Really the "most important cult" all boils down to the type of game you are playing. RuneQuest in all it's myriad versions is a Combat Simulation game. Most of the rules are about hacking folk up, and taking their stuff. Some more are about zotting them with nifty combat spells. Does it supprise ANYONE that the most popular cults in a Combat Game are the Combat Cults??? The reason is that everyone worships Storm Bull is because He gives spells that allow you to boost the Combat HALF of your character sheet. Poor little Waha's most important skill: "Thrive in Prax" isn't even represented in the game in any meaningful way. No wonder Urox, Humakt, Babs, Orlanth the Wandering Hoodlum, and Yelmalio are the dominant PC cults. Just look at a RQ char sheet. It's all combat stuff, with maybe an "orate" or "bargain" roll now and again to simulate daily life, if you simply MUST interact with your culture.
Hero Wars is really a StoryTelling Game. It's mechanics are just as rich and dramatic for running a philosophical debate as for dicing broos. It's about creating Heroic Sagas in Glorantha, not about "on strike rank 8 I use an aimed blow to whichever hit location seems to have the least armour points"
It's not the CULT of Waha that is "washed out" and dull. It's not the "Lame Munchkin Players" that make Combat Gods "better" in RuneQuest. It is the system itself. It's just cooler to have a god that lets you augment your fifteen combat-related skills than your One "make friends and influence people" skill.
Hero Wars is simply a broader system. There is still plenty of (in fact much much MORE) room for power gaming munchkins to run off and kill Harrek for his groovy Cloak, if that's what you want to do. But you can also actually Play a political character, with skills that apply to manipulating people, and not just killing them. It can really be a Glorantha Simulation game if you want it to be, in a way that RQ never was.
Storm Bull is not nearly as important in Glorantha, as he is in RuneQuest.
Regardless, it is still VERY fun to play a Bullie in HeroWars. (So waht if'n I managed to get myself killed by some chaotic lunar baistich named Julianne or sumthin...) I liked RQ, a LOT, but HW is better. It's better, because you don't HAVE to play a Bullie to have fun.
[you can stop paging down now -- I hope ;-) ] danm
PS -- I actually suspect Greg Himself of being a Powergaming Munchkin... <heh>
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