RITUAL AND PLAY IN RUNEQUEST

"Play and ritual have many aspects in common, and ritual is a key component of the early cult practices that underlie the religious systems of societies in all parts of the world."

Ritual, Play, and Belief, In Evolution and Early Human Societies

..(C)ivilization is rooted in noble play and that, if it is to unfold in full dignity and style, it cannot afford to neglect the play-element. The observance of play-rules is nowhere more imperative than in the relations between countries and States. Once they are broken, society falls into barbarism and chaos.

Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens

ONE OF THE MOST OVERLOOKED RULES in RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha falls on pages 245 and 246. "Ritual Practices" is only about 280 words long, but they are arguably some of the most important words in the book. 

An adventurer can increase their chance to successfully cast any spell (including ritual spells), use a Rune, or perform a Magic skill (such as Worship) through a ritual practice. These take many forms in Glorantha, including ascetic meditation, chanting of mantras, creating mandalas or other geometric patterns, carving of Runes, etc.

RQG, p. 245

The mechanics are straightforward. By performing some sort of ritual practice, you receive a bonus to the skill roll. The longer you spend performing the ritual, the greater the bonus. Simple. The implications of the rule, however, are complex, and run right to the heart of the setting. Arguably, we are looking at a fourth "magic system" here. Consider: the bonus gained for a half-hour long ritual is +30%. That is the equivalent of "Bladesharp" or "Bludgeon" 6, and without the expenditure of magic points. The "energy" of the ritual isn't coming from the magician, it's coming from the ritual itself.

What is Ritual?

In the modern world, we tend to associate "ritual" with "religion," and use it interchangeably with "ceremony." The two words have very different origins, however. "Ceremony," which probably came into Latin from Etruscan, means something "sacred, holy, reverent." Ritual, on the other hand, is from proto-Indo-European and is related to the words rhythm, arithmetic, and right. We think the original meaning was "to observe, to count, to reflect." The idea of ritual was observing the way the world works, and aligning yourself with natural law by imitating it. The Hindu concept of dharma "behaviours that are in accordance with Ṛta—the "cosmic order" is an extension of this. In fact that word, Ṛta, again derives from the same root as ritual. The implication seems to be that the order and harmony of the universe was itself understood to be a ritual. Human rituals were re-enactments of cosmic rituals.

This is exactly the case in Glorantha. For shamans and theists, the actions of gods and spirits created the world, and the Great Compromise turned these actions into a ritual performed again and again endlessly throughout Time. Magic comes from imitating the rituals of the spirits and gods. For sorcerers, who lean more towards the arithmetic side of ritual, they observe the repeated patterns of nature, the rhythms, and ritually align themselves with that. But in all cases, magic spells are rituals, or at least obtained through rituals. Ritual, then, is magic.

Play

Just as the modern world has segregated ritual into a religious context, it has desacralized the concept of "play" and "game." Ritual is play, and play is ritual. In any ritual, you the designate space the rite is to be performed in, you gather the tools and instruments you need, and you gather co-practitioners. Then, for the duration of that ritual, the ritual becomes your world. This is exactly what you do when you play RuneQuest, or football, or chess. The reality of the game becomes the only reality for its duration, the microcosm.

In his Homo Ludens, which explores the concept of human civilization as a complex game, Johan Huizinga writes at length how ancient cultures saw games as ritual, as "magic." He uses dicing in ancient India as an example:

For us the chief point of interest is the place where the game is played. Generally it is a simple circle, dyutamandalam, drawn on the ground. The circle as such, however, has a magic significance. It is drawn with great care, all sorts of precautions being taken against cheating. The players are not allowed to leave the ring until they have discharged their obligations. But, sometimes a special hall is provisionally erected for the game, and this hall is holy ground. The Mahabharata devotes a whole chapter to the erection of the dicing hall - sabha - where the Pandavas are to meet their partners. Games, of chance, therefore, have their serious side. They are included in ritual.

