Welcome to the RuneQuest & Glorantha General, a thread dedicated to exploring the World of Glorantha & discussion of the RuneQuest System (a.k.a Basic Roleplaying) and it's forks. >RulesMythras, Legend, HeroWars, HeroQuest, QuestWorlds, 13th Age Glorantha, MRQ1&2, BRP system. >Resources:https://pastebin.com/m8bf0dfT >The Well of Daliath:https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/ >Previous Thread:>>96474663 >Thread QuestionsWhich RQ fork you use for playing in Glorantha and why?Which region of Glorantha would you like to see more content published?
>>96701358>tqRQ2 with stolen rules from Mythras and RQG. Most of my players wanted to play something similar to our past campaign that was exploring dungeons in b/x D&D, but in wilderness exploration as they got little of that. They liked the cults and I made them sons and daughters of the Clan Ring in Dragon Pass. >tq2anything to do with the ocean, pirates, the sea gods and island cultures. Never played or GM'd a seafaring campaign.
>>96701358>Which RQ fork you use for playing in Glorantha and why?I've only played RQG and it was pretty good. How do the rest compare? What's the difference between systems?
All Broo one-shot with more than 5 drunk players.
>>96703859POV you rape tarshites along with your lunar illuminated friends.
>>96703550>Mythraspretty good and "setting agnostic", anons will constantly tell you to run glorantha using it instead of anything else. Has action points and a lot of combat maneuvers. You either love it or hate it. >MRQ1&2 these are the books by Mongoose that became Mythras and Legend. They are a mess and mostly ignored. >HW/HQ/QWnarrative, rules light, railroady, naturally becomes "ebic" in a few sessions. It goes away from what RuneQuest as a system tried to do, but for some it fit Glorantha really well. >13th Age Gloranthamain issue is taking everything RQ/G was over the years and putting classes onto it. It has other problems but is playable. Lots of people seem to use it for HeroQuesting rules. Specially since RQG itself has no such rules for now. >BRP SystemIt is the generic name the original RuneQuest system took upon Chaosium's ascension as a serious publisher in the market. There are a bunch of games made on it, the most famous and Thread unrelated being Call of Cthulhu. >LegendI know nothing of it, aside that it looks like a shitty Mythras. >RQ1&2The classics. Brutal combat, characters start really low, cults have more restrictions and require more work. Really fucking good even today. >RQG"based" on RQ2, with a lot of weird and railroady rules onto it. The benefits are the new cult contents and myth write ups that help with anyone wanting to play uncommon cults heroquests. The problems: Passions, entire sections that are copy-paste from old material, bad release schedule and bad release priority (gm book), pendragon like character creation. Could list more but desu? it's fine.
Talking about Mythras and RuneQuest. I've been hearing about a book with the conversion to Mythras done already. Is there any truth in that?I have the Mythras book but not the edition of Runequest it was birthed from.
What do beastmen in the Beast Valley do for a living? They don’t farm, but seem to be too many for hunter gatherer lifestyle. Work for humans?
2e is by far the most comfy edition. RQG crushes you with metaplot.
>>96704875I assume hunting and gatherer for the most part. Considering they do a lot of worship and the region is spiritually awakened, I could see beast men heroquests that maintain a large surplus of game to be hunted. Working for humans is largely dependent on metaplot if you care about that. If not, yeah that's probably how. >>96705209Yeah, chargen in RQG for example. Idk why after all these years they choose to keep onto this shit. Make a book like "Third Age: Hero Wars" and put everything past, present and future of the metaplot on it. Then just focus on making a good and clean RQ2 based system with a lot of playing options for players and GMs. But we can't! Jeff is a worldbuilding wanker that never gets tired.
>>96707984>Jeff is a worldbuilding wankerNah, metaplot and worldbuilding aren't the same thing.Large swathes of Glorantha, including very central people like the Lunars, are fairly vaguely defined.
>>96704721Check the share thread >>96662370It was only a prototype but you can definitely make it work.
Man I love the Trolls, truly they are the most kino part of Glorantha. Really looking forward to the darkness cults book.We are all Uz.
