Episodi

  • 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
    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
    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
  • Episode 36: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 2)
    Dec 11 2025
    Our Guest We welcome once again Austin Conrad to the show! His website is AkhelasGet Treasures of Glorantha: Volume 2, one of the finest books on the Jonstown Compendium! (which we talked about in episode 31)Austin hopes to be “done soon” with his upcoming “Wolves of the Wild Hunt” book… that was a couple months ago and it’s not done yet The book will include slightly remastered previous materials such as The Quacken, and The Queen’s Star, plus new stuff about Gagarthi monsters! Show Notes Things that happened in this episode: Joerg reminds us what the Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale are… Listen to episode 34 if you haven’t already!Cults of Terror is “the gamemaster’s best friend”Also listen to episode 35 with Simon Phipp, specialist of Dorastor!Yes, YOU too can play a Thanatar cultist!Ludo summarizes the previous episode’s storyAustin mentions the old Dorastor book, plus gives another shout out to Simon Phipp’s booksLudo goes on a short tangent about the name “Bilini”Austin lays down another argument about the Orlanthi really being VikingsWe discuss the various motivations of the characters regarding Chaos, Dorastor, and the Lunar EmpireLudo has made a spreadsheet! He tries to figure out what are the chances of the Bilini king’s army against Razalkark’s armyHow cute are baby broos? Or baby Scorpion Men? Apparently Diana Probst has one of those in Stone and Bone, go check it out!We talk about battle tactics and “broo walls”How the hell do you recreate this story using RQ rules? Should we play using HeroQuest/QuestWorlds? (again)The phalanx rules suck?Is dual wielding better than using a shield? (We fumble around the convoluted RQG dual wielding rules)Rules terms inside the narrative text… what to make of it?Would you abstract the things we see in this story to “just a few rolls” in RuneQuest?Austin is being an asshole (his words! not mine!)How much plunder do you get from Chaos creatures?Giving a “personal touch” to plunder and gifts… or just add some jewels!Reselling gifts to buy actually useful stuff, like skills and spells!“WHERE IS MY MONEY?” and other things players sayAncient cultures versus transactional culturesEa-Nasir name drop!Storm Bull cultists as a biker gangAustin mentions “A Short Detour” and the way we tried writing Chaos cultists as nuanced peopleAre Illuminates crazy assholes? Or are they people with feelings?Uleria is more powerful and bad-ass than we give her credit forBody horror with Uleria! Play Limbo!Austin has more conspiracy theories about the Celestial Court on his website!Vampires in Dorastor… do they have enough to eat?World of Darkness vampires vs Dresden Files vampires (also, Ludo mixes up Dresden Files and Laundry Files)Austin’s Harrek campaign, and the shenanigans the PCs are up toGive player characters cool or embarrassing epithets!The interesting framing of a Chaos-based narrative with a Lunar perspectiveTelmori vampires! Or vampires feeding on Telmori! Maybe both!The lost power of RQ2 vampires that can steal Rune magic when feeding off someoneRituals to get your magic items to trust youFear mechanics in RuneQuest?There’s a difference between improvising and off-the-rails-improvising!RQ2 silver magic collars… they’re in every RQ2 storyHow do you keep prisoners?Suspicious tricksters! (aren’t they always?)Joerg tells us about Jojo The Bobo. Also, Bugs Bunny and the Puppeteer Troupe“We’re in Dorastor, but we’re getting…. human drama???!” 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.
