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RuneQuest vs. Glorantha poll


seneschal

RuneQuest used with Glorantha?  

60 members have voted

  1. 1. RuneQuest used with Glorantha?

    • RuneQuest + Glorantha
    • RuneQuest + Other Setting
    • Glorantha + Other System
    • Magic World, baby! Those other options are sooo '80s
    • We tried Call of Cthulhu + Glorantha but no one could tell the difference


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Just idle curiosity: RuneQuest and Glorantha have their own subsections on these threads (for property ownership reasons). How many people put their RQ game in its traditional setting? How many people use Glorantha with some other system? How many people set their RQ campaign in another setting, either pre-packaged or of their own devising?

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Pretty much everyone I play with avoids published settings.

We seek out systems we like and homebrew the setting.

The only 2 exceptions for our group, in the last 20ish years, would be Star Wars D6 which was of course set in the Star Wars Universe and Buffy:TVS/Angel which was set in the tv series universe.

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I've never run a game in straight up Glorantha (or any other pre-fab settings) but I've used huge chunks of it.

Nowadays I'd probably just go with Magic World though... and sprinkle in the Broo, re-branded cults, etc. for flavor.

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I have played most of my Gloranthan games using some version of RQ. I briefly used Hero Wars (now HeroQuest) for a year or so, but then moved back to RQ and used the Issaries Inc products with RQ as default. I was impressed with MRQ2 but didn't actually GM any 2nd Age Gloranthan material. I really like RQ6, and will more than likely continue with 3rd Age Glorantha for a default setting.

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

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Just idle curiosity: RuneQuest and Glorantha have their own subsections on these threads (for property ownership reasons). How many people put their RQ game in its traditional setting? How many people use Glorantha with some other system? How many people set their RQ campaign in another setting, either pre-packaged or of their own devising?

I haven't RUN Runequest AND Glorantha together for DECADES - I played in an RQIII Glorantha game last summer, but when we return to it that game is switching to BRP. If I were to run in Glorantha I'd probably use Magic World with borrowings from BRP; but Magic World is pretty much my go to BRP system at present.

cheers,

Nick

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For the most part, I've used RQ for other settings - my own homebrewed worlds, or settings like The World of Xoth (as presented in The Spider God's Bride). It's been a long time since I've used it for Glorantha. If I did run a Glorantha campaign, I'd likely use RQ2. (And even then, it wouldn't be a canonical Glorantha - more an interpretation).

I find Option 4 - Magic World, yaddayadda - to be a little strange. Considering MW is a retread of RQ3 (80's) and Elric! (early 90s, but with parts that originated in the 80's, as well). There's nothing about the mechanics of MW that strikes me as shiny and (more) modern. The cover art would qualify - but a lot of the interior art is recycled from 80's sources.

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I find Option 4 - Magic World, yaddayadda - to be a little strange. Considering MW is a retread of RQ3 (80's) and Elric! (early 90s, but with parts that originated in the 80's, as well). There's nothing about the mechanics of MW that strikes me as shiny and (more) modern. The cover art would qualify - but a lot of the interior art is recycled from 80's sources.

Actually, the last two poll options were intended as a jest. Elric!-derived Magic World is, as you've noted, almost as venerable as RQ. And a Call of Cthulhu campaign set in Glorantha would be painfully short -- since literally everyone in that world is technically a cultist of one stripe or another. =O

Incidentally, my local used bookstore has had several copies of Mongoose's Glornatha Second Age sourcebook floating around (at the original $20-something price X( ). Skimming it left me a tad confused. It contains character options, race and magic information, critter stats, but somehow seems more like a pile of game mechanics -- like one of those old Palladium supplements -- than a setting to me. Maybe I didn't get to the fluff part, which is what makes a setting for me. Lists of spells, for instance, make more sense when you've learned something of the religion that backs them. My quick read left me less inclined to buy than more inclined.

Edited by seneschal
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I find Option 4 - Magic World, yaddayadda - to be a little strange. Considering MW is a retread of RQ3 (80's) and Elric! (early 90s, but with parts that originated in the 80's, as well). There's nothing about the mechanics of MW that strikes me as shiny and (more) modern. The cover art would qualify - but a lot of the interior art is recycled from 80's sources.

I think that depends on which Magic World he was referring too. The original Magic World (part of the Worlds of Wonder boxed set) predated RQ3 by a few years, and Elric! by a decade or so. The original MW would have been a decent way to run a Gloranthan campaign without all the crunch and complexity of the full RQ2 rules.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Sure, I understand that. It's not a rules set that I'm familiar with, but I know of its existence.

I made the assumption that since he included the phrase, "Those other options are sooo '80s", that he was referring to the recent Magic World not the Worlds of Wonder boxed set. There's also a lot more recent 'talk' on this forum about the new Magic World vs. the old.

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I didn't get the '80s comment either, since the new Magic World isn't more innovative or shiny than the new RQ.

