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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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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.

I don't think you did start a war. It's is just that MRQ and MRQ Glorantha is a very different game than Chaosium RQ + Old RQ style Glorantha and probably worth a separate entry. And I did take the Magic World idea as an actual option of using Glorantha with that system.

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

No good, it only opens at impossible angles.

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

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Except that your interpretation is of a different world entirely! :)
:? Rereading everything I said, I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

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

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I've never used anyone else's setting as I prefer to make up my own stuff. But Glorantha sounds like a good 'un for those inclined to use published settings for their games.

(Even when I play CoC, I don't really use much Lovecraft stuff as the players know too much. Better to make it truly mysterious in my opinion.)

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Guest Vile Traveller

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.,.

That's exactly how I feel. If anything, the idea of heroquesting spoils it for me. I'm quite happy to leave that to the legends.

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I think the act of 'heroquesting' should be a rare, maybe once or twice per campaign, event.

RPGs were a way to get inside the novels we read. Most novels I read would be about 'adventures.' What kind of novel could you use an example of 'heroquesting' activity?

But then there's my potentially threadjacking assertion: most novels I read are also not about a sedentary community of farmers or shepherds, propitiating local spirits as the seasons cycle through.

I'm the guy who reads Fafhrd and the Mouser, Cugel the Clever, and Dumarest of Terra. I play adventurers who are thrown up against terrible adversaries in exotic places.

Got RPGs? ;)

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It's true MW is actually pretty old stuff. There's nothing new there. BUT it works and so much better than RQ111 ever did. Its more heroic and beautifully smooth in its game mechanics. Being newer doesn't make other games better. It just gives the designers less time to iron out the snags.

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"...most novels I read are also not about a sedentary community of farmers or shepherds, propitiating local spirits as the seasons cycle through."

Not a fan of Westerns, eh? ;D

When studying history for a game, I was surprised to learn that Europeans were holding cattle drives long before they settled in North America. In Britain, cattlemen guided their herds from the Scottish border to London, dealing with rustlers, storms and stampedes just like their descendants would several hundred years later. They had bows instead of six-guns and faced wild Picts and Welshmen instead of Indians, but the task and the challenges were the same.

So ... all ya gotta do is set your campaign in western Glorantha. ;) Happy trails, pardner.

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RuneQuest itself never really offered any formal rules for heroquesting, and provided only the barest of suggestions on what it might look like or how it might proceed. The core trouble I've always had was that a heroquest is about emulating mythology, specifically fictional mythology. Most of us have read or seen a lot of adventure stories and have no trouble coming up with convincing adventures that at their core could be reduced into the plots of Yojimbo or The Seven Samurai. Getting into the mindset of a (fictional) mythological world is a lot harder, and fundamentally demands a lot more from both players and referees.

I think the act of 'heroquesting' should be a rare, maybe once or twice per campaign, event.

RPGs were a way to get inside the novels we read. Most novels I read would be about 'adventures.' What kind of novel could you use an example of 'heroquesting' activity?

But then there's my potentially threadjacking assertion: most novels I read are also not about a sedentary community of farmers or shepherds, propitiating local spirits as the seasons cycle through.

I'm the guy who reads Fafhrd and the Mouser, Cugel the Clever, and Dumarest of Terra. I play adventurers who are thrown up against terrible adversaries in exotic places.

Got RPGs? ;)

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The Shadow Over Ducksmouth

"They were mostly squat and feathery. Their forms were vaguely anthropoid, but they possessed long and wide bills from which a noise-some squawking arose. In a great, quacking column, they waddled forth out of decaying Ducksmouth, their webbed feet squelching across the boggy ground."

I'm playing with the idea of using Glorantha with the Fate rules, particularly the Legend of Angelerre version that was recently on sale at RpgDriveThru. And yes, there will be ducks.

Edited by 1d8+DB
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The Shadow Over Ducksmouth

"They were mostly squat and feathery. Their forms were vaguely anthropoid, but they possessed long and wide bills from which a noise-some squawking arose. In a great, quacking column, they waddled forth out of decaying Ducksmouth, their webbed feet squelching across the boggy ground."

I'm playing with the idea of using Glorantha with the Fate rules, particularly the Legend of Angelerre version that was recently on sale at RpgDriveThru. And yes, there will be ducks.

;D

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It's true MW is actually pretty old stuff. There's nothing new there. BUT it works and so much better than RQ111 ever did. Its more heroic and beautifully smooth in its game mechanics.
I agree whole heartedly when this comes to character generation. MW certainly wins out here, as its char gen is much more simple and superior than the clumsy old char gen presented in RQ3. I do have fond memories of doing character generation for RQ3, but I don't think I would have the time or the patience to do that for every character now.

However I find I can't see how MW as a set of rules plays more smooth than RQ3 in general game mechanics. I think perhaps most of the other differences (such as Hit Locations vs Major Wounds, or Static AP vs Rolled AP, etc) are purely just a matter of taste as to which flavour you prefer.

