EpicureanDM

My new-to-RQ players struggled with different parts of RQG, but Rune and spirit magic wasn't one of those parts. Just as you explained, they listened to my warnings that Rune magic was a powerful, limited resource. They treated it that way. I might have mentioned it upthread, but what they stumbled over was remembering that they had a slew of common Rune magic spells available that weren't on their character sheets.

Thanks! My players also found it helpful. If you've got any changes or feedback, I'd be glad to get it.

That part I get, but are the ranks of Lunars comprised of people who are culturally Dara Happans who converted to the Lunar faith? Do they dress and eat and talk to each other like Dara Happans, but with a different religion? If the Lunars were an outsider culture and people who invaded Peloria (Are Dara Happans from Peloria?! Why aren't they called "Pelorians"?) and are living among Dara Happans as conquerers, I could more easily see how to play each of them. It would be like Mongols ruling over the Chinese: two distinct cultures thrown together (Side note to the inevitable formal or semi-formal historians who are more likely to be found in this forum than others: that's meant to be the loosest, simplest, most casual analogy drawn from an extremely limited knowledge of the actual history. Don't nitpick it). I manage my confusion by largely avoiding them in my game.

Dara Happans! The whole difference between Lunars and Dara Happans and the mixed culture of the Lunar Empire in general still gives me a headache.

Your game sounds great!

I kept the fusion of attack/parry. I do like that idea, just not how it interacts with other new rules. I made this handout for my players. It incorporates all of my RQ3-ish revisions to RQG combat. You might find it helpful: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqmq88ratu5s6go/Newcomer's Guide to Runequest's Strike Rank Combat v0.5.pdf?dl=0

I gently suggest that while this might have some value as a way of getting your Glorantha knowledge into their heads, it's not going to be very useful when you're actually playing the game. Which sort of information do you think is likely to create interesting moments at the table: 1) The players' knowledge that a Giant's Cradle floated down the Zola Fel and that the Great Winter happened several years ago, but it's over now. 2) The players' knowledge that their clan chieftain has just refused hospitality to a visiting thane from the neighboring clan who seeks assistance against a threat to their lands. The clan chieftain has asked them to back her up on this decision, but the players know that to refuse hospitality to a guest is a massive breach of protocol and etiquette. How should they respond? If your answer is #2, then ignore your temptation to give the history lesson regardless of how you dress it up. Buy Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and give your players the Report on the Orlanthi.

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For my first-time RQG players who came from D&D, character creation didn't create much appreciation of the setting. It's seen that way largely by RQ or Glorantha veterans since they know that stuff anyway. They can appreciate how much information is packed into it. For my newcomers, it was a laundry list of names, places, and events that still required me (the relative Glorantha expert) to flesh out at the table. Unless they read the Glorantha Sourcebook themselves, you'll still be stuck with talking them through it at the table. The tables just give them some prompts to get you to ramble on for a bit. You want to send them to the Prince of Sartar webcomic: http://www.princeofsartar.com . That's an easy pill to swallow for the epic mythology of the world. To actually play the game, however, your players need to know what Sartarite culture is like. I'm not talking about steads or hides of land or the stuff in the "Between Adventures" chapter of RQG. That's a relatively small part of RQG. Your players need to know how to roleplay a Sartarite. What do Sartarites believe in? What do they condemn? How does the law work and what does my village's social hierarchy look like? Buy Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. There's a 12-page section called "Report on the Orlanthi." Excerpt it from the PDF and give that to your players. It provides a good, succinct summary of Orlanthi culture that your players can use in the very first session. Prince of Sartar's fun to read, but that sort of stuff is mythology and your starting PCs are miles and miles away from doing anything like that. But I guarantee that your starting PCs will be enmeshed in Sartarite/Orlanthi culture in the very first session. The Report will give them the tools to create PCs that feel like they were born and raised in Sartar. That's sort of what you want, right?

Just as I champion Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes as the best RQG supplement for Sartar adventures, Pavis: Gateway to Adventure provides the best resources for someone who actually wants to play the game. I supplement it with the RQ2 stuff, since RQG's designed for compatibility with RQ2, and it's a pretty clean fit. That's been helpful. I pointed my players at Balastor's Barracks, but supplemented the Griffin Gate with Big Rubble material produced by Clint Staples from this site: https://d-infinity.net/game-content?tid_1=13 . Presented with several options for adventure, they didn't get close to the Barracks before a few PC deaths and low Rune Point totals chased them back to New Pavis. They've since decided to get a little more experience before trying it again, so I've adapted the Broken Tower for Prax and they're headed that way. Mostly returning to RQ3's "You can do two things in melee combat" framework (chosen from attack, parry, cast a spell, or dodge), which gets rid of the Pendragon-style multiple-parries-and-dodges change (or is that from Stormbringer?). This isn't quite as limiting as it was in RQ3 since attack and parry skill are combined in RQG. Once a PC's above 100%, they get the ability to split their attack and parry at the same time rather than on a potential delay. We've got one character who started at 100% with her axe and managed well for herself until some bad dice luck. I removed the skill penalty to opponents when a skill exceeds 100%. Combined with the multiple parries and dodges, it gets ridiculous once the Axe and Sword Trance spells start flying. An increased chance to special or crit is reward enough. Finally, I added RQ3's Knockback rules and the Disarm rules.

