Living Glorantha - Players Guide

Players Guide This booklet is designed to introduce you, as players, to the Living Glorantha campaign. Within these pages you will find an overview of what a Living campaign entails, how to get involved, how to create a character and then how to make the most of the Living Glorantha experience.

Assumptions

This Players’ Guide makes a few assumptions: • • • •

You are familiar with roleplaying games in general You have a copy of the RuneQuest II rules, or access to them You know a little about Glorantha – but in-depth familiarity and knowledge is not a pre-requisite You are keen to participate in the Living Glorantha experience at conventions, local game shops or events and even in your own home

We do not assume that you know everything there is to know about Glorantha. However, if you have access to Glorantha: The Second Age and Cults of Glorantha you will find these volumes helpful. Certainly the former offers and excellent introduction to the world, and the latter detail on the allimportant cults. However, even if you do not have these books, you can still fully enjoy the Living Glorantha experience and gain an understanding of this marvellous setting through play and exploration.

Living Campaigns

Living campaigns, like Living Glorantha, is a development of the idea that a home or club-based campaign can be expanded into one that is essentially world-wide; a notion not unlike

MMORPGs, but based in the tabletop environment rather than an online computer programme. Your Adventurer in a game played at home or at a club is member of a small, fixed group of similar adventurers; but in a living game, your Adventurer can interact with thousands of other Adventurers and from all over the world, all of them adventuring in the same game world. In a Living campaign, adventures are written and published by the Living Campaign administration team and its authors and can be ordered and run during by a Living Campaign game master (GM). Living Campaign scenarios can be run at home (and, in this sense, they are no different to the usual way of playing roleplaying games) and at other venues, such as conventions and game sessions held at clubs and gaming shops that might dedicate time to supporting Living Campaigns. Your Adventurer can be played in multiple scenarios, even at other sessions with different GMs and players. At the end of each scenario, your character advances as per the RuneQuest II rules and may also gain other rewards. He does, however, continue to grow and develop through further adventures, exactly as he would in a home campaign. You may create more than one Adventurer to expand your play options: and, in fact, we recommend that you do so. Chapter Two of this booklet contains guidelines for creating a Living Glorantha adventurer.

Your Adventurer The character you create for your Living Glorantha game works in almost exactly the same way as any normal RuneQuest Adventurer. However, to ensure some degree of parity, the way you create him or her is handled slightly differently, as explained in the Living Adventurer chapter. Although you can fully enjoy the campaign with just a single

Adam is a player in a Living Glorantha campaign. He belongs to the local games club where Living Glorantha adventures are run every fourth week. He also attends two or three conventions each year; one is relatively local, whilst the other a larger, three-day affair held in at a university. Adam takes his club Adventurer to these conventions and participates in the Living Glorantha scenarios run there, and then return to his club campaign having reaped the benefits of his convention experience. However, Adam has not one, but two Living Glorantha characters. Edric is his Living Glorantha draconic mystic and Adam plays him in Living Glorantha scenarios that have an EWF focus or are tailored towards EWF characters. He also runs Jedekiah, a God Learner sorcerer, that he reserves solely for convention Living Glorantha games and is used in those scenarios where God Learners are needed or favoured. However, at the large convention he attends, he takes, and plays, both Edric and Jedekiah, thus expanding his playing options and developing both characters in tandem.

character, we do encourage you to create two, or even three, adventurers from different backgrounds and cultures. You can only play one character at a time, of course; but having multiple Adventurers offers certain benefits. Conventions and other events may offer several Living Glorantha scenarios. Some will be generic and suited to any character background, but some will be more suited to, say, Orlanthi or God Learners. You can join-in any scenario and run a pre-generated character that the GM provides, but if you already have a couple of Living Glorantha characters developed (according to the guidelines in this booklet, obviously), then you can use the Adventurer offering the best match for the scenarios available. Secondly, involving yourself as a player in different scenarios with different characters lends you greater perspective and understanding of the myriad cultures of Glorantha. You may or may not be able to use this perspective to enhance your experience, but you will certainly gain a greater understanding of Glorantha if you experience it from different Adventurer viewpoints.

