Recommend a starting location for my new game

[seasparrow]

Hello Friends

I have decided to get into Glorantha. So far I have purchased the core  rule book, and listened to the first seven or eight episodes of the Tales of Mythic Adventure Podcast  (very rough start, but now liking it a lot).

The podcast suggested a few locations I might be interested in, and based on that I bid for some products on Ebay-- the Dorastor book was sniped away from me in the last ten seconds (well played!) but I did score Sun County for what I thought was a reasonable price.

I am new to Glorantha, and almost completely new to the BRP ruleset. Which is weird, since I have been roleplaying since 1979, but I guess I never met the right people who were into Glorantha, and my Pulp needs in those days were filled by the Daredevils RPG and later by Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century. 

I am going to run a game to help better learn the world and the rules, and tailor it similarly as a teaching game for new players. 

The themes I personally want to focus on are low-fantasy, community level adventures in mostly one small area. I loved the idea of settling a new land, and creating a new clan-- that is why I was bidding on the Dorastor book, so I could read the Riskland campaign setting. Also really lean into the "everyday" magic and life in an extended family, and building up a homestead from nothing. Also, interaction with gods, but in a smaller scale way-- answers to prayers for minor problems, divine assistance with the birth of a calf, that sort of thing. I want to keep the scale small and personal.

From the other research I have done, and also my luck in bidding, I am now thinking Sun County might be good for me, especially since there are at least three new Jonstown books for it, and I could easily work with the Sandheart Militia framing device of those adventures.

Or is there something else, some other location and published adventures that would fit in with what I want my game to be? I would love some explicit advice like, "Run the adventure from the Quickstart rules, but set it in X location, then have your players do Y published adventure, it fits with what you want,  then use the farm management rules from Z  book...." and so on.

I am not afraid to spend money or track down older books, if that is what it takes-- within reason. The $40 I spent  on Sun County is probably near my limit for what I am willing to pay for an out of print RPG book, and I know that is pretty much the lower end for some Glorantha stuff.

Thank you for any advice or encouragement you can offer. It seems like there are a lot of smart people here.  😉

Edited July 29, 2020 by seasparrow

[Minlister]

Hi Seasparrow,

welcome on board! I followed the same path, playing since ca. 1982 but coming to Glorantha only a couple of years ago. And I like the same kind of stuff "low-fantasy, community level adventures "

The main problem I was faced with for this kind  of game was the fact that characters members of a community should have a very good knowledge of it and you can't hope that your players will possess it (I am not sure Chaosium is selling grognard's clones at the moment). So it is difficult for players to act as members of a community without relying over and over on skill rolls and GM-advice, which is one form of railroading.

As such my first choice was to play in Pavis as it is quite cosmopolitan and can explain easily why the characters are not fully at ease with their environment. 

Then, I went for another solution in order to be able to play in Sartar: the characters are sons of outlaws banished after the submission of Sartar in 1602. As such, they belong to the clan community but do not really know it and its territory. 

If you choose this kind of option, you should play either in the Colymar clan with a lot of good scenarios in Sartar: Kingdom of  Heroes, Sartar Companion and the Game Master Pack. All this is great material. Even better maybe as you want low-fantasy is to buy the two volumes of the Red Cow campaign (big sales at the moment if I am not mistaken), The Coming Storm and the Eleven Lights. I prefer the first one, which is a sourcebook as I like to write my own stories, but both volumes offer magnificent material.

The Sand Heart militia trilogy is also prime quality stuff. If you want a more constrained environment, with less variables than Sartar, go for it. 

Hope it helps!

Keep us posted! 

 

[g33k]

The GM Screen Pack is so much more than a GM-Screen.  It includes a little mini-sandbox setting, and 3 intro adventures.  More than a hundred pages of gameable content.

There's also the Quickstart + adventure (free PDF, $10 (iirc) in print) -- although the framing is Sartar and not "settling a new land," this is an edge-of-the-badlands adventure so it moves to a new settlement setting VERY easily.

Note one of the Screen Pack adventures and the Quickstart are both "cattle" adventures, but they go in VERY different directions.

[jajagappa]

25 minutes ago, seasparrow said:

From the other research I have done, and also my luck in bidding, I am now thinking Sun County might be good for me, especially since there are at least three new Jonstown books for it, and I could easily work with the Sandheart Militia framing device of those adventures.

 

Since you were able to get ahold of the original Sun County, and have the three Sandheart books available on JC, that would be a good choice.  You could easily add in the RQ Classics Pavis and Big Rubble to extend adventures into the closest city (Pavis).  Along with RQG and the RQG Bestiary, you really don't need much more investment.

What you won't immediately have is Character Background (which you would for a Sartar-based setting).  Since the Sun Dome temple provides mercenaries though, you could probably still use the base character background and just choose events that a mercenary might have participated in.  

