>From: "S. Ben Melhuish" <sben_at_pile.org>
>I'm new to Glorantha as of the publication of Hero Wars, though I've
>purchased all Issaries products since then (except for the Hero's Book).
>I'm considering purchasing some older (RuneQuest-era) material, and am
>wondering how difficult it'll be to update.
>
>I'm not worried about mechanics, which I'll probably mostly ignore, but
>more about the metaphysics of Glorantha. Has this changed at all over
>the 20-some years of Gloranthan publication? Has there always been a
>split between theistic/spiritual/wizardly magic? How have the major
>pantheons changed (I keep hearing grousing about Elmal, or at least
>references to grousing about Elmal)? Was old-school Glorantha really
>just all about Chaos-bashing? Were the Hero Wars always a big focus?
>
>(If there's an online resource discussing this, I'd be perfectly happy
>with a "read this web page" answer.)
Glorantha has evolved enormously but it is mostly giving more detail
rather than changing the metaphysics. In general you can take it as
is unless you know it has been superceeded. As far as your specific
points -
The split of magic was introduced in RQ3, prior to that the split was
battle magic/rune magic. The former being equivelent to common magic.
A lot of the pantheon structure is pretty new, RQ tended to treat
gods as separate.
The Elmal/Yelmalio squabble was important at the time but I don't
think any of it was formally published. If you find confusing
references just treat it as someone (probably a God Learner) got
their sun gods mixed up. Whatever it says someone in Glorantha
will believe it.
RQ was a rather lower level game so there was much more of small
parties beating up Chaos or Trolls or Lunars rather than epic
conflicts. The setting tended to be just before the Hero Wars
but the board games Dragon Pass and Nomad Gods are based on the
Hero Wars so it was always there.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ --__--__--
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