The Last Days of the Haraborn (Learn to Play Runequest)

Creating your character

Character Creation will be done during Session 0, and will involve an expanded Family History section and most of the steps in the base rules of Runequest: Glorantha, as modified by the starting character rules in Six Seasons in Sartar. Player characters will be assumed to be younger, between 16 - 18 years of age at the beginning of play, and not yet initiated as adults of the Clan. This initiation will occur within the first few sessions of play. I strongly recommend using this website to construct a Sartarite Name for your character ( https://2ndage.blogspot.com/2015/10/random-sartarite-name-generator.html ) prior to the first session. I also strongly recommend you make names for your parents and both sets of grandparents, as, believe it or not, we will be meeting them and learning their histories during Character Creation. It may help to construct a bank of Sartarite names for Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Siblings, as your family tree does not just end with you. Spend some time putting yourself in the mindset of a young person from a Bronze Age culture that has been learning all their life to farm or tend flocks, as that is what your parents do and they have been teaching you to follow in their footsteps. Fate and Adventure have a way of changing the course of your life, but for the moment, your character has been raised to be a farmer or a shepherd, and this is the life you know.

Preparing for the session

The very first step is to message me here on SPG and send me your best email and your Discord Handle. I will then respond with a Link to the Pre-Game Survey. This MUST be completed prior to joining the game, as it is necessary to implement certain safety tools and helps me get to know you better. No application will be approved without completing the Pre-Game Survey. I will then reach out to try and schedule a short One-on-One interview to go over the Survey and explain how I do Safety Tools, how I run games, and talk concepts for your new character. I am happy to answer any questions you have about the game at that time. Then I will send you a Discord Server Invite to the Private Server where we coordinate our sessions and RP between sessions, so you can meet the rest of the Clan. We are a very welcoming bunch, and you'll soon be adopted into the family. This game will be run over Zoom, so you need to install the Zoom Client on your end. You do not need a paid Zoom Account for this, mine covers us all. The Virtual Tabletop we use is Foundry, run using the Forge, so I will need you to establish an account on the Forge website ( https://forge-vtt.com/ ) and send me that Forge email, then I will send you the link to the game to have you join us there. As it will be run over the internet, a reliable internet connection and a microphone is the bare minimum technologically necessary, but I do like it when I can see my Players' smiling faces, so if you have a webcam and are willing to be 'on camera' with me, I would appreciate it. If you happen to have a copy of Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, I would recommend reading through the Chapters on Adventurers (Character Creation), Skills (What Characters learn how to do), and Rune Cults (To know which Gods to pray to for what). After that, reading the Homelands Chapter would be good, and then the Spirit Magic Chapters. Your characters have not yet been initiated into any of the various cults yet - this will be a major story event for your characters as they choose which of the Gods of Glorantha they will dedicate their lives to following. If you do not have a copy of this book yet, I do recommend you consider acquiring it from the good people at Chaosium ( https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-rpg/ ), but it is not strictly necessary at first. I have been running this system for many years now and I will be happy to explain as we go along. DO NOT READ SIX SEASONS IN SARTAR. (Duh, Spoilers!)

What Overlord Jim brings to the table

I have been a passionate Fan of Glorantha since I discovered it by accident while reading a review in a Game Magazine for a video game called King of Dragon Pass. I wouldn't play this game for several years until I found it on GoG, but once I finally did I was hooked and drawn into the world of Glorantha, one of the most awesome fantasy worlds I have ever seen - and I've read a whole lot of fantasy books to know! By chance I was reading the back page of the manual and discovered that this setting was part of a Roleplaying Game before it became a Video Game. I looked up this "RuneQuest" and the rest is history. I fell deeply in love with Glorantha, and it is a love I am eager to share with you. I think once you get to know this world, you will never look at any other the same way again. As a GM, I am a big believer in the Rule of Cool, which I've been using since long before it got its name. While in my Learn to Plays, I tend to stick closer to Rules as Written, I have never met a Rule I won't bend to allow a Player's Cool Idea a chance to succeed. I am your character's biggest fan from the moment I meet them. I want your characters to be Big Damn Heroes, and everything I do behind this screen is to help you do that. My Villains will be terrible, so that your confronting them can be glorious. My worlds will be full of evils both grand and banal, so you always have something going wrong you can make right. I want you to become Heroes with a Capital "H", and I will cheer on your characters every step of the way. I have a confession to make: I love combat. I am a relentless action junkie who loves nothing more than throwing your precious characters to the wolves - figuratively and literally! My monsters howl for your blood and will gnaw on your bones if you don't fight smart and watch each other's backs. RuneQuest combat is particularly deadly, and I want you to know there is no such thing as a Trivial Encounter - Harast the Guardsman can roll a critical hit and then roll a headshot and you're dead, instantly. Bear that in mind as you explore Glorantha. Exploration and wonder are a close second for me, and even in an isolated valley like Black Stag Vale, there is still much to be discovered. I love taking you somewhere no one has ever seen so you can have the Moment of Discovery. There is always Terra Incognita, even in a world as well explored as Glorantha - you just have to know where to find it. My favorite part of all, though, is the roleplaying. I live for that moment when I watch you become the character, speaking their words, affecting their mannerisms, and making choices that ring true for the Character above all. My current group in RuneQuest exemplifies this, and it is an absolute joy to watch them become their characters every week. I invite you to a deep immersion with your character, and can't wait to see you become them. I look forward to meeting you and your hero!

Homebrew rules

I modify the limitations on the use of Passions and Rune Augments to your skills, allowing one use of each per scene, but the failed Passion penalties stack, and the failed Runes still require meditation and realignment before they can be used again. I tend to do experience per story rather than per season, as the story can take up a lot of play time, but less in-world time than expected.

How Overlord Jim creates a safe table

I run all my games and my server as a safe space for everyone, and both are explicitly and aggressively inclusive. You are welcome at my table if you can follow the game's rules and play nice with others. Pronouns and identities are to be respected, BUT we also do not take offense when people make honest mistakes trying to honor them. (I guarantee I will flub your pronouns at least once, but will always try to self-correct when I do) I will not tolerate people deliberately and intentionally making my clients - who often become my friends - feel unsafe and uncomfortable. This is the expected baseline for everyone in my games and on my server. We use the X, N, and O Cards, and you can use them visually or submit X N & O Cards by PM, but the visual usually gets my attention faster. It is my usual practice to do a mid-game break, and we can do breaks as needed after intense scenes. I encourage high quality roleplaying and thus am prepared to deal with Bleed as it occurs. I often forget to do my Stars & Wishes, please remind me so I get better about that. I am always open to constructive criticism, it's how I improve as a GM, and I'm always trying to run a better game than the last one. This is being run based on a pre-written scenario with some troubling content being possible elements involved. Life as a Bronze Age Herding Clan involves a lot of hard realities. Horrible things happening to innocents is not unknown and there is a strong possibility of encountering truly evil creatures willing to do terrible things in this story. That said, I will gladly tweak triggering content to avoid crossing Player Lines as much as possible. As you can see from the rather extensive set of warnings, this game can have a lot of dark spots. The World of Glorantha is modeled on Earth's Bronze Age, and there's a lot of ugly, mean, and all-too-human darkness in that era of history. As stated above, though, all darkness that exists in my worlds is always there to be confronted. Find the Chaos Cultists and burn down their temple. Confront the Monsters and save the Clan's Herds. Defeat the Lunar Commander and free your friends from imminent crucifixion. Evil exists to be defeated by Heroes. Be the Heroes.