We kick off this new season of the Glorantha Initiation series with the lovely Bridgett Jeffries, aka “the happiest voice in cosmic horror”!

About Bridgett

You can find Bridgett all around the internet, but in particular:

Founder of Symphony Entertainment
Community embassador for Chaosium and, just as I write this, promoted to coordinator of events and outreach (congrats Bridgett!)
Author and contributor to many things on DriveThruRPG, especially on the Miskatonic Repository
Streaming on the Symphony Entertainment YouTube channel and Twitch channel, the Chaosium YouTube channel, and many others
Co-host of the Miskatonic University podcast, and appearing in several other horror and gaming podcasts
Check out Bridgett on Twitter!
Also check out her Patreon!

Show Notes

In this episode we talk about:

Playing AD&D, Champions, and Battletech as a covert operation in a basement with middle-aged men
Chaosium’s RuneQuest Starter Stream, and the New Hero actual play
RuneQuest 3rd edition, its fantasy Earth, and Glorantha as a separate setting
Moral ambiguity in Glorantha: nothing is straightforward, everything comes with the “weight” of the lore and the setting
Activating Runes or Passions to augment rolls is dope!
Having an assistant GM to help with the rules is great for a game like RuneQuest
It’s hard to relate to the Bronze Age, compared to other eras… what even is the Bronze Age?
The problem with gatekeeping by grognards (old fans), and letting newbies discover and play the game in their own way
Tropes vs lore (see also this essay I wrote on the subject)
The Rome TV series, Troy, The Ten Commandments, Alexander
Tropes of the Orlanthi: violence is always an option, no one can make you do anything, follow chosen leaders
Tropes of the Bronze Age:
- Religion is politics (priest kings and such)
- Cities with temples on hills, markets full of merchants and mules and slaves, philosophers on soapboxes
Tropes of Glorantha:
- Everybody comes from their own culture, with their own reasons to do things
- Use the Runes as a guide for how cults fit in the world, use archetypes first and lore later
- Spirits are everywhere (shamanism, animism)
Getting used to magic being everywhere
Glorantha is flat, the Underworld is below, rivers used to flow upwards!
The Jonstown Compendium is awesome
Drawing Earth Runes on your face
Using the RuneQuest Starter Set‘s art as reference
The trolls are political refugees
Exploring Glorantha, your Glorantha 101 YouTube series