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   Number 1: Glorantha Initiation: Konrad & Antoni, Polish RPGs, Nysalor as ChatGPT, and Solar Fanboyism

   For this new Glorantha Initiation interview, we have two guests, which explains the unusual length of this episode… we welcome Antoni and Konrad! Konrad studies Bronze Age history, does LARPs, and runs games for teens and children. He has been running RPGs for about 11 years, and RQG for 4 years. You can catch him on Discord as @SpellcastingKisiel Antoni studies geography. You can find him on Facebook as Antek Bartoszko. Konrad and Antoni also give a shout-out to the Polish world-building community Krytyka Światotwórcza. Show Notes Antoni introduces himself: Started RPGs with D&D 3e in high school. Then Warhammer 2e, which is “the most patriotic Polish RPG”. Gothic is the most patriotic Polish computer game. Antoni has opinions about the “drama kids” school of RPG and modern games. He’s a novice GM, and has more fun as a player. Recent games Antoni likes are Fabula Ultima (a TTRPG inspired by JRPG video games) and Vaesen (a Scandinavian 19th-century folk-horror TTRPG). Apparently Antoni broke Vaesen with min-maxing! Konrad introduces himself: He discovered RPGs in a summer camp, watching kids playing Warhammer 2e… but they never let him play! Booo! The following year he started playing and GMing, notably a post-apocalyptic Polish game called “Afterbomb Madness”. Konrad feels more comfortable as a GM, and likes faction play. Warhammer is very very popular in Poland! Poland didn’t have any particular printing of any RPG at first, so people smuggled hastily translated rulebooks. Warhammer was a good fit. It was one of the very first officially released RPGs in Poland. Then, the only Polish RPG magazine at the time broke everyone’s mind about Warhammer because everyone was pretty much taking Warhammer at face value, instead of the comedic game it’s supposed to be. The pun names weren’t translated! Antoni got Konrad into Glorantha. He discovered Glorantha with King of Dragon Pass through a video game streamer playing it. He loved the cultures and vibrant world. He later discovered that there was an RPG, but was turned off by the “realistic combat” that RuneQuest boasted about having. After playing Six Ages, Antoni started ranting to Konrad about Glorantha. We talk a bit about heroquesting as Antoni misunderstands a question about HeroQuest/QuestWorlds as an alternative system with no “realistic combat” in it. Since these books weren’t really available in Poland, it wasn’t on his radar. Konrad realized that he tried playing Six Ages, as he was interested in bronze age gaming, but didn’t get very far. So when Antoni mentioned Glorantha, he was vaguely familiar with it. He had heard about RuneQuest as a “classic RPG”. Konrad started researching the setting and realized he loves it. Glorantha has “hard worldbuilding”. Konrad likes granular mechanics, so RuneQuest’s system looked good. He also appreciates that he can make his own subsystems easily. Konrad still hopes to run a “proper long campaign” soon. Glorantha is “doing good work” about representing the clan, tribal, city state, and god king mindset that might look alien to a modern reader. It’s not a “historic documentary” game, but it’s a “good approximation”. Glorantha might help later understanding real history. Konrad specializes in Levantine late bronze age (15th to 12th century BCE). He’s also interested in European bronze age. He studies social dynamics, people living outside of temple/city-state systems, etc. Joerg on the other hand started looking into European bronze age first, and didn’t look into the fertile crescent until later. Ludo got into Glorantha first, and then looked into Earth history later. Konrad loved the lore and the societies that “feel alive”. There’s a lot to play with when you’re a GM who loves faction play. He notes how Jonstown is described in the Starter Set, and how it contains multiple groups with multiple motivations and agendas, interwoven with their religious beliefs. In RuneQuest, even the monsters are people. Ludo talks about subsystems for political negotiations, as his players are trying to take over the Alone Confederation. Konrad likes the RQG sorcery rules! Joerg says sorcery is like shamanism: you need to min-max a lot to be useful. Konrad doesn’t seem very interested in shamanism, whereas Ludo thinks it’s one of the unique interesting features of the game. “There are now 7 RuneQuest players in Poland!” Konrad tries to run RuneQuest at every convention in Poland, and in the summer-camps he’s working at… basically trying to kick-start a Polish fandom for RuneQuest. The reception of RQG in Polish conventions seems pretty good. Most players are new to RuneQuest as far as Konrad can tell. Chaosium fans in Poland know and play Call of Cthulhu, which Antoni suspect is the biggest TTRPG in the country right now. Or at least one of the “Holy Trio” (CoC, WFRP, D&D 5e) When Ludo asks if Pendragon is known in Poland, Antoni explodes with laughter. He can’t believe anybody would play this game. There is a Polish edition of Pendragon, which Konrad claims is better-looking than the English one. So Polish people know about the game, and the Polish editor released the translation almost at the same time as the original version. Ludo says that Pendragon is probably not played that much in the grand scheme of things, and probably not in the “top 20 games”, but Joerg ask the rhetorical question of what “top 20” means anyway? (I probably meant “top 20” in terms of number of players) Antoni says that, just like Mage: The Ascension, Pendragon, to him, is more meant to be read than to be played. Ludo mentions he played Mage in his