Runequest?

[joelgerencer]

Anyone play or remember Runequest?

I live near a roleplaying veteran who suggested that i ditch D&D and pick up Runequest. I did in fact do just that, and much to my surprise... Runequest is totally amazing. It is a system using the d100 instead of the d20. And is frankly much more real feeling and solid then D&D is. Mongoose Publishing just re-released Runequest and it is very intense. give it a try, or post your old awesome tales of runequest.

[Thomas]

Do I!?

Mongoose's RQ is great, and the SRDs for the main rules are freely downloadable on their site.

[Matthew]

One of these days I will get round to playing...

[joelgerencer]

There is simply no comparing the combat system with D&D. The Runequest Combat system is superiour in every way. It just has a very epic feel to it.

[Thomas]

I'm not sure about "epic." By default, it's more like "gritty" (although with Hero Points, increased HP, and no general HP, the newest edition's combat system is definitely less gritty and more epic).

RuneQuest rules certainly are more able to handle epic play, though.


I'm currently writing up Snakepipe Hollow, using a synthesis of the old adventure and RQA 6's map (which shows several locations in the northern edge of the Hollow, like Hazard Bluff, Thorgil's Outpost, Chaos Garden, etc.).

I'm taking a cue from Simon Phipp and Dorastor, creating several factions, locations, monsters, treasures, and so on, and setting my PCs loose in the place. It's going to be the first "Chaos Land" my PCs will raid. (Later on, I'll probably put them up against the numerous scorpionman tribes of the Print, and eventually, I'll send them into Dorastor.)

There's going to be Krjalki elves (since RQA 6 mentions at least one has come to the Stinking Forest from Dorastor), evil dryads, and evil awakened trees in Dyingwood and the Chaos Garden; all sorts of horrors (and ogres) in Ogrewood; a dragonsnail spawning ground at Dragonpool; broo gangs; a giant gang led by Bigclub; a Pocharngo Shambler priest at Toadstone; gargoyles at the Cobbled Ruins; a great harpy nest at Hazard Bluff; a scorpionman tribe in the Chaos Caves; several broo gangs; and a lot more...

[Yakk]

MRQ tried to clean up the snagging cruch from previous RQ.

From what I can tell, they are trying, but the revisions still need polish. So what they do is release new source books with new rules, rather than revise the (relatively recent) previous books which had polish issues.

Ie, core MRQ armor simply sucks, but with arms & equipment it sucks less.

[Thomas]

I'm used to houseruling RuneQuest, so I just houserule away all the problems. Skill penalty? I only apply it to Dodge.

The worst issue so far is the abominable Monsters book. It's a disgrace. I could just use the old Gloranthan Bestiary instead.

[joelgerencer]

I just ran old "Apple Lane". it was a perfect starting adventure... the only thing i really changed was the biggest problem with runequest so far... THE DUCKS! I hate those ducks. Totally kills the mood.

But I understand what you mean about skill penalty. I dont apply it at all. I just use a fatigue system a friend came up with. And I only allow 20 skill points to be added to any one thing upon character creation. (instead of the usual 30)

[Thomas]

Have you ever checked out Anaxial's Roster, the Hero Wars (now HeroQuest) monster book? In the index at the back, there's an entry... "God Damned Ducks! ......... 138" That's the page with the duck/durulz entry, naturally.

I started my game off with Veteran characters anyway (my players just get bored playing starting, low-power PCs, and I get bored running for them).

We get along with the ducks (although, man, they really screwed up the look in the new version; KoDP ducks are the ones that look right) - in fact, I think it's just another charming part of Glorantha's uniqueness. They're the least bizarre of the non-humans, anyway. In fact, ducks are little different from humans, as far as I can tell; it might be that they've had so little coverage, when you come down to it, not being a major Elder Race.

[joelgerencer]

Have you ever seen the cover of Apple Lane?

Unique is not the word... Howard the Duck is the word... sadly

[Thomas]

I've got it in Finnish and in English...

I like the old ducks (cover of Apple Lane, King of Dragon Pass, most old RQ interior art) much better than the new ducks (short men with feathers, bills, and flat feet).

The band of bloodthirsty durulz Humakti in KoDP is so great.

[joelgerencer]

Sorry but i just cant take them seriously. Not even the new ones. I just perfer to change them to Baboons or my own version of a halfling. Normally a Baboon will work... just not for Apple Lane.

Really what i would like to run is Pavis and The Big Rubble. Love those Adventures.

[Thomas]

But there's no halflings in Glorantha. Blasphemer!

(There's no Tolkienish nonhumans at all. The dwarves and elves bear more resemblance to space aliens - or machines and plants - than Tolkien's dwarves and elves...)

I like the feel of the old Pavis & Rubble adventures, but they're so decidedly low-powered. I prefer something like the monsters and NPCs in Dorastor: Land of Doom. Griffin Mountain is great, though; it's big, it's detailed, it's cool, it affords the PCs a lot of freedom - and it's easy to upgrade all the significant NPCs and encounters so they'll challenge Heroes.