Adventures in Glorantha Take 2: RQ Encounter Generator Previews All The World’s Monsters

Adventures in Glorantha Preview finally brings us official RQ6 versions of multitude of beasts in Glorantha. So far we have 35+ years of history of different versions of Runequest and magazines.  AiG gives them an unified view of the stats and skills. This of course meant that I needed to change the stats in RQ6 Encounter Generator as these have been so far either direct conversions or my interpretations of the monsters. The enemies that have been changed are still my interpretations of the AiG as they are based on the Preview and the rules are not fully complete yet. Like noted in my first look at Adventures in Glorantha elder races are not yet described in AiG Preview.  I remain in gratitude that I got permission at GenCon to do this upgrade under the normal Fan Policy.

All the enemies in RQ Encounter Generator that have been presented in AiG have now been gone thru and the skills, stats, hit locations, armour, movement rates, weapon damage and abilities have been revised and updated. Many new entries also exist in the additional feature tables but they contain also many of the previous entries. In many cases the skills have gone up, new skills added and abilities added or even removed – in many other cases the characteristics are different than originally. There are also new additional features like Gloranthan Snake Venom types.  For example Dream Dragons are far more deadlier and versatile opponents than originally.  As the AiG preview does not contain the cults yet – my versions of the entries have versions of Glorantha One Pager cults – like Aranea. This is a first cut and I may need to tune them still in future and the changes may reverberate to other monsters that are similar to these. All the changed monsters have a tag Aig on them so they can be easily found.

Textual descriptions in AiG feel in most cases richer than original entries in the original book or magazine. There is advice on tactics in many cases. Some of the entries in AiG are very rich indeed (like the Vampire or Dream Dragon). I can feel the sense of care being put to the bestiary as unified whole and can only imagine the moments of cackling madness of joy that the creators must have had in creating and writing the monsters. This is Glorantha brought to the 2015’s.  I am looking forward to final version of AiG in Chaosium Runequest as an indispensable aid for GM in Glorantha.

Here is the list of updated monsters.

Morituri Te Salutant – Gladiators in RQ6 and Glorantha

Gladiators – Pete Nash wrote an excellent article on gladiators for Swedish Roleplaying Magazine – Fenix  He described well the many different forms of gladiators and their tactics which is well worth a look. Gladiators in history were very popular and could be a good source of scenario hooks in addition to forcing the players to arena to participate.

Here are RQ Encounter Generator versions of them. These are all human…

“Returning to the Arena today, after five years in retirement. We are pleased to bring you… the only undefeated champion in Fonrit history: the legendary Doom That Came from Temissrah

Here are all of them at school

Adventures in Glorantha Preview (RQ6) First Look

This is a first look at Adventures in Glorantha – Special GenCon 2015 Preview. I got my copy at GenCon booth from the hands of Pete Nash. The first look is based on one reading thru and then looking at high points on each chapter. I will be posting more comments as I delve deeper into and use the material later on.

The preview is spiral bound, hard copy only and only 50 copies have been printed for sale – the last two items are due to contractual agreements.

This is preview only with final set coming as a Chaosium Runequest by next GenCon. The Chaosium Runequest will be Glorantha based version of RQ6 – not a (near) generic one that the Runequest 6 is. The writers of the Chaosium Runequest will be the indomitable Loz and Pete so no worries there. Jeff said there will be art so this looks promising. RQ6 rules will not change but there might be slight tunings – so it will still be Runequest 6 that we have grown to love. You will see during the rest of the “first look” that it might not be so hard to use those rules elsewhere – pure speculation on my part of course as I intend to use mine in a Gloranthan campaign.

Executive summary: 

It is 212 pages of Gloranthan Runequest goodness – totally worth it.

More detail

Preview does not contain yet cults, elder races, heroquests, Lunar magic, mysticism, the runes, appendices or the scenario. Adventures in Glorantha refers to standard RQ6 rules so you will need those as well.

We have (page count is approximate) introduction ( 1 page), the world of Glorantha (16 pages), character creation (26 pages), money and equipment (11 pages), magic (4 pages), folk magic (6 pages), rune magic (54 pages), sorcery  (11 pages), all the worlds monsters (57 pages), appendix C Chaos (4 pages).

