RuneQuest is a wonderful role-playing game (for me it is even the best RPG ever) but one aspect of the game has to be recognised as a pain: its stat blocks. For the gamemaster, RuneQuest’s strength — ‘monsters’ are as lovingly detailed as its player characters and have the same characteristics — is also its weakness, as each opponent has to be painstakingly statted.
Obviously, and since the very beginning of RuneQuest’s history, NPCs’ and monsters’ stat blocks have tended to be reduced to whatever is indispensable to run an adventure.
Let us have a chronological look at them.
FANGS and FOES (1980)
These were collections of randomly-generated NPCs for the unprepared gamemaster. The general aspect of the entries was as follows:
where
Def was the RQ2 skill of Defence (which has disappeared in all subsequent editions),
T.F. was the Treasure Factor,
ENC the Encumbrance (standard/maximum),
Spl SR the spell strike rank, and the three labelless numbers the sum of the DEX and SIZ SRs, the attack bonus, and the parry bonus (which could be different at the time). The rest is self-explanatory, with an emphasis on combat statistics: localised hit points and weapon stats.
My Opinion: There’s a lot of information in a very compact stat block. It is excellent for its purpose (a catalogue of randomised NPCs), but I wouldn’t use this format in an adventure.
RQ2 SCENARIOS
Let’s use Snake Pipe Hollow as an example. Here is one of the adventurers the PCs may encounter while exploring the caverns of Chaos.
This is much more readable than the stat bloc from
Fangs/
Foes, because it’s not as curt, and it seems like it is giving more information. The info provided, however, is pretty much
the same. The only extra entries are Languages and Magic Items, and there is a ‘Treasure’ line instead of a Treasure Factor.
My Opinion: As a stat block, it uses up a lot of real estate on the page. I don’t think it’s better than the curt Fangs/Foes format. For a gamemaster in a hurry, however, I must recognise that it is important that the stat block be readable, and in this aspect it’s better than the Fangs/Foes template.
RQ3 SUPPLEMENTS
RuneQuest 3 started a policy of making a difference between important NPCs, who sometimes get several pages of description, and unimportant NPCs, who get a treatment similar to what was the norm in RQ2, e.g., to use an example from the RQ3 edition of Snake Pipe Hollow:
This is similar to the RQ2 treatment, except that the hit location chart has its own space between the characteristics and the weapons block.
My Opinion: Differentiating between important and unimportant NPCs is good. For the latter, however, I still think too much real estate is being used.
RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA
After a long hiatus, RuneQuest returns to us in 2018 in its fourth Chaosium edition. With the addition of Runes and Passions, the basic NPC template has had to accommodate these new entries, of course. Depending on the supplement, the basic NPC template alternates/hesitates between these two formats:
 |
| from RuneQuest: Gamemaster Adventures (CHA4029) |
 |
| from Lands of RuneQuest: Dragon Pass (CHA4037) |
These formats provide pretty much the same information as in the older editions, with the addition of Runes, Passions and Ransom.
My Opinion: I think the bottom example is quite good: all the characteristics are on the same line, and the attributes, being to the right of the hit locations block, do not take up any extra space. The second template tries to optimise the space it uses up on the page, but I still think it could be reduced.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
OK, it is good to criticise, but it is better to provide solutions, and I can hear you all saying “Awright, smarty pants, how would you do it?”
Well, here are my recommendations.
Major NPCs
For major NPCs, the gamemaster needs to have a maximum of information available under their eye, because the slightest oversight could ruin an encounter. Here is how I typically describe major NPCs:
NPC Name
Male/Female, Species, age XX, from //place, member of //organisation,
initiate of //cult
STR XX CON XX SIZ XX DEX XX INT XX POW
XX CHA XX
Hit Points: XX Move: 8
DEX SR: X SIZ SR: X
Runes: list all Runes in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Air
XX%, Death XX%, Fire XX%, Stasis XX%, Water XX%.
Rune Points: 3 (Cult)
Rune Spells: All common Rune spells plus Catseye, Command (Hawks), Sunbright.
Magic Points: XX
Spirit Magic:
Co-ordination (2), Lightwall (4), Multimissile 2.
