Re: Introducing Newbies to GLorantha

From: Zachary Kline <zkline_at_5DXUhSDW4Ru_3VYR-Ld4J73_4SHe4VP426Rdei4jmhVoro1KNh7nXKZWiOQ0VePE3Q8xS>
Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2011 18:04:47 -0700

Hi Simon and all,
Thanks much for these tips. I guess one of these days I'll just need to take a stab at running a one-off Glorantha adventure and see how it goes. I keep hearing references to HQ1, but can't seem to find much material on it online. Would any of that be on drive-through-rpg? Glorantha.com seems to have some, though not very much. I think it would also help me if I were able to find a group to play with first before diving in and trying to form my own. Ah well, I'll keep looking… Best,
Zack.
On Oct 7, 2011, at 4:07 PM, Simon Phipp wrote:

> Zachary Kline:
> > Given the recent topics here about newbies and Glorantha, I was
> > wondering what peoples' thoughts were on introducing it to new
> > players? On my college campus there are quite a few people who
> > have a Dungeons and Dragons/Tolkien inspired view of fantasy.
> > Glorantha doesn't seem to fit this very well. On the other hand,
> > it seems that Rune Quest would be more familiar to D&d people as
> > compared with Hero Quest, though I'm personally more interested
> > in the latter than the former.
>
> HQ is basically a simpler system, but is very freeform which a lot of people don't like.
>
> RQ is more complex but has a lot of stuff that is fixed, which a lot of people like.
>
> I enjoy both and have brought a lot of ideas from HQ into my RQ game.
>
> > How do people do this? Keeping player engagement would seem to be
> > critical. I have lots of info on the Orlanthi and comparatively
> > little on any other group, so would prefer to stick to campaigns
> > centering on them.
>
> If you have one-off games, then use pregenerated characters, as they are quicker and easier to use. You can also give each character some special magic/skills/abilities that makes them distinctive. Don't have a standard Fighter, Healer, Magician, Thief mix, but include people such as fighters but who have their own magic, traders who don't fight but use their own skills and magic to overcome obstacles and so on. Don't be afraid to use the cults, but don't introduce too much weirdness at once. Have some moral dilemmas, but not too many. Use combat but also use situations where they have to talk themselves out of danger, or have to use non-combat skills.
>
> RuneQuest is good for this because it has templates for backgrounds and professions and also has very well-described cults with specific magic. HQ1 is similar in many ways, but HQ2 has a radically different take on cults and skills, so won't be everyone's cup of tea.
>
> Don't get too deep in your first session, but make it Gloranthan enough to be different to other settings.
>
> But, whatever you do, on no account should you mention Neoplatonism.
>
> See Ya
>
> Simon
>
>