This demon needed to come out.
Orlanth boldly approached the Dead Emperor, who sat on his throne surrounded by the other dead gods who had followed him. Orlanth made his bid for friendship; Yelm made his demand for atonement. Orlanth made his demand for recognition; Yelm made his requirement for proof. Orlanth made his promise of the future; Yelm made the demand for trial by combat.
Orlanth began with the Song of Truth, and the dead who still cared for him were free to prepare him for the tasks to come. First was the Trial by Combat, where he fought the Keepers of the Gate, the monsters that were keeping the dead imprisoned. He slew them all.
Orlanth made his Promise of the Future, and said it would be like the past. “Which past?” demanded Yelm. Orlanth replied, “Like all of them.”
-King of Dragon Pass 1999
Blahblah, Glorantha was """"discovered"""" by practicing shaman and game designer Greg Stafford and first shared with world in the form of a board/wargame called "White Bear and Red Moon" in 1975 and made accessible for roleplaying via "RuneQuest" in 1978 blahhh.
Glorantha is a "Mythic Fantasy" setting that has claimed inspiration from myriad sources from classical mythology to Elric/Conan pulps. This means nothing, especially in a post-OSR world wherein the praising of "APPENDIX N" as TTRPG gospel induces immediate vertigo in anyone who's actually familiar with the work (just me?). When selling Glorantha, people will be quick to point to it being a "bronze age" fantasy as a measure of its uniqueness. This continues to do nothing but paint a vague image in the minds of the uninitiated. Pulps are cool. Mythology is cool. But I can derive inspiration from those things when I play me elfgames, why would I play some shaman's setting?
There is no True way to just get into Glorantha; even Chaosium's 2019 release of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is an absolute fucking mess and its boxed 2022 starter set, while doing an admirable job with incredible presentation, does zero to make you give a shit about Glorantha unless you really love Newtlings (which my players certainly did.) Its solo adventure is pretty rad though.
For me, it's the fact that Glorantha truly is not unique. It will fuck you up. You will get name fatigue and be introduced to strange concepts and confuse the ever-living shit out of you. If you stick with it, you'll un/fortunately find that all of the answers you sought for the setting were always known... Oh, and it has ducks.
This is not a secret. RuneQuest itself abandoned Glorantha once-upon-a-time. Supplements were made for older editions of the game wherein people eschewed Glorantha in favor of Mythic Earth; why discuss the Myths of facsimile Earthen gods when I can just play a game set in Mythic Greece, Ireland, Asia, Africa, etc? Go for it, I'm not here to argue that. If you think of the Roman Empire more times a day than you do your family, chase your RP-Dreams. Ultimately, you know every single trope and theme used in Glorantha. Over the years, the setting continued to be fleshed out, stuffing absolutely every fucking trope you can imagine somewhere in its "lozenge-shaped" world. What gives Glorantha life both within and without the game is Community.
As Orlanth said, there is no single past. Stafford himself eschewed and actively mocked the concept of canon, willfully contradicting his own work in order to illustrate the diversity found between the peoples of Glorantha and therefore make Glorantha feel more authentic and closer to reality. To make matters worse, Gloranthans can HeroQuest, or the act of interfacing with Godtime. The tl;dr of that can of worms is that it is the ability to experience/relive/emulate history/Myth from a first person perspective of gods and heroes to tap into their might; yes, this can often manifest as roleplaying a dood roleplaying another dood.
Glorantha, from the perspective of the average individual in Dragon Pass (the primary slice of the primary continent of the setting), is a world heavily molded by its gods and strange magic. Most characters will be deeply devout to the cult(ure) of one or more of these gods, some even with goals of becoming their god-made-flesh over the course of their career. This will often require interfacing with their god and their deeds through HeroQuesting. Ultimately, this deep understanding exists to serve the community. The vast majority of worshippers will be those devoted to safety or farming. A niche few (aka likely the player characters) worship gods of War/War-Eternal, Trade, Adventuring, Knowledge, Healing, Vengeance, etc. If a god is simply chosen for the cool superpowers or drug trips and not an acknowledgment to its cult's purpose in the Community or surroundings without consideration about how to evoke the would-be character via roleplaying, a great deal will be missed.
In our material+digital world, DriveThru RPG collabbed with Chaosium to put out the Jonstown Compendium; a quarantined corner of DTRPG wherein Glorantha-obsessed nerds can share/sell content that relates to Glorantha/RuneQuest. The content is very good and can range from mechanical ideas, modules, and explorations on the concepts of Glorantha. Those explorations are where the real meat is. The actual adventure modules can be alright springboards but the perspectives on Glorantha as a setting and how to evoke and find purpose in the "mythic bronze age" cultures of the world needed perspective, however niche, in order to understand why the sport of Cattle Raiding should be something to give half a thought. Jonstown Compendium content does that zooming in, providing examples of what Glorantha could look like. The work of Andrew Logan Montgomery is paramount in this regard. His SSiS is the gold standard for introducing mature players into the setting. I liken the Jonstown Compendium to a micro-OSR. There's a general unifying tie but ultimately its creators spread out quite wildly; producing disparate content that remains usable with the strangeness of Glorantha. While most of the OSR expresses different spins on the occupation of dungeon crawling (Classes/Rules) and how they manifest (prefabbed dungeons), the Jonstown Compendium approaches the various angles that one could approach a bizarre myth-infused setting.
BUT WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY DO IN GLORANTHA.
I guess the simplest answer is: you talk about and explore YOUR Glorantha.
Dragon Pass, especially in RQG is experiencing a holy war. Time's millennia-old wounds are being torn open. The future has been chronicled by one pair of hands in the King of Sartar. Does YOUR Glorantha follow the fate of that work or does it introduce new Heroes and erase others?
How do the ever-constant deities of Orlanth/Ernalda/Yelm/Red-Bitch manifest (if at all)?
Are HeroQuests actual magical adventures into the Otherworld or are they just really good psychedelic trips, your clan larping the characters of the tale you're meant to be experiencing (or what even is the difference, maaaaan)?
etcetcetc...
If Glorantha catches your attention, RQG is pretty cool. The Augmentation mechanics are fun and they're an excellent interweaving of setting+game. tl;dr, everyone has Runes. Runes are basically Fantasy-DNA or Fantasy-Pscyhology. You can tap into them in order to fuel your chosen skill for a scene, getting a mechanical boost with the expectation that your roleplay and actions will be fueled/influenced by the Rune or Passion that you're channeling. Many other rules can/should be gutted though.
Personally, Glorantha is my shit purely because it is truly strange while giving you the means to roleplay within its world. My first love, Planescape, certainly tried. While it is up there for the title of D&D's strangest setting, it is still tied to the constraints and attitudes that surround D&D and the frequent eschewing of roleplaying for the sake of "playing the game" (aka mandatory combat). Zeb Cook has gone on record as stating that Planescape needed to be reigned in to accommodate 2e. Does a part of me wish I lived in that Twilight Zone wherein we had the full unhinged glory of what Planescape could have been. Sure. But I'm glad to know that Glorantha, in its unhinged Mythological glory is there instead.
To me, Glorantha gives us the tools to live atop its flat dome-covered surface like no other setting out there with added vehicles for exploring Mythic concepts like no mere D&D-derivative or most other fantasy settings can even remotely contend with; with many fantasy creators citing or directly deriving from the occulted annals of Gloranthan Myth when making their settings. Ultimately, within Glorantha, your Character will have an intimate connection with the Myths of the world with a touch of the occult and strange in their every breath.
It wants the scholars to read its Myths. It begs the scholars to feed it more Myths.
It wants the adventurers to live its Myths. It begs its adventurers to become Myths.
Glorantha is a hungry demon unsated still after over 40 years.
Glorantha IS Myth.
Experience Myth.
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