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RuneQuest: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Common questions
When was RuneQuest first released?
RuneQuest was first released in 1978. The game was introduced by designer Steve Perrin along with Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James.
Who created the world of Glorantha in RuneQuest?
Greg Stafford created the world of Glorantha in RuneQuest. He had previously developed a complex fantasy board game called White Bear and Red Moon which he later renamed Dragon Pass.
What is the difference between lay members and initiates in RuneQuest cults?
Lay members are informal and lack insight while initiates are directly connected to a god and receive magic in return. Rune levels serve as priestly, martial leaders or shamans working for the god's ideals.
When did Chaosium release the 6th edition of RuneQuest?
Chaosium released the 6th edition of RuneQuest in 2017. The PDF of the full rules was released in May 2018 with the printed book following later that year.
How does the RuneQuest combat system differ from Dungeons and Dragons?
RuneQuest divides a combat round into Strike Ranks based on dexterity, size, and weapon rather than using abstract hit points. Successful attacks are allocated to specific body parts like legs or heads with unique effects on mechanics and narrative.
In 1978, a game designer named Steve Perrin introduced a mechanic that would fundamentally alter the trajectory of tabletop role-playing games: the percentile dice system. Before RuneQuest, most fantasy games relied on abstract hit points and rigid character classes that dictated a player's capabilities from the start. Perrin, along with Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, created a system where success was determined by rolling under a specific percentage on two ten-sided dice. This simple mathematical approach allowed for granular skill progression, where a character's ability to climb a wall or wield a sword was not a fixed number but a fluid percentage that could improve with practice. The result was a game that felt less like a board game and more like a simulation of reality, where a weak adventurer could defeat a powerful foe through luck, tactics, or careful planning rather than just accumulating experience points. This innovation became the bedrock for dozens of subsequent games, including the legendary Call of Cthulhu, yet it was born from a desire to make combat feel visceral and dangerous rather than abstract and safe.
The Mythic World of Glorantha
While the mechanics of RuneQuest were revolutionary, the world it inhabited was equally groundbreaking. Greg Stafford, the creator of the game, had already developed a complex fantasy board game called White Bear and Red Moon, which he later renamed Dragon Pass. When the role-playing game arrived in 1978, it did not merely use this setting as a backdrop; it was deeply embedded in the geography, history, and religion of the world. Unlike the generic fantasy landscapes of the time, Glorantha was a living, breathing entity with established cultures, distinct religions, and a history that predated the players' arrival. The setting featured a melting pot of cultures in the Dragon Pass region, including the Sartar, Prax, Old Tarsh, Lunar Tarsh, and the Grazelands. These homelands were home to non-human species and cultures that were far more integrated into the narrative than the typical fantasy tropes of the era. Elves were not merely humanoid but were described as plant life, and the game included original creatures like the goat-headed broo and the headless three-armed maidstone archers. This depth of world-building meant that players could not simply adopt the rules and ignore the setting; the two were so tightly woven that the game had to be adopted entirely or not at all.
The Cults of the Divine
A defining feature of RuneQuest was its treatment of religion, which was not an optional side quest but a central pillar of character identity. In the world of Glorantha, every adventurer belonged to a cult, a religious society that provided magic, social standing, and a connection to the divine. These cults operated on three levels of membership: lay members who were informal and lacked insight, initiates who were directly connected to a god and received magic in return, and rune levels who served as priestly, martial leaders or shamans working for the god's ideals. The game included 21 distinct cults, and their availability was tied to an adventurer's rune affinities, homeland, and occupation. This system forced players to engage with the spiritual and political landscape of the world, as their magical strength was proportional to their connection to the divine or their skill at sorcery. For instance, casting an Ignite spell required a player to roll under their fire rune affinity, making magic a personal and culturally specific experience rather than a universal resource. This approach created a level of depth and mysticism that other fantasy systems could only envy, turning the act of playing a game into a journey of spiritual discovery.
