About a week or so ago, I agreed to meet a local friend in a pub and we talked over getting back to some face-to-face gaming in September. Meeting in Ripley, his local, ShandyAndy and I drank, ate, and nattered our way to agreeing to try running a game in Glorantha from 17th September. We’re going to try a local gaming cafe in Belper and… well, Andy’s sorting that out.

My job? I’m going to have a second stab at running a game of RuneQuest Glorantha.

Among other things I’ve been re-reading the core RQG rulebook and getting my head around the world – the first additional source being The Glorantha Sourcebook.

First tip: read all the Vasana’s Tale outboxes, especially after the character creation examples. I had previously dismissed these as being nothing more than ‘example outboxes’ but halfway through the book they become seriously useful background reading. Trust me – these outboxes are great!

Second tip: if you intend to GM, sit down for the hour or more it’ll take and roll up a character for yourself. You’ll learn lots of background lore, start to understand how it feels to create a character, and also chuckle at the results. Well, the last bit might just be me but I hope you get a chuckle from it.

Third tip: read slowly. It’s a deep read but rewarding. Read slow.

From there, I am learning to be patient with myself.

Because there is so much lore, I was feeling very intimidated on my previous run at GMing RQG. I think that players need to understand that Gloranthan lore is deep… and to cut the GM some slack. Plus there’s the “Your Glorantha Will Vary” concept that all players need to heed and recognise. But, under all that, you also have to let yourself make mistakes and make stuff up where you don’t know.

I’m enjoying the read more this time around. Perhaps it’s the fact that I have recovered greatly in recent months, getting some much needed RnR… but I also think that maybe these books reward repeat readings.

Anyway… Belper, Derbyshire next month. Glorantha awaits!

Game on!