>>96711249Posting some more Uz
>>96711273
TQ 2) Teshnos>>96702733There's a series in the Jonstown Compendium on running a campaign in the East Isles, I haven't actually used it but the volumes seem well put together. There's also an amazing book on seafaring in glorantha in general.
What’s good with the Jonestown compendium?I’ve been host at to buy because the chance of material being Gregged/Jeffed is so much higher than it should be.But otherwise the game really doesn’t have anything to go on.
>>96711955It's all fan made material and fans of glorantha tend to be the giant nerds who will passionately make high quality stuff. Half of them have been playing since the 80s and can bring a lifetime of experience to their work.I've got quite a few good things from there but what exactly are you looking for and what do you mean by gregged/jeffed? The majority of the official writing from the entire game line has gone through at least one of them.There is the 'Six Seasons in Satar/ Company of the Dragon'. A mega campaign with a lot of stuff you can use outside of it if you wish. Such as dragon mysticism and rules for leading communities and simple large scale combat. The 'Armies & Enemies of Dragon Pass/ Men of the West/ Ships & Shores of Southern Genertela' (>>96711623 mentioned it) that go into warfare and seafaring into autistic level detail. Very dense but system agnostic. Made by the same guy who wrote the equipment book for RQG. DuckPac. Does what Trollpack did for trolls to ducks. The 'treasures of Glorantha' series which contains artifacts and a few new skills to award your players with and create interesting stories. Huge amounts of setting books for pretty much every region and city.What precisely are you wanting to find?
>>96701358I remember a short lived general around the time Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses released.>Which region of Glorantha would you like to see more content published?I'd appreciate more stuff on Pent. At the moment there are three interesting things tied to that place:-the occupation of Dara Happa at the Dawn-Sheng Seleris-The King of WindsNotably all of those are focused on Dara Happa. Pent is less of a region and more a void that occasionally spawns stacks of barbarians. It's not like you'd have to make up that much new stuff either. Take bits from the Grazelanders and Pelorians, rearrange it slightly and 90% of the work is done. I don't think there is a large enough group interested in them, but then I doubt that was a consideration for the Prosopaedia either.
>>96713751I've been interested in regions that I know we will never see otherwise.But I'm very hestiant about Lunar Empire and Esrolia stuff as they keep promising content that never appears but if they ever did it will make everything else disjointed.
>>96715980Realistically Chaosium are going to take years to get anything done. The nochet books had a lot of stuff in them if you are wanting an Esrolia campaign. The Men of the West and Ships and shores of Southern Genertela also had some good setting information on areas outside dragon pass. While being mainly focused on warfare and sailing. The quality can vary your best bet is to look at the ones with the most ratings and see if there is anything there which tickles your fancy.
>>96715680> Sheng SelerisSpeaking of which - I have that bad habit of browsing Yahoo Auctions JP, and many years ago, I stumbled upon a fan-produced PentPak. Couldn’t grab it at the time, but it left me wondering about the extent of JP Glorantha fandom during the 80/90s.
>>96717733Grabed Ships and shores of Southern Genertela, and the level of details about Kethaela and cie was lovely. A nice complement to the Nochet book.Same author than Queen of Cities, but Edge of the Empire made me want to run an Inmther campaign.
>>96718654There is a bit of 90s Japanese RQ fan art.Suikoden certainly mined the Lunars for names and Dragonewts.
>>96718686Glad I could help anon. Hope you get to use some of the stuff in future campaigns.
>>96718686I wonder if it will get a theoredically rework when the theoredically Esrolia book comes out.They have the draft for the Esrolia draft for the last five years. They just did nothing with it.
>>96724203They've had the Gm book draft for nearly 10 and it looks like they are going to do nothing with it. Heroquest guidelines never ever.
Even the damn cookbook is sitting in manuscript hell, and someone took it upon themselves to release their own on the compendium. Authors should care less about getting jeffed and go for bigger bites of the canon.
