RuneQuest 47

The Guide to Glorantha is probably the worst place to start for a beginner. That's like learning to swim by jumping in the ocean.

Heroquest Glorantha, Sartar Kingdom of Heroes, and the upcoming Glorantha Sourcebook would be my recommendations.

And of course there's always King of Dragon Pass, which is probably far and away the best introduction to Glorantha ever created.

I figured I'd set off the shill alert if I did. So I decided to let the thread simmer a bit to see if it came to life.
And I agree, it looks good. Still not sure if they did he right thing ditching RQ6.

Don't go shopping on Amazon

The guide to Glorantha and the Stafford Library if you're full of money and free time.
KoDP and the Glorantha Classics if you want it for playing.

Don't forget the Prince of Sartar webcomic, which is going to be the quickest way to get the general feels of the setting

princeofsartar.com/

The shill button is triggered pretty readily around here.

It's hard to say whether it was a mistake or not to abandon RQ6 and remodel everything on RQ2. The only people who can really say are the ones who had the chance to buy a copy of the playtest rules that were printed for Gencon a few years ago.

For myself, I think it was the right call. Although it cost Chaosium two (or maybe three) years of development time, it also gave them the advantage of allowing Glorantha's popularity to grow and mature. I think their launch will be much more successful now than it would have been if they'd released the ruleset for RQ6.

Didn't they cockblock the dudes who made Mythras because they used Runequest name? To be honest the way they did magic was pretty shitty, giving stats to forging hammer, saying how much wind affects combat. Too much damn information mate, I dont wanna intimidate my players with 500 pages thick book full of nonsense.

>Didn't they cockblock the dudes who made Mythras because they used Runequest name?

They absolutely did. That's why it's called "Mythras" now, and not "Runequest 6".

The Mythras book is not small, and the huge damn supplement for Glorantha would not have helped matters.

I'm glad they did that. The book was a dissapointment, I find it a hussle to fix bad stuff from it. So this thing they are releasing russtled my jimmies, I will give it a read. I hope it is not a big pile of mess, and that magic is easy to understand and read. Cuz Mythras developers are worse at English than I am ._. .

I don't know if cockblocking is the right word, but they sure did something.
As for information overload, I thought RQ6 magic was good (if perhaps more generic than gloranthan), forging hammers are excellent improvised weapons and wind does affect combat quite significantly.
RQ6's size has been whittled down to 350 pages in Mythras with simply a layout-change. RQ7 is going to end up fatter.

My problem with magic is it does not use gaming terms to describe things in an accuret manner. Mysticisam is very confusing, Psionics need few reads to get right. The other forms are easier to understad, and could take less pages to explain. I remember the font used to annoy me, have they changed it to something readable in the new edition?

I thought the biggest reduction between RQ6 and Mythras was doing away with Glorantha stuff

Kind of? Magic, animism in particular, has been tweaked an reworded a bit. The glorious ligatures of RQ6 are replaced by boring standard fonts and an effective, but hideous layout.

Yeah, that was all of ..2 pages? 1 and a half?

Vinga is Cute! CUTE!

I for one found Mongoose one to be well made. I like it as well as their Traveler. I found it easy to get players for Traveler after I point out the well needed changes they did .Shame I could not find anyone willing to try Rune Quest a try. I hope that Chaosium did not go back and make things a mess again.

For what I read about mongoose runequest, it was a mess, specially the setting. Some what they made the god learners and empire of the wyrms friends seems generic and boring.

Here is MRQ. It did not produce a lot of joy and merrymaking. MRQII did.
The setting books are officially denounced as non-canon. Still perfectly usable, even were some gems in the line.

