A Dark Troll for RuneQuest, etc.

 RuneQuest was the first RPG I ever got into, as quite a small child. I got the 2nd edition for my ninth or tenth birthday, I think. Recently, I ran quite a bit of it after our D&D adventurers found themselves transported to Glorantha. We switched systems and spent perhaps a year of real time playing through classic modules like Pavis and the Big Rubble and Borderlands - all of which were marvellous.

The Big Rubble is a superb concept for adventure games: a vast ruined city full of monsters and alien races (sometime indistinguishable), as well as plenty of loot. I've always thought it would make a great setting for a tabletop skirmish campaign. As I have plenty of broos miniatures, along with Citadel's Griselda and Wolfhead, a few baboons and access to plenty of historical miniatures, it seems a no-brainer. But trolls have always been a bit of a problem. Glorantha's snouted trolls aren't terribly like anything else, though I've pondered converting various gnolls and the like (possibly just 'converting by paint'). 

A while back, however, I bought the old Grenadier "Orcs of the Severed Hand" boxed set. I also picked up a couple of individual duplicates and a few each of the matching blistered trio, some of which I'd also retained since childhood. They make very good dark trolls, I think: appropriately snouted and tusked, and with quite sophisticated-looking equipment. 

This is the test piece: he's on a 25mm base, so quite large relative to humans. And if he deigned to stand up straight, he'd be a good 7' to scale with a huge head and arms, which is perfect. I'm also using some Asgard half-trolls and some of the old Citadel Gloranthan trolls. Those are based on Luise Perrin's illustrations for Borderlands, which have a much more traditional Scandinavian-folkloric appearance than the later (Trollpak on?) RuneQuest troll illustrations. But I'm happy mixing them together and uniting them by paint scheme. I also have a couple of Ral Partha RQ dark trolls to add to the mix; they work surprisingly well together.

Happily, there are matching goblins for the Grenadier orcs, which make perfect (if unusually well-equipped) trollkin. And I'm going to add in the two Ral Partha trollkin and some de-horned and de-tailed kobolds to bulk out the enlo hordes.

Edit: and here's a quick scale comparison with some WIP Gloranthan adventurers. I was trying to find some figures that would fit, size-wise, with old Citadel RuneQuest figures (represented here by Griselda and Wolfhead). The Frostgrave barbarian on the left strikes me as a perfect fit; the kitbashed Immortals/Warlord hoplite (perhaps with a Victrix head?) and Fireforge Russian work OK for me too.