Forty-four years ago my father bought a copy of RuneQuest (2e) and hated it. The box was squirrelled away to my bedroom and so began my on-and-off love affair with Glorantha, fantasy roleplay, and all things Basic Role-Playing (BRP).
Earlier this week, reflecting on my past gaming and experience with BRP, I found myself once again paging through RuneQuest from 1980. I have famously failed to play this game through all those years for anything more than a handful of sessions. But I felt the call.
On a whim, I ordered a copy of The Prosopaedia which arrived this afternoon. In receiving this book, it struck me that the whim was fuelled by my long and deeply curious love of ancient near-Eastern belief which Glorantha, as a fantasy bronze-age world, touches.
Cults of RuneQuest: The Prosopaedia is an indispensable reference to the many gods and goddesses, monsters, locations, artifacts, and events that have shaped Gloranthan mythology since its making!
It is the deeply mythological nature of Glorantha as a fantasy creation that speaks to my desire for Discovery. It has been said that Greg Stafford’s world is the mythologist’s fantasy and I sense this spiritually alive non-Mediaeval realm deserves my attention.
The barrier has always been my own deep-seated fear of the lore connected to this fantasy game. As foolish as it might seem, the Fantasy of the game is a big draw for me and I want to “do it right”. Each time I approach the world, it seems too immense to begin.
But today, remembering that it is upon my shelf, I opened the RuneQuest Starter Set. This package is designed for the beginner to Glorantha and I found myself having a similar experience to the one I had felt back in 1980: a sense of wonder and possibility.
What if I simply approach the game as a beginner? What if I put aside my fear of the scope and scale to allow myself to start here – in and around Jonstown, the location presented in the set – and simply begin?
All adventures have to start somewhere and, thankfully, the box even contains a solo quest.
Here’s permission to return to RuneQuest, forty-four years later.
Game on!
Roleplay Rescue’s Blog 
Glorantha is as much and as little you want it to be. Picking a small area round Jonstown is a good starting point. I did a similar thing with my bi-weekly game but based it in 6013 after The Starbrow Rebellion based on the Coming Storm. I’ve played with you twice in “Glorantha” and loved both games Griffin Island and Six Seasons In Sartar. Sadly other players let us down.
I have all the Cults of Runequest books but have yet to read them in detail.
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I’m enjoying the Starter Set and it seems like a good entry point, although I might want to use the Core Rules to create unique characters. I think a combination of RuneQuest with a focus on more Role-playing and exploration of Glorantha would be a lot of fun. I also think just 2 or 3 players would be preferable.
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