One way to think of magic in Glorantha, and of the ritual practices rule, is that your adventurer is gam(bl)ing with the universe. There are rules to magic, like any game, and the adventurer wagers their magic points and tests their skill. In casting a spell they are figuratively rolling the dice just as you, the player, literally are. The reward is getting the outcome you wanted. By extension, this is also what they are doing in combat, what the Mahabharata called "the ritual of battle." Here the battlefield is the ritual space, weapons are the instruments, and the contestants are (ideally) bound by certain rules. Play is not necessarily synonymous with "fun."

Ritual in RuneQuest

To your ancient world thinking Gloranthan adventurer, ritual is how they live and act in the world. It governs every aspect of their existence. It is the way things are to be done. Dharma. In their minds, there is no real distinction between the laws of society, the laws of nature, and the rules of a game. Ritual is the opposite of Chaos. Ritual is what keeps Chaos at bay.

One way to promote character building and to engage with Glorantha as a setting is to encourage players to think about rituals for everything, not just magical practices.  What rituals does the adventurer perform upon first waking, or before going to sleep? What rituals are performed before taking a meal, drawing water from a well, making love to your partner? Giving a little thought to this helps players get into the minds of their characters, and allows them to "flesh out" the cultures of Glorantha as they understand them. Some examples:

Jandetin Twice-Tamed is an Archer of Yu-Kargzant. He eats three times a day, at dawn when he wakes, at noon, and at sunset. Each time he turns and faces the Sun, bows his head and covers his eyes. He thanks Yu-Kargzant for lighting the world so that food may grow. Before eating he then breaks off a small piece of food as an offering to the Sun to show his thanks.

Vargast Son of Varan is a Sartarite initiate of Humakt. Each night before sleeping, he first cleans and oils his swords. Then he holds the blade aloft. "Now I descend into darkness, the nightly death that is the promise of what is to come." He lays the blade beside his bedding, and always sleeps with his head facing west...the gates of the underworld all must one day pass.

Ferenasa Daughter of Bernarva is an initiate of Ernalda. Her husband Jarmast is an initiate of Orlanth and Barntar. On mornings when the mood is upon her, she touches her husband's arm with a knowing look and gives him a list of tasks she wishes him to perform that day. Often these are things he does every day anyway, but by setting him these tasks, as Ernalda set out tasks for Orlanth in his wooing of her, she is signaling a romantic evening. At the end of the day he returns, and announces his trials are complete. They retire to their bedding for an intimate evening. 

In the streets of Jonstown, it is the practice of Eurmali clowns on the 13th day of the Sacred Time to dress in black rags and don hideous, goat masks. They go door-to-door, banging loudly on them, threatening to carry off children to eat them. The children must face them, and drive them off by throwing charcoal or balls of ash. This is the annual rite of "chasing away the Devil," to ensure good health and fortune for the child the coming year.

Andrin Son of Andru is an initiate of Lhankor Mhy. Before starting to write upon a new scroll, he first spits into the ink. "I join this ink as my thoughts join the page, writer and written, one."

A gamemaster should offer a bonus for these minor rituals, plus 5 or 10 percentages. For example, maybe Andrin's ink ritual grants him a +5% on his writing skill. A child who completes the "chasing away the Devil" gets +5% on the "Child Survival" roll that year. These rituals are acts of magic. They have real power in them.

And why not allow ritual practices to augment important skill rolls?

Imagine a Gustbran initiate charged with repairing the sword of this chieftain. The blade has been in the chieftain's bloodline for centuries and was recently damaged. The smith withdraws the entire day into his forge. He does not eat, speak, or sleep. Instead he sings songs to the broken sword, getting to know the metal, the shape, the spirit of the blade. He promises the blade he will restore it, an oath he seals by nicking his thumb on the blade. This is a full day of ritual practice, and earns him a +50% on his Craft roll to repair the blade.

In fact, why not turn this ritual practice into a form of worship? 

On the eve of a great battle, an Orlanth chieftain leads a ceremony to gain Orlanth's favor on the field the next day. They climb to a hill top and call upon the god with drums and dance and hymns to please him. At the climax, they sacrifice a bull. This is an hour long ritual (+35%) with a sacrifice (+20%), giving those who participate in the ritual a +55% on their Battle rolls the next day. 