I can care less about house settings. I look at the rules and make a setting based on what you can do in that rule set. One of the reasons I hate Shadowrun (setting and rules disagree a LOT). And everyone wants to GM the setting. Eclipse Phase does the same thing. Again GM want to do the setting and the rules get in the way. The one time (a whole campaign lasting a year) I played in the Glorantha setting I seen that but the GM had made a LOT of house rules for Rune Quest ED 2. so I was welling to buy, read the book. I like those rules. I dislike games where the NPCs can do things I as a player can not -Two Cents

Thank You

I am interested in Runequest because I have always liked BRP and the setting sounds like a good departure from medieval fantasy. Is the version in the OP, 7th edition, completely new? Or is it based off an older edition? I understand that Mythras is just Runequest 6e + better layout - Glorantha fluff.

It's basicly RQ2.5, polished and buffed to modern standards and sensibilities.

I plan on stealing from both and mixing them together.

If only I could get my hands on a copy of Adventures in Gloranatha as well.

Some files.

Skeletonized RQ2

RQ6

The editing on the Quickstart is pretty good, with the biggest thing I noticed being that they keep using the goddamn Heat rune for Fire. I would definitely recommend reading through it if you're at all interested in Glorantha.

The runes were the only part of Runequest 6 that were even moderately linked to Glorantha -- and even in that sense it was merely a holdover and part of the layout. I don't recall Glorantha even being mentioned. Runequest 6 was in every sense a completely generic system.

Are you talking about Mythras or RQG?

>I can care less
So you do care somewhat?

My take on the goal of RQG is to set up Glorantha in the Hero Wars and let the adventurers do great and epic things, while establishing a baseline of what's "realistic" in the setting. We still have a lot to see when the game is released, but I'm very hopeful from the look of the Quickstart.

Mythras. It hurts my eyes. RQG looks really good, as did RQ6. The differerence between paying for layout and learning as you go, I guess.

I really feel bad for the Mythras devs. They put a ton of work into the Glorantha supplement and basically got it dumped down the drain -- and had to refit their existing product to boot.

I bet they just couldn't afford to get a better layout guy.

>If only I could get my hands on a copy of Adventures in Gloranatha as well.
Good luck. They printed 60 copies and the people that bought them are likely never going to give them up.

>chaosium.com/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-quickstart/

>"Free PDF"
>mfw it shows £7.68 as the price plus P+P

The cost is for a printed version. If you'd scrolled down a bit more you would have found the link to the free pdf.

chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/RuneQuest/CHA4027 - RuneQuest Quickstart.pdf

THat's the physical book. Scroll down, under the video, and click the "FREE PDF DOWNLOAD!" link.

How is the system for running Glorantha?
Is there too much of a dichotomy between the system and the fluff or it's ok?
How is Sorcery, Theistic/Runic Magic and Spirit Magic?

As someone who is year 2 into grahical design I call bullshit. Anyone who was tought in InDesign and similar programs can make a better layout. I bet they did it, that is why it is bad.

The new Runequest is built for Glorantha, so I'd say pretty good.

Sorcery hasn't been previewed yet, but the Rune and Spirit magic seems simple and easy. It might not be quite as flavorful as I'd like, but it does the job.

Could be that they did it, but I would bet that the root cause for that decision was to save money -- whether or not it was justified.

I'm super down for this game, but the lack of stuff like Mythras' special effects to add something mechanically interesting is killing me. Also the fact they're sticking with the weird scaling critical and special success thing. I'm probably going to be in it mainly for the setting material.

An important point to note is that the special successes will actually involve things like "impaling" with a stabbing weapon, so the results will actually be "special" instead of just slightly less good criticals.

I believe the Rune and Spirit Magic are designed to take the mechanical space that Mythras's special effects occupy.

Awesome, thanks user!

>princeofsartar.com/
Good stuff. I was going to ask for some kind of glossary but it actually explains stuff below each page.

bump!

I've never played RQ but am really interested in Glorantha. While I like what I see in the quickstart, I'm afraid the full game will be way too rules heavy for my taste. I wish there was some kind of actual Glorantha wiki I could browse but I've been unable to find anything good online. Don't know if I want to buy an $50 book just to read about someone else's setting in too-exhaustive detail.

