Glorantha - How was it back then and how is it now?

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
There are also the different ages, kind of like dealing with Tolkien. RQ2 was set in late age, a time after the major civilizations had collapsed and new ones were forming. Mongoose RQ was set in an earlier time period (I didn't really get into any of the MRQ Glorantha supplements).

The variety of RQ can also be an impediment, RQ1, RQ2, RQ3, MRQ1, MRQ2, RQ6, Mythras, OMG... :clown:


Agree Glorantha in the RQ3 period seemed drab by comparison, kind of phoned in compared to other material. The period between RQ2 and MRQ is also when Greg was doing Heroquest, a much lighter system which I think encouraged the deeper dive into Gloranthan mythology. Less time needed to stat everything out, so more time to get into fine details and the big picture.

I'm going to disagree on the RQ6 aspect. I like Mythras, but it can be a bit much at times and makes me very aware of the rules. Granted I've got 40 years with BRP, but for me RQ2 strikes a nice balance being crunchy but not too crunchy and it tends to stay out of its own way. Going with RQ6 wouldn't have been a huge issue for me, but I don't at all see sticking with the known RQ2 as a mistake.
In the 80s I probably would have been all over that extra crunch but these days I can really appreciate the lower end rules of CoC or Magic World / Elric.
I know I have changed tastes because I strongly disliked Stormbringer when it came out seeing it as a watered down RQ. CoC got more of a pass from me since it was further removed from RQ being a "modern" horror game.
 
On what member of the BRP family RQG should have looked like - Here's an argument for the RQ2 base they started from - It makes the old material, which is now in print again, pretty much usable without conversion work. That makes it the most accessible for new players. Now for those who have a favorite member of the BRP that isn't RQ2, well if you wanted to use the old material you were already converting, so the need to convert the new material isn't any more of an impediment. It also makes sense for them to use a rules base that they own the copyrights to.

Personally, as a steadfast fan of RQ1, I'm happy the new RQG is based on RQ2, it makes it easier for me to use any new material I might choose to pick up.
 
I think you prove my point in a way.

You were exposed to more material before it really got deep. Yet even before it got deep you sought out more material than normal which still forms your current perception.

The reality RQ/Glorantha butts heads with is this:

Most players not only don't care about setting fluff. Most players will never read setting fluff.

Which is why more or less Medieval Tolkienesque settings still work, and are still the overwhelming choice in the wider hobby.

Because their mythic underpinnings are already part of a lot of people's cultural upbringing, and they don't need to have commonplace things in the setting explained to them. Most can just jump in a game and pick up a settings nuances as they go along - never feeling as if they are a fish out of water, or that they have no idea how something works.

Whereas in just baseline RQ: Even "Elves", are really plant people...

I couldn't quite agree with your post before this one I am quoting. That said I do over all agree with your points in this post however unpopular that might be. :wink: You have the long standing huge popularity of the very generic Forgotten Realms as a prime example of your point.
 
The only issue for really long-term Gloranthan fans is that we are waiting for the RQG Cults books to be produced, as we know this opens up the choice of character concept considerably. But newcomers don't need to worry about that, they have everything they need with the RQG Starter Set, RQG Core Book, and RQG GM Pack. If they want to branch out, the RQG Bestiary is there, as well as two other adventures books which detail regions in Sartar that can overlap with the regions detailed in the Starter Set and the GM Pack.
The other big shoe we're wait to drop is the homelands books. OK, small footwear collection. That makes the setting "bigger", but in a way that makes 100% sense -- which isn't something you could always have said about the publication strategy underlying past incarnations of RQ and Glorantha. If you want to run a game there or are otherwise highly interested, buy that book. If you don't and you're not, don't. (I won't suggest "and don't complain about it", but if RPG forums have taught us anything, it's that people will complain either way.) It also helps get past that slightly awks place of, yes that HW/HQ stuff is all terrible and wrong, but no, we haven't anything to replace it with yet. Never mind all that appalling "fan-published material", even if the author was one F. G. Stafford.
So alot of these concerns regarding the setting being too big are not such a big deal with the current RQG line.
A lot of these concerns read like exercises in grinding very old axes. Which is fair enough to a point -- we all have 'em, and can't let 'em get too blunt after all!

If the setting is too big, arguably it's that it's proved too big for publishers. The trend has been that we start each cycle with a flurry of publications, combining new material, reissues, and retcons of old stuff. After a while that peters out for one reason or another, and then a number of years later it starts again with a different game/edition/publisher/set of writers/others.
 
I’d actually forgotten about Strangers in Prax. Yeah, that was terrible. Even the production values were bad - pixelated cover art and an ugly purple border.
You’ll be excited by the news that Strangers in Prax has been reset and sent to Chaosium.

 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top