These are big bonuses, but bear in mind they apply to only a single roll, so will be used in something like a Craft roll or Battle. And there is no reason a gamemaster can't call for rolls to see if the ritual practice works. Also, you can be certain that in the second case the opposite side is performing rituals as well to get the edge in battle.

Ultimately, increased ritual practice in your game reflects the things that inspired RuneQuest. Rituals like these are throughout texts like the Iliad or Mahabharata. It encourages players to enter the ritualistic mindset of their adventurers.    

Easy is the Descent: A Look at the MÖRK BORG and ShadowDark RPGs

Easy is the descent to hell; all night long, all day, the doors of dark Hades stand open; but to retrace the path; to come out again to the sweet air of Heaven – there is the task, there is the burden.

- Virgil

"The Old School Renaissance," or "Old School Revival," kicked off in online forums like Dragonsfoot in the early 2000s. Essentially, the movement was a reaction to the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons, a game that was both mechanically and thematically a departure from all the versions of the game before it. The original OSR games were mainly "retro-clones," rulesets that made use of the Open Game License and System Reference Document to emulate those early editions of D&D. Games like OSRIC (AD&D), Labyrinth Lord (B/X D&D), and Swords & Wizardry (OD&D) all sought to preserve earlier editions of the game no longer supported by the publisher at that time. There were, however, even then games that wanted to capture the "feel" of early editions of D&D without actually reviving those early mechanics. Castles & Crusades was amongst the earliest of these. As the years have passed, this non-retro-clone "new wave" of OSR game has gained in popularity. Using modern mechanics, they return to the themes of the earliest editions. Ben Milton's Knave, Dan Masters' Deathbringer, Keven Crawford's Worlds Without Number, James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplaying, and even to an extent Howitt and Taylor's Heart fit this description to various degrees.  In this article, however, I would like to focus on two recent games that I think exemplify this trend, Nilsson and Nohr's doom metal dungeoncrawl MÖRK BORG and Kelsey Dionne's recent ShadowDark.

Before I get into why these two games, let's talk about the tone and themes modern OSR games are trying to recapture.

Worth a Thousand Words

The 1978 AD&D's Player's Handbook featured wrap-around cover art by David A, Trampier. It depicts a party of dungeon explorers, all their hirelings in tow, in a dim subterranean temple prying the jeweled eyes out of a statue. A battle has clearly already occurred, since we can see some of them clearing away inhuman corpses. But the cover tells you exactly what the game is about. Going into dungeons and looting them for treasure.

  1978

Flash forward to 2014 and the cover of the 5th edition Player's Handbook. A pair of glamorous heroes--no henchmen or hirelings in sight--are single-handedly taking on a giant. There is no treasure, because these are not treasure-looting adventurers, there are bold heroes. The focus of the game has moved from loot to combat. If the tone of the 1st edition of the game was 1982's Conan the Barbarian, the tone of the 5th edition is 2019's Avengers: Endgame. 

2014

D&D began as a kind of "survival horror" game. Your characters were mostly ordinary people, initially quite frail, crawling into pitch-black ridiculously hostile places in search of gold. It was a game where the players themselves had to be crafty, descending into Hell, avoiding combat whenever possible, and crawling back out again with some riches under their belts. Experience (and thus character improvement) came from gold pieces, not killing opponents. Characters did not have superhuman feats at their disposal, they relied on finding magical items instead. It was a game focused on exploration, not action. Decades of video games (where you could simply go back to your last save if your character died) and blockbusters like Star Wars and the MCU changed all that.

While there is nothing wrong with playing high-powered superhero games, the OSR seems to be suggesting there was something worthwhile in those early editions too. So let's talk about ShadowDark and MÖRK BORG.

Covers...Again

In terms of graphic design, lay-out, and sheer attitude these two games could not be more different from each other. ShadowDark focuses on clarity. Its text is straightforward, concise, and extremely readable. MÖRK BORG by contrast, is a direct assult on your senses. An extremely sparse text, it explains itself instead visually, with short, suggestive bursts of text that read more like song lyrics than prose. ShadowDark is a text. MÖRK BORG is performance.