Is that Thadart?

I wish there was more love for Glorantha, I'd really love to play and get into it but I've never seen anyone in decades of RPGs into it.

Yeah, while I like the setting I'm not so sure about this system. Isn't there a 13th Age version coming?

Could always do it with FATE I guess, Barbarians of Lemuria probably wouldn't work.

>I've never seen anyone in decades of RPGs into it
Yes, I've never seen another live human who also knew of Glorantha, let alone wanted to play in it.

Try the Glorantha wiki
glorantha.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
And the Glorantha tumblr
glorantha.tumblr.com

There is a 13th Age supplement slated for release this year, along with the system-neutral Glorantha Sourcebook.

The 13th Age supplement has been in the works for years.

Elephant in the room.

It can be hard to describe the setting, even. At a certain point I start to feel discouraged looking at the same four hippie dads/sad Classics majors post on the G+ page. Roleplaying is a social activity, darn it

user, what can we do to help grow Glorantha? Pitch it on tumblr as the "world's first culturally inclusive RPG setting?" Go to the Exalted and Elder Scrolls generals and remind them who their grandpa is? Beg Zak S. to sell a series of paintings in which a naked hairdresser nuzzles a morocanth?

It's my opinion that the vast majority of RPG players have no interest in learning a setting with any depth unless you can somehow sneak them in to the back door. Such as people getting into Game of Thrones games once the show came out or people who are weebs into Legend of the Five Rings.

I'm not really knocking those people, lots of players I've played with just don't have the time to learn a serious setting like Glorantha, such is life as a grown up and all.

This doesn't give you much as an answer, best I can say is try to have a small community somewhere online to aim people (like me) who aren't Glorantha people but interested in learning.

Is the game still going to be about being in debt to the Woodcutters guild for teaching you to cut wood?

Going by the first module in the quickstart, it's now about grand cattle theft.

This picture is way I never cared for the setting. The word realism used a lot. The reason why I have to make a goat farmer starting adventurer. It always takes it self very dirty real vs D&D is something to be made fun of. A very powerful magic item is a light source . Then they put in the dam duck race out of right field.

It's more of a marketing problem than anything.
Not that you are forced to care about the setting, no one can make you do anything after all, but it's not much of an argument against the setting itself.

A shitty 20 (30?) -something year old ad is keeping you from enjoying what may otherwise be an enjoyable game, huh?

NO, just way the setting was set up and the hand full of people still willing to play it. I can get players for traveler with the mongoose rules set. After telling player the rumor/true facts of sending hour rolling only to see your stating adventurer die or be so old as can do nothing. The setting sells the game. No one would play RuneQuest (which on reading look like a good rule set) due to the rumors mostly based on the (then old) setting.

I agree with you about the marketing but Glorantha was always Bronze-Iron Age Fantasy with magic mostly trying to be what ancient thought what magic was and a few silly elements because that's what Greg Stafford think is funny.
Player characters are just tied to that reality but it only means being a classic medieval fantasy is generally not considered realistic so they have background like coming from an agricultural society or being backed by it even when they become heroes.
I don't think it's really pretentious, even many medieval fantasy settings play more the medieval part straight and will ask you to have a credible background and reminds the GM and players about the mercenary nature of advrnturers.

Well it's still a presentation/marketing problem.

I'm well aware.

>Pitch it on tumblr as the "world's first culturally inclusive RPG setting?
You really don't wanna go there. You'd be amazed at how fast the SJWs will find Glorantha to be "problematic" because of this and that. It's not the fickle, obsessive kind of fanbase you want to attract.

>quickstart rules
>giant-ass conversion chart

Fuck, no thanks. This kind of shit went out of style with AD&D and should have stayed out of style forever.

>an unnecessary chart that literally does the math for you

At least give it a chance before you dismiss it out of hand.

