Help learning the setting

[Elleusive]

A friend of mine is keen to run a game set in and around Pavis, however I am new to the system/setting (more of a Call of Cthulhu player) and am finding it hard getting my head around the nuances of the setting and world, which is clearly deeply rich. So far the best resource I've found to introduce and portray the world is the incomplete http://www.princeofsartar.com/

Wondering if anyone could help suggest other introductory resources?

[smiorgan]

The RQ wiki has a very short Glorantha primer:

https://rqwiki.chaosium.com/glorantha/

The Glorantha booklet of the RQ Starter Set is a very good intro.

There are also a few nice introductory videos on Youtube:

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by smiorgan

[Squaredeal Sten]

The classic intros (for Prax)  are Cultrs of Prax (read Biturian's story, not just the cults) and  the Chaosium Classics adventure modules Borderlands and Pavis & Big Rubble.  Those are how most players originally got into Prax.

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Squaredeal Sten
Was interrupted for dinner

[Elleusive]

Fantastic. These should help a lot!
I'll check with my friend before reading the modules in case he plans to use them.

Much appreciated both of you.

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, Elleusive said:

Wondering if anyone could help suggest other introductory resources?

For Pavis and Prax, I'd suggest reading through a couple of the HeroQuest Voices articles which you can find for download here: HeroQuest Voices

Particularly the Praxian one in this link (a download zip file): https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/hqvoices-v2.zip

If I recall correctly, the Bison Riders/Praxian story comes first and gives a good intro to what Prax and the Wastes (in which Pavis sits) are about.

The Orlanth story is also useful as many settlers in the city of Pavis and nearby lands are of Orlanthi origin.

[DrGoth]

2 hours ago, Elleusive said:

A friend of mine is keen to run a game set in and around Pavis, however I am new to the system/setting (more of a Call of Cthulhu player) and am finding it hard getting my head around the nuances of the setting and world, which is clearly deeply rich. So far the best resource I've found to introduce and portray the world is the incomplete http://www.princeofsartar.com/

Wondering if anyone could help suggest other introductory resources?

One of the most important things is - don't try to learn everything at once.   How much did a bronze age person in what is now Spain know about bronze Age Mesopotamia? Likely, not much.  Find out a little bit about the possible backgrounds for characters for where the campaign is set. For Pavis that would likely be Praxians and Orlanthi. Pick which one you'd like your character to be, then find out more about that background.  Then find out more during the game.

Roleplayers tend to want to know it all before they start.  With a world as developed as Glorantha that's asking to drink from the fire hose. And with Glorantha not being a typical (ie medieval/Tolkien) fantasy setting you don't have an existing base line of knowledge so it's even harder.

[g33k]

2 hours ago, smiorgan said:

...

The Glorantha booklet of the RQ Starter Set is a very good intro.
...

+1 for the Starter Set.

Lots of other fabulous resources in there, too, which the GM is likely to be able to use; but for the ask in the OP, I think that the "Glorantha" booklet is probably the best thing going (particularly in conjunction with the Prince of Sartar webcomic).

+1 also for specific "Heroquest Voices" (aka "what the <X> Told Me").

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by g33k

[g33k]

Also:  Welcome!

[Rob Darvall]

For atmosphere watch a couple of Spaghetti Westerns. Gun (sword) fights at noon, honour culture, lots of young idiots with weapons and chips on their shoulders in New Pavis. Pissed-off tribesmen appearing ominously sihouetted on skylines, desperate chases through badlands, bleached skeletons in the dust for Prax. Hard-scrabble farmers under constant threat from nomadic tribes and bandits, "corrupt" local sheriffs (Rune lords/Priests), and a touch of Deliverance for the Zola Fel valley.

[Elleusive]

jajagappa.
Voices look like they'll be both extra helpful and enjoyable to read. Big thanks for that.