World of Glorantha gives you a standard, canon and up to date look at Glorantha – history, geography, technology base, monetary base, description of the races and succinct description of the main areas: Balazar & Elder Wilds, Dragon Pass, Esrolia, God Forgot, Maniria, Prax, Pavis, Sun County, Corflu and Lunar Empire.

Character creation has tweaks to the standard RQ6 generation made for Rune Affinities (needed for cults) and the ubiquitous languages and folk magic.  There are Gloranthan combat styles which can be more varied than in base RQ6 and guidance how the styles are used in Glorantha. These rules will give more flavour to character creation.

You can generate characters for Balazaring, Esrolian, God Forgot, Lunar Heartland, Lunar Provincial, Praxian, Sartarite,Tarsh and Telmori Hsunchen cultures. All of these are given enough colourful information to make the choice of background interesting. Each of the backgrounds contain language, standard skills, professional skills, careers, combat styles, folk magic and passions typical for that background. Some of the areas have not been touched earlier on in popular Runequest material and everything has been brought up to date with GtG at least to my eyes and deepened to contain RQ level crunch. To me the material is evocative.

Background creation also has a Gloranthan version of the unique background events.

Money and Equipment

This chapter contains excellent and quite detailed information on the values of things in Glorantha. What was very useful from my point of view was the info on land and property and transport and shipping costs and trade goods. You could very easily whip up a Trader campaign on this information alone and especially combined with the Trade route chapter on GtG.

There is also a chapter on new weapons for Lunars and a variety of shields for various common cultures. The metal chapter contains among other things the rules for iron – the magic dampening deadly metal against trolls and elves.

Magic

The preview points at terms in Rq2,Rq3,Rq6 to make it easier to convert scenarios and material from earlier versions of Runequest. There is a background advice how to deal with existing campaigns.

There are several kinds of magic available in AiG. Folk Magic is progressive – as it should be in Glorantha. Rune Magic (called Theist Magic outside Glorantha) is using Runes instead of Devotion.  Spirit Magic is called Animism outside Glorantha. Sorcery – you can use RQ6 sorcery or a new form of sorcery emerging in Glorantha. We remain waiting for the Lunar magic and Dragonic Mysticism. In my campaign in Glorantha I will continue using the RQ6 Sorcery and RQ6 Mysticism until they are further revealed.

Acolytes and Adepts do not exist in Adventures in Glorantha so initiate and devotee rules regarding available magic have been modified to take that into account.   If your Glorantha varies so that you want to have acolytes, I see no reason why it could not use standard RQ6 here.

Progressive folk magic is optional and different than what has been proposed with generally available RQ mod – progressive folk magic. The one described in AiG is smooth mechanic much more in line with folk magic being not as powerful as Rune Magic. There are 5 pages worth of folk magic spells – almost all of which could be used in non-Gloranthan campaign as well.

Rune Magic chapter has a mention of the new mechanics related to casting the rune Magic with runes instead of Devotion even though the Devotion is still used. For devotees it will be possible to use even more powerful magic act called feat that is cult or hero quest specific. Feats will likely be revealed when more cults are revealed.

There are 384 (three hundred eighty four) (give or take some) Rune Spells described with their effects making it the largest collection of official Rune Spells in a single place I have seen so far in Gloranthan and Runequest history. This is real Magical Mystery Tour – grimoire of extraordinary proportions – more than 50 pages of spells. In comparison RQ6 base rules have 65 or so Theist spells (many of which are included in the above 384).

The descriptions contain the runes that can use the spell, cost, duration and effects and whether the spell is still available (there are some old spells that are marked either withdrawn or replaced by a new one). According to Pete it should contain new version of all or almost all the rune spells published in ‘official’ publications since the Dawn and some completely new ones as well. None of the spells have cult association but it has rune association so we will need to populate the cults with spells that have appropriate runes. Glorantha is full of magic.

Sorcery is very different in Glorantha. Gloranthan sorcery is now brought up to date with GtG approach but there is an also an option to use the standard RQ6 sorcery or even a mix. I will need a bit more time to think about Gloranthan sorcery approach which looks to be much more free form than standard RQ6 sorcery.

Spirit Magic has a new way for doing spirit combat in Glorantha and loads of spirit abilities and how to work with spirits in Glorantha and eight pages on Gloranthan great spirits like Dark Eater, Father of Independents and Oakfed.

