Hey that’s cool Jeff, but what the heck am I supposed to do with that in my Runequest game?

I posted two “deep” background articles on the nature of the Lunar Empire and Argrath’s role as a driver of change in Glorantha. Now a sensible question would be something like, “hey that’s cool Jeff, but what the heck am I supposed to do with that in my Runequest game?”

Glad you asked!

So with the Lunar Empire, let’s face it, most of our games are in Sartar or the River of Cradles. The Lunar Empire is going to be the evil empire, and the primary “bad guy” in the stories. The key thing to remember here is that the Lunar Empire is not inherently a bad guy, and back in their homeland, they are the good guys. Our adventures take place where the impact of the Lunar Empire is largely bad for the locals, but it can help develop a campaign if their motivation is shown to be similar to the player characters – loyalty to cult, friends, family, etc. For every scheming villain like Halcyon (who is evil not because he is a Lunar but because he is every scheming corrupt bureaucrat we can imagine) there is a Sor-eel or Fazzur who are quite open minded and honorable people, even if their goal is to crush the player characters.

Argrath is a quest giver and a setting transformer. He can hand out adventures and resources, or take away resources. He can show up in the game, give opportunities and favor to the player characters, only to then leave on some quest of his own, forcing the player characters to change and transform themselves. Think of him like a constantly mobile Arthur in Pendragon, a useful grab bag of story tools and devices to shake up the campaign when the GM feels the need.

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