My little dream of running some classic Runequest, and current obsession months in the making, has come to wonderful fruition! Well, OK, don’t want to oversell it. Character creation took a little longer than I had planned, and seemed crunchier than I expected. I always found character creation sessions some of the most fun you can have in gaming, and it was, but with a voice hoarse from a cold the other week and NYE this week, it was a bit like work as well. A couple of the players had unusual levels of bitchiness (post holidays blues?), and I had to repeat things a lot as we went through the stat rolling and skill and ability modifying process.
Weapons and strike rank (hoo boy, strike rank) set-up too, and all during the process I tried to interject setting info that had to do with this and that. Without stuffing it down their throat, I mentioned cults and gods here and there and how they might fit in with the lives they have planned for the characters. And they did pan out pretty good, considering I made them all Sartarites and had them roll for background (human characters can be overly similar in RQ, so a little personal character flavor can go a long way). Three of the four players present this night rolled townspeople, and Paul got to be the sole barbarian. Amusingly, he decided he wanted his tribe to be sheep herders. “I wish I could quit you!”
Most interestingly, Paul’s barbarian got a 4 for size (I actually had them roll three sets of stats in order, and the one with the size 4 was most appealing to Paul). So, the party had a midget in their midst. An M&M in a bowl of Snickers Bars.
Terry’s girl and Big Ben’s dude were from the capitol Boldhome, and Andy made his guy be from Jonstown, near as I can tell from the setting is the sister city to Boldhome. You see, the setting info for classic Glorantha is spread out over tha’ internets like melted peanut butter. Most of the stuff you can find ends up being about Heroquest or other Glorantha games set in time periods different than the classic one (the period after Starbrows Rebellion). Even though I have a couple of items with info on classic Dragons Pass, I’m still having to guess and half guess so many things it makes my head fucking spin. But I guess this is a good way to make Glorantha your own. Intentional? I dunno. Pain the ass? Kinda. I don’t want to buy any Runequest material (last I looked a year or two ago the 2nd edition Runequest book of my youth was going for more than 50 bucks), so I’m restricting myself to online info (the Runequest forums aren’t exactly hopping) and whatever I can pilfer online in terms of PDFs.
Anyway, the three young townies and the barbarian midget (with a size of 4 he could wear Vern Troyers kilt – but I still let him use a long spear) came to the spring festival in a certain town famous for apples and a tin roofed public lodge, and ended up doing the “tribal initiation” routine found in classic RQ. Basically, fighting other young, wisecracking punks to the death in Humakt Battle Circles, with a powerful healer nearby. Good thing, because after the characters paired up in teams of 2 (I wanted to go easy on myself and have them fight each other instead of NPCs) and fought the good fight, Ben’s guy was taken out by a spear through the bread basket, and Paul’s wee sheep laddie found his left arm chopped off. This was nice surprise for these guys used to D&D, I tell you what. As the healer did her thing, they got the gravity of the situation; you can get seriously jacked-up in combat in RQ. Death and amputation lurks around every corner. Nice.
Anyway, that combat took awhile as many RQ combats do. They take awhile early on when nobody can land a blow for shit, and it will take awhile later on when everyone can parry every attack. But it was a good practice session for characters, players, and GM. Still a lot of kinks to work our regarding movement and statement of intent in combat (it’s a realy buzzkill in gaming), but I think I made my rules skill check. Hopefully it will be easier next time.
The characters retreated to the Inn to have refreshments bought for them by amused combat spectators, and celebrate their first real life or death combat.
Next time, a little more festival fun and mini-games to get them a variety of skill checks (I also had the Humakt guys build an obstacle course that could test jump, climb, and dodge skills), and perhaps the characters first job and a brush with something they have been frightened of since childhood: Chaos.