The history of RuneQuest is also a saga of corporate intrigue and legal battles that spanned decades. In 1984, Chaosium made a deal with Avalon Hill to publish the third edition, but this agreement resulted in Avalon Hill taking ownership of the RuneQuest trademark while Chaosium retained the copyright of the rules text. The third edition, released in 1984, was intended to be a generic fantasy game set in the Dark Ages of Europe, though it included a booklet allowing play in Glorantha. This edition was not well-received, with RPG historian Stu Horvath calling it an ill-fated third edition that never made the kind of money on which both companies were banking. The situation worsened when Avalon Hill, under the ownership of Hasbro, began development of a mechanically unrelated game called RuneQuest: Slayers, which was shelved in 1994 after Stafford refused permission. When Hasbro acquired Avalon Hill in 1998, the project was canceled, and the copyrights to the rules reverted to the authors, who released it for free as RuneSlayers. This legal tug-of-war led to a series of licensing agreements and rebranding efforts, with Mongoose Publishing releasing a new edition in 2006 and later rebranding it as Legend in 2011. The chaos continued until 2016, when The Design Mechanism parted ways with Moon Design, and RuneQuest 6th edition was renamed Mythras, while a new edition, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, was announced in 2017.
The Combat That Changed Everything
RuneQuest's combat system was designed to recreate live-action combat, drawing on Steve Perrin's familiarity with the Society for Creative Anachronism. Unlike the abstracted hit-point-based combat of competitors like Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest divided a combat round into Strike Ranks, which provided an initiative system based on the character's dexterity, size, and weapon. These were assessed sequentially, and an attacking character would roll their skill, with the defender having the option of parrying or dodging the attack. The game included a subsystem for hit location, where successful attacks were allocated randomly or could be aimed to specific parts of the target's body. A hit against a character's leg, weapon arm, or head had specific effects on the game's mechanics and narrative, making combat a dangerous and strategic endeavor. This system encouraged players to avoid often deadly combat and to find non-violent solutions through conversation or clever scheming. The result was a game that felt more like a simulation of reality, where a weak adventurer could defeat a powerful foe through luck, tactics, or careful planning rather than just accumulating experience points. This innovation became the bedrock for dozens of subsequent games, including the legendary Call of Cthulhu, yet it was born from a desire to make combat feel visceral and dangerous rather than abstract and safe.
The Legacy of Basic Role-Playing
The influence of RuneQuest extended far beyond its own editions, as Chaosium reused the rules system to form the basis of several other games. In 1980, the core of the RuneQuest system was published in a simplified form edited by Greg Stafford and Lynn Willis as Basic Role-Playing, or BRP. This generic role-playing game system was used for many Chaosium role-playing games that followed RuneQuest, including Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, Worlds of Wonder, Superworld, ElfQuest, Ringworld, Pendragon, Hawkmoon, and Nephilim. The science-fiction roleplaying game Other Suns, published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1983, also used the Basic Role-Playing system. Minor modifications of the BRP rules were introduced in every one of those games to suit the flavor of each game's universe. Pendragon used a 1-20 scale and 1d20 roll instead of a percentile scale and 1d100, while Prince Valiant: The Story-Telling Game, which used coin tosses instead of dice rolls, was the only Chaosium-published role-playing game that did not use any variant of the BRP system. In 2004, Chaosium released a print-on-demand version of the 3rd edition RuneQuest rules with the trademarks removed under the titles Basic Roleplaying Players Book, Basic Roleplaying Magic Book, and Basic Roleplaying Creatures Book. That same year, Chaosium began preparing a new edition of Basic Roleplaying, which was released in 2008 as a single, comprehensive 400 page book, incorporating material from many of their previous BRP system games.
The Return to Glorantha
In 2016, after years of legal and corporate turmoil, RuneQuest returned to its roots with the announcement of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, officially referred to as RQG. This new edition was based heavily on the Chaosium second edition, drawing upon ideas from later editions, and was previewed on Free RPG Day 2017 with the release of a quickstart module. The PDF of the full rules was released in May 2018, with the printed book following later that year. Since then, there have been a steady stream of products released for RQG, including a Bestiary, books of adventures, and reference material. The game's reception was positive, with John O'Neill of Black Gate noting that the interior art was terrific throughout and the writing was crisp and clear. RPG historian Stu Horvath highlighted that unlike other major RPGs of the time, characters did not gain more hit points as they progressed, fueling a need to avoid often deadly combat. Players uninterested in losing limbs learned to solve problems without swinging swords, and this desire to find non-violent solutions placed increasing importance on the details of the setting. The game's intricate and highly original campaign setting, which combined high-fantasy heroism with the gritty realities of cross-humanoid racism and the problems of day-to-day living, established it as a cut above the rest. The cults of the world, which played an intrinsic part of every adventurer's life, added to the mysticism of the game, and gave it a level of depth which other fantasy systems could be but envious of.