Runequest around the Portland area?

[Jim Rickel]

Hi my name is Jim and I am new.  Long time gamer but new to BRP, Runequest and Glorantha. I am originally from the silicon valley, I actually met Greg once at a Pacificon, he drove a very strange volkswagen.  I moved up to Vancouver, Washington a few years ago and lost my San Jose gaming folks.  I did hook up with some new people up her but it was D&D and little room for anything else.    I have been wanting to move away from D&D of late, wanted something more from the rules, not into Forgotten Realms, Hasbro/WoTC yuck.  I have picked up the Starter set and GM pack recently.

I was going to reach out to my Vancouver folks about playing Runequest, but I fear getting them to change may be like pulling teeth.  I have run into that before trying to get AD&Ders to play Earthdawn, it wasn't totally fun.  But if there are any Portland or Vancouver area folks maybe we could hook up.  

[Bill the barbarian]

25 minutes ago, Jim Rickel said:

I was going to reach out to my Vancouver folks about playing Runequest, but I fear getting them to change may be like pulling teeth.  I have run into that before trying to get AD&Ders to play Earthdawn, it wasn't totally fun.  But if there are any Portland or Vancouver area folks maybe we could hook up.  

You may want to chat with @svensson, I believe he is from that part of the world.

[Jeff]

I think John Medway (long time Glorantha-phile) is still in Portland. It's been many years since I was there regularly. If you are on Facebook, ask on the RuneQuest group as there are quite a few people from Portland in that group.

[Jim Rickel]

Thank you Both. 

[ffilz]

I gamed with John Medway many years ago. I haven’t heard from him in years. I’m in Portland but only do virtual table top. I run two 1st edition (1978) games on Roll20. I just got two Portland players via the Facebook group. 

[svensson]

I'm in Tacoma, so Portland is a bit of a drive. Good luck to you though. I know what it's like trying to keep a group going.

[Ethereal]

3 hours ago, ffilz said:

I gamed with John Medway many years ago. I haven’t heard from him in years. I’m in Portland but only do virtual table top. I run two 1st edition (1978) games on Roll20. I just got two Portland players via the Facebook group. 

I play in one of these games. Before Covid I ran an RQ2 game at Guardian games in Portland. Don't drive much, so Playing in ffliz's game is nice using Roll20 and Discord. There are a couple of other GM's in Portland who have run RQ but I have lost track of them. In regards to getting others interested in RQ I started with a group playing D&D, then when the DM moved on or lost interest I took over, but I wanted to run RQ so they played RQ. Some enjoyed it some didn't. Depended on how adventureous they were. D&D plays along traditional Mythologies, where as RQ is a Mythology in itself. "The Portland Game Store" in North Portland and "Guardian Games" in Portland both used to allow Gamers play in their stores before Covid. Now I don't know you would have to inquire as to what is available.

[svensson]

@Jim Rickel

Here's my 'selling points' when converting DnD heretics to the One True Way of RQ 😉

- There are no 'roles' in RQ. You don't have to have a Tank, Healer, Blaster, and Skill Monkey. Everybody has combat skills, everybody has magic at their disposal, everybody has odd and sundry skills that make them unique. NOTHING in the RQ mechanics requires you to develop your character in any particular fashion. There is no 'DING! I leveled!' moment where you suddenly gain abilities.

- RuneQuest lets you develop your character your way. If you want your character to be a virtuous but deadly healer knight of sun god that can sneak like a ninja, that's entirely possible to do. It just depends on what skills you learn, what spells you learn, and your success at adventuring.

- Instead of 'classes' there are 'cults'. Your religion is a source of valuable training [both magical and mundane] and societal support. However, you develop your character the way you want to. There is no requirement to advance in your cult at all.

- Skill development is just that, development. Skills are learned by instruction and practice. If you want to learn Dragon Lore, you find a teacher who will instruct you. If you want to sneak better, you attempt to sneak more often. The more times you succeed at it, the better you are at it the next time you try.