On the other hand, mechanically the two games are very similar to each other. But use the modern d20 system: roll a d20, add your characteristic modifiers, compare to a difficulty number. Rolling high is good, rolling low is bad. In both games the math is extremely flat, so that characters do not become superhuman over time. Hit points are low. Both even share a similar spell mechanic. In both these games, magic-using characters need to make a roll to activate their spells. Indeed, both have the potential of spectacular failure if you roll a "1," a magical mishap that could be lethal to your character and the party around them. A key difference is that ShadowDark stays closer to D&D, using the standard array of STR, INT, WIS, DEX. CON, and CHR while MÖRK BORG opts for just Agility, Strength, Toughness, and Presence. ShadowDark also keeps the concepts of Advantage and Disadvantage from modern D&D. In situations where your character has some sort of advantage, you roll two dice and take the higher result. If you suffer disadvantage, roll two dice and take the lower.

Aside from these differences, ShadowDark is the more recognizable of the two to D&D players. The monsters, the spells, and the classes (Fighter, Priest, Thief, and Wizard) are all familiar. Compare this to MÖRK BORG's Fanged Deserter, Gutterborn Scum, Esoteric Hermit, Wretched Royalty, Heretical Priest, and Occult Herbmaster.

But let's talk about the covers again.

MÖRK BORG's wasp yellow-and-black and ShadowDark's eerie, silvery horror are coming from different directions but arriving at the same place. Both depict the threat of the setting, not the bold heroes. In MÖRK BORG the world is literally ending. In the very first mechanic of the game (an example of how despite its riot of color and layout the game is extremely intentional) there is a calendar the GM rolls on every day of game time to see if another apocalyptic doom is unleashed on the world. The characters are doomed and wretched, fighting to survive as long as they can. The world of ShadowDark is far less miserable, but the game is very evocative when describing the "ShadowDark," any dark, dangerous, forlorn place as almost a living presence. Only mad people would willing descend into such places. But the characters in these games are OSR characters, they are risking life and limb to buy as much time for themselves as they can.

Two final very OSR-features of these games is the widespread use of random tables and the reliance on treasure for character improvement. MÖRK BORG's random tables start right on the inside covers, and do more to describe the atmosphere of the setting than the text itself. The weather table gives results like lifeless grey, piercing wind, deafening storm, and gravelike cold. The next table generates items found corpse-plundering. ShadowDark's are more comprehensive than suggestive, allowing you to whip up dungeons (to be fair, both games do this), hex crawls, settlements, neighborhoods, NPCs, monsters...basically everything. You could run entire ShadowDark campaigns with these random tables. The randomness speaks to the "emergent play" feature of OSR games, that the "stories" emerge from the dice and what happens at the table, not extensive backstories or elaborate scripted plots.

The reliance on treasure is another critical feature. As mentioned, neither game is giving you an abundance of class feats that magically appear as you gain levels. If you want magical abilities, you need to comb dungeons for them. This keeps the focus on exploration and danger.

Look for MÖRK BORG here and ShadowDark here.

"The Adumbrations of the Prophet," A Received Malkioni Text

The text known variously as The Adumbrations of the Prophet or Adumbrations: Being the Discourse of Malkion the Prophet unto Hrestol the Perfected One, is a brief 45-verse tractate. It is part of a very ancient tradition among the various schools of the Malkioni, a discourse between a master and a student intended to reveal technical or religio-philosophical instruction. Widely circulated in Loskalm, and occasionally turning up In Lunar scriptoriums, the text is outlawed throughout much of the Malkioni world. It is, clearly, a Hrestoli text, but it also purports to have been copied from a chapter of the lost Abiding Book, a claim few serious Third Age scholars take seriously. More likely a product of New Hrestolism, it attempts to show how Hrestol was led to his First Age reformations by the "clear teachings" of the prophet Malkion. It is a curious document, but one that is useful in elucidating the more unique aspects of Hrestolism.

Aaaaaaand it is also nonsense.