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    1 ora e 37 min
  • Glorantha Initiation: Benjamin, Podcasts, Wikis, and Looking for the One Truth
    Oct 27 2025
    We are back with a long overdue Glorantha Initiation interview featuring twice the amount of French accents! We talked to Benjamin, aka Dasfynx, who is the webmaster of the (French) RuneQuest Wiki, and co-hosts the (also French) “Runecast” podcast with Gianni Vacca. Le Wiki du JDR RuneQuestLe Runecast (you can of course find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on whatever app you use to listen to podcasts!) Show Notes Here are the things we talk about in this episode! Ben’s podcast “Runecast”This is one of the three known “talk show” podcasts about Glorantha right now, the other one being the Finnish Dayzatarin tähtien alla (“Under the stars of Dayzatar”)Ben also runs the French RQWiki which started as a translation of Chaosium’s wiki. It started as just figuring out what tech was powering Chaosium’s websiteThen it was a small translation for Ben’s playersAnd then other fans joined the effort… there are now extra things compared to the Chaosium version Any extra material on the wiki that is from the published material is reproduced with the approval of Studio Deadcrows, the French publisher for RQGWatching old adventure/sci-fi movies on VHS, and being pitched the Warhammer Fantasy RPG (WFRP) as similar to those moviesBen’s first purchased RPG books were from the Call of Cthulhu and World of Darkness lines, but we was busy playing sports and listening to rap, so he read the books but didn’t play them! This may be called “lonely fun” Only years after that one WFRP game did Ben finally find another gaming group playing the WEG Star Wars RPGBen offered to GM Call of Cthulhu after that, which lasted for a handful of years, going through the Spawn of Azathoth campaign You too can learn geography and history by GMing Call of Cthulhu! It’s hard to find English or French RPG books while living in China, so Ben loaded up on many books whenever he would come homeAs a Roliste TV watcher (YouTube channel here), Ben learned that one host (Mathieu) is a big fan of RuneQuest, so Ben bought the latest edition… and didn’t like it! This is because the world wasn’t described enough for Ben to picture, so he bought the Glorantha Sourcebook… and didn’t like it either! Too many names and lists of things!It was the Bestiary that made Ben “get it”: each “monster” is actually coming from somewhere and have their place After that, Ben was deep into Glorantha and started reading more and more books about it Glorantha: a steep curve followed by a rabbit hole! Books are expensive so Ben got Gianni Vacca to explain things to him for free! Gianni is Ben’s co-host on the Runecast podcastGianni is Ben’s Joerg, an old hands of Glorantha… actually even older than Joerg, since Gianni started with RQ2!Ben’s wiki and podcast are geared towards beginners Favourite thing about Glorantha: Dorastor, to make players suffer! See Simon Phipp’s “Secrets of Dorastor” (and other related books), and his interview episode on the show Sartar, because it’s an interesting place Next on Ben’s reading list are the Red Cow campaign books (book 1 and book 2) See also Ian Cooper’s Questworlds interview on the show Things Ben doesn’t like: the gray areas, because he likes to feel like he understands everythingBen asks Joerg what is the nature of the great compromise? Joerg explains how gods can break the compromise and act in TimeWe talk about avatars of gods also manifesting gods enough to endanger the Compromise, and how Chaos allows gods to get involved in Time Greg’s narrative framework of writing “in world” texts that give contradictory views and accountsThe annoyance of “no answers” vs “multiple answers”King of Sartar is… a dense and complicated bookGMing the French campaign “Children of the Flame” (Gianni is an author on it) This campaign helped show Ben what is possible in GloranthaIt’s about the Dundealos tribe, near Swenville, after they have been replaced by the Lunar Entalos tribe… until the Dragonrise gives an opportunity to retake their landsFaction play, with various tribes, the Lunars, etc.There’s a map of Swenville! A good way to start in Glorantha is a good example: a scenario, a campaign, etc. The Sourcebook isn’t a good idea for beginnersThe GM pack or a campaign are better! (classic RQ2 campaigns, or newer ones from the Jonstown Compendium)Basically, start small! The French edition of RQG has one scenario in the rulebook, and one in the bestiary… something the English edition is lacking!Ludo briefly talks about his similarly failed encounters with GloranthaBen reiterates how Glorantha is consistently deep and how he loves that about itBen started just with the books for a while, but later discovered there are so many things about Glorantha on the internet! Shout-out to 7Tigers, who translates all the news and Well of Daliath content to FrenchAlso shout-out to Olivier from “Les Fils du Chaos” for helping correct the French RQWikiAnd ...