Anyway, I voted for RQ without Glorantha. Although I found Glorantha to be very inspiring, I prefer my own setting for fantasy, or to play in mythical earth. I wish the default mythical earth setting that RQ3 hinted at had been developed more (Yes, I'm looking at you, AEONS!)

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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I wish the default mythical earth setting that RQ3 hinted at had been developed more (Yes, I'm looking at you, AEONS!)

Isn't that what Alephtar Games and The Design Mechanism are doing for BRP and RQ6 with supplements like Rome, Stupor Mundi, Crusaders of the Amber Coast, The Celestial Empire and the forthcoming Mythic Britain and Mythic Bizantium? (I don't know RQ3 so there might be differences I'm not aware of.)

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Got back into RQ2 a little while ago and am running it in Glorantha using late 70s and early 80s material. I got MW, RQ6, BGB, Renaissance and a bunch of other BRP related material and I find they're all pretty much interchangeable with some tweaking.

As for Glorantha, mythology, history and comparative religion is right up my alley, so it clicked with me immediately. I get that there's this facet of the game where you heroquest into what are effectively other dimensions, but I find that so much less interesting than BRP based play in the lives of people that are part of cultures, tribes, cults, etc.,.

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Isn't that what Alephtar Games and The Design Mechanism are doing for BRP and RQ6 with supplements like Rome, Stupor Mundi, Crusaders of the Amber Coast, The Celestial Empire and the forthcoming Mythic Britain and Mythic Bizantium? (I don't know RQ3 so there might be differences I'm not aware of.)

Not really, no. Those settings are all great but they're not quite the same. The implied setting in RQ3 was this sort of vaguely defined ancient era where picts mixed with near eastern sorcerers and you could take a ship to Taprobane. I always saw it as a sort of 'ancient fantasy' sort of like Hyboria, but different from that setting.

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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Not really, no. Those settings are all great but they're not quite the same. The implied setting in RQ3 was this sort of vaguely defined ancient era where picts mixed with near eastern sorcerers and you could take a ship to Taprobane. I always saw it as a sort of 'ancient fantasy' sort of like Hyboria, but different from that setting.

I see, thanks. If the setting was that vague, in what did its specific appeal consist?

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Guest Vile Traveller

For about 20 years I played everything with RuneQuest rules. It's only recently that I tried branching out, but on the whole I'm still happiest with a sort of RQ2/RQ3/WoW hybrid.

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Really, did no one else just think it was a humorous nod to Magic Worlds origins?

Apparently not. Perhaps if it had actually been humorous.

Or do people just actually read threads any more?!?

Cheers,

Nick

Some people do. Others just post. I try to do both, so I occasionally miss something.

Hmm, with all the new versions (and companies) that have made RuneQuest, which version of RQ are we referring to? RQ2? Rq3? (perhaps combine into Chaosium's RuneQuest), MRQ, MRQII?, The Loz&Nash version?

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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Not really, no. Those settings are all great but they're not quite the same. The implied setting in RQ3 was this sort of vaguely defined ancient era where picts mixed with near eastern sorcerers and you could take a ship to Taprobane. I always saw it as a sort of 'ancient fantasy' sort of like Hyboria, but different from that setting.

I'm not sure if that was the case. I saw it as being Alternate Earth with a liberal dose of not caring where the PCs came from. In fact, someone in Byzantium could well have met Picts and Near-Eastern Sorcerers, as this was a massive melting pot with links to almost everywhere in the western world.

The supplements were very set to a specific place/culture (Vikings, Land of Ninja) and did not have the same mix of NPCs.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

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I'm not sure if that was the case. I saw it as being Alternate Earth with a liberal dose of not caring where the PCs came from. In fact, someone in Byzantium could well have met Picts and Near-Eastern Sorcerers, as this was a massive melting pot with links to almost everywhere in the western world.
This sounds the same as what I said, to me.

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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Apparently not. Perhaps if it had actually been humorous.

Ouch!

Some people do. Others just post. I try to do both, so I occasionally miss something.

Hmm, with all the new versions (and companies) that have made RuneQuest, which version of RQ are we referring to? RQ2? Rq3? (perhaps combine into Chaosium's RuneQuest), MRQ, MRQII?, The Loz&Nash version?

Geez, guys. I didn't intend to start a flame war or an edition war. I was just curious about how many folks use RQ with Glorantha and how many use either RQ or Glorantha with something else. Any version, any publishing year; boxed set, softback or hardback; black-and-white or color; PDF or printed; shiny new or creased and ragged original from your junior high days.

And no knock intended to Magic World, past or present.

(At least the Call of Cthulhu folks haven't been offended ... yet. Wait! Somebody fumbling at the doorknob! Quick -- the window!)

Edited by seneschal
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(At least the Call of Cthulhu folks haven't been offended ... yet. Wait! Somebody fumbling at the doorknob! Quick -- the window!)
LOL!

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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