RuneQuest
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| RuneQuest | |
|---|---|
 Runequest deluxe edition from Avalon Hill. | |
| Designer(s) | Steve Perrin Ray Turney Steve Henderson Warren James Glorantha Material by Greg Stafford |
| Publisher(s) | Chaosium Avalon Hill |
| Publication date | 1978 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| System | Basic Role-Playing |
RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium.
Contents |
[edit] History
RuneQuest quickly established itself as the second most popular fantasy role-playing game, after Dungeons & Dragons. [citation needed] The first and second editions were set in the mythical world of Glorantha, while the 3rd edition in the mid 1980s was more generic and much less successful. [citation needed] RuneQuest was the original percentile die-based and skill-based rule set, which ushered in an era of Simulationist RPGs.
The game had been sold to Avalon Hill under a complex agreement that required all Glorantha-related content first be approved by Chaosium. 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. Later Avalon Hill published "generic"/"Gateway" fantasy material (Lost City of Eldarad, Daughters of Darkness). Critics consider these later "generic"/"Gateway" publications inferior to the earlier Runequest publications. [citation needed]
Although both supplements for Fantasy Earth (Vikings, Land of Ninja) were well-regarded, the popularity of RuneQuest as a system seems to have come from the strength of its original setting, reflected in the remarkably high sales of materials that were new editions of out-of-print Glorantha content. [citation needed] A proposed fourth edition was originally meant to return the tight RuneQuest/Glorantha relationship, but it was shelved in 1994, mid-project.
Glorantha is the official setting of a new rules system called HeroQuest, which is the successor toHero Wars. Part of the agreement that permitted a new Glorantha-based game was that Avalon Hill retained rights to the name "RuneQuest" but not to the RuneQuest game rules. An attempt was made to produce a new game called "RuneQuest:Slayers" in 1997 that was neither Gloranthan nor used the original rules, but it was shelved when Avalon Hill was bought by toymaker Hasbro. At some stage in 2003 the rights to the trademarked name "RuneQuest" were reacquired by Issaries, Inc.
In 2004, Chaosium began preparing the most complete version yet of Basic Role-Playing, a multi-genre system derived from 3rd Edition RuneQuest and Chaosium's other BRP-based games. The new system, provisionally named "Deluxe Basic RolePlaying" (DBRP) includes many optional rules for use with different genres, including fantasy, horror, and science fiction. DBRP will reportedly be released in late 2006, and will not include any Gloranthan content.
Mongoose Publishing released a new version of RuneQuest in August 2006, under a license from Issaries, Inc., and "developed under the watchful eyes of Messrs Stafford and Perrin". However, Steve Perrin was no longer associated with the Mongoose RuneQuest project as of December 2005. The new rules were released under a variant of the Open Game License, and the official setting takes place much earlier in Glorantha's history than previous editions covered.
[edit] System
Players create one or more Player Characters (PCs) through randomly generating their statistics using dice. Humans generally have a stats range of 3 to 18 points per attribute (e.g. Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity), rolled by 3 x 6 sided dice. There was nothing to stop a player opting for a non-human PC, beyond the fear, suspicion and hostility it'd be likely to receive going in most human areas (a standard -10 to Charisma was applied when dealing across different sentient species). Once the character is defined physically, it is up to the player to decide on gender, background, motives and starting equipment, although this has to be moderated by the player running the game. The player in charge is often called Dungeon Master as a legacy term from Dungeons & Dragons, or sometimes more simply The Narrator. The Narrator determines the general situation of the part of Glorantha that the players find themselves within (political context, season of the year, current weather etc.), and the specifics of the "scenario" i.e. the story plot lines that the players will encounter and choose to follow (or not). The general situation will be obvious to a player and the Narrator will describe this in order to get the game started. What any individual non Player Character (NPC) is up to is something that the PCs must discover either by direct questioning or investigation & observation.
The rule book contained a large selection of fantasy monsters including all the traditional types (Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, Undead, Lycanthropes) and their physical stats. An invention of the game designers (and by some indications one of their favourites on the basis of their use and importance in Glorantha mythology) were creatures called Broo, humanoid goat-headed monsters. This race were orc-like in prevalence and organisation and usage (i.e. default standard enemy), and even had their own God to worship. <ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glorantha&action=edit§ion=3</ref> Also detailed for each type of creature were what magic spells they might know, which cults they might belong to, and at what level.
Within the game, an attack is rolled using percentile dice (a 10 sided die, twice, to create numbers between 01-99, and 00 counts as 100). If your skill level is equal to or higher than the number rolled, you have hit your target. The defender has the chance to try to avoid the blow or parry it, again determined with percentile dice. One interesting feature of the rules was that attackers always had a chance of missing (if they rolled 96% or above). They also had a very small chance of Fumbling, where something unfortunate happened to the attacker. Fumbles were rolled on a separate table and the effects were either incovenient in the midst of a battle (lose a piece of armour, trip and fall down for a short period of time) or very rarely, dangerous to the attacker or his friends. This could inject humour into a critical battle situation, if one of your group accidentally lops off a friend's arm whilst trying to hit the monster.
