RuneQuest


RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game created by Steve Perrin and others, set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha, and first published in 1978 by Chaosium. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and with an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis of numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.

History

In 1975, game designer Greg Stafford released the fantasy board game White Bear and Red Moon, produced and marketed by Chaosium, a game publishing company set up by Stafford specifically for the release of the game. In 1978, Chaosium published the first edition of RuneQuest, a role playing game set in the world of Glorantha from White Bear and Red Moon. A second edition, with various minor revisions, was released in 1980. RuneQuest quickly established itself as the second most popular fantasy role-playing game, after Dungeons & Dragons.
In order to increase distribution and marketing of the game, Chaosium made a deal with Avalon Hill, who published a third edition in 1984. Under the agreement struck, Avalon Hill took ownership of trademark for RuneQuest, while all Glorantha-related content required approval by Chaosium, who also retained the copyright of the rules text. In an attempt to also have a setting they could release freely, Avalon Hill also supported a new "default" setting, Fantasy Earth, based on fantasy interpretations of several eras of earth's pre-modern history, including viking and ninja supplements. Later Avalon Hill published generic fantasy material.
A proposed fourth edition developed by Avalon Hill, titled RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha, was intended to return the tight RuneQuest/Glorantha relationship, but it was shelved mid-project in 1994 after Stafford refused permission, unhappy with Avalon Hill's stewardship of the third edition. In response, Avalon Hill, as owners of the trademark, began development of a mechanically unrelated game originally titled RuneQuest: Slayers. However, when Avalon Hill was acquired by Hasbro in 1998, the project was canceled despite being near completion. The copyrights to the rules reverted to the authors, who released it for free as RuneSlayers.
In 1998, Following the financial failure of the collectible card game Mythos, Stafford, along with fellow shareholder Sandy Petersen, left the management of Chaosium. Stafford had formed a subsidiary company, Issaries, Inc., to manage the Glorantha property and took ownership of that company with him. He partnered with Robin D. Laws to publish an all-new game system set in Glorantha called Hero Wars in 2000. It was later renamed HeroQuest in 2003 after the rights to that name, along with the "RuneQuest" trademark, were acquired from Hasbro by Issaries.
Mongoose Publishing released a new edition of RuneQuest in August 2006 under a license from Issaries. This required that Mongoose recreate much of the function of prior editions without reusing the prior texts. The new rules were developed by a team led by Mongoose co-founder Matthew Sprange, and were released under the Open Game License. The official setting takes place during the Second Age of Glorantha. In January 2010, Mongoose published a much-revised edition written by Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker called RuneQuest II, known as "MRQ2" by fans.
In May 2011, Mongoose Publishing announced that they had parted company with Issaries. In July 2011, The Design Mechanism, a company formed by Nash and Whitaker, announced that they had entered a licensing agreement with Issaries, and would be producing a 6th edition of RuneQuest. RuneQuest 6th edition, released in July 2012, is largely an expansion of the Mongoose RuneQuest II rules aimed at providing rules that can be adapted to many fantasy or historical settings, and do not contain any specifically Gloranthan content.
In 2013, Stafford outright sold the Glorantha setting and RuneQuest and HeroQuest trademarks to Moon Design Publications, which had published the second edition of HeroQuest under license in 2009; Moon Design maintained Design Mechanism's RuneQuest license. In June 2015, following a series of financial issues at Chaosium, Stafford and Petersen retook control of the company. They in turn arranged a merger with Moon Design, which saw the Moon Design management team take over Chaosium. Shortly thereafter a new edition of RuneQuest, subtitled Roleplaying in Glorantha was announced. It is based on the Chaosium 2nd edition, drawing upon ideas from later editions. They also successfully raised funds through Kickstarter to produce a hardcover reprint of the 2nd edition and PDFs of its supplements as RuneQuest Classic. The new edition of the game, officially referred to as RQG for short, was previewed on Free RPG Day 2017 with the release of a quickstart module. The PDF of the full rules were released in May 2018, with the printed book to follow later that year.

System

Character creation

As with most RPGs, players begin by making a player character. Player characters are devised through a number of dice rolls to represent physical, mental and spiritual characteristics.
Characters in RuneQuest gain power as they are used in play, but not to the degree that characters do in other fantasy RPGs. It is still possible for a weak character to slay a strong one through luck, tactics, or careful planning.

Task resolution

Both combat and non-combat actions use a percentile roll-under system to determine success of actions. The game features mechanics for critical hits and fumbling. For example, if a character has climbing at 35% and his player rolls 25 on a D100, the character has succeeded. However, a nuanced range of results existed in every die roll. If a die roll was 1/5 of the necessary percentile roll or less, it was a special success, and if it was 1/20 of the necessary roll or less it was a critical success. Very high rolls on the other hand, could be "fumbles" or spectacular failures if they were in the top 1/20 of possible failed rolls.