We're about seven, 4-hour sessions into our campaign. We started in March of this year. Our game is set in Pavis and The Big Rubble. I wanted to present a "classic" RQ experience and the Rubble seemed like the right part of Glorantha to transition D&D players into RQG. I've made a few reversions to RQ3 combat, but I'd say that we're otherwise playing 90% RAW. Due to several PC deaths so far, most of the characters are still relatively inexperienced in RQG terms. No one's really got their eyes on being a Rune Lord yet.

This makes no sense to me. Are you suggesting that a game's designer shouldn't use the rules they published in their rulebooks when running a public game aimed at getting people to buy those rules?

Absolutely. Lunar Magic is too far into the weeds for an introductory scenario for people new to RQ.

Maybe if you'd actually seen the shows rather than speculating about them, you'd know that they were with popular RPG Twitch streamers and players who largely reside in the U.S. As the owners of the channel, they were probably more comfortable hosting the show at a time that accommodated their and their audience's schedule. As the folks seeking to promote their show to the streamers' audience, Jeff and Jason probably accepted their terms.

Definitely follow along with @g33k's ideas. That's the right direction. I'm currently running RQG for brand-new players who'd never played any BRP games before. Their primary RPG experience was D&D 5e. Here's where they've struggled so far. Remembering that they have common Rune spells. Definitely remind them once in a while, especially about Heal Wound. They were initially confused about how the skill bonuses worked. They kept forgetting to add them to their skills before rolling. Coming from D&D, they had fixed ideas about what sorts of equipment could be worn by different characters. The assistant shaman didn't think to buy armor of any sort until I gently pointed out that there's no problem provided you have the ENC for it. They didn't grasp at first how useless a single point in a spirit magic spell can be when you're fighting. It's too slow and ineffective given how fast combat can be. If you're designing pre-gens, definitely give them 2-3 points in whatever spirit magic spells they've learned. The biggest hurdle, by a long shot, was combat and the SR system. We've played six sessions and they still struggle with it. It's very counterintuitive and confusing for my D&D players. We've had a few character deaths, so they've learned that combat is deadly. But the idea of how to act and plan according to SR will definitely slow the game down for new players. EDIT: It's probably not a coincidence that the two public games I found on YouTube GMed by RQG's designers either didn't involve combat or fudged/ignored the SR system for the new-to-RQG players. Because of that, the relatively sophisticated tactics that forum veterans will recognize will not be obvious to new players. They won't understand the importance of buffing and debuffing. They will also have a D&D player's tendency to rush into battle with faith that the system will keep them relatively safe during the fight. RQ veterans approach combat like small-arms tacticians. Modern D&D players think of it as an action movie. Beware of that. I've created a work-in-progress that describes how RQG's SR system works and linked to it below (as a PDF). You might find it helpful as a guide to teach others or you might just give it to your players directly. I'll say two things about it: It's a work-in-progress. If anyone's got feedback for improvements (or corrections), I'd be glad to get them. It doesn't describe RQG RAW. In a few places, it goes back to RQ3's rules, specifically in how many actions a character has when they're engaged in melee. It also gets rid of RQG's multiple parries/dodges rule from Pendragon and ignores the similar rule about skill percentages over 100% reducing your opponents skill. I don't think those two changes are an improvement over RQ3. Link for those interested: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqmq88ratu5s6go/Newcomer's Guide to Runequest's Strike Rank Combat v0.5.pdf?dl=0

Nice work, Phil.

I'll emphasize this point. We can quibble about what constitutes "huge" in relation to RQG skills, but this is easy for starting characters to do.

I would put this differently: "But you have to take them with a grain of salt only regarding the cultural template used for illustrations." As originally written ("especially"), it sounds like there are lots of places where the reader should be wary, but I don't usually see people suggesting that the cultural and social information in the books has changed sufficiently that Glorantha newcomers should watch out. So stay sharp when describing the clothes and architecture, but I don't consider those to be important to most RQG stories in play.

You'll probably find this thread helpful, @klecser. Link:

Also very good. It provides lots of detail on towns in the region that you can use as a foundation for your game. It also contains adventures, which are helpful as examples of what RuneQuest thinks PCs should be doing. It also contains great cult write-ups for gods that you'll find in RQG like Babeester Gor and Eurmal. I particularly like it because it details Kolat's cult, which is the best cult for an Orlanthi looking to become a shaman. If you're going to actually play RQG, I'd recommend both Sartar books before the Glorantha Sourcebook. If you're going to buy a third book, though, then by all means pick up the Sourcebook. It's a very good book, but it's not directly useful in play.

I'm curious about what you think is valuable for new RQG GMs and, presumably, new RQG players in these books. Imagine a group with no prior RQ experience said to you, "We're going to start a game set in Sartar next week. What parts of these books do you think we'll be using in our first session?" What sections would you point to? Those are good introductory texts for a future Glorantha historian, but less directly helpful for newcomers actually playing their first few games of RuneQuest. Imagine they're going to use the adventure in the Quickstart, which is presumably a place you intend for newcomers to start. What material from those books would enrich the experience of playing that adventure? @Euclid Prime, here's a tip. Sourcebooks can contain two sorts of information: Encyclopedic and Practical. Encyclopedic Information usually occupies most of the space. It's the mythology, history, geography, and culture in a setting. It's undeniably fun to read, especially in a world as rich as Glorantha. The Practical Information is often more sparse, usually less sexy, but most useful if you're actually going to be playing RuneQuest at a table with other human beings, which I assume you'd like to do some day. Look at this list of setting questions published by Jeff Rients long ago Somewhere On The Internet: It's written for AD&D or OSR games, so some of the terms ("Type H treasure" or "MU" for "magic-user") might not make sense. But notice how these questions are meant to help you prep for an actual session of a role-playing game rather than a theoretical discussion of the setting's minutiae on the Internet. If you answer these questions, the setting will feel alive for your players during play. You'll be adding ground-level texture and detail to their actions, building a rich world using information that's relevant to them as "1st-level" characters, not the "20th-level" demigods that you'll read about in Glorantha's mythology and history. This is the sort of information you should be trying to find if you're going to be playing RuneQuest. There's no RuneQuest/Glorantha sourcebook that answers these questions directly. It would be weird if there were. But there are sourcebooks containing more of this type of information than others. You need the equivalent Practicial Information for Sartar if you want to run a satisfying game from the start. One of the sources Jeff provided, King of Sartar, provides a little bit of this type of information. The others (Snake Pipe Hollow and The Glorantha Sourcebook) largely don't. However, you should note that the book I recommended, Heroquest's Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes, reprints the small, useful section of King of Sartar! It also contains more Practical Information that's written in a way that's easily digestible for newcomers than any other book about Sartar. If you're looking for the sort of information that the list I provided is aiming towards, Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes is the best single-source for that sort of thing. Gloranthan authors and fans often praise sourcebooks based on how unreliable or vague they are, since they feel that it matches the contradictory, syncretic spirit of mythology in general. I appreciate that perspective and I'm sympathetic to it when I'm interested in being more of a Gloranthan scholar than a person trying to GM a game for other human beings. So if you're new to RuneQuest and Glorantha and you want a fighting chance for your actual game to be fun, stick to Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. It's designed for play, not study. EDIT: BONUS FACT: Jeff Richard, the guy whose recommendations I just shot down, is the co-writer of Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes! So don't think that I'm being mean to Jeff. I'm praising his other book as the best one for newbies.

Ah, THERE'S the source for the copy-paste mistake in the Bestiary. C'mon, Chaosium. C'mon.

That's also how I'd play it if I use them RAW in the future. I'll probably strip out the POW increase. That's nonsensical.

It's a good read, but it's very high-level. What it lacks is the sort of practical cultural detail that will help you create the feel of Glorantha at the table. Almost all of the information in it is lore that a PC might gather from a successful Lore skill check. But you're often looking for ground-level details when you're playing a game. Things like: What does a village look like and how does it operate? How do the players fit into that? What are the laws and customs of local folks that the players should understand since they come from that culture? For example, Orlanthi conceptions of justice are significantly different than our modern instincts. You can't fall back on D&D's familiar pseudo-medieval or proto-Renaissance ideas if you want to portray it properly. What sorts of social and religious obligations are the PCs expected to conform to? What punishment results from disobeying or disregarding them? The Sourcebook doesn't have that stuff. You can see that I'm pointing to the sorts of information that will be immediately important and useful as your sitting down to play. Your RuneQuest adventures aren't going to be about the history of the Gods War. They're going to be about protecting your clan's honor and you need to know how that honor system works if your game's going to work. For that sort of information, your best single-source as a newcomer is probably Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes. Published for a game system called Heroquest (a spiritual successor to earlier editions of Runequest), you can find it the PDF for sale via DriveThruRPG. Heroquest was very rules-light compared to RuneQuest and it's easy to ignore the rules-specific bits.

For fuck's sake...