[Trotsky]

Hi, I am now just one hour away from GMing my first RuneQuest game since 1982! Very excited. I looked around and decided to use Six Seasons in Sartar available over at DrivethruRPG. The characters start just as they are entering adulthood in an Orlanthi tribe in Sartar. Very community based, the characters are not even initiates of any cult at start so do not have any magic. It seems a good way to ease the players and myself into the world of Glorantha.

[Akhôrahil]

I picked the Risklands when I started my campaign with much the same premisses as you have, for some different reasons:

1. Focused on the stead and a small community, but with room to expand.
2. More freedom from published sources (my Orlanthi are the HW/HQ kind), while still being Orlanthi (also, it's pretty common that you can run Dragon Pass material with only minor adjustments, such as Cattle Raid (GM pack), the Quickstart, or This Fertile Ground (Jonstown Library)).
3. Living at the absolute edge of civilisation, the PCs matter right away without being particularly powerful.
4.  Since PCs automatically increase rapidly power, a lot (and I mean a lot) of room for more epic stuff later.
5. Less risk of being overshadowed by NPCs (You Will Never Be As Cool As Argrath).

So far, it has gone really well, and to my surprise none of the players wanted to smuggle in a power-gamed character - it was all farmers, herders, hunters, crafter.

Get yourself D:LoD, Lords of Terror (actually a lot better than CoT), and @soltakss's Dorastor Jonstown book (in my case, read it, realize it's absolutely not the campaign I'm running, then mine it for ideas rather than use it as printed).

Edited July 29, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Beoferret]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Renekot's Hope as described in The Pegasus Plateau collection. Very local with lots of adventure possibilities in the locale (bandits, broo, barely explored ancient ruins, the aged great troll the community has kinda adopted, etc.) Plus, it also seems like a setting that you could bring some low-level intrigue into, if you wanted - since it's a frontier town that's nominally under Lunar control, though mostly ignored and self-governing. Some fun NPCs too.

[Minlister]

Sorry I had overlooked the "

Quote

I loved the idea of settling a new land, and creating a new clan

In this case, there is two wonderful opportunities in the Red Cow campaign;

If you play before the Dragon Rise, there is a disputed land (called the Stagland IIRC) between the Red Cow clan, a Culbrea clan whose name I forgot (Two-Pines?), the Telmori werewolves and the Lunar "fief/veteran colony" of Hostralos. Ideal spot to build a new clan and you can use all the materiel form The Coming Storm.

If you play in 1625, you could easily play the resettlement of the Lunar "fief/veteran colony" by the survivors of the Maboder tribe who occupied this area before the Lunar take over. Once more, all you need is in The Coming Storm. 

Edited July 29, 2020 by Minlister

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Minlister said:

... Sartar: Kingdom of  Heroes, Sartar Companion ... the two volumes of the Red Cow campaign (big sales at the moment if I am not mistaken), The Coming Storm and the Eleven Lights ...

Although it should be noted, while the Glorantha content in all of these is wonderful (and heartily seconded by me!), they are not RuneQuest books, but for another gamesystem (HeroQuest) which is mechanically and thematically very UN-like RQ.

It's still Glorantha, and you can run your RQGlorantha game with the contents from these resources (S:KoH, SC, TCS, 11L)... but you will need to create all your RQG mechanical bits from scratch (and figure out what the HQ bits MEAN in order to do it).  It is, correspondingly, a higher-effort project.

Edited July 29, 2020 by g33k

[Minlister]

Yes, you are right to stress this point! 

[Bill the barbarian]

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

Hello Friends

 

Welcome

 

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

I have decided to get into Glorantha. So far I have purchased the core  rule book, and listened to the first seven or eight episodes of the Tales of Mythic Adventure Podcast  (very rough start, but now liking it a lot).

 

Of course I could recommend you give our first episode of the Wind Words Podcast. a listen as well We examine Glorantha on a need to know basis for the newbies. You know, what do you need to know. 

 

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

The podcast suggested a few locations I might be interested in, and based on that I bid for some products on Ebay-- the Dorastor book was sniped away from me in the last ten seconds (well played!) but I did score Sun County for what I thought was a reasonable price.

 

Both great games to start with, but Dorastor can get advanced very quickly!

 

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

The themes I personally want to focus on are low-fantasy, community level adventures in mostly one small area. I loved the idea of settling a new land, and creating a new clan-- that is why I was bidding on the Dorastor book, so I could read the Riskland campaign setting. Also really lean into the "everyday" magic and life in an extended family, and building up a homestead from nothing. Also, interaction with gods, but in a smaller scale way-- answers to prayers for minor problems, divine assistance with the birth of a calf, that sort of thing. I want to keep the scale small and personal.

