RuneQuest Design Notes; And Getting The Band Back Together

JeffB · Feb 8, 2016

Also nice to see (Gerard) Chris Klug working on the line. Loved DQ and VG' s Bond line, BITD.

mach1.9pants · Feb 8, 2016

Nice designer line up! Be interested to see what comes out in the Ed. I reckon they'll be struggling for a Aug release, if they want some serious playtesting.

Jiggawatts · Feb 9, 2016

I know very little about Runequest, does this game use a similar system as Call of Cthulhu, being skill based with a percentile system and whatnot?

oknazevad · Feb 9, 2016

Yes. In fact the system was originally created for the original version of RuneQuest in 1978. When the original books sold out, they came out with an expanded version as a box set that included a primer for new players called "Basic Roleplaying", which was barebones enough that they could use it for other games, including the first edition of Call of Cthulhu it's generically known as BRP or the D100 system.

barasawa · Feb 9, 2016

I loved Runequest, though I was never all that thrilled with Glorantha and it's 20 billion religions per hectare.

Jiggawatts, Runequest is the base system that they used with a few modifications (magic, psionics, setting specific skills) for several different games. These include Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, Elfquest, Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, Superworld, and probably some others I don't remember. I seem to recall some kind of sci-fi with spaceships that wasn't Ringworld, but I just can't pull any names up right now.

Bolongo · Feb 9, 2016

AFAIK Ringworld was the only sci-fi setting actually published by Chaosium. But there have been sci-fi games with clearly BRP-inspired rules from other publishers. The one I remember best was Other Suns from FGU.

JeffB · Feb 9, 2016

Future World..from Worlds of Wonder, as well.

Lord Twig · Feb 9, 2016

I started with the D&D red box, then graduated to AD&D, but once I was introduced to RuneQuest (the 2nd edition) I was hooked. I played RQ for 15 years before my game group fell apart.

D&D 3.0 came out a couple years later, and it had a few things that definitely looked to be inspired by RQ (mostly the skills). A few of my old group members and I got together and started playing D&D 3.0. Then 3.5, to Pathfinder, and now back to D&D 5th.

The fifth edition of D&D was successful in bringing back some old school gamers with a modern rule set. If Chaosium can pull of the same trick with RuneQuest it would be awesome.

I actually bought the Mongoose version with the hope that it would be the next step, but was rather disappointed with the results. I understand it eventually became quite a good system, but I haven't had a group I could try it out with. Maybe I'll have better luck with the latest Chaosium offering.

Bluenose · Feb 9, 2016

Von Ether said:
A little Pendragon going on there

More than a little, I think. Though that's hardly a bad thing.

I am a bit disappointed about just how Glorantha-centric it is. While I love Glorantha as a setting, and I really enjoy the RQ system for some types of game, I don't think the two fit together as well as I'd wish. Maybe this will change it, but while playing hardscrabble mercenaries working for Duke Raus or plundering the Big Rubble is something RQ does well, the more 'Mythic' aspects of Glorantha have never really seemed a good fit to me.

Lord Twig · Feb 9, 2016

Bluenose said:
I am a bit disappointed about just how Glorantha-centric it is. While I love Glorantha as a setting, and I really enjoy the RQ system for some types of game, I don't think the two fit together as well as I'd wish. Maybe this will change it, but while playing hardscrabble mercenaries working for Duke Raus or plundering the Big Rubble is something RQ does well, the more 'Mythic' aspects of Glorantha have never really seemed a good fit to me.

It depends what type of Mythic aspect you are trying to portray. If you are just a mortal that lives in a world with Mythic heroes it does great. Honestly in our games the GM just started adding mythic abilities to our characters as they performed heroic deeds.

For example, one character had raised his strength through training and magic to as high as possible using the rules. He then held a gate closed against a monster in the presence of an aspect of the Stasis rune. Thereafter his strength was immune to any strength draining effects and he could not lose any strength contest. That's not in the game anywhere. He just wrote it down on his character sheet.

Another time a character cast Mindspeech on a minor godling. The GM gave him a 1% chance to succeed. He rolled a 1 on a d100. Success. (Note that this is the only time in the 15 years of that game that anyone ever rolled a 1 when they only had a 1% chance to succeed.) Afterwards he gained the title Godspeaker and people told stories about his ability to speak with the gods. He never actually got a special ability from it, but that didn't stop legends from sprouting up.

Things like that just kept happening and the GM would just make up an ability or an exaggerated tale of the event would spread and you would have a new myth in the making.