For those coming new to RuneQuest or coming back to RQ after a long absence, here’s a few suggestions:
1. Start somewhere! My recommendation is either start in Sartar with the GM Screen Adventures Book (in the GM screen) or the Starter Set or Six Seasons in Sartar (and excellent JC product), and then go on from there. Alternatively, get the old RQ Classic materials on Pavis and the Big Rubble and start there. Both are easy places to start.
2. Run a few packaged adventures and then don’t be afraid to create your own. One recommended arc is to start with the Starter Set adventures and then just move on the GM Screen Adventures and finish your first campaign arc with the Dragon of Thunder Hills adventure. After that your campaign should really have some movement. Flesh things out with adventures from the Smoking Ruin or Pegasus Plateau.
3. Rely on the currently available RQ materials. DO NOT worry at all about the Hero Wars or Heroquest material or the Mongoose stuff or about out of print stuff. If you want to buy it for your own curiosity, go for it. But it is completely not necessary for running RQ.
4. Don’t worry about stuff that doesn’t affect your area of the setting. If it is Sartar, you can have your eyes on the rest of Dragon Pass, the Lunar Empire, Prax, or the Holy Country, as it is likely your adventurers may get involved there. But you can safely ignore everything else.
5. Don’t worry about deep background unless the players start digging into it. What was up with Gbaji-Arkat? What is the origin of the Red Goddess? What was the Empire of the Wyrms Friends? What about pre-Solar myths in the West Reaches of the Lunar Empire? Doesn’t really matter in most games unless the players start investigating.
6. Focus on having great experiences in Glorantha! That’s right – have fun at the gaming table. That’s where Glorantha can most easily be entered!
In truth, this is the same advice I would have for ANY RPG setting. Want to start a game in the Viking Age? Awesome – but pick a theme (is the style Icelandic Sagas, the Vikings tv series, Eric the Viking, or what?) and a starting point(Norway? Iceland? Rus?). Don’t worry about the Mayans, Chinese, or Japan – unless that is the goal of the campaign. Heck, unless the focus of the game is on the Rus and Constantinople (which would make an awesome game), don’t worry about that. If the focus of the game is the Icelandic sagas, you can pretty much ignore most of continental Europe and almost everything beyond.