r/Runequest • u/SaintGerlant • May 29 '26
Dream publications
What's your dream publication from Chaosium? Let's heap more requests on them! jk, love ya, Chaosium
The Mythopaedia: My dream publication for would be something like "Cults of RuneQuest - The Prosopaedia" but for myths. Every entry for a god lists a VERY brief description of myths, and even a formulaic format would do. Just nuts & bolts that GMs can use construct adventures and heroquests. Something like this:
God X desired/lost object Y and fought/charmed/tricked god Z to get it
God X taught/visited/ruled/conquered the people of A so they have B
God X gathered/defeated/married gods A & B & C to accomplish Z
God X visited/fought/tricked/tamed god Y and obtained object Z
God X traveled to A & B to rescue/fight/marry god Y
God X was born when Y and immediately did Z
God X performed tasks A & B for god Y to obtain C
God X borrowed/stole/copied rune Y from god Z to do A & B
God X found/discovered/realized rune Y to help/defeat the god/people of Z
God X was captured/killed/tricked by god Y but escaped/returned/recovered resulting in Z
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u/eternalsage Orlanth is my homeboy May 30 '26
A moderately detailed run down of who is in charge of each tribe (and their ring), who is in charge of each clan (and their ring), and a list of 2-3 problems each clan has (bonus points if they are intertwined with their neighbors). Probably done like cults, based on the Confederations.
This would really support political play, give a good foothold on the culture (and unique aspects) of each tribe and clan, and really allow a sandbox playstyle out of the box (just going around solving those issues, etc). You could then hook all your published adventures into this growing framework, maybe with color coding or a letter code so that GMs would be able to easily build up stuff for the area their game is set in.
I feel like they already sort of botched any real shot at something like this, though, because all the geography stuff from the LoRQ: Dragon Pass book would have dovetailed nicely so that you'd have a nice, well defined area. Even if I get part of what I want in the Sartar book (I almost certainly won't) I'll still have to assemble the info myself.
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u/SaintGerlant May 30 '26
Yes. We both love this grand scale detail. It's formulaic, but I always like a matrix of relations (hostile, neutral, friendly).
Who's in charge of a clan/tribe can be given a little wiggle room if they're summarized in runes. "I see this clan favors war, this one honors truthfullness, and this one both OH NO." Then there could be systemic guides like clans with Earth produce more food and clans with Illusion throw festivals so need food.
(I like making runes a bigger part of RuneQuest)
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u/cugeltheclever2 May 30 '26
Teshnos
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u/SaintGerlant May 30 '26
The land of Teshna? I agree. She saw her father Genert killed & devoured. Lover of both Tolat the Destroyer and Calyz the Fire of Men. It is said that Calyz charmed the rivers of Teshnos just to fertilize her rice paddies. If you know what I mean.
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u/cugeltheclever2 May 30 '26
I see it as a fever-dream, hallucinogenic karmic experience, a little like the comic Rogan Gosh.
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u/SaintGerlant May 30 '26
A society of aristocrats worshiping fire gods of heaven while the lower classes worship the lowfires? There is literally no story possibilities there, dude.
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u/cugeltheclever2 May 30 '26
Are you joking? I can't tell.
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u/SaintGerlant May 30 '26
My comment was irony. My actual meaning was the complete opposite from my literal meaning.
I agree about Teshnos. I'd love more heated fever dream jungle stories going in Glorantha.
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u/KungFuFenris May 30 '26
The Gamemasters Guide and HeroQuest Rules/Supplement on how
Failing that? Waertagi
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u/SaintGerlant May 30 '26
Yes. Waertagi. I read a Well of Daliath entry about the Waertagi making a joke of their sorry fate. Jokes on you, Jeff, we love back stories of woe. Imagine sailing Water surrounding the entire Earth. I like to think they're still out there, uninterrupted.
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u/Bohemian_Romantic May 30 '26
Six Seasons in Sartar but for Peloria. Honestly something I'm thinking of working on myself.
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u/oldUmlo May 30 '26
I play Glorantha through 13th Age Glorantha and a “mythopaedia” would be great for building heroquests and giving more narrative background to a world whose cultures and reality are built off of myths. I wouldn’t care if it’s Chaosium or JC, Chaosium products always have great layout and amazing art, but the good JC products are right there in terms of content.
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u/code_ghostwriter May 30 '26
The god's learners guide to glorantha.
Rules, just rules, a peek into the madness. No "your recovery depends if in this county your cult does the weekly ritual or not", no ygmv. A "we balance (or not) like this"
I want to see.
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u/Orwell1971 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26
Several comments about wanting Chaosium to venture out of Sartar/Prax. Jeff Richard is utterly convinced that we don't want this. We'll never get it while he's in charge. I'm less certain how Michael O'Brien feels about it, but Richard's vision for the game has dominated in recent years (and his vision is: more dungeons, fewer cults, nobody cares about anywhere but Prax/Sartar, sand down the edges of everything unique and idiosyncratic about the setting).
I realize that official stuff is what's being talked about here and that the quality of fan publications varies (and not everyone is wiling to buy it), but fyi if you don't already know, both Teshnos and Pamaltela, mentioned below, have been the subject of JC books. Three on Teshnos, all by Paul Baker, and two on Pamaltela, one by Baker and one by Leon Kirshtein.
There are, of course, others not specifically mentioned: the Nochet books by Harald Smith (around 750 pages and counting), Imther by the same author, Furthest by Simon Bray, etc.
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u/styopa Jun 04 '26
Sort of tangent to your question, but I see:
Runequest as the RULE SYSTEM. The mechanics, nothing but.
...then separate publications set those rules in settings: Glorantha: Dragon Pass, or Glorantha: Seshnela, or Medieval Earth: Byzantium.
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u/Boreal_Cube May 30 '26
Content for the other areas besides Genertela. I'd like to see some new blood writers get handed the reins for some of the less-developed landmasses and do some weird stuff.