Seeing as my question about background has sparked an upsurge in posts I thought I'd better comment on some of the various threads that have emerged.
So what attracted me to Glorantha?
A friend, called Chris, introduced me to RQ2 in the early 80�s. I rolled my first character, and defended Gringle�s Pawanshop, without any deep knowledge of the rules, or Glorantha, just a basic five-minute description of how combat, magic and skills worked. What I found was that it was simple and fun.
As the weeks passed by we continued to play and at odd moments I�d read bits of his rulebook to get a better grip of what was going on. Its then that I discovered Gloarantha, its history and background, Rurik and the Lunar Empire, the world came alive. I started pestering Chris for more information about cults, when he showed me Cults of Prax and I was hooked, the depth was breathtaking.
When I could afford it, I bought the supplements, studied them, wrote my own scenarios and wanted more. I was lucky I started playing during Golden Age of RQ when, once a month or so, I could go into Games workshop and there would be a new product on the shelves to buy. In fact, at that time, there was so much appearing that I could not afford to buy it all. Each supplement was a revelation, giving new insights into the world and hooks for new scenarios.
So what attracted me to Glorantha?
RQ was fun. In the early years of my roleplaying life I tried out just about every system that was on offer. None were as simple or logical as RQ. If you didn�t know a particular rule you could make a decent guess at it with the percentile system. What made RQ stand out from the others was that the core rules could be learnt in five minutes; there were no character classes or alignments, everyone could use magic. The characters needn�t be stereotypes, they had goals other than killing monsters and finding pots of gold, although that was fun too.
What made it truly special was the background. It had depth, it gave NPC�s emotions and objectives. The source books were crammed with mouth watering histories and mythology that were good to read when you weren�t playing the game. Whole adventures could be spun out from tidbits hidden in their depths. It was because of the background that we continued to play when no new supplements were being produced.
Another factor is that the shelves of Games Workshop were filled with RQ and Chaosium supplements. By the time Games Workshop stopped selling other companies products and the new releases dried up I was already a Gloranthan addict so for me it didn�t matter.
RQ had its faults, it was always too easy for PC�s to die, if you weren�t careful everyone tended to have the same spells and be proficient in the same skills no matter what cult they were in.
All in all it was the game that brought the world alive and it was the world that made the game the great
Cheers,
Mick
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