Addendum: Second Age Refuge?

Could Sanctuary work in the Second Age of Glorantha?  As it is located very near Zistorwal, the Clanking City, it would make a nice base for PCs involved there.  Ilsigi could again be Heortlings, with the EWF taking the place of the Rankans and the God Learners/Zistorites the Nisibisi.  The Waertagi have been swept from the seas by the God Learners, so they fit as the Beysibs again.  The EWF have savage leaders like Varankol the Mangler and in fact, you could just make Vashanka a member of the Eternal Dragon Ring who is defeated in battle, with Tempus as his closest associate.  Savankala could be the Golden Dragon Sun.  In fact, it probably all works better like that, with added dragons!  What's not to like?

Sanctuary Much

One of the things I retrieved from the UK recently was my Chaosium edition of Thieves' World.  As classic games go, this is really up there with the best of them.  The only thing missing was the original Personalities of Sanctuary book, which I had discarded at some point because I had the RQIII stats in the Thieves' World Companion. Darn it!  As it happens, I discovered the recent Green Ronin game based on Sanctuary was available direct from them for a fraction of the price asked at my FLGS, so I ordered that for comparison.  So far it feels like a useful addition to my Thieves' World games collection.

But what has this got to do with Runequest, I hear you ask.  Well, not only was the Chaosium set put together by Greg Stafford himself, complete with RQII and then RQIII stats, but Sanctuary itself was transplanted to Glorantha.  As "Refuge," the city was perched at the tip of the Eastern peninsula of the Holy Country.  Beyond that, however, I know nothing, but as I intend to make that area an attractive adventuring element in my sandbox I have decided that Refuge will indeed be Sanctuary transplanted.

Stalethia the Moondancer

Inspired by this thread on the Mongoose forum, I decided to try to create a Lunar magician.  As it happens, I needed to design one for my campaign, so if you are a player, read no further, there be spoilers ahead! I think these rules for Lunar Magic work quite well and are based on the original rules in Gods of Glorantha adapted to be more compatible with new, improved Sorcery.  As you might guess, some of the inspiration for the character comes from Ni Chang, the white-haired witch in The Forbidden Kingdom (a very Gloranthan movie).

Stalethia the Moondancer, Agent (Rune Priestess) of HonEel the Dancer

Stalethia is a direct descendent of HonEel herself, although via a cadet branch, and therefore a distant cousin of JarEel the Razoress.  She therefore considers herself akin to a demigoddess, although few others do.  She has therefore trained herself to the utmost to perform missions on behalf of the Emperor in the hope that Takenegi might notice her and raise her to her appropriate position of honor.  She is willing to do anything in the service of the Empire and to honor her ancestor.  Fortune has brought her to Prax, where she is working with Imperial intelligence to subvert local authority and bring it under the control of the Count of Prax, her cousin SorEel the Short.  Stalethia’s preferred modus operandi is seduction (either sex, she doesn’t care), although if she has to engage in combat she is no slouch, and her Lunar Magic and heroic abilities can make her extremely deadly.

Best Description of Third Age Glorantha, Ever!

It comes from Deleriad in this thread at RPG.net:

My personal view of Third Age Glorantha is that it's somewhat like, what if the Romans had discovered nuclear bombs while the Greeks had dabbled in Lovecraftian science. The two empires had then both imploded and taken large chunks of the landscape with them and only the fundamentalists who had refused to have anything to do with either, had survived into a "new dark age." Only now, some more fools with more brain than sense had managed to hurl a portion of the planet into space in order to make a moon. To me, that's the backdrop.

 That's about the size of it...

Inspiration from the Doctor

With the new Doctor Who almost here in the States and already there over in the UK, it occurred to me I wanted to mention how the last episode of the last season contained some rather nice inspiration for a Gloranthan theme.  The corrupt Time Lords had engineered the return of Gallifrey and the Doctor berated them:

"You weren't there in the final days of the War. You never saw what was born. But if the time lock's broken, then everything is leaking through. Not just the Daleks but the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, The Could-Have-Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never Weres. The War turned into Hell and that's what you opened, right above the Earth. Hell is descending!"

 That sounds like God Learner territory to me. Under attack by all the forces of myth in Glorantha, what could the God Learners have created to defend them?  Their magical imagination would have been stretched to the limits. What if the last desperate act of the God Learners in Jrustela was to lock part of their existence away, including the war against them, waiting for a chance to return?  Preventing their return could be a major act in the Hero Wars.  Perhaps the Nightmare Child and the Could-Have-Been Kin will make an appearance in my campaign in years to come...

Character Bank

Goodness.  Is it that long since I last posted?  In any event, inspired by a post on the Mongoose Runequest II Forum, I thought I'd post some generic NPCs along the lines of the useful generic NPCs in the old Gamesmaster's Handbook.  They're based on an 80pt characteristic build, with 200 free skill points, so as not to overshadow PCs.  They try to follow the characteristic spread of the NPCs in the Handbook, some of which were rather odd (generic herder with a CHA of 17?).  They're made for Glorantha, hence the Common Magic skills.  We start with 4 barbarians...