I'm playing with the idea of using Glorantha with the Fate rules, particularly the Legend of Angelerre version...
In my opinion you can play most games with FATE, its one of my favourite recent game systems. I don't know if it does the gritty, down and dirty aspects of BRP, but it certainly can handle pulp settings and heavy narrative settings quite well. I suspect if you use it for Glorantha than it may play like a better version (IMO) of the HeroQuest rules rather than the RQ rules. You may find it easier to convert Gloranthan HeroQuest supplements rather than RQ supplements.

Have fun ;t)

Edited by Mankcam

" 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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Guest Vile Traveller

Getting into the mindset of a (fictional) mythological world is a lot harder, and fundamentally demands a lot more from both players and referees.

I always imagined heroquesting like netrunning, i.e. a bit forced and not much fun. Sort of like trying to have a fantasy inside a fantasy. I think actual play in Glorantha was too much fun to worry about it.

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It's true MW is actually pretty old stuff. There's nothing new there. BUT it works and so much better than RQ111 ever did. Its more heroic and beautifully smooth in its game mechanics. Being newer doesn't make other games better. It just gives the designers less time to iron out the snags.

It used to take me all of 10 minutes to whip up a RQ3 character. Roll characteristics, roll or pick age, pick career, pick magic, and done. What does MW do that makes it so much faster, and how long does it take?

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

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It used to take me all of 10 minutes to whip up a RQ3 character. Roll characteristics, roll or pick age, pick career, pick magic, and done. What does MW do that makes it so much faster, and how long does it take?

MW is Elric!/SB5. I'd say character gen is the same as RQ3 when you know both well.

RQ6 is maybe a tad longer since it has a life path / events section (which is cool).

MW is bouncier in combat and the magic is more flash/bang.

I love all and couldn't frankly say that RQ3, RQ6, MW or OQ are objectively better than each other save that I think the Resistance Table is redundant. OR, that the skills are redundant and we should have a Resistance Table only based game.

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Honestly I don't like the Hit Location RAW in RQ2, for the effect on PCs. Too much maiming, PCs too vulnerable to be the heroes I envision.

I don't mind the idea for its descriptiveness, and I don't mind making a limb or whatever temporarily disabled, but nothing more serious than that.

As I've said before, I've played other BRP games that don't use Hit Locations, and haven't missed them.

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That's exactly how I feel. If anything, the idea of heroquesting spoils it for me. I'm quite happy to leave that to the legends.

I always imagined heroquesting like netrunning, i.e. a bit forced and not much fun. Sort of like trying to have a fantasy inside a fantasy. I think actual play in Glorantha was too much fun to worry about it.

I've always thought it was a weird concept that doesn't actually mesh with Glorantha's strengths. I've never been one for meta plots or huge world changing events caused in other dimensions and the actual cultures, potential for conflict and adventurer areas of Glorantha are just so damn good, why you'd want to leave them for a virtual reality metaplot is beyond me.

I think the act of 'heroquesting' should be a rare, maybe once or twice per campaign, event.

RPGs were a way to get inside the novels we read. Most novels I read would be about 'adventures.' What kind of novel could you use an example of 'heroquesting' activity?

I'm going to suggest The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft for the right feel, but it obviously doesn't have the "you can change reality by doing stuff in this other dimension" aspect that heroquesting in Glorantha has.

The core trouble I've always had was that a heroquest is about emulating mythology, specifically fictional mythology. Most of us have read or seen a lot of adventure stories and have no trouble coming up with convincing adventures that at their core could be reduced into the plots of Yojimbo or The Seven Samurai. Getting into the mindset of a (fictional) mythological world is a lot harder, and fundamentally demands a lot more from both players and referees.

Some may find this reductionist, but the easiest way to emulate myth in play is to concentrate on the creation of just-so stories. For example, in the well known Genesis myth, it tells a story about why women experience pain in childbirth, why men must work hard in the fields doing agriculture and why men are ostensibly in charge. This mythological curse of Adam & Even eating the forbidden fruit. It's not a real explanation at all, but a "just so" story to justify it without actually explaining it.

So when you heroquest, do the same thing. Look at what you do and then think about how you can use that as a "just so" story to explain something about the world. If you were doing a genesis heroquest, perhaps you prevent Eve from eating the fruit first, but Adam still eats it and then gives it to Eve (reversing the normal order of the story). The end result then would be that births become pain free, men still do all the work in the fields, but women are now in charge of society in general.

You take a current myth, look for the "just so" structure and reinterpret acts in play into a new reality.

Not my cup of tea.

As I've said before, I've played other BRP games that don't use Hit Locations, and haven't missed them.

For me, it's all about the specifics. I think Call of Cthulhu is actually better with hit locations than without as it emphasizes human frailty a lot better.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Dragon Warriors land of Legend (not to be confused with Mongoose's Legend game) is like a Mythic Earth concept. It is findable online and is pretty good. I suppose the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay World is somewhat similar -- an ancient Earth-like world with fantastic elements.

I picked Runequest + other as well as Magic World (since I play Elric!) so I may have tainted your poll if it was supposed to be a joke. I have stolen bits of Prax for my game world but overall Glorantha never particularly appealed to me.

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