- In RQ, there is no such thing as a 'warm up fight'. Every single fight is a fight for your life because even a stupid 'goblin' [ok, trollkin] has a 5% chance of killing you outright. And that true for first adventure and the fifty-first one. [That's based on an Impale hit to the head with a short spear 1d8+1+1d4 - armor.... 13 max damage - 4 pt open helm]. You fight every fight like your life depends on it because it does.

- In RQ, any 'stupid farmer' could be just as good as you are with his weapons. 'Adventurers' are just normal people who make a career out of taking on high-risk high-reward jobs. There are no 'adventurer guilds' in Glorantha. Your characters are a part of your society, not separate from it.

 

[Jim Rickel]

Thank you all.  Yeah Tacoma is a bit of a drive, I travelled there to see Iron Maiden sometime ago but its a trek.  

I will have to check out that Portland Game Store.  I used to work by Guardian and it was weird , parking sort of crazy.  I tend to go to Rainy Day Games if I am in that area or Dice Age Games here in Vancouver.

Thank you for the selling points.  The first one may not work for them but hopefully the rest will.  I have heard them bemoaning players not playing their classes "role" bugged me a bit.  I like to make characters that are fun to play not fill a role.

[g33k]

On 3/18/2022 at 10:00 PM, Ethereal said:

... In regards to getting others interested in RQ I started with a group playing D&D, then when the DM moved on or lost interest I took over, but I wanted to run RQ so they played RQ ...

I did something similar -- advertised & ran a short mini-campaign (maybe 5-6 sessions?), at my own house.  A mix of players from FLGS-corkboard ad's, prior friends, and my wife.

At the end of it, I just announced, "next game will be..." (it wasn't D&D) and we were off & running.  That group has played Ars Magica, Shadowrun, Deadlands, Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, GURPS, Mythras(occult/steampunk), and probably another few I'm not recalling.  Some of those players have gone on to playtest for new editions, run Con-games & even organize entire Conventions!

The online vs in-person thing is a bit odd, however; and (in this context) a bit problematic; I think these transitions work best with in-person games (I admit that's just a theory, which I haven't tested).  There are enough online games advertised that it's relatively easy to just bow out of one and pick up another.  Plus a big part of the huge RPG growth lately is predicated on the absurd levels of success driven by Critical Role & similar channels, which tend to be very D&D-centric, and have viewers with that expectation.

You might register over at StartPlaying.games; it's a "pro GM" player/GM connection site (typical prices are $15/person/session).  They already have one RQ GM, several CoC, and a bunch of other games.  Unsurprisingly, D&D is the #1, but there ARE other options...  Including what you might bring, if you GM there.

[Jim Rickel]

I have never heard of startplaying.games  I will have to look into it.  I am weaker as a GM and with no knowing the online tech side of things I am pretty intimidated.  But maybe I can try the twist ending thing you mentioned.

I did pick up the Bestiary.  Two thoughts.  Amazon doesn't seem to be great at handling stuff, I am going to go through you guys directly next time.  I love the Men and a Half guys, they are very similar to race I worked up for one of my games.

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Jim Rickel said:

...  Amazon doesn't seem to be great at handling stuff, I am going to go through you guys directly next time ...

When you order straight from Chaosium (but not from Amazon), they will give you a free PDF when you buy the hardcopy.

[Jim Rickel]

I am going to do that from now on then.  Amazon plus higher quality product I would like to keep somewhat nice don't mix.

[soltakss]

22 hours ago, Jim Rickel said:

I am weaker as a GM and with no knowing the online tech side of things I am pretty intimidated.

We use Roll20 and it works pretty well, communication glitches aside.

Our current GM is big on maps, which makes things flow nicely.

The only way to improve as a GM is by GMing, so the more you do the stronger you'll feel. In my experience, people who say they are not strong as a GM do OK, as the Players help the game flow.