Does anyone have any info on myths involving Yelmalio or Ernalda? I've considered a campaign for RQG that begins in the Great Winter with the players being part of a group of refugees heading across Prax from Sartar to the Sun Dome where the templars are preparing a large ritual to revive the earth and need to ritually 'shelter outsiders' as part of the ritual preparations. Following from this, considering that there are no yet published rules for Heroquesting in RQG, how would you go about running a Heroquest? I would consider starting it as a Worship roll with a huge starting penalty, perhaps -50% to -100% but then allowing ritual preparations/sacrifices/holy day/etc. bonuses. A successful roll allows the player to enter the myth and from there they require a series of successful skill or passion or rune affinity checks to proceed through the story. Get all the way to the end and you get a free use of divine intervention and perhaps a POW gain roll or similar. So far that idea feels incomplete but what could be added to it or done differently?
>>96728708>>96728708This one?https://wellofdaliath.chaosium.com/home/catalogue/websites/facebook/sun-county-continued-part-3/#11-the-last-light-heroquestWhat kind of info? Ernalda features prominently in the Orlanthi Mythology, chiefly in the contest between the Yelm and Orlanth and everything that follows. Six Ages does a good job showing her perspective. Yelmailo's main myth is the Hill of Gold. Cult books should give you general idea. There's Heortling Mythology book with a lot of Ernaldan myths.
>>96728708The classic Yelmalio heroquest is the "Hill of Gold", it's dangerous though, because it is a "Losing" heroquest, againzt Zorak Zoran, which means that to succeed, you must lose.Zorak Zoran cultists use the same heroquest to gain fire powers, which they steal from Yelmalio; for Yelmalions it is the story of how their god came to be in his present form, and is a heroquest of self-sacrifice, and an act of abiding faith and love; very powerful stuff, but potentially very likely to get you killed, perhaps even if you succeed.Ernalda has one where she discovers fat sea-god dick in her misspent youth, before she was married.This is me going off
>>96730629* -this is me going off what I remember from playing KODP and a not insubstantial time spent reading the email chains and lore pamphlets.
>>96730629Oh, and it's double-fucked for Yelmalio, because in some (probably non-godlearnerized) versions you have to fight Orlanth first, and THEN Zorak Zoran jumps your ass and steals your fire.There might be a cheaty way for a Yelmalion to make it out with their god's lost fire powers, but I'd consult an Arkati heroquester for that, and be prepared to pay dearly.
I'm sure somewhere on the old usernet board there is a thread on how to finish Hill of Gold with fire powers.Maybe see what Heroquest/13th Age has to say about changing heroquests in terms of upping the combatant.
>>96730629>fat sea-god dickIs that what rivers are?>There might be a cheaty way for a Yelmalion to make it out with their god's lost fire powers, but I'd consult an Arkati heroquester for that, and be prepared to pay dearly.For that you simply have to win the fight with Zorak Zoran, which I don't think would have major consequences. Those happen more during heroquests influencing critical phenomena, like the one about water flowing downwards.
>>96731774I remember her getting dicked down by some water tribe dude, yeah, river god makes more sense for an agricultural deity.I think completing the heroquest "Conventionally" basically requires losing; ygmv of course; I remember in KODP, you could survive and even "win" a heroquest, and still fail to fulfil the purpose of going on it, because the role you were suppose to fulfil wasn't.I think the Hill of Gold heroquest is pretty core to Yelmalio's identity, and making a straight run of it might even be required for understanding the "inner Mysteries" of the cult, and a shot at high priesthood.A cult member who beats the "unwinnable fight" would likely be held in awe, but might find themself outside the conventional temple hierarchy, because he's essentially manifesting an aspect of the god that comes down from what he is almost defined by losing.I'd have them contacted by some esoteric sect that deals with the minority of people who have "reclaimed Yelmalio's fire".Probably living outside of mainstream Sun-domer society.But that's just my take.A Yelmalio with fire is no longer a servant of Yelmalio "The Pale Sun" - he has manifested a more basal and primordial aspect.