DrGoth.
I do agree! Fully on board with starting small/local and expanding my knowledge over time while playing. Certainly have felt that fire hose experience when I first tried reading large chunks from books. ^^;
Just want a solid grip on the things characters would take for granted (gods, local regions etc) that I as a player don't. Happy playing a 'grew up local, never travelled much' character but less so an oblivious idiot *laughs*

Rob Darvall.
I don't think I'd have ever made that connection. Loving the idea though.

g33k.
Thanks! People here seem real friendly~

[soltakss]

18 hours ago, Elleusive said:

A friend of mine is keen to run a game set in and around Pavis, however I am new to the system/setting (more of a Call of Cthulhu player) and am finding it hard getting my head around the nuances of the setting and world, which is clearly deeply rich. So far the best resource I've found to introduce and portray the world is the incomplete http://www.princeofsartar.com/

To play in Glorantha you do not need to know the setting.

The best way, I think, is to experience the world through play, and let the GM guide you through the world. That way, you know what you know and don't need to bog yourself down with unimportant information from other places in Glorantha.

For me, Pavis is a Wild West town, almost like a Ghost Town before the boom goes away. It is the pathetic remnants of a mighty City founded hundreds of years ago, and the Giant Walls around the Big Rubble remind the inhabitants of that daily. It has Sartarite exiles (Think Vikings, or Celts, or Anglo-Saxons, or whatever Dark Age Heroic culture you know), Pavic citizens (Think Bronze Age City dwellers), Dwarves (Mysterious, hard-working stoneworkers), and Praxians (Animal Riders, a bit like Native Americans but riding various kinds of beast and never, ever riding horses). Depending on when the campaign is set it might also have Lunar Invaders (Some people say Romans, but I like to think of them as Babylonians). It is a claustrophobic city, forever overshadowed by the giant walls, with houses piled on top of each other. Everyone has to get on, by order of the Pavis Cult and the Lunars, but there can be many squabbles along the way. Above all, New Pavis is the gateway to the Big Rubble, a place of adventure and opportunity.

[Joerg]

Native Pavisites can be thought of as survivors out of an atomic bomb shelter with some limited and not necessariy wholesome food production after having been confined there for 300 years hidiing from their company of man-eating monsters (trolls),

 

[g33k]

Pavis is -- intentionally, by the authors -- rather eclectic.  It attracts folks from all over, with a wide variety of interests/reasons for being there (leaning heavily on treasure-hunters).  Almost all groups are represented.  This maximizes the options for players who want to explore characters outside the mainstream, and GM's who want unusual allies / frenemies / rivals / foes.

That said, I deliberately did not call it a "melting pot" (they aren't doing all that much blending-together) or "cosmopolitan" (most groups aren't very aware-and-accepting of one another; they "know of" the Others, but don't know them (unless they have "X Lore" (in which case they know (a bit) about group X (but not Y or Z)).

So, you can still "start small."

One of the central myths of the setting is that of the Lightbringers & the Lightbringers' Quest (LBQ).  All of the worshipers of the Lightbriner deities will know a fair bit about one another... but only be vaguely-aware of the Praxian traditions, the Lunar traditions, the extended pantheons of the other (non-Air) Elemental powers, etc.

There will be specific exceptions:  Orlanth (center of the LBQ) is kin to Prax's Storm Bull, so there is elevated mutual awareness/acceptance.  Eiritha (the Herd Mother of Prax) is the beloved daughter of Ernalda the Earth-Mother.  Etc.

The Lunars are an odd bunch -- the Empire is aggressive & expansionist, their "Seven Mothers" cult actively proselytizes.  They are also the most accepting-of-Other in all Glorantha, and can seem very very attractive in many ways to the modern sensibilities (the problematic point is whether they are too accepting; by accepting Chaos itself, have they taken a poisoned worm into the very core of their apple?).  They have their own central/founding myth, where the Seven Mothers heroquested  to find & rejoin lost portions of the ancient Moon-Goddess (there are many parallels to the LBQ).

. . .

Feel free to use BRPC (this site, and us) as a sounding-board for ideas; we can help you identify suitable lore to narrow the "firehose" of Gloranthan lore to a gentle garden-hose to sip from.

