Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

RuneQuest session

Posted on July 9, 2020

Last night’s RuneQuest session involved our intrepid adventurers and their dozen or so followers and mercenaries fight their way through zombies and skeletons into Blind King’s Castle. They succeed, although in the process they lose a few followers to enemy blows and expend pretty much all their Rune points and much of their magic.

Then they get into the castle. It is dark. It is spooky. The shaman and the grave dancer see ghosts. They are spooky. The shaman’s fetch says this is a “bad place” and murmurs about “bright death” below. The players realise how dangerous fighting with torchlight and candle light is – and how short lived Light is.

Then the fetch says the ghosts are moving. All the heroic adventurers flee the castle. Iiiiaaah!

Gods I love RuneQuest.

Before they can return to Blind King’s Castle they get a mission from Argrath White Bull. Off to Boldhome as their emissary to Prince Kallyr as she prepares for her Lightbringers Quest.

I’m sure that will be safer than the ghosts.

What I love about this is how quickly it moved from “let’s kill skeletons and zombies” to “oh, shit this is a Call of Cthulhu scenario.” And now it is off to being “Game of Thrones”.

How do you handle followers ruleswise? Just gm decision or actual rolls/ rules effects? Each player has the character sheets for their followers. In some situations they have their followers make pertinent roles (“does Simbal succeed in Listen during his guard shift”) – but the focus is not on them. They are given enough spot light that the players care about their fate, but not enough to outshine any of the adventurers.

In the skirmish, I hand waved how things went for the followers – after seeing how things were going for the players, I determined how many of their followers would take big unmarried hits, and then rolled some dice. Poor Simbal died, Orgarl got maimed, and a few others were badly wounded. The adventurers took Simbal’s body all the way from Blind King’s Hill to New Pavis, so it could be returned to his kin.

As an aside, Prepare Corpse has been a surprisingly important skill, and gets used regularly.

What is a grave dancer? Someone hired to sing and dance at funerals, such as:

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
House Campaign, RQG

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
  • Role-playing in Glorantha
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Trying to Get your Mind Around Glorantha?

    A suggestion in trying to get one’s mind around Gloranthan …
  • Notes on Spirit Cults

    Spirit cults are an easy way to give players access …
  • Spirit Cults

    Shamans are specialists in dealing with spirits and the spirit …
  • Soap Opera themes

    Feuds, royal intrigue, temple politics, angry spirits and the grasping …
  • Defunct Sartar Tribes

    The Dundealos tribe was “destroyed” by the Lunar Provincial Government …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest Glorantha on MeWe
  • Glorantha Wiki on Fandom
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Spirit Combat gang fight?
  • Journey to Jonstown #51: celebrate alumni of Fall's 'Write Your First Adventure' Workshop with this RuneQuest bundle on DTRPG
  • Write Your First Adventure bundle: four adventures for just $5.99
  • Glorantha using Pendragon rules..
  • The Mastery Rune
  • Reading the map - my eyes just aren't good enough !
  • Antirius runes?
  • Jonstown Library hierarchy 1625
  • The Legacy of Greg Stafford - An Interview with Rick Meints
  • Daily life expenses in Sartarite cities

Popular Tags

2007 Avalon Hill Boldhome Chaosium Chaos pantheon Cult demographics Cults of Glorantha (preview) Deprecated cult Doraddi pantheon Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FR G+ post Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt HW Issaries Jar-eel Lhankor Mhy Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Map Maps Michael O’Brien Mongoose Nomad Gods Oriflam Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Solar pantheon Spirit Cult Subcult Tales of the Reaching Moon Tatou Troll / Uz pantheon Yelm Yelmalio

Recently added or updated

  • Harantara / Thrunhin Da

  • Ω Daylanus the Conquering Wind

  • Ω Desemborth the Thief

  • Ω Destor the Adventurous

  • Ω Durev the Householder

  • Finovan the Raider

  • Helamakt the Warrior

  • Ω Jarani the Lawstaff

  • Niskis

  • Ω Ohorlanth the Great Storm

  • Ω Orlanthcarl, Orlanth the Farmer

  • Ω Ormalaya the Hunter

  • Ω Orolmarn, Orlanth the Herder

  • Ω Orlanthdovar

  • Ω Dar the Leader

  • Ω Orlanth Allfather

  • Ganemirus

  • Grower

  • Great Sister

  • Grandmother Earth

©2023 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme