[Rq-rules] RuneQuest 1st and 2nd edition Review

[Lev Lafayette]

>From RPG.net by moi:

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13534.phtml

RuneQuest was once considered the great challenge to
the almighty AD&D. Critically acclaimed, at least
according to reviews here on RPG.net, and another. By
accident it was the first RPG I participated in, which
was followed up with D&D, AD&D, Swordbearer,
DragonQuest, Rolemaster, GURPS, the Hero System and
dozens and dozens of other games. Even today however,
I'm still playing in a RQ 2nd edition game and for the
past two years at RetroCon I've run RQ2 games. You may
think I like it or something; you might be right.
Recently I was also fortunate enough to acquire, after
many years, a copy of first edition RuneQuest. As is
often remarked, it is very similiar to the second
edition and therefore the two can be reviewed
simultaneously.

Let's begin by defining the products. The game
discussed here is the softback editions of RuneQuest
(1st and 2nd edition) published by (The) Chaosium,
with emphasis on the second edition which is much more
well known and subject to significantly more actual
play. There is another version second edition
published by Games Workshop with a similiar piece of
cover art (in colour, although with a silly 'chaimail
bikini' outfit), another rare and very sturdy hardback
edition published by Reston Publishing which is as
rare as rocking horse manure, and a third edition
published by Avalon Hill and written by Chaosium which
I have previously reviewed (and ended up giving it
roughly the same rating as everyone else who has
reviewed it). There is also an oddity called
RuneQuest: Slayers which apparently is quite good, but
has very little to do with with the game reviewed
here. There is also the recent edition known as
Mongoose RuneQuest;, which has received a less
glorious response, but is still a reasonably good game
it its own right. Hidden in the deep underground of
PDF distribution there's also an unpublished
manuscript of what was to be RuneQuest IV: Adventures
in Glorantha.

The softback edition of RQ II usually comes with
monochrome art of various colours. The first edition
and many of the second editions come in a light brown
cover although some are colour; the second edition has
somewhat more detail and a different date). There are
also two-tone colour versions about and of course, the
hardback version comes with colour dust jacket. The
image however is the same, an armoured female
confronting a DragonNewt (a humanoid draconic being),
placing her shield in the way. A rather witty comment
from an Ares/SPI review on its release was "a giant
gila monster eating a tortilla". The same style of
art, by Luise Perrin (who has a something to do with
the author of the game of the same surname), is
continued throughout. It's neither brilliant in
technqiue or inspiration, but it's good enough and
certainly compared well to many products of its time.
The maps of the default setting Glorantha and the
regions of Sartar and Prax are very evocative of a
mythic world however this only applies for the second
edition; the first edition maps leave a lot to be
desired. In the second edition, two coloum justified
text is used throughout with a good-sized serif font
and a good use of white space, making it very
readable, although in the appendicies the font - and
readability - is reduced significantly. In the first
edition, a sans-serif font, poor use of white space,
and typed rather than typeset material is used for
tables and the character sheets. In terms of layout,
the first edition is not particularly attractive by
any stretch of the imagination. The binding is quite
strong in the second edition with harsh treatment over
decades still resulting in workable copies (a positive
note here must also be made of the hardback edition),
although the same certainly cannot be said for the
first edition which is 118pp with a light cardstock
cover with two staples - handle with extreme care!

The organisation of the text includes five pages of
useful introduction, six pages on character creation
(eight pages in first edition), five pages of
"mechanics and melee", twelve pages of "combat skills"
(ten pages), thirteen pages of "basic magic", nine
pages of "other skills" (ten pages), twenty pages of
"rune magic" (eighteen pages), nineteen pages of
"monsters" (twenty-five pages), six pages of "treasure
hoards" (called "Monster Hoards" in the first
edition), and twenty-two pages of appendicies
(thirteen pages, entitled "Referees Notes). There is a
good index (lacking in the first edition) and table of
contents, along with eight pages in the middle of the
book for the most important tables for in-play
activity. The organisation of the text could certainly
have done with some better consideration. The tables
in the middle of the book are more a bane than a
benefit, and some of the best material which should
have been included in the main text is in the the
Appendicies. Chapters II to VI could largely have been
reordered as II, VI, III, IV and then VII (Rune
magic); character advancement could have been better
placed (i.e., not after combat skills).

On the other hand, the writing style is very
commendable; concise, evocative and clear. From the
very outset one has a clear idea of the recommended
setting and the justifications for game decisions. The
game is about questing for runes. Different metals are
aligned to different runes. Bronze is the bones of
dead Gods. Silver is the basic unit of currency and
gold is very rare. It is a bronze age and early Dark
Ages world with more in common with ancient
Mesopotamia and Hyborea than medieval Europe.People
have allegiances to cities, nations, religions and
tribes, not to abstract qualities of law and chaos or
even good and evil. A high POW characteristic weakens
your ability to hide, because it builds an aura; and
so forth. Throughout the text one learns from the
experiences of Rurik The Restless, clever and
resilient, but always tripping over himself from his
first drink at Gimpy's Tavern (at the tender age of
16) to becoming a Runelord of the Sun Dome Temple.

Character generation starts with a familiar 3d6 for
Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Power,
Dexterity and Charisma with alternative methods of
characteristic generation are provided, including a
point-buy system. The most exotic is Power,
representing the measure of soul and is requisite for
casting spells. Maximum characteristics is based on
the maximum roll-able amount plus the number of dice;
so the highest DEX a human could have would be 21 - 18
+ 3 dice, with the exception of STR, SIZ or CON which
is limited to whatever the highest of those three are
- and further, SIZ cannot be normally altered (there
is no dieting in the RuneQuest world). POW is improved
by the experience of casting magic, whilst CHA can be
increased by high weapon skills (!), oratory,
possession of showy items, and reputation.
Characteristic modify abilities, which groups of
skills, knowledges and so forth broken up into Attack,
Parry, Defense, Hit Points, Damage Bonus, Perception,
Stealth, Manipulation and Knowledge. The significant
influence of INT in attack, defense, manipulation and
stealth should raise an eyebrow, as will Hit Points,
which are based on CON but modified (slightly) by SIZ
and (even less) POW. The effect of this becomes quite
notable in the "Monster" chapter; because most
creatures have a CON of the 3-18 range, something as
mighty as a (Dream) Dragon merely has an average 19
hit points, despite having an average SIZ of 50.
Starting equipment is based on randomly determined
character class background; either Peasant, Townsman,
Barbarian, Poor Noble or Rich Noble.

The third chapter, "Mechanics & Melee" deal with time
and movement, Encumbrance, the Melee Round sequence,
hit locations and wounds. An perhaps overlooked
element is the recommended game-world to real-world
time scale; one real day equating with one game week.
In other words, RuneQuest was explicitly designed from
the start for saga-like play. A campaign spread over
two years or so, would cover roughly fifteen years of
an adventurer's life, assuming they survived. The rest
of the movement rules are basically
realist-simulationist, but with the unfortunate oddity
that all beings of the same species have the same base
movement. The Encumbrance system is simple and
workable; character's are limited by "things" of bulk
and weight, limited by STR and CON. A nice addition
was "The Adventurer's Pack"; an easy game convention
of basics. The Melee Round is broken into phases; (a)
Statement of Intent (b) Movement of Non-Engaged (3)
Melee, Missiles and Spells (4) Bookkeeping.
"Initiative" is determined by "Strike Rank". In a
nutshell, a tall, fast character with a spear will
strike before a short, slow character with a dagger.
The quantity of POW points used in a spell also
determines the spell's SR. The higher a character's
SR, the latter they strike in the round, which does
mean absolute minimums (SIZ 22+, DEX 19+, Weapon
Length 2+ metres) and thus a limit on scalability.
With regards to wounds, characters have general and
locational (head, arms, chest, abdomen, legs) hit
points. Damage that exceeds locations will effectively
disable the location; a minor problem with the arm, a
more serious one with the leg, and very dangerous if
it's the head. Damage that exceed a limb's location by
more than 6 points is "severed or irrevocably maimed",
which means instant death for the head, chest and
abdomen. Note again, the absolute value which does not
scale well. The chapter on combat skills outlines the
basic percentile attack, and the parry used to defend
such oncoming blows. There are special hits (1/5 of
base chance) with impaling weapons can do savage
damage, which are rather oddly applied before armour
and criticals (1/20 of base chance) which ignore
armour. There are also comically dangerous effects of
fumbles and critical parries and parry fumbles. A
successful parry against a successful attack means the
defender's weapon takes damage, and a successful parry
against a failed attack means the attacker's weapon
takes damage. Rather strangely, skill advancement is
discussed at this point referring to both training by
guilds and the expenditure of hard-earned coin
(modified by CHA), or by experience which requires a
successful roll underneath 100 minus the current skill
(modified by INT). After this is various melee and
missile weapons tables, with some slight differences
between 1st and 2nd edition. A newcomer to the game
can quickly estimate the deadliness of RuneQuest and
especially the necessity of armour, which immediately
follows with values from 1 (leather, padding, cloth,
quilt) to 6 (plate) according to location and shields
(small, medium and large). One can make an argument
that armour is ever-so slightly underpowered. In both
editions the base chance of parrying for shields is
missing, a rather annoying oversight corrected by an
errata sheet.