Combat

The game's combat system was designed in an attempt to recreate designer Steve Perrin's experience with live-action combat. Perrin experienced mock medieval combat through the Society for Creative Anachronism. The player rolls against the character's combat skill. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the character's skill level, they have hit their target. The defender has the chance to roll to avoid the blow or parry it.
The RuneQuest combat system has a subsystem for hit location. Successful attacks are normally allocated randomly to a part of the target's body. In RuneQuest, a hit against a character's leg, weapon arm, or head has specific effects on the game's mechanics and narrative. This was a unique part of the game's combat system and helped to separate it from the more abstracted, hit-point-based combat of competitors such as Dungeons & Dragons.

Character advancement

Rules for skill advancement also use percentile dice. In a departure from the level-based advancement of Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest allowed characters to improve their abilities directly; the player needs to roll higher than the character's skill rating. For the climber example used earlier, the player would need to roll greater than 35 on a D100 in order to advance the character's skill. Thus, the better the character is at a skill the more difficult it is to improve.

Magic

Characters in RuneQuest are not divided into magic using and non-magic using characters. At the time of the game's release, this was an unorthodox mechanic. Although all characters have access to magic, for practical gameplay purposes a character's magical strength is proportional to his or her connection to the divine or natural skill at sorcery. The exact divisions of magic vary from edition to edition, but most contain divisions such as Common Magic, Sorcery, Divine Magic, Spirit Magic, and Enchantments.

Other rules

The RuneQuest rule book contained a large selection of fantasy monsters and their physical stats. As well as traditional fantasy staples, the book featured original creatures such as the goat-headed creatures called Broo. Some of its traditional fantasy creatures differed notably from the versions from other games, for example, Elves are humanoid plant life. Unlike other fantasy RPGs of the time, RuneQuest encouraged the use of monsters as player characters.

Setting

With the exception of the third and sixth editions, which still offered it as an option, the default setting for RuneQuest has been the world of Glorantha. The well-developed background of the game offered a breadth of material for players and game masters to draw from. At a time when many RPG settings were cobbled together, RuneQuest offered players a vibrant living world, giving them a much more developed fictional world with established geography, history, and religion.

The Dragon Pass area

The original rules contained a map of an area called Dragon Pass, a region offered as the default setting for adventures. It is an extended upland, with not one but several passes through the surrounding mountains, each leading to different regions. This, together with the regional history, has led to a "melting pot" area, with unusually-high variety and concentrations of non-Human species, particularly for a largely-rural setting. The original RuneQuest game was set during a period of invasion, offering further opportunities for game scenarios.

Prax

One of the areas adjacent to Dragon Pass, touched upon in the original rulebook, was the Plains of Prax. It is an arid, even blasted region, hostile to all but the native peoples whose founding god, Waha, created the Survival Covenant by which they live. The tribes are Beast-Riders, each riding a different species ; the Great Tribes are: Bison, High Llama, Sable, Impala, and Morokanth. The Praxian tribes are inspired by ancient Mongol, Bedouin, Native American, and other nomadic tribal cultures.

Cults and religion

A key element of RuneQuest flavor is a character's affiliation with a cult. Characters begin as lay members and progress through a series of membership levels, such as initiate or Rune Lord. This system offers narrative and mechanical benefits to players who chose to have their characters join a cult.
The basic rules described a handful of original and mythological gods. These were greatly expanded upon in the supplements Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror.

Supplements

Supplements published for RuneQuest second edition include Plunder, Runemasters, Foes, The Gateway Bestiary, Griffin Mountain, City of Lei Tabor, Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror.