 

If you do not own the GMs screen and adventure book get it, it will do most everything you could possibly want.

 

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

From the other research I have done, and also my luck in bidding, I am now thinking Sun County might be good for me, especially since there are at least three new Jonstown books for it, and I could easily work with the Sandheart Militia framing device of those adventures.

 

To add to my comment above, this is very good to learn what seems a simple society adn what truly is not now. This alone teaches more about Glrantha Truths than anything!

 

2 hours ago, seasparrow said:

Or is there something else, some other location and published adventures that would fit in with what I want my game to be? I would love some explicit advice like, "Run the adventure from the Quickstart rules, but set it in X location, then have your players do Y published adventure, it fits with what you want,  then use the farm management rules from Z  book...." and so on.

 

Now we pingpong back to The Adventure Book with the GM screen Barbarian or small town civilized on the frontier? Your choice.

 

2 hours ago, Minlister said:

As such my first choice was to play in Pavis as it is quite cosmopolitan and can explain easily why the characters are not fully at ease with their environment. 

 

This is a great way to start as well Pick up Moon Design’s Glorantha Classic. Pavis and the Big Rubble. 

 

2 hours ago, g33k said:

The GM Screen Pack is so much more than a GM-Screen.  It includes a little mini-sandbox setting, and 3 intro adventures.  More than a hundred pages of gameable content.

 

Yep!

 

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

What you won't immediately have is Character Background (which you would for a Sartar-based setting).  Since the Sun Dome temple provides mercenaries though, you could probably still use the base character background and just choose events that a mercenary might have participated in.  

Exactly!

 

1 hour ago, Trotsky said:

Hi, I am now just one hour away from GMing my first RuneQuest game since 1982! Very excited. I looked around and decided to use Six Seasons in Sartar available over at DrivethruRPG. The characters start just as they are entering adulthood in an Orlanthi tribe in Sartar. Very community based, the characters are not even initiates of any cult at start so do not have any magic. It seems a good way to ease the players and myself into the world of Glorantha.

The options, the options, what is one to do. Yes this would be a great way to get young ‘uns into the game.

 

1 hour ago, Akhôrahil said:

Get yourself D:LoD, Lords of Terror (actually a lot better than CoT), and @soltakss's Dorastor Jonstown book (in my case, read it, realize it's absolutely not the campaign I'm running, then mine it for ideas rather than use it as printed).

Yes! See my note of this area’s level of danger above

Anyway good luck and welcome.

[Akhôrahil]

24 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Both great games to start with, but Dorastor can get advanced very quickly!

The good thing is that you can control this as the GM. Yes, the players can explore into Dorastor on their own, but this is likely to turn really unpleasant really fast, and mine at least have shown little indication to go there without an obvious goal in mind. Especially after they saw what happened to an actual team of adventurers who stayed at their stead for a bit before heading in.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[Bill the barbarian]

4 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

The good thing is that you can control this as the GM. Yes, the players can explore into Dorastor on their own, but this is likely to turn really unpleasant really fast, and mine at least have shown little indication to go there without an obvious goal in mind. Especially after they saw what happened to an actual team of adventurers who stayed at their stead for a bit before heading in.

Yes, but I hate that means I have to railroad whether I wish to or not.

[Akhôrahil]

Just now, Bill the barbarian said:

Yes, but I hate that means I have to railroad whether I wish to or not.

I don’t think it’s railroading either when you say “this problem shows up, how do you deal with it?” nor rolling on the Encounter Tables if they run around in Dorastor. It’s not as though you have to force anything to make the place incredibly unwelcoming.

[Runeblogger]

Hi, Seasparrow,

Even though you have stated that you don't mind searching for long out-of-print publications to start your campaign, I would recommend making your life easier by following these advice. 👈🙂

Edited July 29, 2020 by Runeblogger

[Bill the barbarian]

3 minutes ago, Runeblogger said:

Even though you have stated that you don't mind searching for long out-of-print publications to start your campaign, I would recommend making your life easier by following these advice. 👈🙂

Yes, I concur.

[MJ Sadique]

7 hours ago, seasparrow said:

Hello Friends

The themes I personally want to focus on are low-fantasy, community level adventures in mostly one small area. I loved the idea of settling a new land, and creating a new clan-- that is why I was bidding on the Dorastor book, so I could read the Riskland campaign setting. Also really lean into the "everyday" magic and life in an extended family, and building up a homestead from nothing. Also, interaction with gods, but in a smaller scale way-- answers to prayers for minor problems, divine assistance with the birth of a calf, that sort of thing. I want to keep the scale small and personal

I am not afraid to spend money or track down older books, if that is what it takes-- within reason.

