Tell me about Runequest / Glorantha

[Turjan]

I've forgotten to address the magic level of Glorantha. Magic is everywhere. In this sense it's the complete antithesis to Hârn. Every peasant is capable of wielding some magic to enhance the crop or make the cattle fertile. Common magic is just that: common magic that nearly everybody can wield. But if you really want to master magic, you have to leave your common magic behind (or part of it) and devote yourself to one of the paths of magic.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

A few things I did not mention, which may, or may not be important to you:

Glorantha the game world was originally designed around RuneQuest the game and much of the early material has a lot of RQ rules. Since the publication of HeroQuest (which is completely incompatible with RQ) the game world material contains a lot of HQ rules.

Hârn splits its material fairly strictly, with HârnMaster publications dealing with the game rules and HârnWorld material being rules free (although some recent scenarios give HârnMaster & d20 stats for NPC's). In the main, however, you'll find npc's described physically & by occupation, personality etc. Not by stat, level & class. If you really want to check out Hârn go to http://www.columbiagames.com/cgi-bin/query/cfg/zoom.cfg?product_id=5634 and check out the pdf sample.

Oh, and Wombat is right in that the Hârn maps are excellent. As for the Gods, well lots of people have problems with gods, not only in Hârn. At least there are only a dozen, less to confuse the players with.
I love Glorantha, buth the existence of three 'small' fire gods Mahome, the Hearthhfire Goddess, Gustbran, the Workfire God, and Oakfed, the wildfire give you an idea on the complexities of Gloranthan religions.

GOM

 

[glass]

There is a huge thread over at RPG.net at the moment about a forthcoming new version of RuneQuest from Mongoose.


glass.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I'm confused, who owns the rights to the 'classic' RuneQuest. Avalon Hill? Greg Stafford? Chaosium? Steve Perrin (who wrote most of it and IMO should own it)? Mongoose? Issaries Inc.?

GOM

 

[Glyfair]

I'm confused, who owns the rights to the 'classic' RuneQuest. Avalon Hill? Greg Stafford? Chaosium? Steve Perrin (who wrote most of it and IMO should own it)? Mongoose? Issaries Inc.?

That's alright, I think almost everyone not involved is confused, and even most of them.

When Chaosium was getting ready for Runequest 3 they set up a relationship with Avalon Hill to publish it. I'm not certain of the reasons, perhaps Chaosium didn't think they had enough resources to support the level of interest the game had. So, from that point on, all new official material was published by Avalon Hill.

Unfortunately, the diehard Runequest players tended to dislike the new version of Runequest. Glorantha (the main attraction of the game) was moved to an optional setting, along with an "alternate Earth" option. Many of the new rules were more complex and slowed the game down (particularly the fatigue rules that, while pretty realistic, were very cumbersome).

For a while Runequest was up and down. Non-Gloranthan supplements (except for Vikings) were widely panned. A lot of otherwise good supplements had horrible art (particularly one artist who is still reviled by the Gloranthan community).

Eventually, a large fan group developed with some great fan publications (particularly, "Tales of the Reaching Moon"). Combined with Avalon Hil make Ken Rolston the "RQ Czar" we have the beginning of the "Runequest Renaissance." Lots of great supplements came out during this time. There were hiccups that hurt the continuity of the game (the great Elmal controversy). However, overall products were well done.

Eventually, an RQ4 was developed and was in playtesting. I believe, if you search, you can find copies of it online. It was generally considered, by playtesters, to be superior to RQ3. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day.

For some reason the relationship between Avalon Hill and Chaosium deteriated. Ken Rolston was no longer at the company. Chaosium (or Greg, who personally owns Glorantha, IIRC) wanted Glorantha back.

They reached some sort of an agreement to split. Avalon Hill retained the rights to the Runequest name and started developing Runequest Slayers (which can be found online, too). Chaosium/Greg Stafford kept the rights to Glorantha. The system got split at that point. Chaosium still had the rights to publish games based on the "Basic Roleplaying System" that developed out of Runequest, since they were publishing games that used it (most notably, Call of Cthulhu). Avalon Hill kept the rights to the parts of the system that weren't part of BRPS, particularly the magic system.

Then Avalon Hill was purchased by Hasbro and all their roleplaying development seized. They already had a successful RPG under their wing, and didn't believe in competing with itself, having learned those lessons from TSR.