>>96731774>Is that what rivers are?No, the Rivers are Dragons. At least the few most important ones. The rest are regular minor deities, often with water nymphs in charge. Rivers, except the mighty Oslira, all flow to the sea and end up in Magasta's Pool, huge Whirlpool in the middle of the world and home of the chief Sea God. He and Orlanth don't like each other much. Magasta is another of Ernalda's husbands, but I don't think land dwellers worship him. Mermen do
>>96731845- Expanding on this, Kargzant, Elmal, and other "little sun" gods can be seen as expressions that diverged from Yelmalio before he was maimed, from one perspective; there is also the convergent model, which approaches them as a host of individual "little" sun-gods, who get conflated where their cults cross over.A Yelmalio cultist who takes back the element of fire, might actually end up in a sort of superposition between aspects of various interpretations of the "Little Sun" - as he is in a way, bridging one of the major divergences between Yelmalio, and other deities sharing his bracket.I might even give some sort of advantage to the normally reduced ability to regain rune spells from these related temples, and have the player character roll for the possibility of gaining Illumination.
>>96732618You might want to integrate that Yelmalio is a portion of Yelm, or at least his son. Regaining fire magic might be the first step to recreating the Yelm cult.
>>96733364That makes sense as an extension of the proposition.Though the process of such a feat would be the stuff of an entire campaign if you were to do it justice.Doesn't Moonson "possess" the kingly portion of Yelm? I mean, as the monarch of Dara-Hapa, I feel like he should traditionally.But I know he's not a normal emperor either, being a weird demigod spawned out of Sedenya, though I believe she hijacked the legitimate Yelmic coronation process, rather than just supplanting it.I suppose you'd have to fight him to find out.Or else follow the mortal Sedenya's trail for clues.Maybe the Blue Moon trolls would have an idea; I believe it was them who showed her where the remains of the blue moon lay, so that's as good a start as any to following Sedenya to figure out exactly how she did what she did, and what exactly that even was, vis a vis putting Moonson on the throne of Dara-Hapa.
>>96730629I literally just ran a version of a hero quest which included that little Ernalda titbit in my last session, for a clan initiation.
>>96733665>Fathoms of dick
>>96733683A bit more tasteful than that. And if I recall it was Gata, Ernalda's mum not Ernalda herself who 'rode' the primal sea god. He offered to give the quester the mystery of his life giving waters and fill her with life in return for her joining the waters and earth together. So that the earth may always be carried upon the sea and so lakes and rivers be brought to the land. Just a lot of fluids everywhere, basically. And a ride across the ocean the PC was trying to cross in the heroquest. Take that how you will. Sea gods are perverts, why do you think they favour dolphins?
>>96733756There is also an obscure East-island sea-god who takes the form of a dolphin; his name is "Salligor" - his worshippers are cannibalistic maritime raiders, who take the dolphin as their totem.I wrote a mini-campaign set on an island I invented that's actually a massive foundered dwarven stone ship, leftover from the God Wars, that's been resting at the bottom of a shallow sea since before the dawn of time.The natives were descendants of the dwarf's human slaves, but had lost all knowledge of their origins besides some vague legends.The island is attacked by the Salligor cult, and the locals have to figure out how to reactivate the old Jolanti security system, which were half buried all over the island in a fashion resembling Moai, with little to go off but the ramblings of an insane hermit-shaman, who lives on the "mountain" which is actually the crumbled overgrown remains of the ancient ship's smoke stack.The Salligor people are probably not Hsunchen, but I might be wrong.I swear they are canon, but I can't find the references, so I may have made them up wholesale, if they aren't from some old Mongoose Runequest source that most people no longer recognize.>Mongquest stuff is frequently broken and wack, but their old splatbooks are still worth plundering for bullshit, if you take care.I mean, where else you gonna find spells for a Xistorite mage?
>>96733834That sounds like a really cool idea for a campaign.>I swear they are canon, but I can't find the references, so I may have made them up wholesale, if they aren't from some old Mongoose Runequest source that most people no longer recognize.They've been trying to reduce the number of gods floating around. Maybe he's been rebranded as Wachaza?