Reception

In the September-October 1978 edition of The Space Gamer, Dana Holm commented that "Since this game contains a logical system, almost anything can be added to the matrix it presents. A gem of a game. You won't be disappointed."
In the February-March 1979 edition of White Dwarf, Jim Donohoe thought the rulebook was "116 pages of well thought-out and comprehensive rules," but he found the character generation system "quite complex." He advised new referees to use the monster loot tables with caution, since the treasure was randomly generated, which meant "the amount of treasure a monster can have can vary wildly using these tables, and a weak monster can have a fortune while a tough one is impoverished. This is one area of the rules which could use some revision." He concluded by giving the game an excellent rating of 9 out of 10, saying, "These are a set of rules which I can recommend as a good alternative to Dungeons & Dragons. Using the Runequest rules, a campaign can be set up simply and quickly with little effort to the referee."
In the March 1980 edition of Ares, Greg Costikyan commented that "RuneQuest is the most playable and elegant fantasy role-playing designed to date. Its only drawback is that it does not cover enough ground for a full-scale role-playing campaign, and is, perhaps, a bit simpler than experienced frp'ers would desire." He concluded by giving it a slightly better than average rating of 7 out of 9.
In the July 1980 issue of Ares, Eric Goldberg reviewed the second edition and commented "When RQ came out, it was well-organized by the FRP standards of that time. The rules are not painful to read, and a second edition, in which the charts are easier to find, has helped matters considerably. The drawbacks of the game are that the foundation of the game has play problems and that the individual systems do not mesh together as nicely as one would hope. Among the strengths are its freshness of design concepts, the elimination of the odious 'level' progressions for characters, and the detailed background."
In the July 1981 edition of The Space Gamer, Forrest Johnson reviewed the 1980 boxed edition of RuneQuest, and commented "An experienced gamer, who probably bought the rules separately has no need of this edition. However, it might be of use to a newcomer."
In the April 1985 edition of White Dwarf, Oliver Dickinson reviewed the third edition produced by Avalon Hill, and found "Everything is well laid out and clearly expressed." The major difference he found with previous editions of rules was that most items "cost a great deal more Acquiring good armour, magic items, etc is going to be more of a struggle and so, I feel, more satisfying. I hope this will bring the days of the overmighty PC/NPC to an end; but the difficulties may be precisely what put some players off." Dickinson concluded by giving the new edition an excellent rating of 9 out of 10, saying, "the revised rules deserve a proper trial; they are well thought out and explained, though quite complex, and I suspect will in many cases be welcomed with the words, 'That makes better sense!'"
In the March 1987 edition of White Dwarf, Peter Green reviewed a new hardcover version of the third edition, and generally liked it, although he did find "a few irritations", notably that reference was made to sections of the 1st- or 2nd-edition rules that no longer existed. He concluded by warning that "beginners should perhaps leave it until they are familiar with a more introductory system Experienced players of other games will find much in Runequest to recommend it it is superb value and well worth getting even if you never intend to play it."
In the August 1987 edition of White Dwarf, Paul Cockburn reviewed Advanced Runequest, a streamlined version of the 3rd edition rules, and liked what he saw. He concluded, "It's a very good package a very powerful roleplaying game, in a very accessible form."
In a 1996 reader poll conducted by Arcane magazine to determine the 50 most popular roleplaying games of all time, RuneQuest was ranked 5th. Editor Paul Pettengale commented: "RuneQuest manages to establish itself as a cut above the rest because of its intricate and highly original campaign setting. This is a world that combines high-fantasy heroism with the gritty realities of cross-humanoid racism and the problems of day-to-day living. The cults of the world, which play an intrinsic part of every adventurer's life, add to the mysticism of the game, and give it a level of depth which other fantasy systems can be but envious of."
RuneQuest was chosen for inclusion in the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Jennell Jaquays commented, "After RuneQuest and Glorantha, detailed fantasy worlds would become the norm, not the exception. Dragon Pass paved the way for TSR's Faerûn, better known as the Forgotten Realms, and Krynn, setting for the Dragonlance saga. But few would ever achieve the elegant but approachable rules complexity of the original RuneQuest or instill a fervent loyalty in fans that would span decades."

Legacy

Chaosium reused the rules system developed in RuneQuest to form the basis of several other games. In 1980 the core of the RuneQuest system was published in a simplified form edited by Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis as Basic Role-Playing . BRP is a generic role-playing game system, derived from the two first RuneQuest editions. It was used for many Chaosium role-playing games that followed RuneQuest, including:
The science-fiction roleplaying game Other Suns by Fantasy Games Unlimited, 1983, used the Basic Role-Playing system as well.
Minor modifications of the BRP rules were introduced in every one of those games, to suit the flavor of each game's universe. Pendragon used a 1-20 scale and 1d20 roll instead of a percentile scale and 1d100. , which used coin tosses instead of dice rolls, is the only Chaosium-published role-playing game that does not use any variant of the BRP system.
In 2004, Chaosium released a print-on-demand version of the 3rd edition RuneQuest rules with the trademarks removed under the titles Basic Roleplaying Players Book, Basic Roleplaying Magic Book, and Basic Roleplaying Creatures Book. That same year, Chaosium began preparing a new edition of Basic Roleplaying, which was released in 2008 as a single, comprehensive 400 page book, incorporating material from many of their previous BRP system games. The book offers many optional rules, as well as genre-specific advice for fantasy, horror, and science-fiction, but contains no setting-specific material.
After losing the license to use the RuneQuest name and Glorantha setting, Mongoose Publishing announced the release of a new series of books which are fully compatible with the RuneQuest II ruleset under the title of Legend. Legend was released in late 2011 under the Open Gaming License. Mongoose titles for RuneQuest II were re-released as Legend-compatible books. Similarly, after the announcement of the Chaosium/Moon Design merger, The Design Mechanism announced that RuneQuest 6th edition would continue to be published under the name Mythras.