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    1 ora e 21 min
  • Episode 35: Secrets of Dorastor
    May 23 2025
    Our Guest Our guest this episode is Simon Phipp, author of Secrets of Dorastor, Secrets of Heroquesting, and author or contributor on many, many other books. Joerg sadly isn’t present this time: he was stuck on a highway somewhere in Germany waiting for auto-assistance. Show Notes Here are some various things we talk about in this episode: Getting started playing in Glorantha in 1982… which sounds like 15 years ago but apparently is a lot longer agoRuneQuest 2 (with Cults of Prax) was Simon’s first game Bud (from Bud’s RPG Review) recently said that it’s like being born with a silver spoon in your mouth Watching “World of Sports” and reading “The Iliad” as a kid… as one doesSimon loves RQ2 for its scale and the visceral feeling you get from playing itPlaying in Dorastor because it was nasty and unmapped in the early 80s The only source was the Paulis Longvale narrative from Cults of TerrorOther GMs in Simon’s gaming circles were already playing in the “usual places” (Sartar, Prax, Pavis & The Big Rubble)We started our series on Paulis Longvale last episode! Running a Star Trek-like episodic campaign in and out of Dorastor, starting around 1985Later, during the RuneQuest 3 era, Dorastor: Land of Doom was releasedSimon’s players accused him of knowing about the upcoming book’s contents!The pros & cons of playing in the vaguely defined Glorantha of the 80s vs the encyclopedic Glorantha of the 2010sThe Dorastor: Land of Doom’s warning on the back cover is factually accurate… if you consider Simon, as a GM, as a big and ugly thing!Come to the Risklands! It’s great!The Chaos Nests of Genertela. They’re great too! Simon’s Dorastor has multiple Chaos Nests In his campaign, Simon’s players killed Razalkark, the king of the Broos, and occupied his fort… and then things got worseChaotic True Dragons are apparently a bad thing?Simon tells us the story of Dorastor, including his own interpretation of the whole Nysalor/Gbaji/Arkat thing You may remember we discussed some of this with Bud in a previous episode Dorastor is filled with lots and lots of bad monsters! How do you get your players to go there?Simon’s Dorastor is a bit more nuanced than just “a place to kill monsters”: you can create alliances, do trade, and so onSimon gets bored to tears watching the Gloranthan metaplot unfold, with NPCs doing all the cool things HeroWars was very guilty of this Dorastor is so far away from Dragon Pass that we don’t care what Argrath is doing!Simon’s books contain many, many scenarios for Dorastor, plus many adventure seedsThere are several layers to Dorastor: Go in, fight Chaos, come out (if you succeed enough times, become a Dorastor guide!)Interact with the big personalities of Dorastor (meet the Spider Queen, she’s great!) Storm Bull initiates must learn to prioritizeHumakti broos! Dorastor ducks! Giant vampires!Relationship with the neighboursDon’t forget not all cults hate ChaosSimon likes messing with his players’ headsChaotic people: they’re not as bad as you think? But watch out, you might quickly end up worshipping Thanatar if you don’t pay attention to Simon’s evil schemes Finding lost or secret things in DorastorWhat makes heroes?Super-RuneQuest! and other high-level character stats…The most useless magic item ever… until it breaks your scenario!The problem of long running campaignsAcid! Poison! Ash elementals!Bathing in gorps!Ludo discovers that Cacodemon got Vomit Acid in RuneQuest 3Fun with Chaos Features!Simon’s best anecdote: basilisks and mirrors!Designing encounter locationsIt’s not the GM’s job to know the solutions, it’s their job to setup problemsHair and fingernail elementals!Illumination in Dorastor: break the rules, become good, become evil?Come to Dorastor, it’s lovely, and you can become heroes! 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.
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    1 ora e 28 min
  • Episode 34: The Reminiscences of Paulis Longvale (Part 1)
    Apr 16 2025
    After too long a hiatus, we are finally back! Well, almost, because Ludo is an idiot and got the time zones wrong while setting up the recording, so Joerg shows up a bit later. Ludo apologizes for messing that up but hey, this is an episode about Chaos, so… Our Guest We welcome once again Austin Conrad to the show! His website is AkhelasGet Treasures of Glorantha: Volume 2, one of the finest books on the Jonstown Compendium! We actually talked about that book, and magical items in general, for episode 31 Austin’s ghost was summoned during our more recent episode on RuneQuest house rules Show Notes In this episode we chat about things like: Cult of Terror (RQ2, 1981) You can get it as a POD reprint or in PDF from Chaosium Dorastor: Land of Doom (RQ3, 1993)The Cults of Runequest sourcebooks (available here from Chaosium)Shadows on the Borderlands (RQ3, 1993)The first time the Gloranthan cosmology and history is presented in one textWorshipping Mallia as a non-Chaos deity, in a propitiatory wayKing of Dragon PassRuneQuest WarlordsRazalkark, the King of the Broos, and a “good boy”Cults of Prax (RQ2, 1979) and the tribulations of Biturian Varosh Our episode series on Biturian Varosh started back when we were the “Wind Words” podcast, and continued with guest Drew Baker early in the God Learners podcast The four philosophies and magic forms of Glorantha… plus a few more! Add you own!The usual suspects: the Guide to Glorantha, the Glorantha Sourcebook, and the Mythology bookThe entire cosmology and history of Glorantha in 10 pages! Boom! Done!Ludo’s favourite RuneQuest cover, by Jennell Jaquays (see the real wrap-around version!)A Gloranthan pronunciation guide! Can YOU pronounce Gloranthan deities’ names correctly?The ProsopaediaThe Curse of Thed: it really sucks! Ludo got confused by his notes (“confusing notes” is a Chaotic feature!)