A $2 Viking RPG from Robin Laws based on Ars Magica I never knew existed???!

[innerdude]

So . . . I was just messing around in my Gog.com profile. I saw that they have the 2000 game Rune: Classic on sale for $2 and thought, "Hey, I really liked that game. It was pretty good for being Unreal Engine V1 back in the day; I should buy it."

But then remembered, "I think I bought it on sale a few months ago." Went into my game list and sure enough, I had already bought it.

So I started looking at the game info, and WHOAH WAIT WHAT, WHAT THE HECK IS THIS????

I mean . . . so yeah, instant download. And wait, what is this???? Robin Laws wrote a pen-and-paper RPG for this game? And it's based on Ars Magica???

So . . . Yeah, a full 257-page, full-color PDF of an RPG based on a Viking video game. Wow, guess I found some interesting reading for tonight.

So yeah, even if you don't care about the video game at all, $2 seems like a good deal for the PnP RPG.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Rune Classic

The classic Viking third-person hack-and-slash melee action game is now available on GOG!

www.gog.com

 

[innerdude]

Follow-up --- a quick search on Drivethrurpg found no listings for this. Unless there's some query-fu I don't know about, this RPG isn't listed on Drivethru's site.

So I guess you basically have to purchase the Gog.com digital game to get it as a reward.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Oh, that. I had a copy of that when it was new-ish. I can see some elements of Ars Magica in the mechanics but don't expect it to be anything like AM in terms of gameplay of tone. Very much meant to emulate the PC game on the tabletop.

Most noteworthy feature is that everyone is intended to share GM duties evenly, with each person in turn designing roughly what D&D 4e would have called a delve. Encounter design used an fairly complex and comprehensive system for all the scene elements and treasure you could include, and the (current) GM was rewarded for making their encounter a serious but not insurmountable threat that offered proportionate loot, all based on how powerful the PCs were. The GM's PC is active under the other players' control during these scenes, and you were punished for getting them killed while under player control - while the GM was rewarded for badly injuring PCs but punished for actually killing anyone, so you had to play a balancing game around how dangerous you made things in your delves.

It looked like a fascinating system, but the unusual play approach (simultaneously co-op and competitive with ever-changing GMs) was even harder for folks to grok than AM's troupe-style play so I don't think many people actually got to play it. I know I never managed to sell even a small group to try it, mostly because of the "what do you mean I have to be GM and make encounters sometimes?" element.

Still, if you can find a copy cheap-ish it's well worth a look as a curiosity, and changing attitudes mean it might be easier to get a group together in 2024 than it was almost a quarter-century ago.

EDIT: Heh. Atlas is out of stock on most of the (small) range, but they still have some copies of the Crouching Wizard, Smashing Hammer (can you tell it was 2000?) adventure.

 

[aramis erak]

Follow-up --- a quick search on Drivethrurpg found no listings for this. Unless there's some query-fu I don't know about, this RPG isn't listed on Drivethru's site.

So I guess you basically have to purchase the Gog.com digital game to get it as a reward.

It's bundled with the videogame; see Josua's link, and read the contents carefully.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Follow-up --- a quick search on Drivethrurpg found no listings for this. Unless there's some query-fu I don't know about, this RPG isn't listed on Drivethru's site.

It was a licensed game from 24 years ago, which has long since lapsed. Atlas can't sell pdfs of the game through DTRPG at this point, much like WotC can't sell the Buck Rogers XXVC game. The only reason they're still selling that one supplement they have in stock (which was essentially a pamphlet format IIRC, one of a bunch of similar things people experimented with during the OGL/d20 boom) is because they printed a ton of them back in the day and have some left in the warehouse.

 

[darjr]

I believe I have a hard copy of this somewhere, it was a “here’s my old computer junk” from a friend kind of thing

 

[Nikosandros]

I believe I have a hard copy of this somewhere, it was a “here’s my old computer junk” from a friend kind of thing

I got the game for the two bucks and I perused the PDF. It faintly rang a bell; I think that I've at least skimmed a hard copy ages ago, but my recollections are very vague. I'm positive that I've never played it.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

I got the game for the two bucks and I perused the PDF. It faintly rang a bell; I think that I've at least skimmed a hard copy ages ago, but my recollections are very vague. I'm positive that I've never played it.

I'd love to hear from someone who actually did manage to play it as intended. That rotating-GM thing coupled with a slightly intimidating-looking encounter design system was a deal-killer for all my friends, but it sounded like an interesting concept. I wonder if it might have done better in the heyday of D&D 4e when playing little mini-dungeon "delves" was somewhat more popular - that's really what it seemed to be aiming to do, a series of loosely-linked delves each run by a different person.

 

[Voadam]

I was not aware there was a 112 page dual statted Rune/d20 adventure The Last Hero in Scandinavia.

Atlas Games has their own Rune page.