Others Alternatives could be the Old "Borderlands" / "Shadows on the borderland" and the old Sand Box area "Griffin Mountain"... low fantasy, small area oriented scenario/campaign. If you're not afraid of PDF version, you got them on chaosium https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-classic-pdfs/.

[jajagappa]

2 hours ago, MJ Sadique said:

Old "Borderlands" / "Shadows on the borderland"

Borderlands, yes.  And many of the scenarios could be readily transposed to Sun County.

Shadows on the Borderland - unfortunately no pdf and long out-of-print.  Great if you can get it, but I would expect rather pricey.  The old RQ3 River of Cradles book is also a good campaign, but similar situation on availability.

[soltakss]

14 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Get yourself D:LoD, Lords of Terror (actually a lot better than CoT), and @soltakss's Dorastor Jonstown book (in my case, read it, realize it's absolutely not the campaign I'm running, then mine it for ideas rather than use it as printed).

The first Scenarios of Dorastor supplement will be a Risklands/Renekotling campaign, with a number of interlinked and standalone scenarios. it should also have rules and tips on running and playing in a low-level "start up your own stead" campaign. With acid, of course. 

[Thaz]

I'll add another vote for the GM's pack having loads in there. Throw in Pegasis and The Smoking Ruins and you've a ton. There's another mini sandbox complete with start ups in TSR and starting in Long Valley and building up to the adventure there could be a great little campaign. 

 

[Puckohue]

I agree with @Thaz.

I started two campaigns: one Borderlands and one GM Screen Pack. I recommend going with the GM Screen Pack. My players in both campaigns were new to Glorantha, and in my opinion the new stuff is better at introducing Glorantha.

[seasparrow]

OP here, I want to thank everyone for the great advice. 

It seemed like a clear consensus that the GM Screen should be my next purchase, so I ordered it. 

Also, after weeks of looking, and being sure that there weren't any hard copy versions of Glorantha Classics  left, suddenly I was able to order "Borderlands and Beyond" here. So I did. I only budget myself $100 spending money per month, and those two items were 2/3 of all of it, even including my two Gencon discount codes. 

After some more thought and reflection, and considering all the input that it really is a good introductory campaign, I am going to run the updated Apple Lane campaign from the GM Screen adventure book. I feel like I will still be able to focus on most of the themes I wanted to. Also there seems to be a lot of Jonstown Compendium items available cheaply that fit right into that area, so even better.  😀

Meanwhile I will be reading Borderlands and Beyond, and my Ebay copy of Sun County, to see if either of those could be my next campaign. I have also been reading through Dorastor Land of Doom, because I am still drawn to Riskland, but right now there doesn't seem to be a legal way to get this PDF, and used copies are in the $200 range. No matter how much I love Riskland, I am always going to nope right out at that price point. Or am I wrong, and there is a legitimate way to purchase the DLOD PDF?

Anyway, my gratitude for the welcome, and advice from old hands here. I played two RQG games at online Gencon, and it reinforced to me that my decision to buy into Glorantha was not a mistake.

Edited August 3, 2020 by seasparrow
typo

[Oracle]

3 hours ago, seasparrow said:

...

I have also been reading through Dorastor Land of Doom, because I am still drawn to Riskland, but right now there doesn't seem to be a legal way to get this PDF, and used copies are in the $200 range. No matter how much I love Riskland, I am always going to nope right out at that price point. Or am I wrong, and there is a legitimate way to purchase the DLOD PDF?

...

Dorastor: Land of Doom is a Runequest 3 supplement, and so far I'm not aware of any legal PDF versions of Runequest 3 modules. So, no, there is no legitimate way to purchase this PDF.

But anyway: welcome to the tribe!

[Stephen L]

14 hours ago, seasparrow said:

either of those could be my next campaign

Actually, Pavis/Sun County can run on quite naturally from Apple Lane…

My campaign has started based on GM screen, but the characters generated have passions that are perfect to take on the Vasarna role, i.e. after the Battle of Queens they go to Argrath, to persuade him to try for the “crown” of Sartar.  There’s even a hook in GM screen adventures for this, Salinarg’s Cairn.

My lot have a couple of Yelmalians so Argrath might be sending them to help Rurik in his problems taking command of Sun County.  Yelmalians from outside won't have the political issues of the county with Lunar links, or indeed extremists trying to purge the old order, and can keep any problems quiet from the rest of the hierarchy.  Also, there’s a character from New Pavis, so there’s opportunity for adventures in the rubble…

The very first Scenario of my campaign was the adventurers rescuing the slaves kept at the Lunar Manors during the liberation of Sartar.  This means they’ve got some very important people well disposed to them, including a Lhankor Mhy sage, who will help untangle Argrath’s claims, and set the characters on the right path…

Edited August 4, 2020 by Stephen L
typos