As a worked example:  if you want a PC who's (for example) a Sartarite who has come to Pavis:

• You'll want to have a loose grasp of all the Lightbringer deities & their LBQ.
• You will know (at least somewhat) the tale of Sartar, the hero/founder of the kingdom that bears his name (where you come from).
• If you follow Orlanth (specifically, among all the LB's), you'll want to have at least some awareness of the other Air deities, such as Storm Bull
• You will know at least some about Ernalda, Orlanth's wife; their myth-cycles touch at many points.
• You won't really know the ins and outs of the Lunar Way, not necessarily even the names & roles of each of the Seven Mothers & the relationship with Sedenya the Red Moon Goddess.  That's a HUGE chunk of lore you needn't pursue.  (Similarly, very few Lunars will have any grasp of the Sartarite/Orlanthi/Lightbringer details above)
• You may know Storm Bull, but little of Waha or Eiritha, or the Survival Covenant; and almost nothing about the rest of the Praxian tradition (likely the 5 Major tribes, by name; and the 2 more that are Pavis-centric... but little to no detail about those tribes, and nothing at all of the other Minor tribes).  That's ANOTHER huge chunk of lore you needn't pursue.  (And if you play a Praxian, you'll know very little of the Sartarites, the Lunars, etc)
• Unless your PC is an utter newcomer to Pavis, you'll know there are Elves (Aldryami) and Uz (Trolls) and Mostali (Dwarves) in the Old City... but you'll know more about those groups from growing-up in Sartar (where they're also relatively-common), so you won't know the Pavis-specific elements; the history & lore of Pavis is another big chunk to ignore!
• Despite any awareness of the Elder Races, without any "Elder Race Lore <Race>" skills you'll know very very little of any of them; each of the races has a huge chunk of lore you can safely skip, as you start:  as with the elements above, it's just not something your character will have learned. 

And so on.  Each group -- even in "eclectic" places like Pavis -- remains largely insular.
 

Edited August 13, 2023 by g33k

[Ian Absentia]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

To play in Glorantha you do not need to know the setting.

The best way, I think, is to experience the world through play, and let the GM guide you through the world. That way, you know what you know and don't need to bog yourself down with unimportant information from other places in Glorantha.

Quoted for emphasis.

I realise that things have changed over the years, but particularly in Pavis, feel free to engage in more conventional RPG activities at first (whatever that means) and drop in Gloranthan details little by little.  Hostile natives on zoo animals, the occasional dwarf or troll, talking tapirs herding man-beasts like a scene from Planet of the Apes.  And, of course, tension with the Lunar occupiers/settlers (at least until the ethnic cleansing commences).  Pavis is a great starting point to allow gradual course correction toward a more "realistic" Glorantha.

!i!

[Squaredeal Sten]

The things that g33k says you can ignore are part of the charm of playing in Glorabtha.  You discover them little by ittle as you explore this world.  

[g33k]

On 8/13/2023 at 12:55 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

The things that g33k says you can ignore are part of the charm of playing in Glorabtha.  You discover them little by ittle as you explore this world.  

Specifically, though -- ignore different parts of the setting, depending on your starting PC.

Our modern "everybody knows this" perspective is sharply limited in Glorantha -- you and your neighbors know this.  Other places, the people "know" other things.

Very little is "universal" knowledge.

And, yes -- expect your character to learn some of that "Other people's knowledge" as you adventure & explore!

Edited August 17, 2023 by g33k
typo

[Malin]

I had a complete Glorantha newbie when I started my latest RuneQuest campaign in Sun County (just south of Pavis), and this is the campaign primer I sent him to help him make a character. It has some information about Pavis too. Ignore my spelling mistakes...

suncountyblues.rtf

[DrGoth]

On 8/13/2023 at 6:08 PM, Elleusive said:

jajagappa.
Voices look like they'll be both extra helpful and enjoyable to read. Big thanks for that.

DrGoth.
I do agree! Fully on board with starting small/local and expanding my knowledge over time while playing. Certainly have felt that fire hose experience when I first tried reading large chunks from books. ^^;
Just want a solid grip on the things characters would take for granted (gods, local regions etc) that I as a player don't. Happy playing a 'grew up local, never travelled much' character but less so an oblivious idiot *laughs*

Rob Darvall.
I don't think I'd have ever made that connection. Loving the idea though.

g33k.
Thanks! People here seem real friendly~

You can get some very basic information from the Glorantha Wiki

https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/New_Pavis

https://glorantha.fandom.com/wiki/Prax