Can somebody tell me about Runequest setting?

[Ace]

Yeah, RQ III was weak. PCs were majorly scaled down in power, the illustrations were awful (save the nice cover and those by then-still Chaosium stalwart Lisa Free, before she became a born-again), nit-picky new magic and encumbrance rules, and a boring pastiche of fantasy Europe mixed in. Blah.

RQ2 was better IMO but I liked RQ3 well enough-- The magic rules needed work and the books, well kleenex is not an inappropriate descrition of the paper. STill it was a pretty good game. If there had never been GURPS I would still be playing BRP (the core system of RQ) -- It was my first "Wow!" game system

As for Glorantha, well I played on it a few times but I never had a GM who could make it click for me

 

[Unseelie]

The races are .... weird. Assume that non-humans are infused with some form of element. Grue are chaotic reverse satyrs (head of a goat, body of a man) that live to spread diseases. Elves are plant-based and their bows are living wood that will die in the hands of a non-elf. Dwarves are very stone fixated and not something I saw played often. Trolls are living warfare, able to eat rock and swing trees, but cursed as a result of their stubborness to have 90% of their populace be wretched, stunted trollkin (the favorite snack of the Troll battle priests). Centaurs tend to be the defenders of nature with just a hint of chaos mixed in.

Well, someone else beat me to it, but it's Broo rather than Grue. Broo were seriously chaos tainted IIRC and were frequently mutated by this.

The Mostali (Dwarves) were truely odd... lawful to a fault. One could almost call them clockwork dwarves. Maybe only a couple steps away from being a hive mind. Very different from typical fantasy dwarves.

Trolls could literally eat anything and get nutrition from it. Also, they were, IIRC, a lawful race, so one should not assume that they were monsters and treat them accordingly.

 

[Garnfellow]

Very nice page! I especially like your Savage Species classes. I am going to get quite a bit of use out of the Carniverous Ape in my next campaign

Glad to hear it! I always thought it unfortunate that most people assume "dire ape" = "carnviorous ape."

Let me know how this class plays out for you.

 

[Krypter]

Don't buy RQ3. I heard a lot of good things about Runequest for many years and decided to try it. The book was 90% useless rules, with bizarre references that weren't explained, and no setting information about the fantasy world. Instead it had some pseudo-historical Earth setting that didn't fit the rules text at all. Horrible disappointment, especially if you like fluff and avoid crunch.

I'd like to read a book that had only the setting info (is it Glorantha or what?), because from the descriptions here it actually does sound like a great world. Is there such a book, that is 90% setting info?

 

[kigmatzomat]

Well, someone else beat me to it, but it's Broo rather than Grue. Broo were seriously chaos tainted IIRC and were frequently mutated by this.

Yeah, I realized that later but now it's too late to edit my stupidity away.

The Mostali (Dwarves) were truely odd... lawful to a fault. One could almost call them clockwork dwarves. Maybe only a couple steps away from being a hive mind. Very different from typical fantasy dwarves.

Probably why no one ever played one. We also only had one guy who played an elf, but he almost *always* played an elf.

Trolls could literally eat anything and get nutrition from it. Also, they were, IIRC, a lawful race, so one should not assume that they were monsters and treat them accordingly.

We loved trolls. Every now and then we'd pull out the rulls for trollball (or whatever it was). Two teams of trolls on a soccer field with priests on the sidelines and one doomed trollkin on the field. The team that got the largest living chunk of trollkin in their goal scores a point. (Yes, that's in the rules and becomes important since trollkin split rather easily) Injured players can be replaced but the game doesn't have timeouts and no one can enter the field; they've got to leave under their own power or be carried off by players.

Of course my favorite race was always a centaur. I had a Trickster high priest centaur once with an 85% climb skill because, hey, who expects a centaur attack from above? Use a lance, charge, and then get trample damage if you're skills are high enough. Nothing a dragon likes more than having a centaur drop off the ceiling onto it's back and then trample along the spine and over the head. It doesn't kill it, but it is completely stunned. Well, confused.