All the world’s monsters has close to twenty creature abilities for Glorantha several of which add to ones on RQ6 and Monster Island. The chapter then dives into describing a cornucopia of Gloranthan monsters – more than 80 of them depending how you count described over more than 50 pages. Many of the monsters are new to RQ6 but old foes to Gloranthan players but there a few completely new. Now we have the official RQ6 version of many of the  commonly known monsters (Dream Dragon, Dragonsnail, Gorp) – several exotic ones (Charnjibber, Headhanger, Glarg, Nakasa). The descriptions are full of usual goodness and use both new and old abilities in nice combinations. Dream dragons will be even more deadly foes than before – and your desire to meet a Walktapus or Jack’o’Bear is even less than before. With elder races missing we are missing trolls, dwarves, elves, scorpion men and even broos. No – there are no ducks (or keets)…

What I liked most: Rune magic, Progressive folk magic, Trading, Character Backgrounds, Monsters.

What needs time to sink in: Gloranthan Sorcery

What’s not to like: the final version is coming next summer

For non-Gloranthan GM’s: take a look at the spell and monster list and see – you could use those or parts of those in non-Gloranthan fantasy worlds – quite easily.

This is truly worthy preview of things to come in Chaosium Runequest and it was pure enjoyment to read thru. Now to update the RQ Encounter Generator to support it and start using the preview as my campaign rules.  Can’t wait for the final version that is coming next summer.

RQ encounter Generator take on Aig monsters is here

More Sea Monsters of Glorantha

Here is a taste of more sea monsters for RQ Encounter Generator  inspired by the excellent Hearts In Glorantha Collection, volume 1

There are many more monsters in the Hearts in Glorantha Collection – like Geysers, Whirlpools, Tentacled things and boatloads of enemies in the sea and scenario seeds.

More Sea Monsters are available here

Sea Monsters of Glorantha – Brief Overview

Summer is the time for frolicking in the sea. Here are a few sea monsters for RQ Encounter Generator inspired by an article about prehistoric sea monsters.

There are of course others

and or course Zeech, the Slithering Whale

So you want to generate RQ Encounters for RQ6 but do not want them to be in Glorantha

There are people who want to play in different worlds than in Glorantha but still want to use Runequest 6 and make it easy to create the encounters. That is very straightforward. There is an article on searching but below are few extra tips.

Use the filters

Select either “Fantasy”, “RQ6”, “Sea”. “Plant”, “Jungle”, “Monster Island”, “Chaos” as your filters in enemies or parties page. Most of the results will be non Gloranthan
There is a tag “Rq6” that shows you only the monsters defined in RQ6 rule book. There are a few missing (humans, elves, dwarves but they are described with their Gloranthan counterparts). I added the tag to most my creations but there are some in RQ6 book that I have not created the template but somebody else has.  There is also a tag “Monster Island” which shows all the entries from Monster Island.

Use the home page

Type -Glorantha on the home page and you will get only non Gloranthan results. Currently the minus only works in the home page. for example try typing into the home page (not enemies page, not parties page) Fantasy -Glorantha -Sea and you will see the list which has tags “Fantasy” but not Glorantha and not Sea.

Search with monster names

Search “Giant”, “Zombie”, “Skeleton”, “Lion”, “Tiger”, “Sorcerer”, “Primitive” etc and you will find quite a few entries.

About the tags. 

Tags are personal – so each creator of the encounter can only tag his own entries. There might therefore be differences in how people have tagged their creations over time.

Very short introduction how to map (Gloranthan) RQ Encounters to your generic fantasy world.

Many encounters in RQ Encounter tool are made for Glorantha but you can use all or most of them easily on any world with just a few tips.
 I am really direct and brief here – so forgive me – oh grognards of Glorantha for inaccuracies.
Forget about the names of the gods – think of the aspect below.
If you do not like to use the magic provided – discard it.
If you do not want to think of gods at all – drop them – just use the spells.

