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The God Learners

The God Learners

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A podcast about gaming in Glorantha in which we cover news and discuss topics about RuneQuest, QuestWorlds, and other related games such as 13th Age Glorantha, King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages, The Gods War, or Khan of Khans.Glorantha, RuneQuest, and QuestWorlds are copyright Chaosium Inc.
Episodi
  • Episode 38: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 3)

    Episode 38: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 3)
    Sep 8 2026
    Ludo gets the episode number wrong! Also, he’s sick and tried to edit all of his sniffling and coughing out of the audio, but you’ll probably hear some here and there. Our Guest Our guest is once again Austin Conrad! His website is Akhelas.Get his various books on DriveThruRPG!Learn movies and US geography with Austin’s jokes! (Ludo makes excuses for not getting those pretty straightforward jokes) Other Business Ludo also advertises the Glorantha articles on his blog, and in particular his post on Chaos as criminal organizations. We discuss this for a bit. Main Topic We return to the tale of Paulis Longvale! Ludo summarizes the story so far, but you should really listen to the previous episodes in this series (see episode 34 and episode 36). In this episode we end up talking way too long and only get through two chapters of the story: Thanatar and the Crimson Bat. Ludo notes that each cult is written by a different author, and how that makes the chapters feel different. Austin reminds us that Simon Phipp’s stuff on Dorastor is great, and there’s a LOT, starting with Secrets of Dorastor. We interviewed Simon in episode 35. Here’s the map from Cults of Terror that might be useful to follow along some of the discussions in this episode: Thanatar Ludo describes Halgrim’s plan and thinks it’s terrible.We discuss the various ways to cross the mountains into Dorastor.“Plateau of Wrath” is an excellent name, and it has some cool history related to Arkat (the “super RuneQuest stuff that Arkat is known for”).Ludo talks about Razalkark’s Citadel and how its description evolved between RQ2 and RQ3 (“even Chaotic people have gentrification”).Joerg goes into the “multiple Razalkark theory” (which isn’t a theory, he says)Of course we end up in the multiple Arkats theory too.Austin gets crazy about all these theories, and mention King of Sartar’s storyline about the “Monster Empire”. Feeling bad, Austin brings us back on topic.Ludo complains about heavy crossbows in his bronze/iron age fantasy. Joerg tries to justify it.We look at the treaty that Bolthor negotiated with Razalkark and find it “acceptable”.Austin mentions the “Risklands” campaign from the RQ3 Dorastor book, showing how the local Orlanthi are the assholes, trying to push into Razalkark’s lands.“The problem are the hillbilly people, not the Chaotic people”.Ludo and Austin talk about their game, and how Ludo tried very hard to make the PCs compromise on their values.Negotiating with Razalkark is like negotiating with Hitler to divide Poland.We also try to compare the situation to the Cold War, and how that would transform a game set around Dorastor.We discuss the big fight between Bolthor and the PCs.Ludo talks about his love for the Thanatar cult.“Babeester Gor dick magic!”There is some talk about the problems with that particular Thanatar cultist in this combat, and more generally how the text of the rules compares to the text of the fiction.Joerg mentions head-hunting as an ancient Orlanthi tradition.Once again we mention the use of “rules-talk” inside the fiction.We get into an argument about whether Bolthor is a Runemaster or not.How much Rune magic does Paulis have?Which of the Seven Mothers and other Lunar cults are actually improvements upon the Lightbringers pantheon?“Irripi Ontor is a scholar WITH A GUN”On the difficulty of making a campaign in the Lunar Empire, without making an apology for imperialism and such.Exploring the moral conundrums of “complicated” situations, like a game in which you play a KGB agent. Ludovic unsurprisingly mentions Delta Green.Austin parallels moments of The Iliad with Halgrim’s sacrifice, and more generally about manufacturing epic and mythically resonant moments in an RQ game.Austin also talks about the difficulty to prepare dramatic moments in a game, compared to a short story.Ludo talks about TTRPG games benefiting from being less nuanced and subtle than novels and movies.Austin shares a “goblin in a funny hat” story from his game.How would you arrange Bolthor’s head-halves if you were to decorate your village with them? Crimson Bat Negotiate with the Lunars! It’s good for you!Austin is annoyed by the generational way Sartarite succession works.Austin mentions his players going against the Crimson Bat…. wisely, they ran.The Crimson Bat illustration from 13th Age Glorantha is so fucking great!We talk a bit about various giant Chaotic monsters, like Cwim and the Cacodemon.What size is the Crimson Bat’s Glowspot? Did it already have it in the God Time?Is Austin being “lore accurate” or just “a smart-ass”?RQ2’s “manichean cults” vs RQG’s “it’s all cults, you decide”.Evil and Chaotic are different things!“Glorantha is great for moral relativists”Does Glorantha have an ontological evil?“The cultists of Wakboth have ACTUAL faith”.Ludo’s hot take sends Joerg into deep upcoming/unpublished lore.Writing RQG...
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    1 ora e 55 min
  • Glorantha Initiation: Konrad & Antoni, Polish RPGs, Nysalor as ChatGPT, and Solar Fanboyism

    Glorantha Initiation: Konrad & Antoni, Polish RPGs, Nysalor as ChatGPT, and Solar Fanboyism
    Jul 18 2026
    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 @SpellcastingKisielAntoni 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...
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    1 ora e 58 min
  • Episode 37: Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome

    Episode 37: Life and Traditions Under the Sun Dome
    May 13 2026
    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 PatreonCJ 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 gamePlaying 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!”...
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    1 ora e 21 min
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