Episode 37: Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome

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Our Guests

For this episode we welcome Malin and CJ, which Ludo met in person at ChaosiumCon UK 2025.

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 <place>” 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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (37.6MB)

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