Making Branna the Fat for d20 Glorantha

Branna the Fat

Further to my earlier ruminations on the topic of running d20 games in Glorantha, I’m working on a party of pregenerated characters as a way to explore some of the ideas I had there. First on the list is Branna the Fat, who is going to serve as an illustration of some of the collated ideas for Gloranthan characters.

If this system goes anywhere, it is going to be a gradual, organic generation of ideas and rules rather than something that is going to erupt, ready made from the creator’s mind.

The first step, as with Dungeons & Dragons, is to roll Branna’s attributes, using 4d6 and dropping the lowest. This provides him with:

STR 14, INT 7, WIS 12. DEX 6, CON 11, CHA 8

Branna is a fairly obese and unpleasant individual by the looks of things, but beneath the rolls of fat lies some muscle. I let the dice roll where they may as I love old school random character generation systems.

As the adventure is going to be in Sartar I decide to make him an Orlanthi. Right now this has not a great deal of bearing on the game stats, other than his initial proficiencies: light armour, shields and simple weapons. This would be basic for all Orlanthi, reflecting the minimum weapons training they receive up to adulthood.

Being of human stock Branna's basic hit die is d8.

We now come onto Branna’s Rune affiliations. Players would generally roll for these. I have not worked out the full range of Glorantan runes in D&D terms, but here are some starters for Branna:

• AIR rune for being an Orlanthi: +1 DEX; Base walking speed increases to 35 feet; unpredictable (this latter is a personality trait that comes with the Air rune).
• STASIS rune (random Power rune); +1 STR; advantage on saving throws vs poison; stubborn.
• DARKNESS rune; +1 WIS; darkvision 60’; secretive.

Thus you can see how the runes impact characters, their attributes, behavior and abilities. I’ve not linked Saving Throws to Runes yet, at the moment I’m inclined to allow this to be player choice, but it may be I shift these into the Runes too.

I decide to choose a tribe for Branna – but again this could be generated if you were putting together a multi-tribe group of warriors – and make him a member of the Torkani tribe. The tribe brings some additional abilities, in this case: proficiency in Deception and Survival, and the ability to speak Uz (troll). He also gets two Circles dice, Torkani 1 and Uz 1 representing his familiarity with these societies. More on Circles later.

NB: in Sartar the Torkani are a tribe that has been driven off their lands several times, have feuded with the Telmori werewolves and who are thought to be associated with the trolls.

Next we come to Branna’s profession. Again this could be rolled for. I go with Farmer. This brings him Wealth 2 (status of a Carl), proficiency in medium armour, Animal Handling and Nature, and some equipment. A farmer’s starting equipment includes a spear, shield, a sword and a chain shirt.

Note – your Wealth score equates to roughly 20 cattle or livestock equivalent (I’m thinking three sheep to the cow here). So Branna could own 10 cows and 30 sheep for example. He’s relatively well off.

Next we come to magic and religion. Branna gets two cantrips. I’m thinking of linking cantrips to profession for the time being, and as a farmer this makes the most sense. I give him Guidance and Resistance.

Branna is an initiate of Argan Argar, which is the main cult within the Torkani tribe. There is the option for him to join the Deloradella cult later on or stick to Argan Argar. Characters don’t have to be a cult member when they begin and don’t have to join their tribal cult. But they do get a free advance in the cult right away and there is no way to access divine magic any other way other than maybe via a heroquest.

Branna gets Bane as his first spell from the cult (with d20 as his exhaustion die if cast at 1st level). He also gets Argan Argar 1 to add to his Circles. This allows him to access the resources of the cult whenever he is close to a centre of worship.

Finally, Branna gets to add his own clan to his circles. In Glorantha, the clan is a sub-group within a tribal coalition. Branna is a member of the Gahagar clan, so gains Clan 1 (Gahagar). I'm thinking his status as a Carl might raise that to Clan 2.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. I’m still working on the ideas underpinning Circles and Wealth/Resources. Those may be appear in another post if I decide to take this exercise any further!

Useful reading:

• D&D Player's Handbook , Mearls / Crawford, 2014
• Sartar - Kingdom of Heroes, Stafford / Richard, 2012
• Burning Wheel, Luke Crane, 2002
• Talislanta - the Savage Land, Sechi, Williams, Bamford, Conrad et al, 2018
• 13th Age, Heinsoo / Tweet, 2013