Advises for a RQ GM newbie

[Syssiah]

Heya !

 

With some friends, we get our hands on the Olllld edition of Runequest III and a bunch of additional books (Dorastor, Trolls, etc) for french edition.

 

We want to start the game as a journey to this so spiritual and antic fantasy world, and make it vibrant with life. So I'm proposing them to make them explore the world, with young characters, and one among them is a Rinkori hsunchen primitive. I decided t make him start in Brolia, and I wondered if you'd have :

1- advises or readings to do, so I could make him feel as much as possible what it's like to be a primitive tribe, with a leading chaman.

2- How to make such a character be willing to quit his tribe so he could join a party of more "civilized" adventurers.

 

***

 

Also on a personal level, I'd be interested in joining a pbem, pbp, or such RQ game, so I can get my own fun as a player. If any of you know where I can look at.

 

Regards

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

With some friends, we get our hands on the Olllld edition of Runequest III and a bunch of additional books (Dorastor, Trolls, etc) for french edition.

If you like the game and can afford a new supplement, I would recommend buying the PDF of the new RuneQuest, it is even better than RQ3. Or, download the free Quickstart rules.

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

We want to start the game as a journey to this so spiritual and antic fantasy world, and make it vibrant with life. So I'm proposing them to make them explore the world, with young characters, and one among them is a Rinkori hsunchen primitive. I decided t make him start in Brolia, and I wondered if you'd have :

There is not much about Brolia, except what is in the Guide to Glorantha.

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

1- advises or readings to do, so I could make him feel as much as possible what it's like to be a primitive tribe, with a leading chaman.

There are some Voices documents, "What my [] told me" on the Well of Daliath. The Hsunchen ones would be useful, I think.

Aside from that, the only articles on how such people think are in web discussions or in old fanzines that are difficult to buy.

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

2- How to make such a character be willing to quit his tribe so he could join a party of more "civilized" adventurers.

That can be easy.

• I wanted to see more of the world
• My tribe sends its young out into the world to experience how bad it is, so that we are thankful of our people when we return
• Raiders killed my family and I am hunting them
• I saw warriors covered with metal and they looked so shiny and nice that I had to see where they came from
• The Spirits gave me a mission/quest
• We each reached into a bag and took out a token, I must do what my token says
• I must return with a peacock feather to impress my intended mate

 

[soltakss]

1 hour ago, Syssiah said:

Also on a personal level, I'd be interested in joining a pbem, pbp, or such RQ game, so I can get my own fun as a player. If any of you know where I can look at.

There are Facebook Groups that can help. Look at the Glorantha Fans or RuneQuest Groups.

[Syssiah]

Thanks alot for the help soltakss. 🙂

 

Also, I realized as I'm working on the tribe, that I have no idea on what sort of names the members of a rinkori hsunchen tribe should sound like.

Any pointers so I can populate a handy list please ?

[French Desperate WindChild]

bienvenue dans ce monde merveilleux !

 

@soltakss gave you a lot of nice "positive" reasons to leave the land

however the player may choose "negative" reasons :

• bad omens, the spirits told your shaman that you are cursed. The clan decides to ban you (for ever or not). You don't understand what was wrong but you are now alone.
• crime, someone was murdered in your clan. The leaders consider you are the murderer. Hunter, you are now the prey (you may be the true criminal or not)
• you killed someone in another clan (accident ? skirmish ? ...), for good or bad reason. In all cases your leaders want peace, they accept the other clan will hunt you, but they give you some advices / gears

 

however remember that hunshen are not human, they are beasts. Human are weird or cursed or what you want but not good animals, they don't understand what are the true way of life. Loving (physically) a human is  probably not acceptable for a beast, but you could gain human friends. After all the most powerful beast is Harreck and he has a lot of friends

A hunshen character may decide if (s)he is now human or still beast (some roleplay perspective). It may change some points (if you are not a beast anymore, you cannot call your ancestor magic, you cannot transform yourself, etc...)

note that when I say beast or human, I'm not considering the shape/body, but the mindset and the character's perspective. Same for "decide" : you don't change your nature,  you decide to turn your backs on it.

 

for the names, as I don't speak the beast language, I manage to use descriptive names (broken tusks, big belly, burrower, red fang, spring horn, yellow submarine...)

[Syssiah]

Merci pour ces idées et cette aide 🙂

Je prends tout cela avec plaisir.

 

[svensson]

Firstly, WELCOME! to the world of RQ and Glorantha! It's always nice to 'see' a new face.

It should not be difficult to find reasons for a Hsunchen primitive to travel into 'civilization'. Just a couple that come to mind:

- The PCs hire on as hunters for a caravan in exchange for metal weapons or other goods the tribe needs.

- The PCs are captured by slavers and must escape and find their way home.

- The PCs find a wounded person and care for them over a winter and that person invites them to visit their people.

A good resource for seeing how primitives and more civilized cultures interact is Griffin Mountain for RQ2 or Griffin Island for RQ3. WARNING: Griffin Island isn't really 'Glorantha'. It took material from Griffin Mountain and made it more generic, with fewer Gloranthan elements. They can easily be converted back to the Glorantha mainstream though.

[Syssiah]

Thanks aswell svensson sir ! 🙂

[Nick Brooke]

Everyday primitive life (low magic version): the "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" kids' books by Michelle Paver are dead good. First book is "Wolf Brother."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Brother 

[Syssiah]

AH nice !

Thanks Nick 🙂

[soltakss]

3 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Everyday primitive life (low magic version): the "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" kids' books by Michelle Paver are dead good. First book is "Wolf Brother."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Brother 

Those are really good, perhaps even better that Jean M Auel's series, certainly more approachable.

 

[Rob Darvall]

On 5/14/2022 at 6:17 PM, Syssiah said:

Heya !

 

With some friends, we get our hands on the Olllld edition of Runequest III and a bunch of additional books (Dorastor, Trolls, etc) for french edition.

 

We want to start the game as a journey to this so spiritual and antic fantasy world, and make it vibrant with life. So I'm proposing them to make them explore the world, with young characters, and one among them is a Rinkori hsunchen primitive. I decided t make him start in Brolia, and I wondered if you'd have :

2- How to make such a character be willing to quit his tribe so he could join a party of more "civilized" adventurers.

 

**

My hunter chatacter failed to use Peaceful Cut on an enemy he'd killed using hunting skills.

The GM/god geased him to live in town for a year as penance.

[Syssiah]

Thanks Rob for this funny idea too

[Oldskolgmr]

On 5/14/2022 at 1:17 AM, Syssiah said:

 

 

Also on a personal level, I'd be interested in joining a pbem, pbp, or such RQ game, so I can get my own fun as a player. If any of you know where I can look at.

 

 

Hello there from another new person. 

This was written by another poster, good advice. 

 

[Akhôrahil]

This is probably the largest (non-canonical) description of Brolia:

https://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha/brolia.html

[Syssiah]

thanks Badder and Akhôrahil 🙂