Recently I was re-reading Poimandres, one of the better known bits of the Hermetica. Just a few weeks earlier I had been reading about one of the Vedanta schools, Achintya-Bheda-Abheda. Without going too deeply down the rabbit-hole of Indian philosophy, the Achintya took up the middle ground between the monist Advaita schools (the individual soul and the Supreme Person are the same) and the dualist Dvaita schools (the Supreme Person is separate and distinct from the individual soul). The Achintya, whose name was popularized in the 1996 Kula Shaker hit "Tattva," held that the answer is beyond human comprehension (achintya means "difference," bheda means "knowable," abheda means "unknowable," so essentially "difference is neither knowable or unknowable"). What struck me though was their basic argument was that the difference between the soul and the Supreme Person was a difference of quantity, not nature. And that got me thinking about Hrestolism.

So enjoy this bit of fluff. I tricked to stick as closely to Poimandres as I could, but a few Indianisms snuck in there as well. Let me know what you think.  

ADUMBRATIONS: BEING THE DISCOURSE OF MALKION THE PROPHET UNTO HRESTOL THE PERFECTED ONE

1. Once I lay in a state of such perfect contemplation that I was neither awake nor sleeping. My senses were tamed, my mind turned inward, alert yet inactive, receptive without producing thought. I waited as the dawn awaits the light.

2. And it seemed to me that a presence, unbounded by dimension, unencumbered by definition, filled the empty space of my being. I could neither see nor hear it. It was invisible to my senses and beyond the capacity of my understanding. Yet my heart knew it was there, and leapt in my breast. This organ was like a mirror reflecting this invisible, infinite light.

3. Then, in this incomprehensible vastness there formed a focus, a center, a presence. A voice. "What do you want to hear and see; what do you wish to learn from your understanding?"

4. "Who are you?" I asked.

5. "I am the First to receive the Word. I am the Son of Aerlit and the Father of the Law. I speak for that which is beyond speech. Through me the infinite passes and all must pass to attain infinity. I am Malkion."

6. "Oh Prophet, master, teach me. I wish to learn the workings of things, and in knowing to know the mind of the Invisible God!"

7. "Then be attentive. Keep in mind all that I reveal to you. For my words are subtle, and easy to mistake. Already have then been misunderstood. You must behold them in a clear light."

8. "I hear, master, and I listen."

9. And it seemed that he did not speak and yet showed me. I did not see, but I understood. For from the infinite and the undefined came thoughts, hanging like bright jewels upon a perfect thread. Black and empty was the first, like a hole that eats the light. Then silver-blue and clear came the next, deep and yet reflective. Green and verdant was the following one, with a solidity those before it had lacked. Then the darkness was lit by a great blaze, as the next form radiated warmth and heat in all directions. Then the last, dark gray and flashing, howling, raging, restless. It shook the forms that had preceded it, and I thought the thread they hung upon might break.

10. "Have you understood this I have shown you?"

11. "In your patience I shall come to know it."

12. "They are the First Thoughts of the First, formless, shapeless substances yet each with a nature unique to themselves. None is like the other, yet they, like the Mind from whence they sprang, have no definition."

13. "I see the truth of it, master. I beg you go on."

14. Then, from the Mind of the First there came thoughts that were like sounds, because as each rang out there was an immediate echo. Yet the echo was the opposite of the sound it mirrored, inverse and averse. Each clashed with its echo, and in this exchange the earlier thoughts--the ones I first beheld like jewels--could now be defined. They each reacted to these vibrating notes and their echoes, they came alive and were capable of change.

15. "Has your understanding yet opened to you?"

16. "It becomes more clear. Pray continue your instruction."

17. Then came the final thoughts, and these were like shapes. And they took the first and the second thoughts and gave them form. And together these thoughts were like letters graven in stone or written on paper, for they combined in patterns that gave purpose and meaning. The darkness was lifted from my eyes and my understanding was clear. "I see now, master."

18. "The first thoughts are Essence, the second thoughts Energy, the third Shape. They are the foundation of creation. From them all nature proceeds."

