Runequest’s Glorantha LARP At SaltCon

This year at the SaltCon 2020 Main Event (website) we had the opportunity to playtest a live action role play (LARP) in the RuneQuest setting of Glorantha. I know people who will scoff at the idea of doing a LARP, especially at a convention. They picture people running around in homemade armor and smacking each other with foam swords. This isn't one of those events.

If you are not familiar with RuneQuest or Glorantha, you need to know at least a little about the world.

RuneQuest (Wikipedia) is one of the roleplaying game (RPG) systems that has been around as long as Dungeons and Dragons. The world of Glorantha (Wikipedia) started as a board game in the mid-1970s. It is a world where people of all walks of life have the ability to interact with the gods to make things happen. It is a place where runes have power. It is where the people have strong ties with their homeland, their tribe, their people. It isn't a world of adventures, just killing "monsters" because they are different and evil. It is a place where your actions have consequences. For roleplaying, it means there is opportunity for deeper and grander experiences, besides the fight. This is a basic statement and there is much more to the world that set it apart.

Because it is a world where action has consequences and not just swinging a sword, it's a great setting for a LARP. This one was about questing for ruins, trading with other tribes, and the greater battle taking place against chaos.

The Game

We were treated to this LARP by John Wick (Wikipedia). Recently he took a position with Chaosium (webpage) and has been involved in developing new material for RuneQuest and Glorantha. This was a prototype he is working on.

I'll give the setting in basic details for those who aren't familiar with the lore of Glorantha. We were five groups of people in a mountain pass a few years after a dragon had been brought forth. In Glorantha dragons aren't fought by normal people, these creatures have wingspans measured in leagues. We were rebuilding in the pass as members of five different nations.

We were given the option to create any character background we wanted. Every person of the world can interact as the adventures of other systems. We were given the option to create goals for ourselves and we were given goals for our group. There was also conflict set up between the groups.

One of the groups being played were the Lunars. They are known to work with chaos. Because of this tie, every other nation had a goal of limiting their power and control of the Glowline.

There was a battle map set up on one table. Each group appointed one player as their general of the forces represented on the table. Strategy was played as the forces were moved to gain control of resources, and to keep others from gaining more. One location, the Glowline, was a place of magic the Lunars wanted to build up, while everyone else wanted it to diminish.

Thus we began, through several seasons. We collected resources, bartered, traded, made alliances, broke alliances, and quested. An epic story was created.

In the end, one tribe sacrificed themselves in a quest involving their entire group. They called upon their god to battle another god to save the world from chaos. Battles against chaos beasts were fought to banish them before they could destroy people and places in the mountains. And above all else, everyone had fun.

I can't relate many of the smaller details because there was so much going on in the room. Groups would huddle up and plan, then divide up to negotiate with others. Everything happened in one room, no secret meeting taking place someplace else. This also led to spying as people would get close enough to hear what was being negotiated.

Overall

If you've never experienced a LARP because you didn't want to be running around doing hack and slash, this was the type of event you need to play. There are also other systems that play this style of LARP, in case you want to get a feel for it.

If you've haven't had the opportunity to experience RuneQuest and Glorantha, keep an eye out for this event at upcoming conventions. It was worth the time. During the rest of the convention, and even afterwards on social media, people who played the LARP were talking about it. They greeted comrades, and sneered at their enemies.

I send forth a thank you to John Wick, those who helped in the presentation of this game, and Chaosium for giving them the opportunity of hosting this LARP. I look forward to seeing what he comes up with for Glorantha and RuneQuest.

By the way, I have some food supplies I'm looking to trade for herd animals.

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