Community as Character

[kr0p0s]

I loved the concept of Community as Character introduced in Six Seasons  in Sartar. It seems such a good replacement, in RQ:G,  for the community system used in HQ. Has anybody else taken up the concept or is there a similar system going to be introduced in the GM Book?

[Bill the barbarian]

39 minutes ago, kr0p0s said:

I loved the concept of Community as Character introduced in Six Seasons  in Sartar. It seems such a good replacement, in RQ:G,  for the community system used in HQ. Has anybody else taken up the concept or is there a similar system going to be introduced in the GM Book?

Are you able to paraphrase this without spoilers or giving away too much? 

[kr0p0s]

1 hour ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Are you able to paraphrase this without spoilers or giving away too much? 

Erm...sorry. six Season in Sartar is available through the Jonstown Compendium and is a really interesting buy, if you can get it. At the end of the book the writer suggests a system for describing communities in the same way as characters : "In these entirely optional rules then we will be defining communities the same way we define supporting characters; with runes, characteristics, distinctive features, motivation, passions, and skills.". It enables a GM to give a community of any size, be it a warband, clan, temple,  town or larger, a distinct identity that they can get to grips  and interact with. Its a great descriptive tool - a RQ:G version of the HQ community writeups.

 

Edit: maybe this should be in the Runequest forum? D'oh!

Edited February 10, 2021 by kr0p0s

[Bill the barbarian]

 

15 minutes ago, kr0p0s said:

At the end of the book the writer suggests a system for describing communities in the same way as characters

Impressive, I have the product but I wish desperately to play it first (I have tried to find a group to join but have lacked the luck to find one yet) before reading it. Maybe one day. Thanks for the summary. 

I try to have the players create their clans before playing so this sounds very good. Usually I ask about size and wealth of the clan (and how that wealth is earned) and few defining features, I like to know what kind of wyter the players wish and a bit about the trade and skill sets the community possesses. What kind of tattoos they use and a bit about their morals. 

The next time I do this I will include  runes, motivation, and passions. Thank you, and thank you Andrew. I look forward to playing this one day and running it thereafter! 

Cheers

Edited February 10, 2021 by Bill the barbarian

[Ladygolem]

If you're interested in community as character mechanics, I'd recommend checking out Blades in the Dark and Legacy: Life Among the Ruins (and the multiple offshoots of both - I particularly like Legacy: Free From the Yoke, set in a fantastical Rus after the defeat of the Golden Horde). Both have a sort "dual character sheet" approach.

Blades takes the approach of a "crew" sheet that represents your party's resources, standing, allies etc. which would work well for the type of game where you're playing as members of a single clan like a more traditional Runequest or Heroquest campaign. It's a cruchier, dicepool-based take on the Powered by the Apocalypse system/genre. The narrative approach is TV-like - each session is episodic, and the way the game works obviates or expedites almost all of the tedious (to some) prep and planning stages that can take up significant chunks of a RPG session. It's a very different approach than the simulationist RQ:G, falling closer to the HQ side of the scale. I'm not exactly recommending using the whole system for a Glorantha campaign, but the faction mechanics should be interesting.

 Legacy's approach has every player controlling a separate faction, that aren't necessarily allied or even friendly but do share some overall goal, usually dealing with an overarching common threat or trying to reconstructing society. Each player creates their own faction and a character from that faction (or multiple), and the game switches between scales - zooming out to explore alliances, wars and policy, zooming in when it comes down to the actions of individuals, like a crucial battle or tense diplomatic negotiations. This approach would work best for a bigger scale game - maybe the story of a Sartarite tribe's struggle between resistance and assimilation to the Lunar Empire full of squabbling clans, or maybe the aftermath of Belintar's death, with each player taking the role of on of the former Sixths of the Holy Country.  Legacy also assumes a much grander timescale, with the expectation of multiple generations of heroes shaping the course of history over decades.

Anyway, both games are very fun in their own right, and I heartily recommend taking a look, even if it's just to see how other authors tackle the issue of broader mechanical scope.

PS. I can't believe I didn't mention it earlier, but Legacy: Godsend is perfect for Glorantha - you play as Greek-style gods vying for power granting powers and guidance to mortal heroes to further your agenda on the physical plane. Perfect for playing a campaign set during the Gods War!