>>96734320Could be, but that would be folding it into the water tribe portfolio proper, whereas I got the impression that Salligor was more of an "Island God" - East isles deities work weirdly, and often have very localized cults, with oddly outsized power levels, considering most of them are quite small organizations; maybe the localized power is a tradeoff for being able to do more with less POW.Fuck knows, it might technically count as a spirit cult, which is something I have always played fast and loose with.
>>96730276Yes, thank you, this was the quest that I had read and only vaguely remembered. In the context of my campaign idea: The players could represent the allies that Yelmalio needs to fight against chaos. Perhaps one or two players could join the Sun Dome's Rune Lord when he heads to the God Time. The other players could be tasked with hunting chaos creatures nearby in the mundane world. If the mundane players succeed, then the chaos creature the questers need to defeat will be weaker. Given the reasons for the cause of the Great Winter, it would make sense that the chaos creature encountered in the God Time would be associated with the Red Moon. It just so happens the bestiary for RQG gives us stats for the Crimson Bat. It is certainly too difficult for the players to defeat even as allies to a powerful NPC. Perhaps all they need to do is wound it once and this stage of the quest will be considered complete. What weaker chaos creatures that are associated with the Red Moon could appear? The consequences for failing to defeat chaos at this stage of the quest are pretty obvious, the players/NPCs die and the quest fails.The next stage of the quest involves finding and standing guard over Ernalda's corpse. Sounds like a good opportunity for skill and passion rolls. Perhaps finding Ernalda requires a successful survival or spirit travel roll for the group. Next it could require that each individual passes a Devotion(Ernalda), Love(Family) or similar to maintain their vigil for the mythic eternity required. Maybe the players in the mundane world could augment these rolls for their questing counterparts with successful sing/worship/etc. rolls. Failure at this stage will not fail the whole quest but any individual that fails may be cast adrift in the God Time and need to find their way back. Very difficult for even rune level characters let alone fairly rookie players.
>>96737714Cont.The next stage involves Yelmalio being wounded by one of his allies, the 'false friend'. It would be best if one of the players could fill this role, given a compatible cult affiliation. Eurmal would be perfect, or maybe a troll character, or a Seven Mothers cultist. Perhaps Babeester Gor or Humakt? Maybe an Orlanth cultist wielding a klanth like Orlanth Dragonslayer? If a player can't or won't fill the role, then and NPC must fill the role and this stage will come as a surprise, since the false friend must be hidden until revealed at this stage.As an added twist; The Sun Dome quest leader knows that this stage of the quest must happen and has accepted not just being wounded, but being killed by the false friend at this stage. By dying, the quester gives Ernalda more of his Fire than is necessary for the completion of the quest and thus makes the effect of the quest stronger in the mundane world. Unfortunately for any players accompanying the quest leader, this means that they cannot follow him out of the God Time and will be cast adrift just as if they had failed the previous stage.
Should I dive into RQG? I bought some of the books and started reading it, love the lore, now I read that the mechanics are shit, but how shit are they really? Some people say it's a nice simulationist game that you can even play farming sim (how?), others that it's just clunky crunchiness. To be honest I could get into it slowly and try to form my own opinions but since I'm a solo player I have no real reference. Any let's play that shows how Runequest is played? Or anyone have any opinions on the "RuneQuest without a Gamemaster" in the Jonstown Compendium?
>>96738427It's not great, it's not awful. If you can play 3.5 dnd or White Wolf games and that's tolerable for you it will be absolutely fine. If your level of tolerance for complexity and clunkiness is nu-rpg level (Mork Borg, Blades in the Dark) you're probably going to bounce off hard.If you're a completely solo player with no rpg experience than it really doesn't matter as you're primarily in it for the worldbuilding experience.
>>96738427They're okay if you ignore the bit about rolling your grandparents/parents/character's past (at least the parts about protected X NPC and gained 60% loyalty to them) and the passions in general. The runes feel like a missed opportunity and a misstep but not awful.The rest is good to okay-ish.
>>96738494I do have RPG experience, for the moment I am playing Ars Magica.>>96738885Any rules to skip that family story? I feel it is pretty limiting and repetitive to be honest.
