Cave trolls, as we all know, are tainted by Chaos. They regenerate, are often twisted almost like giant, powerful trollkin, and have oversized eyes. And yet, most troll communities keep significant numbers…
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Game Time in RuneQuest
One of the design goals in RQG has been to incentivize passage of campaign time. An adventure a season (or so), means that the gamemaster can let the setting develop, and have…
Getting Property in New Pavis
In New Pavis, only citizens own land and you need to own land to become a citizen. When the city was founded, Dorasar divided up the land among the settler groups of…
Home Economics in RuneQuest
In the rules, an ordinary free person needs about 80 L to maintain their status. This assumes a free household (person, one or two adult family members, a few children).80 L a…
Creating scenarios for RuneQuest
A few thoughts: Give the adventurers a reason why they are in the adventure. Maybe they are hired or sent on the adventure by a ruler or cult leader. Maybe their community…
Zero-to-Hero vs. Starting In Media Res
I’m a big fan of letting the players start with competent adventurers – and RQG (and indeed most games I work on) reflect that. This not only reflects the amount of sessions…
Making Sense of RuneQuest for Players
To really make sense of RuneQuest as a campaign setting, I think it is handy to give the players a short version of the monomyth and a little history. Not a lot,…
RuneQuest Campaign Styles
For the default setting of 1625, there are a couple of prevalent campaign styles I see a lot of: Exploration and dungeon crawls. Big Rubble, Upland Marsh, Snakepipe Hollow, Prax, and the Shadowlands….
Player Cults in RuneQuest
Someone recently asked me what my favorite cults are to actually play. You know for player characters in actual campaigns (rather than as NPCs or to speculate about in internet discussions). Here…
Not all magic systems in Glorantha are equal
Spirit magic is the easiest and most ubiquitous. In most games, the player just decides what spirit magic they want, and pays whoever it is that can provide it them up to…
Cults of Pavis
This is an overview of the cults present in New Pavis and the Big Rubble, and the local environs (mainly Pavis County). Don’t bother over interpreting the categories or the number of…
Notes on Spirit Cults III
Putting my God Learner glasses on lets me see that “Spirit Cults” are a short-hand for covering a wide range of practices. The first is as described in the RQG rules. A…
Cult Distribution in the Mythology Book
One of my absolute most-referenced chapters in the Mythology Book is Cult Distribution. Each of those tables gives me a quick overview of the culture in a region. Want to get an…
Dual Cult Membership
Most adults in the main homelands initiate into the deeper mysteries of only one cult, but continue to worship the associated deities and are often lay members of other cults. The cult…
Draconic Mysticism, the Void, and the Kralori
Just to expand upon my previous post with some bits from Cults of Terror: The Void is the mystic origin of the universe. This preexistence is said to be indescribable. “It is…
Gbaji and Chaos
Greg’s initial writings of Gbaji and Chaos predated RuneQuest (or White Bear and Red Moon for that matter), and although Greg drew on many sources (including likely Moorcock’s 1965 Stormbringer novel), it…
Glimpses of Glorantha
Some fabulous glimpses of Glorantha at the Altes Museum in Berlin today!
Outlawry and Exile
Outlawry and exile are good ways to get your adventurers out of their homeland. They might have killed someone in another community, angered their local leaders, or gotten too involved in politics…
Some Yelmalio History in Sun County
In 877, Joraz Kyrem, Lord of the city of Pavis, requested aid from the Sun Dome temple of Dragon Pass (that temple was re-founded in 1575). The religious mercenaries complied in return…
Other Genertela Settings
Although the settings for the overwhelming majority of RuneQuest games are Sartar and New Pavis, don’t be afraid to send your adventurers further afield, especially if you are armed with the Cults…
Lord of the Four Quarters
The Red Emperor has some wonderful titles. Moonson – means literally son of the Red Goddess. Lord of the Four Quarters – means he is the ruler of the entire terrestrial world…
What are barbarians?
As described in the Lightbringers book, the Theyalan pantheon spread from its Dawn Age hub in Dragon Pass across the Pelorian hills to Ralios, Maniria, and even southern Fronela. The lowland Pelorians…
Trolltown in The Big Rubble II
We often forget that the Big Rubble can actually be viewed as a troll city with a human minority. First some comparisons of size. New Pavis is 28 hectares, and I think…
History of the Telmori
Hated and feared, the Telmori are werewolves cursed by Chaos. They are unlike other humans, for they have joined with their beast-brothers into a strange and, to some, unnatural relationship of dependence…
Inspiration for Humakti
I’ve always had a soft spot for Humakti. Sacred killers, they live outside of normal Orlanthi society but nonetheless have an important role within it. With their code of honor, strange taboos…