Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Living Without Maps

Living without Maps | Moon Design Publications

Jump to Navigation

Forums | Glorantha Discussions Living without Maps

Submitted by BlindGuyNW on Tue, 04/12/2012 – 15:07
Glorantha Discussions

Hi All,I was wondering if anyone might have some advice for running Gloranthan, specifically Sartarite, campaigns without access to the detailed maps provided in the various books. I have been doing so with mixed success for a while, but have been growing dissatisfied lately.The largest problem I have is arbitrariness. I feel as though I am simply plucking random clan names out of a hat from time to time, without any sense of scale or geographical location, and very little attention to canonicity. In particular, when generating the player’s clan they simply picked a tribe name which sounded good, rather than doing as the book suggested and picking a tribe which had territory similar to that which they settled. It is very difficult for me, without the visual reinforcement, to get any real sense of the large-scale geography of Dragon Pass. I feel as though I have many named locations, but very little idea of travel times between them, for instance, or tribal boundaries, and so fourth. I realize much of my frustration is due to visual impairment, and thus situation specific, but I was wondering if anyone might have any suggestions or tools I could use to avoid feeling quite so overwhelmed?Thanks much for any advice,Zack.
‹ Has future product planning been influenced by The Guide to Glorantha
Guide Draft: Strange results with screen readers ›

maps to text

Submitted by Scott Martin on Tue, 04/12/2012 – 22:15.

Hi Zack –First, I wouldn’t worry about arbitrariness. You have almost infinitely more information on Sartar than what was publicly available in the 1970s, and I’m sure your games will be at least as rich and authentic as anybody’s were back then.That said, I’d be happy to take the maps and other graphic elements and describe them so you can get a sense of the spatial relationships, who borders on whose territory and so on. For all I know, people have already volunteered this privately, but I’m just getting it out there.

It would be much appreciated

Submitted by BlindGuyNW on Tue, 04/12/2012 – 23:46.

Dear Scott,Any help you could provide in describing such elements would be greatly appreciated. I’m sure I am my players will both have much more fun for knowing that sort of information. Shall I provide you with an email address, to make this process a little easier?As far as worrying goes, I have a tendency to do that too much as it is, but will try to tone it down some. ;-)Yours,Zack.

I’ll get on it

Submitted by Scott Martin on Wed, 05/12/2012 – 01:02.

I’ll start with the Sartar books and we’ll see where we end up. Thinking of a couple of approaches but we can take the discussion to email. (I’m a deep lurker on the Yahoo list and think I can pull your email address out of there.)This is going to be educational for me because I rarely pull as much information out of the maps as I should. Thanks for working with me!And on your game, the more play reports, the merrier. Your Glorantha Should Vary! Cheers,

Looking forward to it

Submitted by BlindGuyNW on Wed, 05/12/2012 – 16:50.

Hi Scott,I’m very much looking forward to getting started with this whenever you’re able to find the time. As far as actual play reports go, I’ll see what I can do, especially since I won’t be GMing my game for the next little while due to the holiday season. All the better timing to try and brush up on my Gloranthan knowledge. 🙂

Eagerly awaiting your email,

Zack.

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …
  • Top Five RuneQuest Cults

    So it is absolutely no surprise to me that in …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Odayla Initiation Heroquest
  • Did anyone get a good look at WB&RM?
  • Clearwine Assembly Hill and Orlanth's High Holy Day
  • Sun County pdf is drivethrurpg’s Deal of the Day for July 1st
  • Permission to use exerpt from map in Starter Set in a Jonstown Compendium release?
  • Summon of Jaldon
  • Jonstown Compendium: Spawn of Molokka - The Cephalopods of Glorantha
  • Runelords and Retirement
  • Hospitality Hearth spirits - what are they ?
  • Clearwine Burned & Argrath's Orphan Childhood

Popular Tags

1625 ST Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • CHA4043 The Lightbringers – Q&A

  • CHA4037 Dragon Pass – Q&A

  • CHA4029 RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack – Q&A

  • CHA4034 Red Book of Magic – Chapter 02 Rune Magic Spells Q&A (A-M)

  • CHA4036 RuneQuest Weapons and Equipment Q&A

  • The Garden, Big Rubble II

  • The Garden, Big Rubble I

  • Half-folk

  • Orlanth Rex and Sartar’s Lineage

  • The Triceratops Queen

  • 1557-1600 Conflict with the Lunar Empire

  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

  • Trolls of The Big Rubble

  • Dorastor (FRA-1993)

  • AH8592 Dorastor: Land of Doom (1993)

  • Rynglorem

  • Hobimarong

  • Sun County Continued part 1

  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme