D&D 5E in Glorantha

[Ryan Kent]

This might be a frustrating exercise in futility, but I am intrigued about using D&D 5E for gaming in Glorantha. I will set it in Dragon Pass, with the characters being Sartarites. My main modification will be to: 1) allow only humans at first; 2) no wizards at first; 3) clerics will be initiates/priests and will have limited spell choices reflecting their deity; 4) non spell using characters will be able to give up one skill proficiency in order to select one Cantrip.

Clerics of the Tempest Divine Domain will be priests of Orlanth. Clerics of the Life Divine Domain can be priestesses of Ernalda. Barbarian character class can represent both Storm Bull initiates or initiates of the more wild representations of Orlanth. Multi-classing a level in cleric can also give a good flavor of an initiate/priest. Paladins of vengeance can represent an initiate of Humakt. Druids can be reskinned with some effort to reflect Shamans. In addition to the Backgrounds from the book, I will use the occupations from the Sartar book to determine skill proficiencies, equipment, special connections and abilities, etc.

I am getting excited!

[Simon Phipp]

You might be interested in the 13th Age for Glorantha supplement that is coming out, as that looks very similar.

One of the players in our RQ campaign played a lot of D&D and made an interesting observation. Many cults are pretty much the same as classes, you have rules to follow, abilities you can get and restrictions.

So, it could work fairly well, I’d say.

[Martin Legg]

Go for it Ryan…..I’ve used 3.5e for years in a Balazar setting, quite effectively. Until RQ6 came along, it was the only way to get my group interested.

I found that the runes and domains can match quite nicely, used a lot of different prestige classes to represent certain leves of initiate, lords and priests, or simply use the paladin of whichever faith fr rune lords.

I used Baazar as the setting as it designed as a sandbox and does not have the complicated cult politics that Sartar or Prax has.

Good luck with your attempt and i’d be interested in your ideas.

[Ryan Kent]

So … we had our first game today. Inexperienced role-players not familiar with D&D or Glorantha, but that can actually make things easier due to the lack of expectations. We had an initiate of Humakt which we modeled with a paladin. In place of an extra skill proficiency, I let him take the cantrip True Strike as divine magic from Humakt. We had an initiate of Urox which we modeled with a barbarian. In the place of a skill proficiency, he took the cantrip Resistance as divine magic from Urox. Then we had a guy who had to play a thief, even after I explained the issues involved. In the place of a skill proficiency, he took the cantrip mage hand as a spell.

They decided to play in the Grolsch clan of the Amad tribe, scrabbling a hard existence in the wilderness fighting off trolls, chaos beast and Lunar occupiers. The Storm Bull Berserker and the Sword Thane of Humakt were brothers who had returned to the clan after wandering and finding their way. The berserker left under a cloud of kinslaying (a cousin), but they let him back because he was a valuable member of the community in these difficult times that demanded warriors. The thief left under a cloud of theft accusations and returned from Jonstown because he was being hunted by the family of someone he killed.

The clan ring had them all swear an oath to tell the truth on Guntir the Trufflepig, the clan wyter. The thief promptly lied about the theft he had committed that had caused him to leave the clan years ago. He would have been banished, but he promised to provide information about Lunar activities from his contacts in Jonstown and the Humatki promised to look after him.

Anyhow, the system seemed to work just fine. I think that so long as I restrict and “reskin” spells that this will work just fine. It was a lot of fun and the players enjoyed learning about the setting.

[Ryan Kent]

Okay. I need some help. I have a player that always wants to be different, often in a way that breaks the genre. She wants to play a monk (i.e. wuxia style martial artist) in my campaign that is set around Orlanthi clans in Drgaon Pass. I would rather find a way to say yes than just tell her to make another type of character. Does anyone know of any wuxia style martial artist types in Glorantha?

[Jenx]

Basically the entirety of Kralorela, I’d imagine. It’d be odd to have a Kralori in Dragon Pass (considering how xenophobic and isolationist those are), but hey, the party are Heroes, so of course they are going to be exceptional.

[Ryan Kent]

Thanks! Now does anybody have any ideas why a xenophobic and isolationist Kralori martial artist would be wandering around Dragon Pass and how the Orlanthi would react to him?

[Charles]

A Kralori might go there to investigate the claims that Dragon Pass is the centre of Dragon activity in Glorantha. Of course, all right thinking Kralori already know that Kralorela is and always has been ruled by the greatest of Dragons and therefore no-where else, least of all smelly barbarian land, could possibly make that claim.

The Orlanthi would treat him as they would treat any foreigner that does not know their ways, i.e. with contempt or worse unless he can somehow impress them that he is no pushover.

[Alex]

The monk could also be a Teshnan; they are sun worshipers but with many influences from Kralorela, including mystical monks. They’re also slightly less insular which might help explain why she’s off in Dragon Pass.

She could be there for many reasons: in a magical mirror, she saw an image of a grand Sun Dome temple in far away lands and wants to make contact with these distant sun worshipers; her life-flame inspired her to wander in that direction for unknown reasons; she was somehow reincarnated into a body of an Orlanthi and retained all her memories of her previous life.

Orlanthi would still treat the monk as a strange foreigner I’d imagine, either aggressively or suspiciously. At least Teshnans worship gods though.

[David Cake]

Kralorela is full of wuxia style martial artists, and there are many throughout the East Isles as well. The Kralori state is xenophobic and isolationist, but not all Kralori are. Kralori merchants travel widely, especially by sea. And a Kralori adventurer could have many reasons to travel, strange and frightening prophecies are the order of the day in Kralorela.

While Arcane Lore is not canon, and much of its content is old and outdated, it does mention a smallish (2,000 total) martial arts organisation called the Red Dragon Servants, who came to Dragon pass from Kralorela, presumably to be near the Red Dragon (called Krisa Oraba there, though the Red Dragon of Dragon Pass is called Krisa Yor elsewhere). They have a monastery in Karse, and a temple and dojo near Furthest in Tarsh. It is certainly possible that a group of Kralori could have travelled to Dragon Pass to seek out a dragon in the past. The Red Dragon servants are martial artists who fight with swords (they have a Strike Dead with Sword magic) and can self-heal as well as defensive magic.

Of course Orlanthi will be very wary of a stranger, but a good warrior in bad times is often appreciated.

[Mark Mohrfield]

Of course, all right thinking Kralori

But the character will be a PC, and therefore, almost by definition, not a right-thinking anything:)

[Charles]

But the character will be a PC, and therefore, almost by definition, not a right-thinking anything:)

Exactly.

Another possible reason for a Kralori to be in Dragon Pass could be that they have heard that is where Godunya (the current Emperor) spent some time while he lived in exile when Shang Hsa and the False Dragon Ring ruled in Kralorela. Godunya is said to have founded and / or taught in a monastery in Dragon Pass.

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