Eventually, Hero Wars was released. This was supposed to be the system for epic roleplaying, Heroquest, that was promised in RQ publications since the late 70's. Eventually, a later edition would be called Heroquest, once another companies rights to the name lapsed.

You can see a slightly different, and more detailed, viewpoint at http://www.maranci.net/rqpastold.htm

Long story short; Greg/Issaries, Inc. owns the rights to Glorantha. Hasbro owned the rights to the name Runequest (which seems to have either lapsed, been licensed, or been purchased). The base system is availble to Chaosium. The rest of the system seems to be owned by Hasbro.

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I love Glorantha, love RuneQuest, but though I've tried several times I cannot get into HeroQuest.

I'd buy RQ4, provided it's not a completely new game.

GOM

 

[howandwhy99]

Thanks for all the input. It's more than I had actually hoped for.

One question I have: Am I confusing Harn and Glorantha somehow? For some reason they were always intermixed in my head. Do they have the same publisher? Creator? Initial game system? Now I have learned a little more it seems the two are very different.

In terms of product it looks like the HarnWorld box set is a good deal to learn more about Harn. Is there something from Issaries 2nd edition which is equivalent? What I found on their website lists are either out of print of for HeroQuest.

I appreciate the links too.

 

[WayneLigon]

One question I have: Am I confusing Harn and Glorantha somehow? For some reason they were always intermixed in my head. Do they have the same publisher? Creator? Initial game system? Now I have learned a little more it seems the two are very different.

They share nothing at all as far as the things you mention. Harn was written several years after RuneQuest and has a totally different game system.

I would not exactly call RQ a 'low magic' world but rather a 'low power' one. Everyone can and does learn some magic unless they are just lazy, incredibly poor, or stupid. Pretty much anyone joining a cult, and almost everyone does, can learn some battle magic spells for a pretty reasonable price.

You have 'battle magic' or 'spirit magic' spells that are generally low-power spells that do some basic things like create light or make your sword a better weapon. Most battle magic in the original rules had levels from 1-6; that was also the amount of temporary Power ( a stat, usually 3-18) used to power it. Spells could also be powered, if I remember right, by bound spirits.

There was Rune Magic, which came directly from your god and could do a great many things. There were some generic Rune Magic spells, then each god had one or more spells that could be learned by initiates and priests. Initiates could learn rune magic but it cost them permanent points of Power to do so; it was one-use and then you had to spend permanent Power again to get it back (Power had a chance of increasing every time you overcame someone's resistance with it). Priests had access to some renewable spells but they renewed only once per week. Rune magic wasn't something you just tossed around willy-nilly. My favorite one? Couvade (sp, probably), from the cult of Kyger Litor, the troll goddess. It passes all the pain and discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth to the male. It makes birth easier for the female (a prime consideration, given the troll curse mentioned above) and the male gets points for the macho suffering. Though I don't think there were rules for it, massed priests could combine their power and really change things. They could cause earthquakes, move mountains, burn cities, all that good stuff. The really powerful stuff was very rare; you might see a couple three incidents of it in your lifetime.

There were some other types of magic as well. The atheistic Brythonians (I think) had a form of sorcery (you saw this in RQ3), and I'm pretty sure the people of Pamalt had another system. The far east used dragon magic.

Major magic items were pretty rare but small petty ones were not uncommon.

 

[Turjan]

Long story short; Greg/Issaries, Inc. owns the rights to Glorantha. Hasbro owned the rights to the name Runequest (which seems to have either lapsed, been licensed, or been purchased). The base system is availble to Chaosium. The rest of the system seems to be owned by Hasbro.

Hasbro let the trademark for RuneQuest lapse, and Issaries (the publisher of HeroQuest) renewed the trademark for themselves. Issaries is licensing the trademark Runequest and the world of Glorantha to Mongoose now.

 

[Ysgarran]

That's alright, I think almost everyone not involved is confused, and even most of them.

When Chaosium was getting ready for Runequest 3 they set up a relationship with Avalon Hill to publish it. I'm not certain of the reasons, perhaps Chaosium didn't think they had enough resources to support the level of interest the game had. So, from that point on, all new official material was published by Avalon Hill.

Around this time (1983) Avalon Hill also came out with their system called 'Powers and Perils', which I always thought was a conflict of interest when they were supposed to be supporting the RuneQuest system.