using existing 13th Age classes in Glorantha, like adapting the existing Cleric or Paladin classes for the Dara Happan gods.

That's also my favorite, and I originally came here to post it, but then I noticed that it is in fact the HQ:G example that the OP referred to. For further inspiration, in addition to the usually mentioned koans I also like Nasrudin stories, though they're not generally formed as questions so they take a little more work if you want to adapt them to that format: (It's folklore so there are many variations and collections; that particular one I got from http://www.rodneyohebsion.com/mulla-nasrudin.htm).

There are a couple in old books. The Nysalor cult writeup from the Cult Compendium (and I assume Cults of Terror before that, but I only have the reprint compilation) gives this as an example: Q: "What is the difference between a Silent Movement?" A: "The sound of a man dying" And then "The Devil's Playground" scenario in The Big Rubble has these four questions, with discussions about what "acceptable" answers are: Q: "It is like getting a man out of a thousand-span deep well without a scrap of rope." A: The answer is "death", which removes the man from the well surely enough. Q: "What is in my pocket?" A: The answer is simply to reach inside his pocket and look. Nothing is in his pocket; therefore an enlightened answer would be "Nothing yet, or anymore" or "The same thing that is in your mind, master" Q: "How may one retrieve a stone from the depths of the sea without getting his sleeve wet?" A: "Come back when the sea is gone" is the best answer, but also acceptable is "take off the shirt" Q: "Where does the fire go when I put it out?" A: "Into my hands and mind where I store it for tomorrow" or "it goes to rest in its bed, the wood"

13G is written mostly in a conversational tone that doesn't always make a clear IC or OOC description - although I'm suspect of reading any of the source material as entirely lacking in cultural bias, even the bits that aren't clearly an in-universe document. I read that particular bit as intended to be a description of what (some) characters believe, possibly incorrectly. For what it's worth, 13G includes some specific trollish powers that tie in with this - EG the Zorak Zorani class has "Eat Chaos" as a power, and Chaos creatures they use it on "can't regenerate or otherwise return to life, at least not during this battle or any time soon." So there's wiggle room in that for how permanent a GM wants that to be, but it's definitely a thing they do sometimes. In that game's take on things, anyway. Moving a long way up the power scale, Guide vol. 1 says on page 121, under the "The Final Battle of Mortality" header: "Kyger Litor left her Castle of Lead to devour Chaos at the Grey Hills of Dread." And then the Glorantha Sourcebook adds some details under the header "I Fought We Won", P. 129: "Kyger Litor withstood a siege of her Castle of Lead against the victorious armies of Krarsht, and then her trolls sallied forth to devour them." Not that everything Kyger Litor did during the God Time is an option for mortals! But personally I'd only rarely have trolls suffer negative consequences for eating Chaotic creatures.

Guide to Glorantha vol. 1 p. 94 says, under the “Culture” header: ”Trolls thrive best on organic matter, and dirt and stones are usually only eaten as snacks or as a last resort. Their favorite foods are dwarf and elf. Their least favorite foods are feces and air.” The same text is reprinted in the Bestiary. No discussion there of reasons, though. I also remembered reading something about consumption by trolls as a method of stopping chaotic regeneration, but the only clear statement I can find so far is from 13th Age Glorantha: “Those with long memories know that when Yelm was truly dead, trapped in the Underworld during the Gods War, Darkness powers like the trolls helped save the world from Chaos. Of course, that’s partly because the powers of Darkness can devour Chaos without harm as easily as Darkness can devour everyone else!” (P. 33) ”Powers of Darkness” is a broader category than just the Uz, so I personally wouldn’t extrapolate too broadly from that, but it’s definitely an idea in operation.

HQ: Glorantha is explicit that it is magical - the breakout box on p. 160 says "Tradetalk is a magical language and is easily understood and quickly learned even by foreigners and non-humans." Not that Runequest needs to use all the same interpretations as Heroquest, but the idea's not coming out of nowhere.

There are a couple of Borges references, some of which I think got called out on the group read thread. One that as far as I can tell on a quick review of the relevant thread did not is that Tetlor in Junora (p. 216) is right out of "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius". The Irensavalist holy man's name "Tloenos" is a pretty clear acknowledgement, in case there was any doubt. Herodotus's akephaloi or headless men showed up somewhere in the islands, but I don't know if that really counts as obscure or not.

Since you already have access to it, I'd start with Appendix J: The Hero Wars in the Guide to Glorantha. Both the Sourcebook and King of Sartar add some information, though I haven't done a close reading on what each of them add to what's in that appendix. King of Sartar provides multiple mutually contradictory in-world histories and commentaries, pointing out some areas where the Guide version just gives one version (the Guide generally uses the version that's most positive towards Argrath, and without some of the material that supports the "multiple Argraths" analysis). It also gives documents describing events past 1625. The Glorantha Sourcebook has a history of Dragon Pass that goes up to 1625, but it's not as detailed as King of Sartar. There's other good material in the Guide, but if you're just looking for Dragon Pass material King of Sartar is probably a better source. But be prepared for unreliable narrators!

There's a reference in the wiki, sourced to the Fortunate Succession, saying that Magnificus had "the beard-growing magic". Whatever that might be - apparently it was notable enough or rare enough to be worth recording, though.

Dodge skill description, p. 165. It's only required vs. missiles, you can dodge in melee without taking the whole round. Or at least that's one way to interpret "[Dodge] takes one entire melee round when used against missile attacks, and cannot be used in strike ranks while the adventurer is occupied with shooting a missile weapon."

Yeah, that's actually unchanged from RQ2 - including being twice as effective against chaos.

That appears technically legal. I think if there's a real problem there it's with Extension rather than Sword Trance. Year-long Bear's Strength is pretty ridiculous too, just for one further example. I liked the idea I saw suggested here disallowing recovering the rune points (and maybe MP?) until the extended spell ends. Sword Trance is still only a one point rune spell - at least, I don't see any suggestion that Extension or the multiple MPs invested would also make the spell harder to dispel - so a 1-point Dismiss Magic or 2-point Dispel Magic deals with this. But it does seem a bit over the top until that's dealt with. Or, of course, the GM tells the player not to do that. But I don't like rules that require too much of that.

Oh, sure, they're available at creation if you want. But you probably won't have a group all using such spells. And the Trance spells affect only the caster, so spreading them around is not an option even if you have the rune points and MP to spare. They're certainly high end offensive magic, no argument there.