youth, having been a big World of Darkness fan back then. Ludo’s first couple TTRPG purchases were Cyberpunk 2020 and Vampire: The Masquerade, which Konrad says are “very Polish tastes”. Ludo asks Antoni what he doesn’t like about Glorantha. Antoni talks about the various “phases” he had with Glorantha. He mentions the “Dukaj-Stafford” effect (from Jacek Dukaj and Greg Stafford… Dukaj is a Polish science-fiction and fantasy writer). This is when a settings is so good that it makes you give up trying to expand it, because you can’t make anything half as good. Antoni’s “second phase” was discovering the Mongoose RuneQuest books, and the cool aspects of gaming in other places and times in Glorantha. Antoni’s Glorantha will definitely vary, and he wants to give a shout-out to Nick Brooke for enabling that. Antoni’s Dara Happans are cool and awesome, and he has hot takes about them. Antoni talks about the different scopes and takes on Glorantha between the editions, or between the TTRPGs and the video games. Konrad agrees, especially since he discovered Glorantha with Six Ages, so “his boys” are the Solar people. Konrad appreciates “well written barbarian cultures” in Glorantha, but he is more interested in the various types of Solar cultures, or about Orlanthi people in Peloria (“solarized Sartarites!”) Konrad has strong opinions about Elmal vs Yelmalio! He doesn’t buy the “wide scale replacement” of one cult by the other, and gives his reasons for it. Antoni doesn’t really like some of the Gloranthan authors’ approach of pretending that they are “translating” some “actual” Gloranthan texts, instead of just writing a game book. Ludo talks about HeroQuest/QuestWorlds as the thing Antoni and Konrad may look into as they mentioned having trouble doing “bigger things” in RuneQuest. Konrad mentions his “biggest issue” with RuneQuest: how the game and the world are presented. Gloranthan and RuneQuest are “absurdly hard to get into”. The best way to get into this game is “finding a GM”. Konrad says that getting into it by yourself is much harder. Konrad mentions the video games (King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages, RuneQuest Warlords ) as good first steps but admits they are niche games and not for everyone. He’s looking forward to the first official Gloranthan novel (A Pyre for Gods and Heroes). We play the game of “what gets released next year?” Joerg is rather optimistic about it. Ludo is pessimistic… and probably right, since this interview was recorded 6 months ago and nothing Joerg has mentioned seems to be happening soon. Antoni mentions that Konrad often compared Glorantha to the Elder Scrolls video game series… and so he argues Gloranthan needs a Skyrim-like game. No biggie. Ludo mentions The One Ring TTRPG (second edition), trying to make a point about games introducing deep lore to players, and once again the guests immediately laugh. Konrad and Antoni apparently have both very strong, and very opposed, opinions about it. Antoni doesn’t like TOR 2e because of its default place and time. But he likes the progression from easy to hard between The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion. “With Glorantha, you start with the Silmarillion”. Konrad agrees about that, and mentions how even the RuneQuest Starter Set floods the reader with too much information. How much information is needed to start? Probably a lot less than what the Starter Set gives. Konrad thinks the Starter Set has a good setting and adventures, but not a good presentation of the setting. Antoni gives praise to the fan community, especially the Glorantha groups on Facebook. He also praises the “Prince of Sartar” webcomic as an entry point into the setting. Antoni ask why there’s not Malkioni-Solar syncretism, when there is Malkioni-Orlanthi syncretism that exists? Joerg explains it with the timelines of when Greg Stafford and Jamie Revell were working on this or that across Glorantha. Jamie’s books are available on the Jonstown Compendium. But these books offer an old vision of Malkioni society that isn’t “canon” anymore, for whatever that’s worth. Antoni asks if the Moon Rune existed before the Red Moon appeared? Joerg says the Moon Rune isn’t needed for being a mystic or achieving some kind of transcendence. Joerg also argues the Moon Rune always existed. Ludo has a different take, about the Moon Rune having mostly disappeared at the Dawn, and the Seven Mothers having brought it back. Antoni asks why the Lunars didn’t share the fate of the God Learners. Konrad has many conspiracy theories. For instance: Orlanth can’t read. Also: Nysalor is basically the ChatGPT of Glorantha. You have to listen but his arguments are pretty sound. Joerg even adds another layer… Going back to Malkioni-Solar syncretism, Ludo and Joerg add more ideas. Antoni asks what’s the deal with reincarnation? Ludo had totally missed that there was reincarnation in Glorantha in the first place… we argue a bit about it, and what that means for talking to ancestors. Then we argue some more about interpreting some of the writings, until we end up on the Ty Kora Tek cult write-up, which Ludo says is bullshit, agreeing with Antoni. Antoni’s favourite conspiracy theory is about the role of Brithos in the rebirth of the world in Time. Joerg says “Brithos might have been the backup”. And it makes Zzabur a bit more right. We start gushing about Zzabur and entertaining he is. Konrad hopes to be able to publish some RuneQuest books in the next couple years. We finish with a round of quick-fire questions! Including Konrad’s surprising take on Newtlings! Credits The intro music is “Dancing Tiger” by Damscray. The outro music is “Islam Dream” by Serge Quadrado. Other audio is from the FreeSound library.

