Runes in your campaign

[Krieg]

I believe Signs and Portents (Mongoose Publishing's gaming related magazine) issue #10 had a rune magic system similar to the Ultima crpg's, where each rune represented a word and spells were made by combining these words into phrases (combining the rune for "create" and the rune for "fire" would light your torch, for example).

That is absolutley correct, and I just happen to have a copy of it (as well as Spells & Magic) up for sale as well. lol

One of the Midnight supplements also has a system that is reminiscent of the one from the FRCS.

 

[Treebore]

Frost & Fur and Winter Runes both have systems for rune magic with new core classes and unique spell lists.

...and I just happen to have copies of both for sale over on the RPG Marketplace forum:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=2192324#post2192324

Uh oh, I have turned into a pimp!

I have long used a Paladium Fantasy adaptation for my game worlds, but in the last couple of months I bought Frost and Fur and finally started to read Winter Runes. Between these three I will have the most developed rune system yet. I also have Spells and MAgic and have forgotten about runic stuff being in there. So I'll be reading that again too.

I'll be reading the FR stuff again as well, because I think they will now fit in with what is forming from my combining Frost and Fur, Winter Runes, and Paladium Fantasy.

The problem with it being a PC class is that I do not allow runes to be cast on the fly, they have to be prepared, or hope they have the "right" runes available to deal with the unexpected. But they are also more powerful than standard magic because they are carefully prepared.

So I have had only two players ever play them, but they did like the class. But they also confirmed it is much harder to play them in comparison to a "standard" spellcaster.

But if you are going to do a system that allows casting runes as a standard action, then you probably won't have any problems in that regard.

 

[pogre]

Runes were one of the things I loved about Warhammer Roleplaying, though we hardly use them in D&D.

Ditto - trying to bring them back a bit in my current campaign.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I have been using Highmoon Media's Bardic Lore: Ogham, which has rules for various types of Ogham inscriptions. I used it for a St. Patricks game (held several days after St. Patty's) and had a good time with it.

It may also finally get my players to start using metamagic. It annoys me that they would complain when the bad guy used it, but never use it themselves...

The Auld Grump

 

[Oberyn]

I made a rune caster that had a cirtain amount of spells per day, but they had a material component added into thier casting which was a rune, scribed into stone or wood, and using thier own blood. they could use them in armor. mainly I just used a combination of runes to produce different spells. But they also could use every rune they created as a scroll if they liked, but they had to create another one before they could cast that rune like they normally would. all in all i was told time and time again it was an overpowered class, but then i had people play test them and they said they had SOOO much fun with jsut the flavor of thier character using runes too cast and direct magical power. add into that the armor ability so they werent lambs in combat. In fact i remeber one guy who had his runes scribed on daggers, he would cast that rune then throw the dagger and they were returning.