Glorantha Initiation: Aaron, SpeedRune, the Second Age, and “Glorantha Varies” Extremism

For this new initiation series episode we are happy to welcome Aaron King!

Aaron is the designer of SpeedRune, an OSR-esque rules-light game of Gloranthan community adventures. Get it here, it’s free!

There are even now a few supplements available for SpeedRune, including some things we discuss in this episode. Check out Aaron’s itch.io store!

Aaron also co-hosts a TTRPG podcast called “RTFM” with Maxwell Lander. If you’ve ever dealt with the Linux and open-source community in your life, you definitely know what this acronym stands for… Anyway, Aaron and Maxwell read and discuss various game books, including RuneQuest in their September episode.

You can also find Aaron on Twitter (while that still exists).

Show Notes

Things we discuss in this episode include:

Minnesota being the “real birthplace of RPGs” (since that’s where Dave Arnison is from), and not Wisconsin (where Gary Gygax lived).

Reading Dragon Magazine and figuring out how RPGs work from that.

Playing D&D 3.5 and 4.0, and then moving on directly to full-on narrative games like Fiasco, Polaris, Firefly (and the Cortex system), Powered by the Apocalypse games, and more.

Discovering Glorantha with King of Dragon Pass and loving the setting, with its faction play.

Reading RQ2 Classic… but Aaron thought it was missing something, like it was referencing things the reader didn’t know.

Finding a copy of HeroWars, which Aaron felt was “more accessible”.

Treating the Big Rubble as Fortnite.

Getting some Second Age books from the old Mongoose RuneQuest line, and also the newer RuneQuest Glorantha rulebook.

A lot of players are put off by the size of Glorantha, and expectations of “homework” don’t help. See also: how the Marvel Cinematic Universe now “forces” you to watch many other movies and TV series to follow what’s going on.

Trying to simplify Glorantha to just “you are part of a clan”. Introducing elements one by one from there.

Aaron loves ducks in comics, and loves ducks in Glorantha.

Aaron runs his campaign using SpeedRune, a free rules-lite system that he wrote. It’s inspired by Sledgehammer, a simplified version of Warhammer FRPG, and Cybermetal 2012. Player rules are on the character sheet, like in PbtA games.

The appeal of seasonal games, like Pendragon and Sagas of the Icelanders, and the passage of time with PCs becoming old and having kids. This lets players make decisions on a grander scale of time.

Expansions to SpeedRune are coming (some of them having been released since we recorded), including more Runes, and a non-Gloranthan expansion that lets you play in a campy ancient world setting inspired by the classic Xena/Hercules TV series.

Speedrune is easily hacked, and able to bring material from other bronze age fantasy sources besides Glorantha.

In SpeedRune, the GM never rolls. The D100 roll defines success, but also one dice is used for damage and the other for “fate”. Combat is pretty quick, but healing is not as easy as in RQG so there’s a slow decline over a season, inciting the player to go in downtime. Because rolls are all player-facing, there is not sitting around while the GM rolls attacks and parries and damage and location for each of the 8 orcs attacking the players.

The community gets a character sheet like in Blades in the Dark or HeroQuest Glorantha, which is used during downtime actions.

Building your clan and finding a campaign framework.

Being a “Glorantha varies extremist”. Aaron starts very small. He lets the players build their community and participate in the world-building, at least a few days’ travel around of the adventurers’ home. The Lunar Empire probably exists but Aaron also wants to include other fun things like Tanith Lee’s “ancient horny demon kings that come at night”.

Aaron likes the Second Age books from the Mongoose RuneQuest line written by Robin Laws. He especially likes the idea of the magic religious pyramid scheme that the Empire of the Wyrms Friends setup.

Using Glorantha as a big sandbox