The God Learners

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

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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.

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