   July 18, 2026·1h 59min
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   Number 2: Episode 37: Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome

   Our Guests For this episode we welcome Malin and CJ, which Ludo met in person at ChaosiumCon UK 2025. The book we’re talking about is “Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome” Ludo also took so long to edit this episode that Malin and CJ’s next books are already out: “Three Doors to Your Heart” and “Uleria Loves You” Malin is on Bluesky and has a Patreon CJ is also on Bluesky Show Notes Things we discussed in this episode: Malin and CJ published a book about Life and Traditions of the Sun Dome because they’ve been playing there for a while. Malin got into Glorantha via CJ, and became fascinated by stuff in Cults of Terror. CJ got into Glorantha via some people talking about RuneQuest and its cultures, religions, weird spells, and “walking tapirs”. After playing in Pavis and the Big Rubble, CJ bought RQ3 and some RQ2. The Dragon Pass board game Playing near Sun County in HeroQuest, with the Cradle scenario. CJ bought the RQ3 Sun County book, reading it directly in the post office. It was hard to get a group going. The “Life and Traditions” book is a “more detailed” Sun County, compatible with previous official material (Sun County) and JC material (Black Spear, Sandheart). Many people have written stuff in that area, it’s important to honour that. Back in the day, it felt like Sun County was more “bronze age” and exotic than Sartar, which felt more “celtic” and common. Research for the book included a lot of Bronze Age history. Big spears, shield walls, and hoplites! Back in the day, there wasn’t much material on Sartar. A lot of books were out of print, and in piracy was the only way to access them. Very trusting people who mail their copy of Griffin Mountain to strangers to read and send back! Sun County was a “standalone” book and setting, easier to grasp than other places in Glorantha. To secular Sweden, religious fanaticism is exotic! The reason for the “Life and Traditions” book is that many players have questions… sometimes weird questions… Malin wanted to emulate the “Daily Life in ” children books about ancient Egypt or Greece: what is it to live in these places and times? Also, a desire to answer questions to the players who didn’t know Glorantha. Malin loves making house rules and handouts! A character wants to get married? Write a handout about property rights! “It escalates so fast!” Between different regions of Genertela there are different rules and cultures. Sun County should feel different from Sartar. “RuneQuest is a game for over-thinkers” CJ is a sociologist, so how does the class system work!? “Life and Traditions” has a bibliography! It’s serious work! It’s a xenophobic and misogynistic place but they have nice beaches. CJ looks at other countries with the same problems for reference, in addition to historical Bronze Age and Iron Age, and previous Gloranthan material. People are still people, and it’s interesting to see how people would react and behave in a place like Sun County. How to use this book? As an academic description of Sun County, or as a collection of articles to be skimmed and picked from as needed? “It should be read but not memorized”. “It’s a confidence builder”. Instead of adding more history and names and places, the book tries to just add more context to one already established place. Joerg likes the tables to “look around the house”. Ludo likes the random event table. Players can read the book, there is not much “secret information”. The bad stuff in Sun County: patriarchy, xenophobia, etc. How is that fun to play? Depends on the group… it can be treated as background vibe, or as the main theme. The book also shows how to play other types of characters. CJ tried to lean into the set parameters of the place, as established by prior material: Yelmalio is patriarchal, Ernalda is made into a subservient wife, and Zola Fel provides a good part of the fertility magic that Ernalda usually provides elsewhere, etc. Still had to “address the elephant in the room and make everyone feel welcome at the table”. CJ and Malin had several women characters in their campaign. What does that mean for them? How do they live in this society? CJ makes the good point that it’s like playing Call of Cthulhu in the default era of the 1920s, which is a “horribly racist” time in America. “The gamemaster has to address this with the group”, deciding how much to lean into it or address it. Ludo mentions Harlem Unbound as an example of leaning into the racism of the 1920s for Call of Cthulhu. Cool stuff in Sun County: as a foreigner, you interact with a very weird and insular society! An excuse for sending your PCs to Sun County is that the River of Cradles is strategically important! Do your players enjoy being “administratively frustrated”? The absurdity of Glorantha. The cool thing about Yelmalio is that he is NOT cool! “He’s a poser guy wearing shitloads of bling for compensating about all the things he cannot do!” Orlanthi cultists are like Tom Cruise. Yelmalions are played by William H. Macey. Another cool thing is that Sun County is very, very ancient. There are many very old archives and items to be found here. Ludo talks about how he would send his players there. CJ says it’s a good entry point into a new campaign: the place is semi-isolated, with a limited number of cults to choose from, etc. Great for newcomers. “If you want to play a trickster in Sun County, go ahead and try!” No need to go into complex clan/tribe relations here. You can play it like Star Wars/Andor, living in some oppressive society, or like NYPD Blues with Sandheart, or as some Iliad thing with lone people defending their outpost against the nomads. You don’t need to lean into “colonizers vs natives”. Custom rules for faction play: “It’s easier to reward your players when you have numbers on a paper”. Build a shrine to your god so you don’t have to commute! Characters built for intrigue and politics should have as much fun and input into the game as those built for combat. It’s still useful and interesting to track favours and standings even for non-political characters. Tracking even small-scale relationships in some situations like long-term travelling. Switching from RuneQuest to QuestWorlds. RQG starts breaking down the more you play, especially the experience system, which slows down to a crawl. Malin says QuestWorlds is better than HeroQuest. CJ says it used to break down with the bidding system. Malin gives advice for how to convert RQG characters to QW. QW is easier to make little subsystems for since it’s a lot less crunchy. Players had trouble phrasing their keywords, and coming up with flaws. RQG helped establish the “reality” of the fictional world before moving on to QW, which is very valuable. Nick Brooke’s “song book” for conventions and the “HeroWars Gaga” song. Gloranthan cookbooks! Do players behave differently when you change the system? Malin says she had to change her GMing style a lot. QW requires more narrative responsibility from the players, which can overwhelm some of them. Joerg mentions the Swedish RuneQuest Talastar project. Dragonbane mention! Joerg asks about the Teshnans… Malin has plans! Ludo took so long to edit this episode that the Ulerian books that CJ and Malin announce here are already out! Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.

