Monday, April 17, 2006

Insight on RuneQuest - Conflict Webs

A little insight I just had on RuneQuest:

The cults in RQ provide an instant campaign level conflict web. Now, unlike Chris's suggestion on how to create a conflict web to drive play in the linked blog entry, the RQ cult conflict web is something that constantly sits in the background. But by introducing NPCs that follow a cult, the GM is instantly placing that NPC into a conflict web that has a well defined (and interesting for driving play) structure. Of course NPCs can be introduced that don't fit in exactly, but that's just temporarily bending the conflict web, which as long as it isn't bent too far, will still be interesting.

One interesting ingsight here, in Chris's writeup of conflict webs, he doesn't talk about placing PCs into the web, and in fact, it makes sense not to. So what does this mean relative to a PC following one of the cults? Has the PC been placed into the web? No. But there are implicit NPCs (temple authorities, even the actual god) who fill the position in the web. And the players dynamically create new strands that tie their character into the web in play.

And the players dynamically creating strands to tie their character into the web, and in doing so, disturbing the existing strands, is how the conflict web drives play.

One random thought: Is the existence of this campaign level, relatively static, conflict web (that locally and temporarily gets changed in play) something that indicates simulationist play as opposed to narativist play? Certainly it seems that the players discovering, and re-inforcing, and demonstrating, this campaign level conflict web is one way to celebrate the dream.

Looking back on my most successfull RuneQuest campaign, there is no doubt that this conflict web drove play. One of the central PCs was a Lhankor Mhy sage, who was always looking for stuff in tombs. There was almost always a Humakti PC in the group (and I think the other central player played a Humakti for much of the campaign). This of course created lots of tension because the Humakti don't exactly like disturbing graves though they care less about non-Humakti graves. On the other hand, often the tombs were occupied by ghosts or undead, creatures that Humakti consider abominations.

All the significant non-humans in Glorantha are tied into the conflict web, usually through their deity. Trolls aren't exactly buddy buddy with humans, on the other hand, Argan Argar trolls do recognize that trade with humans is valuable. A Zorak Zorani troll can find common cause with a Storm Bull, or anyone else who is willing to dispatch creatures of chaos.

Frank

4 comments:

Frank said...

Hmm, I still wonder if the cult conflict web remains static within the context of the game (sure, it's changed over time in the history - but at least in my play, it's pretty static) that more likely suggests sim play rather than nar play. Of course it could be nar play if there is a smaller scale conflict web which is actually driving play.

I don't have enough experience with nar and sim play yet to really see myself how things work.

Frank

Frank said...

Ok. I'm fairly certain I've done sim. I think I've done nar with my Dogs sessions.

But really, the main point, and sure, it isn't all that stellar, was that Glorantha comes with a nice conflict web, and that when that comes out in play, the result is fun gaming.

Now what I need to do to make my new campaign work really well is to make sure I am more pro-active in bringing out that conflict web.

Also on thinking about campaign settings, in comparison, I think one of my problems with using Tekumel was that it doesn't have such an obvious built in conflict web. So it's got all this encyclopedic detail, but very little of it is useful for driving play.

Frank

Frank said...

I've never focused too much on the issues related to the Lunar conquest, but mostly on the conflicts between the cults. Mostly because my general concept of the world is primarily founded on the RQ rule book and Cults of Prax, neither of which give much coverage of the Lunar conquest. Even when I got Borderlands, I never really internalized the fact that this Lunar guy is setting up in Prax, and if so, how he got there (and the implication that Sartar had been conquered).

As a result, I really struggle with how to present Glorantha in this aspect. It also doesn't help that there are no RQ I/II era materials covering conquered Sartar, and I tend to like to start in Sartar (I think both Snake Pipe Hollow and Apple Lane are pre-Lunar conquest, and they're the only RQ I/II era Sartar source material).

Frank

Frank said...

Your points, combined with one of my players mentioning: "Lunar Empire: think Roman Empire. Sartar: think Gaul." gets me thinking of the Asterix comics...

Hmm, how's that as a thought for a source of hero quests...

I think I'll end up playing it by ear a lot.

I've also considered that I should lock all the newer stuff away, and just play with the resources I know and love...

And it's not like I've ever paid all that much attention to Gloranthan canon. When I ran my long running RQ game before, almost all of my module sources were D&D modules... (and in fact, the game started to fall apart when I started using the AH era RQ modules, and collapsed when I re-started the campaign using the Dorastor module).

In a sense, the game was best when it was a thin veneer of D&D like gaming, with an overlay of Cults of Prax, and random tidbits of Gloranthan setting. Which focused play on the cults, and that built in conflict web.

Frank