“Reverse Chaos” was renamed “Curse of Thed” in RQG Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay features chaos corruption rules that affect the player characters, sometimes willinglyWe should be playing in Bilini and Dorastor, there’s a lot of fun stuff happening there!Is it Chaos, or Just Very Bad Thing?Simon Phipp’s Secrets of Dorastor and lines of booksOur episode on Arkat, with guest Bud from Bud’s RPG ReviewThe big-ass Genertela mapAustin is supposedly being “very polite” in Ludo’s game about NOT becoming an assassin. Spoiler: a month later, Austin did in fact murder a long-standing NPC and initiated into the Eurmal Murderer cult…Wesley CrusherRagnar Lodbrok and the TV show “Vikings”The Orlanthi as Vikings vs the Orlanthi as ancient GreeksWant to make your players go on a quest? Loan them magical items!The Lightbringers Summons and forcing it on your playersChaos as organized crimeMallia and pandemics… too soon, Joerg!Shenanigans with disease spirits!Dealing with trickster player characters…Scorpion Men: the other iconic Gloranthan bad guys?Beer With Teeth’s Stone and Bone13th Age Glorantha‘s Scorpion Men illustrationsGagyx Two-Barb, Scorpion QueenThe Footprint, another place of ChaosFood and water are tainted! Roll to find safe things to consume, or pack them!Making your own funky diseasesUsing the table of troll drink effects from Trollpak (RQ2, 1982)Differences in Chaos curses between RQ2 and RQGParanoia in players, and nasty Chaotic featuresXenohealing, the spell nobody misses, apparentlyHashtag Not All Chaos!Adapting a combat scene environment to the baddies’ abilities… For instance: Scorpion Men can climb very well!Austin’s correct answer to Scorpion Men is “don’t”Milking Scorpion Men…. uuggghThe players are always the baddies! 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.
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    1 ora e 26 min
  • Episode 33: The House Rules of Sandheart
    Dec 31 2024
    We said we were back from our summer break with episode 32, but we lied! Joerg’s laptop died and he was busy growing a moustache, and Ludo was ridiculously busy with work. Either way, we are back again, just in time for the end of the year! Our Guest This time we welcome Jon Webb again, who appeared on our show back in episode 6 along with Neil Gibson. Jon is of course the wonderful author of the equally wonderful “Sandheart” series of scenarios: Sandheart Volume 1: Tales of the Sun County MilitiaSandheart Volume 2: The Corn Dolls & Fortunate SunSandheart Volume 3: TraditionSandheart Volume 4: The God Skin & Mad Prax Disclaimer: the above links are affiliate links of course (please use them to support the show!) The Making of Sandheart Our first topic is the Sandheart series of scenarios (see links above) which, although they have been written and published a long time ago, we had not covered on the show before… better late than never! We chat with Jon about how Sandheart came to be, the strength of its campaign framework, moral choices, “street-level” adventures, designing problems for which you don’t know the solution, culture clashes between characters, custom heroquesting rules, and more. If you haven’t read or played Sandheart, there shouldn’t be any spoilers for you — only titillating previews of the sort of fun you can expect therein. Note that if you don’t plan on getting all four volumes of the series, we recommend getting volumes 1 and 3. The reason for this is that volume 3 is a scenario that spans multiple years, as the adventurers are tasked with guard duty for a recurring ritual. Getting volume 3 early will let you weave the first couple occurrences of the ritual into the first few adventures. House Rules and Custom Systems In the second and larger half of the episode, we exchange all kinds of ideas about tweaking and extending the RuneQuest rules. Among the things we talk about, in no particular order: Picking rules from different editions of RuneQuestHit Points formulasInitiative systems and Strike RanksSorcery rulesExperience checks and experience gainResolving tiesFailing ForwardCombat effects and aiming at hit locationsCustom hit location tablesShieldsGranularity of rules per activityGritty tactical combat vs heroic scenesAverage skill scores vs heroic skill scoresFighting styles and converting to other weaponsGroup rollsAdopting rules from Call of Cthulhu 7th EditionChaotic corruption!Lingering emotionsCaravan trading rulesGoing into a rabbit hole of research and math, and finding what a mechanic should be aboutKeeping custom mechanics into the “spirit” of the main systemPost-coital pillow talk rules We also mention: Ludovic’s own adventure, “A Short Detour”MythrasTroikaDragonbaneWarhammer Fantasy RoleplayTravellerAlien RPG 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.
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    1 ora e 37 min