Sanbox/West Marches style campaign for Runequest

[Djday45]

I am trying to decide what kind of campaign to run for the new Runequest. I know it's obviously going to be set in Glorantha but after that really beginning assumption, I've not decided.

I am really tempted as the players have zero Glorantha knowledge to run a very old school sandbox game almost ale Western Marches based on random geographic encounter tables, rather than traditional adventure design.

Maybe set in Prax? But let the players come from elsewhere and let them do exactly what they want and learn about Glorantha slowly and Organically. 

Has anyone any experience of running the setting as a sandbox?

Rgds

Dean

[scott-martin]

Good to see the West Marches namechecked here. People have run something similar in Balazar (the Griffin Mountain setting pack) and had a lot of fun.

Maybe if we're lucky Greg's "Running A Gloranthan Campaign" from the reprint will get republished somewhere so you can see it easily.

[g33k]

Griffin Mountan pretty much IS a sandbox; and IIRC the "Gloranthan Classics" version (N.B. not the "Runequest Classic" version) of it does include Greg's essay, and is still available in PDF from Chaosium.

I'd start there.

Although if you are comfortable with Prax, I actually prefer it; but it's a matter of taste.  So long as you're willing to deal with Gonn Orta, they're adjacent... so double the sandbox!

[Crel]

Have you checked out the RQG GM Screen Pack? It's sort of a small sandbox, based on the Colymar Tribe in Sartar, and intended for beginning adventurers.

Honestly, I feel like you're better off with your early adventures being plot-driven, rather than "explore this area!" Glorantha's such a mess of myths, gods, cultures, etc. that I reckon just tossing brand new players in with minimal footing will be more likely to dissuade them of the setting, rather than persuade. The GM's Pack does a decent job of this, which is why I bring it up (and even then, there's a lot of setting in that book; around half the pages). Focus on "Orlanth & Ernalda: Yay! Chaos: Boo!" and grow more complex. Likewise, "Colymar: Yay!" and "My Clan: Yay!"

Part of the challenge, IMO, to running a game of slow and organic discovery is that RQG's premise is adventurers who already are deeply immersed in the setting. This is cool and different from other RPGs, but I feel it adds dissonance when a player knows substantially less than their adventurer. Knowing one region and discovering another feels coherent (like Sartarites exploring Prax, or any human exploring the Elder Wilds), but discovering your own homeland, or exploring while not really knowing anything about your own culture? That's why I suggest the GM's Pack: it starts very small, with just a hamlet, and tries to drive the adventurers with a plot about that hamlet, introducing them to the area and building into the exploration and discovery phase.

[The God Learner]

Both Balazar and Prax (not to mention just the Big Rubble) seem suitable for West Marches style campaigns, though you might want to have a deliberate think about how to present the areas of varying difficulty as well as restocking the cleared out areas.

I'm not myself strongly tied to the clan approach, but if so, you could make the frame story about a trading expedition from clan X or perhaps clan X moving in to settle in Balazar. 

The postmortem of WM notes that most if not all West Marches campaigns appear to organically have switched over to more story driven approaches over time. 

[tedopon]

This approach is why the default assumption in this edition isn't my favorite. 

Everyone in my home group has been playing Glorantha in some form or another for years. Every time we return to it, several new things that I pull from existing lore are discovered as if they are out of the blue, "WTF?" moments. These are even things that many of us would consider foundational features of the setting...and these are all people who have been playing in the setting for years. Hell, one of my players even has the Guide and I have discussed several things out of it I thought were completely esoteric with him and am sure he has read the section to which I refer, but he still has a "WHOA, backup?" moment at least once every few sessions.

I honestly prefer this mystery and journey of discovery. It's how I felt all those years playing under a D&D GM who ran Forgotten Realms. I have no interest in the setting, but many of his players were hardcore heads. He still focused in like a laser on the few of us who were ignorant to everything and ignored the canon swinging of the people familiar with the lore. Seriously, the best D&D game I ever played in because the guy was so focused on keeping that fire of new experiences alive for everyone at the table.

...and that's the way I approach this setting. Turning everything up to 11 from before the first note and playing an entire concert that way is really lame. It's fun, but you need breaks and recovery time. Sometimes "I wonder what's on the other side of this river," or "What makes dwarves so unlikable?" are all you need to fill several sessions with good times.

The way I do it is I pick a point on the map and think "what are the main things I need to be true to here?," and the rest I just make up or add to taste based on the players' interests or activities. The "West Marches" approach works really well just about anywhere on the map if you've GMed in any other setting using the same approach.

[Runeblogger]

Griffin Mountain is so far the best sandbox for Glorantha. But I wish there were more.

I think the West Marches concept suits the rediscovery of Charg pretty well. A land that's been completely isolated for centuries. Suddenly, someone finds a way to sneak in! Obviously, a group of daring explorers is needed! :-)

Edited March 6, 2019 by Runeblogger

[Ultor]

I had no idea what a West Marches-style campaign meant, so I found this. It's a bit too long and neatly formatted to quote here.

It sounds perfect for a Gloranthan campaign, especially with the 'Home base' requirement that fits neatly into the RQG framework.

And Griffin Mountain provides everything you need to run exactly such a campaign. Sun County/Shadows on the Borderland can be used that way too with a little more work.

The Pavis Heroquest book has a nice set of random encounter tables for a Prax/Pavis campaign too - each one of the encounters can be a session if played right.

I'd love to hear what you come up with.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Ultor

[The God Learner]

3 hours ago, Ultor said:

I had no idea what a West Marches-style campaign meant, so I found this.

I believe this is the original: http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/category/west-marches/

(Starting here: http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/ )

The approach really reminds me of playing in uni days, with potentially massive numbers of players available on an unreliable basis, though we had a bit more story even then. I also enjoyed the sense that the campaign world, or area, was the center of things instead of characters or epic stories. This was also the case for us. 

[soltakss]

I don't know about the Western Marches, but Prax is a perfect Sandbox setting.

You have Borderlands, which is a localised Sandbox, then a number of scenario packs written for Prax in RQ3, plus various locales written up across a number of fanzines. So, if you have those then you have a ready-made Sandbox.

Without them, you have maps with various places that you can use as a Sandbox and make everything up yourself.