RUNEQUEST: Classic Game Is Being Revived On Kickstarter

Runequest was created back in the 1970s by Chaosium. It was probably one of the bigger systems at the time, along with D&D and Traveller, with its setting of Glorantha and its new percentile system. This year was Chaosium's 40th anniversary. Next year is Glorantha's 50th anniversary. And they're trying to bring the classic Runequest 2E back into print! "Bringing the iconic RuneQuest 2nd edition rulebook back into print to kick-off the 50th Anniversary of Glorantha celebrations in 2016."

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It's a Kickstarter which just launched, and has almost reached its $30,000 goal already. $15 gets you the PDF, and $30 gets you the hardcover (which is considerably less than many Kickstarter hardcovers these days!) For a bit more, you can get "leatherette" versions with dustaackets, GM screens, and so on. Shipping, of course, is as much as the book itself in some countries, as is fairly common these days.

The hardcover is 144 pages, and includes 2nd Edition errata. There's extra material in the appendices. The book is complete, ready to print, and PDF versions are available as soon as the Kickstarter ends.

There's a review of Runequest 2E from 2009 by EN World member MonsterMash.

 

[Bluenose]

The one disappointment for me (besides the fact that I still have all of my original materials and really can't justify throwing money at it) is that they don't appear to be able to offer the Avalon Hill 3e material, because some of the later bits of that included some of the best adventure material RQ ever had. Shadows on the Borderlands is top notch.

 

[JeffB]

Yeah, there was some great stuff at the end of RQ3....Genertela, Doraster, Sun County, SotB, Strangers in Prax, River of Cradles.

One can hope...

 

[trystero]

The one disappointment for me (besides the fact that I still have all of my original materials and really can't justify throwing money at it) is that they don't appear to be able to offer the Avalon Hill 3e material, because some of the later bits of that included some of the best adventure material RQ ever had. Shadows on the Borderlands is top notch.

That RQ3 material is not part of this Kickstarter, which focuses on the RQ2 game, but the revived Chaosium does have the rights to re-release it according to this post from Chaosium Vice President and Creative Director Jeff Richard on the basicroleplaying.org forums:

To save some time, let me state this. Chaosium intends to get as much older stuff available again as long as we have the rights to do so. . . . We have rights to all the Gloranthan RuneQuest Products produced by Avalon Hill, including the RQ3 rulebook. . . . It's not a matter of desire because we have the desire, it's a matter of time and resources.

So we may yet see it in the future.

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of RQ3 (the edition with which I started) than RQ2, but I'm backing the current Kickstarter anyway, because I never could find much of the RQ2 material and would be happy to have both editions.

 

[TrippyHippy]

The RQ3 material was largely subsumed into the BRP releases, albeit with the serial numbers filed off. I'd imagine that it will be all be released in the near future as PDF, possibly going into POD, on Drivethrurpg.

The RQ2 is significant however, as a key note Chaosium release, but also because the game was tied directly to Glorantha as a setting. RQ3, as an Avalon Hill release, disassociated RQ with Glorantha for the first time (to make way for Mythic Europe as a default setting). It's pretty much where we are left with RQ6 currently - although this is due to be remarried with Glorantha next year too.

 

[daddystabz]

For someone like me who already owns BRP, Magic World, Mongoos RuneQuest, Legend, OpenQuest 1e & 2e, RuneQuest 6 what would RQ2 have to offer me besides the collector factor? Does anyone find it superior mechanically to any of the versions I've listed that I already own? I never got to read or play RQ2.

 

[Zarithar]

Backed!!!

 

[trystero]

For someone like me who already owns BRP, Magic World, Mongoos RuneQuest, Legend, OpenQuest 1e & 2e, RuneQuest 6 what would RQ2 have to offer me besides the collector factor? Does anyone find it superior mechanically to any of the versions I've listed that I already own? I never got to read or play RQ2.

I prefer RQ3 or RQ6, but the first and second edition rules (almost identical, I believe) are the ones used in the original great swath of Glorantha publications; as such, RQ2 is my key for translating elements of those publications into other versions.

There's also the historical factor; RQ 1 and 2 are the progenitor of Basic Roleplaying in all its variety, and as a player of RQ3 and Call of Cthulhu and Pendragon I'm interested to see where the whole thing came from. (Which might nudge me into upping my pledge to get the playtest version of the book.)

 

[Jacqual]

This does sound like a great idea but I do wonder how they figure the game is 10 years older then the company that made it? Or the fact that it makes the game older then D&D? I did not think it came out in 1966. But I will be thinking of backing the Kickstarter.

 

[trystero]

This does sound like a great idea but I do wonder how they figure the game is 10 years older then the company that made it? Or the fact that it makes the game older then D&D? I did not think it came out in 1966. But I will be thinking of backing the Kickstarter.

I'm not sure where you're seeing this claim. Morrus correctly pointed out in his original post that Glorantha, Greg Stafford's fantasy world which served as the setting for RuneQuest, dates back to 1966 and thus does indeed predate Dungeons & Dragons, but RuneQuest itself was released in 1978, as noted on the Kickstarter campaign page (and was very much in response to the D&D phenomenon as far as I can tell).

 

[darjr]

Steve Perrin was a founding member of the SCA, wrote and distributed the Perrin conventions in 1976, which set down rules clarifying D&D, which some say influenced Holms D&D and many other games. He helped found Chaosium with Greg Stafford and others and printed 'All the worlds Monsters' before TSR printed a monster manual. Some say that the monster manual was put on rush as a result. They even received an early TSR cease and desist letter for monsters meant to be in "All the worlds monsters".