The fifth chapter is Basic Magic, which consists of
"Battle Magic" and "Spirit Contacts". In RuneQuest
most sentient being have at least one or two spells to
help them through the day. These are powered by their
spiritual Power and are taught by religious cults who
will provide credit to loyal members to provide
knowledge in such matters. Character's are limited to
the number of spells in POW according to their INT.
Battle Magic spells usually have a range of between 40
and 80 metres, a focus (a carved rune on some
implement, or even tatoo), and are either instant or
temporal (ten mellee rounds), although the effects of
attack spells obviously are permanent. Some spells
have more powerful versions of a basic type (e.g.,
Bladesharp 1, Bladesharp 2 etc) whereas others do not
(e.g., Silence). Spell resolution requires a roll of
the caster's temporary POW at the time of casting
referenced against the target's POW on a resistance
table (it is worth noting here that the distinction
between temporary and permanent POW was often not as
clear as it could be). An equation equivalent is
((Attacking POW - Defending POW)*5)+50)%. Assuming
sufficient stress (less than 95% chance of success),
successful casting spells against opponents allows a
"POW gain roll" like an experience check. POW,
representing the character's emotional state and
spiritual confidence, is one of the most fluid
characteristics in the game. The fifty plus spells
themselves are quite simple and to the point, although
one can be a little annoyed at the small run of Detect
'X' spells. In contrast to Battle Magic, Spirit
Contacts requires perceiving usually indifferent
partial beings of INT and POW only and challenging
said beings to spirit combat. It is simply a POW vs
POW contest like spell-casting with damage of 1-3
points of temporary POW and the possibility of
possession (for the spirit) or binding (for the
attacker). With a bound spirit (trapped in either a
crystal or an animal familiar) the character may use
the spirit's INT to store spells and its POW to fuel
spells. A character may only bind a number of Spirits
equal to their CHA/3 if they want to avoid "rebellious
spirits". A particularly expert individual at Spirit
Contacts may wish to become a shaman, which includes a
fetch, a special spiritual ally, the capacity to store
POW in the spirit world itself, the ability to cure
disease, the ability to raise oneself from the dead
with sufficient healing magics and additional
spiritual controls. In a fairly significant
difference, shaman do not make an appearance in the
first edition.

The sixth chapter is entitled "Other Skills" which is
what moves the game away from being just "swords and
sorcery" to other lifestyles. This is broken up into
the various guilds that provide the training for the
differing skills and skill groups (stealth,
manipulation, perception and knowledge) which are
almost invariably learnt as percentile values, with
basic values, skill modifiers and training costs for
the 0-25%/26-50%/51-75%/75-100% ratings. A notable
exception to this is the Alchemists Guild who provide
training in the skills of Acid Making, Antidotes,
Blade Venom, Systematic Poison and Magic Potions
(Healing, POW restoration and, in first edition,
"Skill Raisiing"!) which are in ratings of potency
(POT) which, if applicable, are rated against a
character's CON, for example, causing either full or
half effect whether they resist in the same manner as
spell casting. Other Guilds include the Free Sages,
who teaching Evaluate Treasure, Map Making, Oratory,
Languages, and Writing; Thieve's Guilds which teach a
variety of manipulation, perception and steal skills;
Players and Minsterels; the Maritime Brotherhood (only
swimming listed); Foresters; Amorers; Horsemasters
etc. On gets the general feeling, and indeed this
would confirmed by subsequent publications, that the
skill selection was only a hint of what was possible.

In the seventh chapter the game moves into an entirely
different scale: Rune Magic. Runes are described as
symbols that hold inherent power. They are
differentiated into the Elements (what the world is
mad of), the Forms (how an Elemental or Power force is
expressed), the Powers (opposite-pairs) and Conditions
(levels). The Elements are Darkness, Water, Earth,
Air, Fire, and Moon; the Forms are Plant, Beast, Man,
Dragonewt, Spirit, Chaos; the Powers arer
Harmony-Disorder, Fertility-Death; Stasis-Movement;
Truth-Illusion and Luck-Fate. The Conditions are
Magic, Mastery and Infinity. The runes themselves have
a nice symbolic aesthetic and are often delightful in
their metaphor. The Plant rune is clearly derived from
the Aztecs for the same, the cross represents Death in
the form of the first sword, Harmony appears ias a
harp and Chaos has a pair of devil horns so on.
Characters may start off as Initiates of a Cult which
provides them one-off access to Rune magics which
require a permanent sacrifice of POW (seriously cool)
and possibly Divine Intervention from their God. Note
that Initiate status was not available in first
edition. The real prestige level is becoming a Rune
Lord, Rune Priest or even both! With a requisite
benchmarks for acceptance, these levels provide one
with teh capacity to extend skills beyond 100%,
receive allied spirits, use iron weapons, have better
Divine Intervention and better (read, often reusable)
access to Rune magics. Rune magics are faster, require
no loss in temporary POW (that's already been paid
for), have a longer range (160m), can be "stacked" and
are generally twice as powerful in all respects to
Battle Magic. About 25 Rune magic spells are
described, including the summoning and dismissing of
Elementals. Three sample cults (Orlanth, the Storm
God; Kyger Litor, the Troll God; and the Black Fang
Brotherhood, an assasins cult) round out the chapter.

