Guests

Our guests for this new episode of the Glorantha Initiation series are Christian and Amber, from DMs After Dark! We chatted with them back in… (checks notes) November 2023! How time flies… you can find DMs After Dark in many places around the internet, including:

YouTube and Twitch
Facebook, Twitter, and Bluesky

Amber has written a few things, including some short story in the Monstrous Feminine anthology, and can be found at the West Warwick Public Library where she curates the gaming collection.

Christian has written and published several scenarios, including “Zennor & The Sins of St Senara” and “The Night Mother’s Moon“, for Call of Cthulhu, published by Stygian Fox.

Show Notes

In this episode we talk about, more or less:

Luring Amber with promises of playing a werewolf (Telmori)
Using Chalana Arroy for luring in the cleric-loving player, and shamans for the player who likes weird characters
Animism, the Spirit World, and other gameplay elements that are fairly unique to Glorantha
Starting with the Starter Set, then going to the Sourcebook
Pacing actual play games, making it feel like sitting at an actual table
RuneQuest grognards coming to help with the rules
Christian has a “book problem”… Ludo can relate
Using Six Seasons in Sartar as a way to start small and get all the PCs together
Collaborative storytelling and world-building
Reconciling player-created lore with “canon” lore
Being mindful of players and the audience when preparing storylines, especially cult initiations leading into mythologies like the Unholy Trio, the Sex Pit, etc.
Amber acting as a GM assistant, especially in the early stages of preparation
Ludo mentions his short story about Chalana Arroy and Mallia
Ducks! Broos!
Verisimilitude and/or realism to the Bronze Age and other antiquity history
Approaching sensitive topics, and doing editorial work with players to match their comfort levels
Casino Town! Cwim! The Crimson Bat! What makes sense in your Glorantha, and what seems out of place
Early RQ2 dungeon crawling vs later RQ2 dungeons with ecologies and mythologies
Understand the vibe of the system over the rules of the system
Mary Renault’s The King Must Die and The Bull From The Sea, as good sources for getting a grasp on the antiquity
RuneQuest’s crunchy combat system, with its many moving parts and possible combinations
A wild mention of Shadows of Esteren makes Ludo happy!
Telmori lore! Of course we mention Brian Duguid’s Children of Hykim (see also our interview episode with Brian)

Credits

The photo of the red deer used in the title image is by Michael Brace.

The intro music is “Dancing Tiger” by Damscray. The outro music is “Islam Dream” by Serge Quadrado. Other audio is from the FreeSound library.

Glorantha Initiation: Amber and Christian, Wolves, Book Problems, and Actual Play