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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4906072" data-attributes="member: 80487">Brief mechanical note: Somewhere along the line (either RQ3 or an earlier CoC, I think), the basic human range for Intelligence and Size changed from 3d6 to 2d6+6.On Glorantha: RQ originally was somewhat tied to Greg Stafford's imagined world, previously explored in the board games White Bear & Red Moon (later Dragon Pass) and Nomad Gods. The rulebook gave only a broad sketch of the setting, but Cults of Prax and other supplements (including The Wyrms Footnotes magazine) filled in more.Today, Mongoose RQ is set in the earlier Second Age, while Hero Quest (formerly Hero Wars) presents an evolving picture of the Third Age in which the original game was set.It is to an extent more an "ancient" than a "medieval" setting, although there's a Dark Age feel to the tribes of Sartar and a more High Medieval one to the West. The common metal for arms and armor is called "bronze", while "iron" is a treasure for the equipment of rune lords. Those are just analogous names, though, for exotic Gloranthan minerals ("bronze" being mined from the bones of dead gods).The world itself is not a globe but a squarish lozenge. The earth floats upon the Primal Ocean. Above it is the airy realm of storm gods, and above that an off-center celestial bowl rotating about the fixed Pole Star. Beneath earth and sea is the dark, silent Underworld.The edges of two continents separated by ocean, and some islands in between, are the habitations of mortals. Beyond them lie realms of myth wherein dwell immensely powerful supernatural races.Before Time, there was a War of the Gods that loosed Chaos upon the world and plunged it into Darkness when Death drove the Sun into the Underworld (where the dark-loving trolls had previously lived in peace).Much more has happened since: the Dawn Ages, ended with the birth of the Chaos god Gbaji; the Empire of the Wyrms Friends and the Third Council; the rise of the dragonewts, their betrayal by humans, and the Dragonkill War (named for what the dragons did, not what they suffered).The great conflict of the Third Age was brought on by the ascension of the Red Moon Goddess and the rapid expansion of her son's Lunar Empire. There is rebellion in occupied Dragon Pass, focal point of the Hero Wars.The eastward Plains of Prax, and nearby Sun County, however, were the focus of RQ material. There are several human tribes, each with its own distinctive (non-horse) mount. There is also the tribe of tapir-like Morokanth, whose herds are manlike. Adventurers flock to the city of New Pavis, seeking their fortunes in the vast ruins of giant-built Old Pavis -- the Big Rubble.Besides the trolls (of several types, the stunted trollkin most common due to an ancient curse, mighty foes of Chaos with mutual enmities toward other races), dragonewts and dragons already mentioned, there are also dwarfs, elves and anthropomorphic ducks. These all have their own characters; they are not mere re-hashings of Norse mythology or Tolkien's take. The variegated beast-man broos are notably terrible Chaotic marauders, and there are other distinctively Gloranthan creatures as well as those (such as centaurs) familiar from Earthly myth.The rune cults are central features, anticipating the "factions" of various sorts that have since become common in fantasy RPGs (perhaps most notably those of White Wolf).</blockquote>

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