Magical attack was resolved in a similar way, where the attacker's and the target's Power was compared to determine a number that the attacker had to roll equal to or under in order to have the spell work.
[edit] Cults
Once a character has been created (often being recorded on commercially available character sheets) the player must then determine which (if any) Cult the PC belongs to, as this was one of the main character progression themes of the game. Entry to the Cult as a Lay Member is marked by passing a generally simple entrance test (each cult varies across a broad spectrum for how hard a test) or set of requirements. As a Lay Member some skills and spells training is normally available at a reduced rate, but there are some minor restrictions on personal freedoms. After several years of good service it then becomes possible to apply to become an Initiate of the Cult. This involves a tougher test but access to better cult specialty spells if passed, plus further mundane benefits for other spells & training. The restrictions can also be harder to observe. The leaders of a cult are called Rune Masters, which are further subdivided. Rune Lords are the warrior elite that are the melee specialists. Rune Priests are the mages of the cult. Both gain access to Rune Spells, the most powerful magics in the game.
The basic rules came with a handful of Gods (both good and evil) which was then greatly expanded in the Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror supplements.
[edit] The Dragon Pass area
This is the main land and focus of the game, detailed on a large map in the original rules. The recent history of the game is that the Lunar Empire has invaded from the Northwest through Dragon Pass, and have subdued but not beaten the people of Sartar and the various tribes living in Prax. The Cults of Prax supplement adds more detail to many of the places marked, by the vehicle of a merchant travelling these lands and encountering each cult in turn.
[edit] Runequest versus Dungeons & Dragons
One of the strengths of the Runequest system over similar games such as D&D was its rich and detailed history and cults. [citation needed] D&D had a huge amount of detail on the magic items in existence but hardly anything on the world in which they existed. Whilst expansion packs could be bought to cover an area, this lack of backdrop was a failing in some players' view of that game. Runequest supplied the world of Glorantha with a history of 1500 years plus details of the various Gods who had shaped the world or fought each other along the way. It was this history and conflict which enabled a Narrator to pick several established organisations or groups of monsters and place them within the scenario, knowing that their natural hostility would soon make life complicated for the hapless PCs caught up in the struggles.
Runequest also eschewed the D&D system of experience points and character levels, by which a very experienced fighter might be able to withstand, say, ten times as much combat damage as a neophyte. Runequest allowed a character's skills or abilities to have a chance of improving slowly through successful use. This was determined by subtracting the current skill level % from 100, then adding a bonus for high intelligence, to generate a number that had to be rolled on percentile dice. Thus the higher your skill was to start with, the harder it was to improve - but there was still always a 5% chance. While the Runequest combat system (which features different areas of the body and essentially static hit points) is more realistic, it led to some problems in play balance, as more powerful enemies could, with a lucky roll, kill almost any character instantly. This could however be seen as a positive feature. In D&D a higher level character could cheerfully ignore attacks by a beginner character, and be certain that if their powerful magics/armour didn't stop the attack, their dozens of hit points would allow them to shrug it off. Thus the need for so many powerful magic items to get through this tank-like protection. In Runequest there's always a slight (5%) chance of making a special hit (critical, slash, crush or impale, all doing significant extra damage) that could kill or at least damage the target. This forced combatants to be wary of even the feeblest opponent as they might just get a lucky fatal or disabling hit.
The other main difference between the two games was the power of the magic in each game. D&D featured quite a large number of incredibly potent instant death spells, items and weapons. Wishes of the power level that you'd expect from the Genie of the Lamp were available as a normal reusable spell for the highest level of wizards. Runequest's "normal" Battlemagic were much less effective in scope and were tailored to adding up to 20% chance of hitting an opponent with a weapon, up to 20% chance of avoiding it or some minor healing. An instant death Runespell did exist for Rune levels of several death cults (notably Humakt) but even then the target had the chance to resist this (a Power vs Power comparison, rolled on percentile dice).
[edit] Legacy
Chaosium reused the rules system developed in Runequest to form the basis of several other games, including:
- Call of Cthulhu
- Stormbringer (aka Elric!)
- ElfQuest
- Hawkmoon
- Superworld
- Corum
- RingworldRPG
Chaosium called this rules system the Basic Role-Playing System (BRP). In 2004, Chaosium released a print-on-demand version of the 3rd edition RuneQuest rules under the titles Basic Roleplaying Players Book, Basic Roleplaying Magic Book, and Basic Roleplaying Creatures Book.
Steve Perrin, one of the authors of the original RuneQuest game, later developed a similar system known as Steve Perrin's Quest Rules, which some RuneQuest fans consider to be a successor to the original game.
Runequest influenced elements of many other roleplaying games, including:
[edit] External links
- Official site
- List of RuneQuest publications
- Ultimate RuneQuest Resources
- RuneQuest Slayers
- Rune Quest ZA (.orc) home page
- Pete's RuneQuest! pageda:RuneQuest
de:RuneQuest fr:RuneQuest it:RuneQuest ja:ルーンクエスト fi:RuneQuest