I don't really care much about Glorantha. It's cool and all, with all sorts of stuff to steal, but by itself it doesn't stroke me quite the right way.
The new RQ looks neat and I'll probably pick it up, but Mythras will still be the one being played.

As a Glorantha neophyte myself, here's why I think it has remained in perpetual obscurity:

>It's old
Glorantha just doesn't have the momentum to "explode onto the scene" in the modern age of instant communication like newer settings do.

>It's held by a small company
Chaosium doesn't have the dosh to really push Glorantha. I consider myself to be someone fairly well-read and up-to-date on RPGs, but I had read Call of Cthulhu and Pendragon before hearing anything more than references to "RQ", let alone Glorantha itself.

>It's BIG
This is the thing that keeps normies out. For the most part, they don't want to read even 100 pages of straight setting information, and assuming they do they will feel tied down. I think a lot of them want to feel like they're frontiersman exploring the unknown (at least in America) and that isn't really possible in Glorantha.

For reference, three of the biggest normie settings right now are Forgotten Realms, A Song of Ice and Fire and Harry Potter. FR is attached to the biggest, most marketed brand in tabletop gaming while ASoIaF and HP have movies/shows that hook normies and actual STORIES to read instead of encyclopedias.

>It's complicated
This is the ultimate test for mass appeal - try to describe a setting the way a normie would, in three words, two of which must be "n shieeeet". FR is "dungeons n shieeet", ASoIaF is "knights n shieeeet", HP is "wizards n shieeet". Is that a gross oversimplification? Yes, but that's how normies operate.

So what is Glorantha? Dungeons, knights and wizards are all cultural shorthand for concepts normies are, consciously or not, familiar with. How much modern media features the Bronze Age or living myths? There's no touchstones for normies to say "it's like..." Even an indie game like BitD can say "It's like Peakie Blinders meets Dishonored" and that's got it. Maybe we'll be able to compare Glorantha to the new Assassin's Creed, God forbid.

cont

The multiple game editions, constant revisions and over-complicated rules don't help either.

The rules behind that chart are easy as fuck. If your result is lower or the same as your ability it is a succes. If the result is in the top 5% of your ability it's a crit. If it's in the top 20% it's a special and if its fucking low its a fumble

So that's why normies don't know about Glorantha. There's nothing for them to latch onto short of massive tomes that they'll probably never see anyway.

But what about tabletop players? Most of them already have a pet setting they are invested in, homebrew or otherwise, and either don't want to change or feel obligated not to. What's more, Glorantha is now tied to the very complex, old school RQ rules while the market is clearly moving in a lighter, narrative-focused direction. The "narrative rules" for Glorantha, HeroQuest Glorantha, is 250+ pages! Even tabletop players don't have time for that shit anymore.

I think the Khan of Khans board game and KoDP before it are steps in the right direction, but Glorantha needs compelling novels and a new video game at a minimum for the setting itself to see any momentum. If the RQ game is going to see adoption it better hew closer to the quickstart than I expect it to.

Yeah they would like Vinga and the far more obscure Nandan (even if they would exagerate the whole "crossgender" aspect of these two subcults , Heler too) but they would eventually get triggered by the Esrolians being more misandrists than the Orlanthi are misogynists and the Lunar Empire being somewhat SJW.

I honestly think they need to get back into board games for it.
I mean, the God War stuff is interesting, but an updated version of the old 'Dragon Pass' board game, where you're playing the mythic epic clash of magic-fueled civilizations, feels like it really sells the important parts of the setting.
(Of course, there's the disconnect there between Hero Wars Glorantha and Runequest Glorantha, since HW gives the impression of demigods doing amazing feats, and RQ is all about stabbing a bandit in the gut to steal his copper helmet.)

Nah, even though most people default to an anti-Lunar perspective, the Empire isn't necessarily the default bad guys (pls no memes). They're a viable side as well; you'd certainly have the tumblr crowd arguing in their favor, of course, and probably saying disparaging things about people who DON'T side with the Lunars.
But when you're talking about them getting triggered, I figure the stuff seen with the Broo and the Morocanth (not to mention the 'rape-goddess' Thed) will cause them to freak the fuck out. Hell, I've seen it happen before.