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Welcome to Glorantha

There are, however, certain rules regarding Adventurers in Living Glorantha that you must be aware of and adhere to. 1. The GM has the right to review your character before play begins. He also has the right to say if your Adventurer is right for the scenario or not. If he rules against including the Adventurer you propose he must tell you why, but you do not have the right to insist or argue the decision. If you have a suitable alternative character, then propose that one instead; or ask to play a pre-generated Adventurer. The GM should have a suitable selection to choose from. 2. You cannot run more than one character at once in a game. You cannot bring two different character sheets to the table and expect to play both characters. One Player: One Adventurer. 3. The knowledge, experience and benefits your Adventurer gains is not transferable to another character you run. For example, Adam, playing Edric in one game, cannot give the Sorcerous Grimoire he finds to Jedekiah. Likewise, Jedekiah cannot give some of his Improvement Rolls to Edric. Where knowledge is concerned, it is obviously difficult to separate what you, as a player, knows from what your characters know. However, unless there is a very good or special reason why personal knowledge is transferable, GMs are perfectly at liberty to rule that your character may not know something. 4. You may find that the same Living Glorantha scenario runs at different events with different GMs. You should not go and play the same scenario multiple times – no matter how tempting that can be. Your character sheet for your Living Glorantha Adventurer has a section called ‘Scenarios Completed’ and when you play at a convention or other event the Games Master will endorse this section; it can also be reviewed by other Games Masters. Trying to gain an advantage by playing the same scenario multiple times, even with different Adventurers, goes against the grain and spirit of the Living Glorantha campaign and is unfair on other players. We ask that you refrain from the practice, no matter how tempting it might be. 5. Things you find or earn can, sometimes, be traded, in-game, with other Living Glorantha Adventurers as long as the Adventurers are run by separate players. These trades must be agreed by the GM responsible for that scenario and noted in the Adventurer Record Sheet.

Welcome to Glorantha

Creating Your Adventurer

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Follow the Community rules on page 20 and onwards of the RuneQuest Core Rules: however, ignore the Connections rule on page 25. You may roll once on the Background Events table starting on page 23.

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Higher Magic: Divine, Sorcery, Spirit and Draconic Mysticism, is available to characters who join cults. If you want your character to be a cult member (ie, initiate or higher) before play begins then the character must:

To create your Adventurer you will need access to the following books: • • •

RuneQuest II Core Rules Glorantha: The Second Age Cults of Glorantha

o Fulfil the cult requirements for membership as outlined in RuneQuest II and the cult as detailed in Cults of Glorantha o Be a member of a cult that fits with the character’s culture and race. Later on your character’s allegiance might change but to begin with any cult membership reflects upbringing, homeland and common beliefs.

Living Glorantha Adventurers are created using the RuneQuest II Core Rules. For the most part the Adventurer Creation rules are followed as written but with the following adjustments: •

Create your character using the Points Buy method described on page 8. No characteristic can exceed 18 or be below 6.

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Figure attributes and Common Skills as described. Gloranthan characters begin with the Common Magic skill at +30%.

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Choose one of the four Cultural Backgrounds, but before doing so, consult the Gloranthan Adventurers chapter of Glorantha: The Second Age and choose a region/country for your Adventurer to hail from. Follow the Adventurer Creation options listed for the region you have chosen. This represents where your Adventurer was born and bred; it is not necessarily where your Adventurer resides now.

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Choose a profession for your Adventurer either from the RuneQuest Core Rules or the Gloranthan Adventurers chapter of Glorantha: The Second Age. Ensure that the profession you choose matches your character’s background. All Gloranthan characters begin the game with 6 points of Magnitude in Common Magic skills: choose these according to your cultural background and/ or the notes for magic offered in the Gloranthan Adventurers chapter of Glorantha: The Second Age. Characters have 250 Free Skill Points to spend on increasing their skills, as per the rules on page 20 of the RuneQuest Core Rules.

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All Adventurers begin with 700 Silver Pieces. Use this to buy equipment, weapons and armour. All the equipment listed in the Equipment chapter of the RuneQuest Core Rules are available. Choose your weapons and armour according to your culture and region. You also begin with the basic equipment listed on page 27.

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Choose a cult for your Adventurer to belong to according to your culture and region, as described in both the Gloranthan Adventurers chapter of Glorantha: The Second Age and Cults of Glorantha

Your Adventurer should now be ready for action in Living Glorantha!

The Adventurer Chronicle

Your character should be recorded on the official Adventurer Chronicle. This is part character sheet, part journal and part Living Glorantha campaign record. It shows, first and foremost, that your character is a Living Glorantha Adventurer; if you turn-up to a game with a character recorded on any other kind of character sheet, even the standard RuneQuest Adventurer sheet from the Core Rules, and cannot show that your character was created according to the guidelines given earlier in this chapter, then you may find that the Games Master denies you the right to play that character in a Living Glorantha game.

