Glorantha - Third Age?

[jolt]

I love Glorantha. And while the Second Sge books are an entertaining read, I'm not really partial to it for my setting; I'd much rather play in the third age. The problem is that I don't have access to much third age material.

I have the HeroQuest books from Moon Design which are nice as the system is so simple that the books are largely fluff but there's almost nothing there outside of Sartar (which they set in 1618 before Argrath liberates Sartar from the Lunars). What sourcebooks are available for Third Age? I don't really even care if they're OOP as such books are usually easy to find on Amazon and/or eBay.

What are my options? Thanks!

jolt

 

[Ultor]

You can get almost all the Chaosium RQii material via the Moon Design Classics range (available at Drivethrurpg for $20 each - hard copies are much more expensive and hard to find: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=79) I find the Chaosium stuff very easy to convert to Mongoose RQII.

For RQIII, look for the Glorantha boxed set and the items from the so-called "Runequest revival" - River of Cradles, Sun County, Shadows on the Borderland, Strangers in Prax (all set in the Pavis/Prax area) as well as Dorastor and Lords of Terror (if you like Chaos). You'll have to look on ebay etc for these.

The Hero Wars and Heroquest I stuff (via Issaries) is of mixed quality. Some of it is fantastic and others mind-numbingly complicated thanks to the HQI obsession with subcults and hero bands (thankfully corrected in HQ2). If you want stuff set outside Dragon Pass/Prax/Dorastor this is basically your only option. Blood Over Gold is a really nice campaign set in Maniria. Take a look at that Issaries link to see what's available.

I believe d101 games will be releasing Trotsky's Third Age Malkioni sourcebooks soon, as an officially unofficial look at the West. I'm looking forward to them.

Finally, there's the Stafford Library of Greg's collected background notes. Unfinished Lands is probably most suited to your purposes, but can be really difficult to find.

Hope this helps! I'm running an MRQII Third Age campaign set in Pavis/Prax. The Second Age stuff already covers most of the crunch like cults - you only really need to come up with Lunar cults and Rokarism, really.

 

[soltakss]

I'd definitely second the Gloranthan Classics - they cover most of the supplements published for RQ2.

If you can get hold of Gods of Glorantha then that should provide you with a load a short-form cult writeups which help expand Glorantha slightly.

Ian Thomson's P&BR Series is also worth getting, if you can. It's not official but contains some excellent material.

The fanzines are useful as well. Tradetalk is available through Drive Thru RPG. I don't know about Tales of the Reaching Moon, Codex or RQ Adventures, but they are worth getting hold of if you can. The Books of Drastic Resolutions are excellent but really difficult to get hold of now.

 

[Darran]

What the third age Glorantha could really do with is an over-view book exactly like Mongoose's 'Glorantha: The Second Age' by Robin Laws.

The 'Glorantha: Crucible of the Hero Wars' by Avalon Hill does cover the setting but it is all in broad strokes, there is very little details you can get a grip on. Some of it is very tantalising though, you are left wanting more.

'Glorantha: Introduction to the Hero Wars' by Issaries does go into more detail but it has some poor organisation and it is a very dry read, not very inspiring.

 

[jolt]

Thanks for all the help! Good to know the material is out there is some format at least.

One more quick question: How far does the Third Age timeline extend? Did the TA ever actually end? I seem to remember hearing, quite a while ago, that eventually Argrath fails, Sartar falls completely, the Lunars basically blitzkrieg through Dragon Pass and end up warring with someone else. And in the end, Lunar Heroquesting combined with their pseudo-Chaos worship of the Red Moon Goddess leads to the end of the age in no more cheery a fashion than the Second Age ended. Can anyone confirm or deny any of this?

jolt

EDIT: Okay, that question was a little less quick than I first envisioned.

 

[Ultor]

YGMV.

Your best source is King of Sartar, where Argrath is most definitely victorious. Yet what happens then, and whether or not this is the final bow of Rashorana/Sedenya/whateverthey'recallinghertoday, is up to you to reconstruct from the sources provided.

I believe Issaries is planning a rerelease of KoS, but you should be able to pick it from a second hand book network like Alibris.

Iain

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

What the third age Glorantha could really do with is an over-view book exactly like Mongoose's 'Glorantha: The Second Age' by Robin Laws.

This is in the pipeline from Moon Design, BTW.

 

[Rungard]

One more quick question: How far does the Third Age timeline extend?

As far as you and your players want to, really.

However, if you like to know what canon says, the novel "King of Sartar" extends up to 1655 TS, I think, although I don't like the end that Stafford gives to the Third Age, where all the gods die.

If you want to know more, I recommend you this interesting recent thread on RPGnet:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=563149
:wink:

 

[zomben]

What the third age Glorantha could really do with is an over-view book exactly like Mongoose's 'Glorantha: The Second Age' by Robin Laws.

It's in the works. According to Jeff, it's due for release this year.

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

although I don't like the end that Stafford gives to the Third Age, where all the gods die.

IIRC, there seems to be some question as to whether this actually happened, in any case.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Of course there is also the version where Harshax (the Pharaoh) is trapped in a repeating temporal loop....

The bottom line is that there are many theories and ideas, but 'King of Sartar' is as good as it gets, info wise.

 

[simonh]

However, if you like to know what canon says, the novel "King of Sartar" extends up to 1655 TS, I think, although I don't like the end that Stafford gives to the Third Age, where all the gods die.

Glorantha's ages are phases through which consciousness goes through in Glorantha. Each age represents a new stage in the evolution of the way Gloranthans perceive, understand and interact with their world. There is a logic, a plan and therefore an inevitability about each stage.

I think in the fourth age people have the modern mode of consciousness in which the gods, their myths and legends are mythical in the modern meaning of the world.

Simon Hibbs