My friends and I want to abandon Pathfinder. Should we jump into Mythras or into RQ 7th edition?

Why the Morocanth?
RQ7 is for the Glorantha setting, Mythras is a generic system.
So RQ7 if you want to play in Glorantha, Mythras for everything else.

As someone who's a more-or-less a total outsider to RQ/Glorantha save having read RQ6 (which I liked quite a bit, especially the bits on Magic and Mysticism), the biggest obstacle to my interest isn't the setting, but the huge number of versions that are floating around out there. It doesn't help that everyone insists that their particular pet edition is the best because it handles the rules about basket weaving better than the other guy's rules about the trajectory of severed eyeballs on a critical hit.

Thanks!

#dicksofpeace

>fickle, obsessive kind of fanbase
The gloranthaphiles might not be fickle, but obsessive? Should fit right in.

Mythras or the RQ Essentials upthread (same game) is pretty much the gold standard ruleset-wise.
RQ2, aka RQ Classic, has the Glorantha-content. RQ7 will have more when it releaes in in force.

RQ3 has the best basketweaving rules. No edition actually has rules on eyeball trajectories.

I was thinking of starting a RQ6 game soon, but reading the rules it seems very crunchy. Read through the manual quickly, but between strike ranks, passions, and the not so straightforward magic system, it just feels like we'll spend more time rollplaying than roleplaying. Learning the rules isn't too much of an issue, my worry is the actual session taking ages because of rolls.

The morocanth I've seen trigger some people, due to their using people as slaves and food, and said people not technically being sentient. Admittedly, that's less of an sjw thing, and more of a thing that sets off people who can't handle anything above a pg-rating in their games - not that there's anything wrong with a pg-rated game, it's just that some people freak the fuck out about anything even slightly adult, and seem to think that bringing it up at the table makes you a horrible person. (There is some crossover between Group A and Group B there - people with an SJW perspective, and people who can't handle *anything* weird in their games - though not 100% overlap.)

So it's just a matter of choosing the right setting for the right group and eventually consider what published adventures are out there

Why are Nysalor and Sedenya so wrong? Illumination and Mysticism never destroyed the East.

They look much more intimidating than what they really are. The two downsides of RQ6 are the amount of GM prepwork required for cults and spell lists and whatnot, and that it can easily break in grand melees with many combatants.

It's been a while, but I don't think that the East is Illuminated.
And it's certainly not Mysticism that's the problem, after all. I mean, the glory of the Empire is that it can contain Mysticism, and Shamanism, and Sorcery, and Whatever We Call God-Worship Because I Forgot, all at once! (I actually thought *that* was what Illumination did for you, but it's been a while, so I may be off-base on that.)
And I'm sure there are plenty that would tell you that Sedenya did nothing wrong, and that Nysalor's only problem was being too nice when Gbaji came.

>It's been a while, but I don't think that the East is Illuminated.
Mysticism kinda leads to Illumination as at some point you will experience the Transcendant World and Illumination is pretty much a side-effect of that.
It's just that Mystics go further and meditate to experience it again and again, eventually experiencing it constantly and transcend to it after thousands of years altough the benefits are only spiritual.

Nysalor was Gbaji you goddamn apologist

t. trollposter

...

Trolls are honestly the best Elder Race and my favorite fantasy one.

They're certainly the most inventive and original. To be fair, they're also the only ones who had a book dedicated to them during the forming years of Glorantha.

Has it (as in core rulebook) been released yet? Can only see the quickstart which I assume is just used as a preview.

...

No, just the quickstart as of now. Think they're planning a late fall release.

What in God's name is that?

I think it's Christmas 2017.

it's an heroic trollkin on the cover of a homebrew.

>heroic
>trollkin
Pick one.