FYI, there is a new edition of RQ coming out real soon now; you can download the quick-start at the Chaosium website, too.

Which review of HQ were you looking at?

“Narrativist” is one of the most misused bits of Forge jargon ever.

The one time I played HQG was amazing, but I also had a GM who was a Glorantha veteran (and designer of the game) who could dole out tasty, bite-sized bits of setting as we played.

As for Traveller, I feel like both Diaspora and the Firefly games made noble attempts at what you’re talking about, but, yeah, a focused game that did the hobo-veteran thing would be great.