Runequest is a roleplaying game published by mongoose publishing [outside link]

I’ve run many a game in the old version of Runequest, merging rules from RQ2 and RQ3, simplifying that which was way too long winded, such as combat, and adding important developments in roleplaying that left RQ falling behind such as personality traits and a certain sense of free-forming. A new game was needed that suited the dawn of a new millenium and Herowars/quest was finally revealed to us and we played that.

And it was revolutionary. Herowars/quest was a powered up, free-forming, storytelling, jewel of a game that taught us in half a dozen books more about Glorantha than in the last three decades. They even described those places in Sartar that previously were only cryptic labels on long out of print maps. But Runequest it was not.

Heroquest didn’t describe what the hundreds of new "spells" actually did in actual game mechanics. It didn’t have hit points and it didn’t even have a way of counting how much gold you had. You didn’t buy things with gold anyway, you bought things with chickens and collected cows!

It was and is very, very brilliant but a saddle-sores-and-all swords and sorcery roleplaying game for teenagers it is isn’t.

So along comes Runequest again and I get very excited and waited with baited breath for its arrival. I was excited because it was published by Mongoose who have glossy covers, pretty pictures and lots and lots of books on comic book shop shelves. I was excited because we had learnt so much about Glorantha and we were promised the old Runequest but updated to bring a new generation of gamers into Glorantha.

So what did we get?

Runequest is a 128 page hardback that handily lies flat when open. It has quite high production values and a full colour rendered cover. So far so good! The inside layout is good, the typography easily readable and relatively evocative. I really like the grimoire style page borders. The book has an introduction, index and reference sheets, as a good reference book should. Then it has chapters on character creation, skills, equipment, combat, magic, cults, adventuring, improving adventurers and creatures. Most of it (apart from an introductory adventure) is there.

Character creation is reminiscent of RQ2 and is relatively simple. You don’t need a maths degree like you do with RQ3, or an English Literature degree like you do with Heroquest. There’s nothing too contentious here, it’s just a little 1982. There are three paragraphs on "Character’s Personality". So no character traits then.

Skills chapter is quite interesting: there are some nice (but familiar) rules for opposed tests, group tests and assisting your mates. The "Very High Skills" section is awful. They should have stolen the masteries system from Heroquest (this allowed no limit to your skill score but still made tests meaningful). The actual skill descriptions are quite waffly. Here is my definition of "Boating": Guide a small craft across a reasonable amount of water without drowning. Twelve words. Theirs is 43 words and considering I believe too much was left out of the book (like character traits or an adventure to play) a waste of space.

Equipment: again a load of waffle. What the hell is a war sword? We find out it is for slashing and cutting, is common and is under a metre in length. So why not call it: "broadsword – your standard one handed sword"? The armour section has all kit required for a game of D&D but none of the armour familiar to the nomads, hill clansmen and backwoods bushwackers of Glorantha. Where is the cuirboilli, bezainted, felt and lamellar armour? Do these people not collect Osprey books like we normal people do? These forms of armour were familiar to millions from ancient times to the late middle-ages in our own world let alone Glorantha. Most were in the old Runequest so where have they gone?

Combat chapter. According to the Players Guide pdf [outside link] the section where you decide whether you get hit or not in combat is wrong! How did this get published? The description, tables and example in the book clearly state you must roll to hit twice. Apparently you must only roll once and ignore the bit in the tables about attack failure. What a shambles.

It’s not all bad though. The combat is playable (though annoying) by following the rules as printed or you can just roll once and ignore the attack failure part of the tables. I quite like the combat actions and reactions as printed and the whole combat system has the usual Runequest feel of "realism".

Magic. Phew what a can of worms. First off let me say that if Divine Magic wasn’t reusable I wouldn’t touch this game with a barge pole. We learn about Divine Magic in book two (Runequest Companion) so when I read the magic chapter of Runequest I was really annoyed. To use Rune Magic (the equivalent of Battle Magic in RQ2, Spirit Magic in RQ3 and augmenting feats in Heroquest) you must go off and kill someone and steal their runes. The Runequest book therefore tells us that the magical economy of Glorantha is one of going out and robbing your neighbour. It isn’t. All magic, as we understood gaming in Glorantha for X number of years, came from a religious or spiritual relationship with an otherworld entity, mystical philosophy or communal folk beliefs. Luckily Robin Laws (who wrote Heroquest and Glorantha - The Second Age, a later RQ book) has explained all this and I’m satisfied but when this book was published my commitment to it wobbled there. The RQ Companion and the later Cults Of Glorantha 1 now makes it possible to play a normal Gloranthan as we have known it using a normal Gloranthan magical economy: ie, Divine Magic.

Apart from the above complaints the runes, their runic power and the spells associated with them are quite nice. I will use them but in my game they won’t be "the most common type of magic in Glorantha" but will be a powerful extra to a world dominated by Divine Magic.

The cults chapter does a passable job of describing what religious organisations do; a good job of describing Divine Intervention but an awful job of showing us examples. The example cults are dire and the Gloranthan equivalents would have been much, much better.

The Adventuring and Improving Adventurers chapters do a good job. The Improving Adventurers section still makes the mistake that we as GMs should be hoping that the PCs will be foiled in their attempts to improve their characters. I refer to rolling above your skill to improve. The idea of Legendary Abilities I really like and is a good attempt to solve some of the problems of higher level play. Most of the examples however are childish. A good mechanic though and I will be adding some lower level ones to my own game.

The Creatures section is functional but some of the artwork is even more awful than my own scribblings.

In conclusion I will say that besides the fact I have mostly rubbished it I am glad it is here and secondly the support books seriously improve it making it a workable system for playing in Glorantha. But I am not reviewing the other books I am reviewing this one. The house rules I am going to need to add may cover several pages of A4. The Runequest rules as they stand are not "updated" as we were promised - they are old fashioned. There is no attempt to teach young GMs the art of storytelling, improvisation or free-forming. There is no attempt to describe the power and restrictions of individual psychology nor the magical technology of a Glorantha that has changed in the last twenty years. An example being Guardians, a type of magical entity that embodies and represents a corporate body of people, including small bands of adventurers. This sort of collective and social viewpoint is in contrast to the rampant individualism of games such as D&D, the old Runequest and sadly this Runequest.