19. And I saw this was so. All that lived and breathed, all that existed, all beasts and spirits and gods were but the products of these thoughts. And they were the product of the First Mind. "All things are known by these Runes, for they are of the Runes. But the Invisible God cannot be known, for he is the Mind that thought the Runes. A mind can know the thoughts it contains, but the thoughts cannot know the mind."

20. "Your comprehension is insufficient. Your logic fails. The veil has been lifted from your eyes but you screw them shut against the light."

21. "Have patience with my stupidity, master. I attend."

22. "When water is taken from a well does it cease to be water?"

23. "No, master, it does not."

24. "When one fire is kindled from another is it no longer fire?"

25. "It is still fire master."

26. "Then the son of a father. Is the child the same as the parent?"

27. I considered. "They have the same blood but they are different, master."

28. "How can this be so? if water taken from water remains water, if fire kindled from fire is fire, how can a son drawn from a father's body not also be the father?"

29. I thought upon this deeply, and at present replied. "Because the father and the son each have their own minds."

30. "Is the nature of the child's mind fundamentally different? When the child grows to manhood will it not also think, and speak, and do, and see?"

31. "Of course, master." 

32. "Then I ask you again wherein the difference lies."

33. "Master, I have no answer. I kiss your feet. I beg of you to enlighten me on this point."

34. There was a sound like a sigh. "The answer is that there is no difference. Water in a well and water in a bucket are both water, but the vessel containing them is different. Fire in a hearth and fire in a lantern are both flame, but the vessel containing them is different. Mind in the father and mind in the son, but the vessels containing them are different."

35. "My ignorance has been penetrated master. I see the truth of it.

36. "Just so, Son of Froalar. The mind that informs you is the same as the mind informing your father, and his father, and his. The vessels containing this mind differ, and each accumulates different memories and experiences, but they are of the same nature. Your mind if like a torch flame lit by the torch before it. The flame is the same but it is passed from torch to torch. So then I ask you, noble talar, if all things in this world have their origins in the Runes, what pray tell me is the Rune of Mind?"

37. In an instant my delight at understanding was extinguished, as the sun is hidden by sudden cloud. Every tree, grass, flower, and shrub had its origin in the Plant Rune. Every star, every spark, every candle flame and wildfire had its origination in the Fire Rune. From whence then came the mind? "Master I..." I stammered, confounded, but reminded myself to think deeply upon my master's clear teachings. The flame of my mind was lit by my father's, and his by his father's, and so on back and back. Yet what was the origin? What was the first flame?

38. At this there was to my senses a great flash of light, yet I could not see it. There was the roar of a thousand thunders, but I could not hear it. The earth itself trembled and heaved beneath my feet, and yet never really moved at all. Revelation washed over me and transformed every fiber of my being. 

39. "Mind comes from no Rune, master. It comes from that which conceived the Runes. Because of this mind is above the Runes. It masters the Runes. The Creator exists in his creation. In the omnipresence of his mind are we bound. We are of the same nature as the Invisible God, the same character, but the difference between us is of quantity, not of kind."

40. "And?" The Prophet asked me.

41. "All mind is the same mind, as all the waters of the world are the same water, be they contained in well or river, puddle or ocean. Thus there can be no real difference between men. Talari. Hrolari. Dronari. Zzaburi. These are different vessels carrying the same essence. The castes could be changed as easily as pouring water from one container to the next."

42. "You have seen the truth of it. See you to the heart?"

43. Before this teaching of Malkion's to my thought men had been bound by their castes, separated from one another. Now I perceived the universality of brotherhood. Yet as I followed the perfect logic of his clear teaching, I saw my way to its end. The misunderstanding of the Law of Malkion not only separated men from their brothers, but also from their Creator. "If the mind that informs me is of the same nature as the Maker of All, then to know my Maker I have but to know my mind. And to return to my Maker, all I need do is let go of those things that keep me separate from him."

44. "Just so."

45. "Prophet I fall before you. I touch my lips to the hem of your robe. I am no longer who I was before I heard this teaching. I will go forth armed with the New Law, and bring it to my brothers. I swear to seek only my Maker, to rend each veil that separates us until my mind, like a mirror, reflects The Mind. Oh a thousand thousand praises, First among Prophets!