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The Adventurer Chronicle contains important sections that show what scenarios your character has completed and has space for certain Living Glorantha campaign endorsements. This information is essential for a Living Glorantha Games Master as it shows him what scenarios you have participated in, where, and when. The Campaign Chronicle pages are typically reserved for scenarios held at conventions and other public events rather than scenarios your character plays at home or your games club; but it is good practice to use it for all scenarios, thereby showing a full record of your Living Glorantha experience.

must be endorsed by a Living Glorantha GM in the way just described.

The Chronicle also has space for special items and events your character may have gained, earned, found or won during Living Glorantha scenarios: this section again must be endorsed by the Games Master who runs the scenario where you gain this benefit. A record of these things is held by the Living Glorantha organisers, submitted by Games Masters as part of their feedback. Games Masters can check Adventurer Chronicles against the Player Database to ensure that you have the right to the listed item, benefit and so on.

My adventurer dies?

[[[ Boxed Text ]]] Adventurer Chronicle Sheet in here – XX pages [[[ End Box ]]]

Damaged or Lost Chronicles If your Adventurer Chronicle becomes unusable due to damage or general wear and tear, you may print another copy and transfer the information. For GM-Endorsed entries, transfer the information in the presence of a registered Living Glorantha GM and he will endorse the transfer, which acts as a full endorsement for endorsements made by other GMs. He must, however, notify the Living Glorantha administration team of the endorsement, noting what endorsed information he has signed-off. This is usually just a formality, but it is also intended to safeguard against the fabrication of information for personal gain. If you present a Chronicle that is clearly transferred information not bearing a GM endorsement, then any other Living Glorantha Games Master can reasonably refuse your character when presented for a scenario. We do recommend that you keep a scratch copy of your character. If your lose your original Chronicle, notify Living Glorantha administration as soon as possible, so that we can ensure that someone else does not take your character and attempt play with it. You may fill-out a new Chronicle but it

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Welcome to Glorantha

It is therefore a good idea to take all reasonable precautions with your Chronicle – keep it in a binder or protective sleeve; do not leave it lying around and try not to expose it to typical Gaming Table Hazards (pop, soda, bottled water, beer, wine, sloppy joes, burritos, pizza and donner kebabs, for example).

What Happens If… Glorantha is a magical world and resurrection is possible from the right temples. However, unless your fellow adventurers can get you to such a source then your character is dead and cannot be used in further Living Glorantha scenarios. Your Games Master will endorse your Character Sheet with ‘RIP’ or ‘Deceased’ and note the circumstances in the Chronicle. A record of the death will also be made on the Living Glorantha website. We will all be very sad. We do ask you though, not to attempt to re-use a fallen character in further Living Glorantha scenarios. Play by the rules: its fairer to all.

I gain some special magic, weapon, item or other thing? Special magic and artefacts can be gained in Living Glorantha games. If your character gains something along these lines you will be given a Certificate by the Games Master which notes: • • • • •

What you have Where you got it What it does What its monetary value is (if it has one) What it can be used for

We do not advise trading Certificates with other players, but you can, in some circumstances, do so. You certainly cannot trade Certificates between adventurers you control. Games Masters may scrutinise any Certificate you present for use in a game, and you should declare what Certificates your character has before play begins. You cannot use the Certificate if… • • • •

It has clearly been traded between characters you run It is marked as ‘Non-Transferable’ and has been transferred It is marked as usable only in specific conditions or settings The Games Master feels that the Certificate will unfairly unbalance the scenario he is running

Welcome to Glorantha Etiquette demands that you do not produce and use a Certificate you have not declared to the Games Master first. You do not need to declare what Certificates you have to other players, but the Games Master should be consulted. If he rules that the Certificate is inappropriate to this particular scenario and cannot be used, please abide by the decision and do not argue the point. Living Glorantha will have some quite remarkable items and magic available; but their use will not be suitable in all circumstances.

I want to buy some equipment/ weapons/armour and so on? As part of character creation you should buy the things you can afford and need. Equipment and mundane items can be found during scenarios (looting a body, for instance), traded

with other characters in the scenario and when the opportunity arises if your character is in a town, market or other centre of trade. Games Masters may offer the opportunity to equip at the start of the scenario but are not obliged to do so.

I want to improve my Adventurer? Improvement Rolls and Hero Points are distributed by the Games Master at the end of the scenario. You may use these to increase your adventurer’s skills as per normal. The Games Master who makes the award will watch how you spend the Improvement Rolls and just validate that the increases are in line with the rules. If you want to save Improvement Rolls and use them for buying Characteristic Increases or new spells, inform the Games Master of this; he will endorse your Chronicle in the appropriate section.

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