(variable spells have their value
without parentheses)
Spirit Combat Damage: 1D6+1
Passions: list all Passions in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Devotion
(Yelmalio) XX%, Hate (Trolls) XX%, Honour XX%.
Reputation: XX%
Armour: heavy scale hauberk (5 pts.), plate greaves and vambraces (6 pts.),
closed helm (5 pts.).
(name each piece of armour and indicate the corresponding armour points)
Skills: list all Skills in alphabetical order with their value, e.g. Battle
XX%, Climb XX%, Cult Lore (Yelmalio) XX%, Dodge XX%, Homeland Lore (Sun Dome
County) XX%, Listen XX%, Move Quietly XX%, Scan XX%, Spirit Combat XX%, Track XX%,
Worship (Yelmalio) XX%.
Languages: list all language skills in alphabetical order with their value, spoken
first, read/written last, e.g. Firespeech XX%, Heortling XX%, New Pelorian XX%,
Praxian XX%, Read/Write New Pelorian XX%.
Ransom: XXX L
Location D20 Armour/HP
Right leg 1-4 6/6
Left leg 5-8 6/6
Abdomen 9-11 5/6
Chest 12 5/7
Right arm 13-15 6/5
Left arm 16-18 6/5
Head 19-20 5/6
Weapon % Damage SR PTS
Short spear 45 1D6+1+1D4 6 10
Dagger 45 1D4+2+1D4 7 7
Medium shield 35 1D4+1D4 7 12
Composite bow 50 1D8+1 2 7
Minor NPCs
The information needed for minor NPCs corresponds more or less to the two RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha examples above.
Typical XX
Member of //organisation | initiate of //cult
STR XX CON XX SIZ XX DEX XX INT XX POW
XX CHA XX
Hit Points: XX Move: 8
SR X (DEX: X SIZ: X)
Runes: list only the major Runes, in alphabetical order with their value,
e.g. Air XX%, Death XX%.
Rune Points: 3
Cults: Orlanth Adventurous, Humakt
(list the most common cults for this kind of NPC)
Rune Spells: All common Rune spells plus Leap 1+, Shield 1+.
Magic Points: XX
Spirit Magic: Bladesharp 2, Heal 2, Protection 2.
Passions: list only the major Passions, in alphabetical order with their
value, e.g. Honour XX%, Loyalty (city militia) XX%.
Armour: heavy scale hauberk (5 pts.), plate greaves and vambraces (6 pts.),
closed helm (5 pts.).
Skills: list only skills above 50%, e.g. Battle 55%, Climb 90%, Cult
Lore (XXX) 75%, Dodge 75%, Homeland Lore (New Pavis) 60%, Listen 70%, Scan 65%,
Track 85%.
Languages: Speak Heortling XX%.
Treasure: XX
Ransom: XXX L
Location D20 Armour/HP
Right leg 1-4 6/6
Left leg 5-8 6/6
Abdomen 9-11 5/6
Chest 12 5/7
Right arm 13-15 6/5
Left arm 16-18 6/5
Head 19-20 5/6
Weapon % Damage SR PTS
Short spear 45 1D6+1+1D4 6 10
Dagger 45 1D4+2+1D4 7 7
Medium shield 35 1D4+1D4 7 12
Composite bow 50 1D8+1 2 7
Very Minor NPCs/Mooks
Jondoe the NPC
POW 11
Hit Points: 12
Armour: such and such (3 pts.)
Combat: Uses a <weapon> at XX%, at SR 5, does 1D8+1D6
damage
Magic: Has XXX, XXX, XXXX. Will cast XXX to raise his
<weapon> to XX% before entering mêlée.
Comments: I like how I present information for major NPCs and for mooks. Everything needed to run an encounter with a major NPC is there. For mooks, it is just the bare bones. No localised hit points are indicated because, say, if the mook has 12 hit points it is likely that the GM has a screen that breaks this down into how many hit points each location has. Also mooks would often have the same amount of armour protection in each location.
On the other hand, I am still dissatisfied with my ‘Minor NPC’ stat block... it is still too large. I guess I could reduce the information for hit locations, armour and weapons (weapon hit points, for instance can be found on the GM screen).
Suggestions are welcome!