   May 13, 2026·1h 22min
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   Number 3: Glorantha Initiation: Amber and Christian, Wolves, Book Problems, and Actual Play

   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.

   June 03, 2024·1h 33min
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   Number 4: Episode 31: Treasures of Glorantha

   A new episode is out but Joerg still doesn’t have his replacement laptop so there are no detailed show notes again! Our Guest We welcome the ever prolific Austin Conrad back on the show to talk about his new book which is all about magic items. Links to Austin’s stuff: Treasures of Glorantha Volume 2: Relics of the Second Age Treasures of Glorantha Volume 1: Dragon Pass Note that the above are affiliate links — please use them, thank you! You can also get the old Plunder book for RuneQuest 2nd edition in PDF and in POD from Chaosium. Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.

   May 03, 2024·1h 37min
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   Number 5: Episode 30: Questworlds Glorantha

   Show Notes Joerg is still without a computer, so not only are there no detailed show notes again, but he’s not here to stop me from giving a clickbaity title to this episode! Because, indeed, we have zero news about a Questworld Glorantha book… if anything, it’s the contrary. But what we do have for you is Ian Cooper as our guest! Ian comes on the podcast to talk to us about the imminently coming Questworlds. We talk about what it is, what it isn’t, how its mechanics work, and what it’s good for. You can find Questworlds’ free SRD here. You can find Ian on Mastodon here, on Bluesky here, and on Twitter here. We also chat about the game’s history as Hero Wars and then HeroQuest (1st and 2nd editions). Ian tells us about his Red Cow campaign books, The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights, and what happens in the unreleased sequels that he’s played through. We talk about Greg Stafford’s design philosophy and involvement in the early days of the product line, the differences between the other product lines, and more! Of course, it’s not a zero-sum game, so Ian also makes a point that you can play some games with RuneQuest, and some other games with Questworlds… it’s all about the sort of experience you want for a given story. Credits The intro music is “The Warbird” by Try-Tachion. Other music includes “Cinder and Smoke” and “Skyspeak“, along with audio from the FreeSound library.

   March 18, 2024·1h 39min
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