Mapping list

  • Orlanth  = Storm god, god of warriors. Worshippers of Orlanth can be used  as your standard barbarians
  • Umathela, Sartar = your standard barbarian areas
  • Afadjann, Fonrit,Kareeshtu = Think of thousand and one nights tales inhabitants
  • Agimori – Very tall dark people
  • Agartha, Akakor, Zerzura = Serpent people tribes from Monster Island
  • Anguri, Gabari, Gamari,Ghidori, Kamacuri, Kangi,Kumongi, Oodaki, Primitive tribesmen from jungle from Monster Island
  • Aranea = Spider god
  • Argan Argar = Troll trader god
  • Pavis = big frontier city
  • Balazaring = primitive hunter gatherers
  • Basmoli = Lion god
  • Broo = Chaos Hybrids with usually goat’s heads
  • Chaos = that unruly evil thing that you must oppose
  • Undead = those that live but do not
  • Doraddi = another tall, dark people tribe
  • Lodril = Volcano god
  • Exiger = excellent fighters
  • Etyries, Issaries = trader gods
  • Humakt = death god for warriors
  • Wachaza = Sea warrior death god
  • Ludoch, Malasp = mermen
  • Lunar = civilized warriors – think Roman, Persian
  • Lankhor Mhy = knowledge god
  • Odayla = hunter god
  • Waha = nomad chieftain god
  • Mallia = Causer of Disease God
  • Chalana Arroy = Healer god
  • Thed, Ragnaglar = Chaos Gods
  • Thanatari = Chaos knowledge god – headhunters
  • Yelmalio = Solar warrior god
  • Yelm = Solar ruler god.

This tackles most common ones in the RQ Encounter parties list.

Putting on my Protection from Flames spell with maximum intensity…

Creating your own encounters

If you do not find the right kind of encounters it is easy to create your own. Use a good tagging strategy when you do – see how others have tagged theirs.

Game Night supported by Mythras Encounter tool

RQ Encounter Generator provides you a way to very quickly generate evenings worth of encounters for your RQ6 game session. There are more than 1900 distinct encounter templates for enemies and hundreds of different ready made party encounters.  There are multiple ways of using the floor for preparing.

A. Using it on the fly

You need to have internet connection and preferably a printer available.

Find an enemy or party using the search tools

1. filter by category

2. search with any word and/or opponent skill level

3. browse or press “Do you feel lucky”

4. Generate

5. Save to a location of your choice or just print or use the pdf.

This might cause a disruption in the flow of your session so what I do usually is as follows.

B. Preparing for the session before hand

Sometimes you are preparing for a session well before the players come in. Sometimes it is half an hour or even less. The following approach is fit for both but of course you will have more time to think about the results of your preparation if you do it for example in the previous night.

I usually use loopy planning defined by Johnn Four which I have had very good experience so far.

Step 1 – the search 

What I have usually done – for an evenings’ game I create pdf’s out of the usual suspects of the area I am playing in – using the filtering and searching. I take care to look at the hanging threads and the plans of the enemies (loopy planning) when I am searching for encounters.

I might mark a few search results as favorites.  I might filter with a keyword and press “Do you feel lucky” a few times and create pdf’s out of those.

For example if I would need different kind of plants I would print out the “Not really a rose garden” – same for dinosaurs.

For a city I print out a bar and a market plus some random law enforcement and villains and/or gangs, a temple or two.

Usually it is enough to generate 2 or 3 encounters worth of enemies per terrain type or hanging thread. If the encounters are not rabble or underlings it might be hard to go thru more than a few robust melees or adverse encounters in an evening.

Step 2 – keeping the results

Usually I print the generated enemies out as I probably need to mark hit points down while fight goes on.

I keep a list of recurring enemies (the ones they did not manage to kill the first time round or that have hanging threads from previous session etc) in Evernote or Dropbox or printed out on a folder.

It is quite rare that I cannot live with these printouts as it is difficult during an evening session to go thru more than a few melees

Step 3 – adhoc

Sometimes during a game I need certain kind of enemy that I did not prepare for – I search for it and print it out from my iPad to a local printer.

RQ Encounter Generator reaches 1900: RQ6 Monsters all covered, Pamaltela and City Gangs

RQ Encounter Generator passed the 1900 templates mark this weekend. This also marks the point of having all encounters from RQ6 rules book covered.
Rq6 book encounters added
Pamaltela carnivore encounters added
City encounters added
Added also feature list for Pavis Street Gang names, Bakru Curses and Curse Durations.
Here is another undead – this time a Ghoul (Dark Troll)
Finally a possible campaign stopper – this time in Dragon Pass