I was an axe wielding slasher (OpenQuest)
I had my first Glorantha experience tonight at Oldskolgmr's table. This week has been full of horrors, so it seemed like the perfect way to end on a high note. We're playing with OpenQuest, and something that struck me was how chill the experience was in action. The rules are efficient without feeling too barebones, and the book is riddled with interesting opportunities to strategize in and out of combat. One of our players was pretty versed in the rules, which created this interesting atmosphere of teamwork. My impression overall was that the rules reward you for taking the time to learn them without beating you over the head with their particulars.
For my character, I rolled another straightforward heavy martial type for the express purposes of mowing my enemies down like an extroverted blender. I wanted to avoid using magic for my first character, which ended up not mattering because everyone gets to cast some kind of spell. Magic being available to everyone is new to me in a game, and I actually quite like the idea a lot. OQ rules allowed us to succeed on casting spells out of combat, which means that with some planning, you can buff yourself without issues (for example). A very memorable part of character creation for me was talking over spellcasting caveats with Oldskol. He explained his perspective on how casting a spell can create a certain kind of (hostile) social dynamic with an NPC, unless you take measures to hide what you're doing. I really liked this--there's an element of social hijinks and of using your environment to conceal yourself in order to confer really quite powerful buffs and debuffs. F.ex I ended up with almost a 100% chance to hit during our party's combat encounter in my first session after using my Fanaticism and Weapon Enhance magics.
The best thing of all was the session length. It seems to have been decided long before I joined the group that sessions would be around two hours. I may be a convert, having previously been used to capping out at 4 hours or playing until my friends start tipping over. The short and sweet session combined with a smooth and interesting gaming experience made for a wonderful Friday night. My smiles were many. I'm sure I misrecorded a few specifics about OQ rules, but I'm not too worried about it because at some point I will learn the correct thing.
Yaleska (my Grizzled Veteran and Babeester Gor worshipper) absolutely whips. Her favorite food is officially aged horse meat. She's 5'1" and, in Hawk's words, ridiculously yoked with a Size stat of 16. I'm super excited to see what this character does. One of the other players pointed out that she and our Stormbull PC are both dangerous, greataxe wielding slashers who hear voices nobody else can (the voices of their respective gods), a dynamic I'm eager to lean into.
Oh, and we were gifted an iron arrow as thanks for "consecrating" a royal hall with dripping monster blood. Righteous!