The eigth and ninth chapters are monsters and
treasures respectively, where it is noted that
intelligent humanoids can be player characters. All
"monsters" are provided a full set of characteristics,
common skills, spells, and weapon abilities.
Descriptions tend strongly toward combat abilities and
tactics, with often only merely a sentence or two
describing their ecological niche or social
organisation. Some of the more exotic creatures
include intelligent Baboons; the philosophical and
reincarnating Dragonwets; the goat-headed, chaotic and
disease ridden humanoids, Broos; the various "Beast
Men", like Centaus, Minatours and Manticores; the
intelligent man-herding tapirs, Morokanth; the cursed
Trolls (and their dimunitive progeny, the Trollkin).
Mention must also be made of the intelligent, humanoid
Ducks and Dream Dragons - that is, the physical
manifestation of the dreams of real dragons. Another
group which receives some attention are the various
riding animals of Prax and to a lesser extent, Dragon
Pass. In the first edition, the various Diseases are
listed in the Monster's chapter ("perhaps the
deadliest monster in Glorontha"), whereas in the
second edition they are listed in the Appendicies A
calculation of various combative abilities leads to
each monster having a "Treasure Factor", which usually
consist of various amounts of coin (a few hundred
silver coins is typical), the occassional item of
jewellarly or gems and even more rearely, a special
item (scroll,potion, battle spell matrix, magic
crystals). A spell matrix simply allows a character
access to a spell fueled by their own POW. Magic
crystals however, are the congealed blood of dead
Gods; industructible they can be used to hold bound
spirits or store Power.

The final chapter in both editions are referees notes
(first edition title) and appendicies (second
edition). Alternative character generation systems are
provided, along with characteristic rolls, previous
experience (an additional five years added to
character generation in militia, mercenary groups or
even a apprenticeship). One particular oddity is the
suggestion of the Alchemy guild's training an
apprentice to certain percentages of their skills;
when it has already been noted that the Alchemy skills
do not follow the standard percentage system. Also
included in this section are rune identites, regional
encounter tables, various weapon descriptions,
optional combat rules, such as aimed blows, and in
second edition, knockbacks, shield attacks, 'slashing'
and 'crushing' (to balance with impales) and the
random chaotic features table, which can often amuse
and terrify.

It is easy to see why RuneQuest II was very highly
regarded by gamers when it was released and why it
still has many supporters today and is largely
considered a classic in the field. The game system
placed great emphasis on "playable realism",
flexibility and a high degree of intuitive
consistency. The magic system, both the basic and
runic variety, was highly evocative. The combat
system, despite being very "crunchy" was quick and
deadly in practise. The ties to the exotic and magic
gameworld of Glorantha (or Glorontha in the first
edition) were moderate but provided a great campaign
base - indeed there was a not-significant split
between those who wanted to play in Glorantha and
those who wanted to play with RuneQuest. The game
however, was not without its flaws. Apart from those
already mentioned in this review, most notable is the
downside of the flexibility and lack of character
classes; character generation could be quite
time-consuming. The financial system sometimes came
across quite poorly; costs of various forms of
training (especially the Alchemist's Guild) was quite
disproportionate. Also notable, is with the exceptions
of criticals and impales, it was not really a true
percentage system, but rather effectively a d20 system
with 5-percent increments. Overall however, RuneQuest
1st and 2nd editions are good products which set a
high standard for game design.

Thus, with each factor with a possible score of 0-1
(and my additions of 'product' for style and 'system'
for substance) and noting that this is primarily a
review of RQ II for the overall rating.

RuneQuest I 

Style: layout (0.1), art (0.4), coolness (0.8),
readability (0.5), product (0.1) = 1 + 1.9 = 2.9

Substance: content (0.5), text (0.8), fun (0.6),
workmanship (0.8), system (0.6) = 1 + 3.3 = 4.3

RuneQuest II 

Style: layout (0.4), art (0.4), coolness (0.8),
readability (0.7), product (0.5) = 1 + 2.8 = 3.8

Substance: content (0.6), text (0.8), fun (0.6),
workmanship (0.8), system (0.7) = 1 + 3.5 = 4.5 


      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.  http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping