From: gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au (Graeme Lindsell)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: RQ: New Glorantha Stuff from Chaosium
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 10 Oct 1992 05:52:25 GMT
Organization: RSC, Australian National University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: rscmac56.anu.edu.au

  Greetings to all Glorantha Fans!



  On Thursday night I had the pleasure of having dinner with 

Greg Stafford, who is visiting Australia as the guest of the

"Necronomicon" convention, and who had come to Canberra for a

few days. The table talk led, rather predictably, to Glorantha

and to new products that will be coming concerning it.



Disclaimer:

 

All of this is my recollection of what Greg said, and I may

have misunderstood him or have bad memory (ie don't take any of 

this as Chaosium/Stafford gospel). I don't know how much of this 

has been discussed on the net before. Greg also said that none of

this was secret, so here it is:



 In Nov/Dec 92 Chaosium will be releasing a new book called "King of

Sartar". It will contain no rules, and will be marketed as a work

of fiction. It consists of 5 historical documents dealing with the

reign of King Argrath of Sartar, whose rule from 1625 to 1725 is

generally reckoned to cover the period of the Hero Wars. The 

documents date from 1640 to ~2600 (!) and present different views

and beliefs of Argrath, from a God to an incompetent, but all are

written from a Sartarite point of view. None of the documents agree

entirely, and some actually contradict one another. How many pages it 

runs to I forgot to ask.



 Sometime time later (no date mentioned) a companion volume will be

released dealing with the same events from a Lunar point of view. The 

only comment I remeber about this is that one of the documents refers to

Sartar, Argrath and the Hero wars in only one line:

 

             "...and there was trouble in the provinces."



 This seems to contradict what Greg said when I asked him if the

Hero Wars would destroy the Lunar Empire: "Yes". I'll have to

wait for the books I suppose.



 Converstion also turned to HeroQuest, and the "Screw HeroQuest" 

quote that caused such comment on this newsgroup a few months ago. 

Greg confirmed that he wrote that, but complained that the next 

paragraph he wrote in the same article had not been contained in 

the news item. It dealt with the new system he is working on

tentatively labelled "Epic". Epic was described as a meta-system:

not specific to RQ, it provides rules for describing a character

relation to his society and cosmos. When one generates a character

in Epic one also generates his clan and their history. Greg said

that one of the playtesters thought that Epic would be useful in

his Cthulhu campaign. Epic seems to include the rules mechanisms

that were needed for Greg's vision of HeroQuest: those that deal

with how a character can change his society, or even his cosmos 

through his actions. 



 To be released after Epic would be "Glorantha: The Game". This would

use the Epic rules in a Gloranthan setting, and I think incudes the 

roleplaying rules that are not included in Epic ( As an aside, Greg 

said that he is attracted to "systemless" game, but also that one 

needs enough rules to be able to be able to stop arguements ).

Glorantha would be a "Storytelling" system in concept, like the

White Wolf games, though not in the rules mechanisms.

 

 The first campaign for Glorantha The Game deals with the rise and

fall of one of the previous King of Sartar, whose name I can't recall:

something like Tarquin. He was, after Sartar and before Argrath, the

greatest king in Sartars history: you say "rich as Tarquin". The players

are the people who helped Tarquin on his rise, but here is where Epic

differs from other games: the scenarios take place many years apart, and

one can play the same character aged, or a relative from the same clan,

which is generated during character creation.



 Greg used an interesting example to describe something of the nature of 

Heroquesting in Glorantha, and why the Epic system was needed. Say you

return from the hero plane with a gift from your god: the specific

example  was an increase in 1-Handed Sword skill. You can be selfish 

and keep it to yourself: your attack might be 2000% and you'll critical 

on every hit. You might however give to your clan, and now every member

of your clan will have 100% skill in this. But you could give it to

your god (!), and every member of your religion increases in 1-H Sword by

1%. The lasts works as the only way a god can increase his power inside

Time: by having a hero carry it back there for him. This is a way by

which nations and religions increase their power in Glorantha.



 Why would a player give away his powers like this? In most traditional

RPG's, there is no gain in doing this outside of good roleplaying, and 

munchkins abound. In  Epic where a campaign can deal with an entire

mythic cycle of stories, such as the one's about King Tarquin, and can

take a century of game time, you have a strong motve for strengthening

your society rather than youself: your character may be 92 years old

by the next scenario.

 

 Greg compared Argrath and Harrek the Bear as heroquesters: Harrek is 

selfish and has kept all his gifts for himself: he can now destroy

regiments without working up a sweat, but these powers will die with 

him. Argrath on the other hand has given his gifts to Sartar: he is no

match for Harrek in battle but now the nation of Sartar is rising to 

defeat the Lunar Empire, and recall his name long after he is dead and

Harrek is forgotten.



 This is what I see as the primary difference between Greg's view of

heroes and what the players of RQ and Dragon Pass have thought they

were. In Dragon Pass the heroes are just mighty engines of destruction

and people thought that is all HeroQuest would do for RQ: allow one to

turn one's character into a killing machine. But Greg's vision (I think)

is that a hero is someone who creates and changes society, and around

whom mythic cycles are born. Epic and Glorantha will have these cycles

as scenarios and campaigns.



 Greg said that Epic is due out "next year, just like Heroquest always

was", but from his description it certainly seems that the project is 

well advanced.



  All of these products are going to be produced by Chaosium, not 

Avalon Hill. AH has the rights to Rune Quest but Greg owns the rights

to Glorantha. A personal observation: it seems that Greg is writing new

games systems to deal with his world, and will be marketing them through 

Chaosium. He was glad that Ken Rolston was now in charge of RQ at Avalon 

Hill, and it doesn't sound like "Glorantha The Game" will be set at

the same level as RQ, but I think he wants the game which covers Glorantha

to be back fully under his control. 



Graeme Lindsell: a.k.a gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au

Research School of Chemistry, Australian National University.


Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc