Glorantha Initiation: Lee, Irish Mythology, and Reverential Tones

In this episode of our Glorantha Initiation Series, we had the absolute pleasure of talking to Lee O’Connor. He came to Glorantha during the initial pandemic lockdown by way of his love for mythology and the fact that his middle-aged British gamer friends wanted to recapture the joy of their youth by playing RPGs again.

We apologize for Lee’s squeaking and cracking chair, which causes some background noise during the interview.

Where to Find Lee

This is where you’ll find Lee online:

• Personal website, and blog
• Instagram feed
• Twitter and Facebook
• Fionn Mac Cumhaill Graphic Novel
• RuneQuest campaign wiki (the PCs’ village is “Stoneroot”)
• All of Lee’s Gloranthan art is in this Facebook photo set

Lee contributed some art to the Duckpac sourcebooks for RuneQuest Glorantha.

Lee also has some more upcoming stuff for RuneQuest:

• Upcoming black elves book by Brian Duguid
• Upcoming Greydog clan book by Jonathan Quaife
• Upcoming “in-world” historical book by Jonathan Quaife

Show Notes

Here is a list of stuff we talk about in the interview:

• The medieval town of Totnes in Devon (UK) where Totnes Castle is
• Image Comics
• Games Workshop shops (say it three times fast)
• Warhammer and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (the latest edition is published by Cubicle7)
• Magic The Gathering
• RuneQuest (spoken in reverential tones by British people)
• Warhammer’s Beastmen and RuneQuest’s Broos
• Call of Cthulhu and the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign
• Cyberpunk 2020
• Savage Worlds
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Fighting Fantasy books and the RPGs that spun-off from them
• There are no tabletops in buses
• RuneQuest Glorantha Quickstart
• Agon, for playing in mythic Greece
• GURPS Greece
• Savage Worlds’ 50 Fathoms and Pirates of the Spanish Main
• OpenQuest
• Barebones Fantasy
• Jason and the Argonauts
• Cthulhutech: H.P. Lovecraft meets Neon Genesis Evangelion plus Guyver
• Too Good To Be True, a Battletech PbtA system
• The Regiment, another PbtA game
• RuneQuest Glorantha, and the wonderful cover by Andrey Fetisov
• Fionn mac Cumhaill (pronounced Finn Macool, because of course it is), and the similarities to the later Arthurian myths
• The Cattle Raid of Cooley
• Using the King of Dragon Pass wiki for heroquesting ideas
• Father Ted
• RQG Gamemaster adventures
• Understanding the RQG Family History and bringing it in play
• The big Dragon Pass timeline, playing along the metaplot, and whether to bring back Kallyr
• The Duel at Dangerford
• JRR Tolkien and his take on celtic mythology
• The Seven Tailed Wolf
• The Black Spear
• Using King of Sartar for the alternative timelines
• River river, Hill hill hill hill, and the “quadruple redundancy of tautological placename etymologies”
• Gloranthan bad names (Clearwine, Ghosts Around, Nochet)
• RuneQuest Starter Set and Infinity Engine strike rank trackers
• The too many skills of RuneQuest
• The complicated publishing history of RuneQuest and its edition wars
• The modularity of RuneQuest
• Too much bookkeeping of weapon HP
• Babies, adult themes, and X-Cards
• The Glorantha Sourcebook vs The Guide to Glorantha
• D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths
• The Percy Jackson & The Olympians book series by Rick Riordan
• The “Rick Riordan Presents” book imprint with, for instance, The Storm Runner, a middle grade/young adult fantasy book based on Mayan mythology
• Tales of the Reaching Moon