 |
But the one Iʼve read this morning on reddit made my day:
Children of the Flame must be one of the darkest and most disturbing campaigns ever written.
The aim of the players is to reinstate the Dundealos tribe in their lands—which were stolen by the Lunars, and given to the newly-created Enstalos tribe after an ill-fated uprising by the Dundealos.
The adventurers are either former Dundealos hiding amongst fellow Sartarites or relatives of the Dundealos wanting to right past wrongs now that the Lunars are on the wane.
The supplement describes in detail the city of Swenstown, a former trading hub between Sartar and Prax slowly falling into poverty, and then works its way through six epic scenarios of growing difficulty until a final confrontation between militant Dundealos, Lunar loyalists, Praxian nomads, and some other opponents I shanʼt name because I donʼt want to spoil the adventure.
Children of the Flame will soon be available on DriveThruRPG, both as a PDF and as a print-on-demand book.
Note: this supplement is the English-language translation of Les Enfants de la flamme, an official supplement for the French version of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
Revised RuneQuest is not the same as NuRQ. The latter is Jeffʼs ongoing effort to lure D&D and Pathfinder players to play RuneQuest, whilst the former is a proposed streamlined presentation of the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core rules (deemed too long or too complex by people who apparently are literacy-challenged).
Anyway, there was a panel about Revised RuneQuest (lets call it ReRQ from now on) at Chaosium Con UK; Nick Brooke live-posted about it. Here is a summarised version, with my comments:
Revised RuneQuest
Goals: reduce page count, edit rules for clarity, remove barriers to entry for new players, and maintain full compatibility with all RQG products. It is a “polish pass”, not a new game.
Overhauled character generation:
- reduce time to create;
- remove barriers to entry;
- maintain rich, diverse options;
- introduce non-human adventurers in the core book;
- reduce the total number of cults in the core book.
Five cultures, including humans, ducks, minotaurs and baboons. [Minotaurs? Is that for power gamers? I canʼt possibly remember a time when Minotaurs were mentioned as adventurers in Dragon Pass]
Nine cults: Issaries, Lanbril, Yelmalio, Babeester Gor, Orlanth, Ernalda, Humakt, Storm Bull, Chalana Arroy. [Lanbril... thatʼs an ultra-minor cult; again this reeks of ‘let them play D&D-style thieves’. OTOH Chalana Arroy is a good choice; Iʼve had good experiences with the Chalana Arroy pregen, both as a player and as a GM]
New, clearer spell templates (consistent presentation of information). [Good]
What isn’t changing?
The current RQG book is not going away. This is RQG. It’s the same game, fully compatible with the 2018 release. It is a re-presentation of the rules, not a new edition.
What won’t be in the new book?
Phalanx combat; family history (because many new fans bounced off it); sorcery; shamanism. [This is a shame. Greg was an actual shaman! Shamanism is what sets RQ apart from vanilla fantasy TTRPGs. I agree the current rules are poorly written, but all we need is a good edit.] There are simply too many things for somebody who is brand new to RQG to take in. The rules for these things aren’t being changed at all; they just won’t be in the revised core slimmed-down rulebook, so new players won’t hear about them (yet).
Does this mean the Starter Set is obsolete?
No, it's the same game.
Does this mean the old RQG Core Rulebook is obsolete?
No, it's the same game. RQG (2018) is still widely available in print and digital formats, please buy as many copies as you need.
Does this mean stuff cut from the old Core Rulebook will be changed?
(Are we getting new Shamanism, Sorcery, Phalanx rules etc?)
No, you can still use all those, as it's the same game. But new players won't be overwhelmed by options in the revised core rules.
What's next for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha?
Goals: Playable Content: “show, don’t tell”. Let players discover Glorantha through play.
The Apple Lane Campaign: This reworks and expands on material from the GM Screen Pack Adventures Book.
Welcome to Glorantha: Collected scenarios, each highlighting a different, unique aspect of Glorantha. Compatible with the RQ Starter Set (that’s all you need to play them). One of the scenarios will be a mundane world heroquest. The book will show off different things that you can do with the game and setting. It’s designed for new players, like the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set. [Excellent, we need introductory scenarios. But we also need fully-fledged campaigns in the style of the old boxed sets]
Return to Snakepipe Hollow: A new adventure in the same dungeon set after the Dragonrise. This is not a reprint. It’s a whole new campaign dungeon; the denizens have changed since the Dragonrise.
On the Royal Road: A collection of encounters, with full NPCs incl. deep backgrounds, adventure hooks, etc. Use them any way you like in your own campaigns.
Cults of RuneQuest: Gods of Darkness: Including troll adventurer creation [at last] and everything else you expect from the Cults of RuneQuest series. After that, there may be a handful more books (2-3?) to complete the Cults of RuneQuest series. ❌ There are no current plans to publish a "Cult of the Invisible God" book. [Drat it]
So while I was away in Lyons at Octogônes, running 3-hour RuneQuest adventures for newbies and sitting at an “ask me anything about RQ” table, Chaosium Con UK was happening. The chaps who attended the latter sent the following information about the RQG roadmap (NuRQ was NOT tackled):
Sept 2026: Lands of Runequest, Sartar, with a PDF-only supplement containing three short adventures set in Boldhome
Q4 2026: The Apple Lane Campaign, revisiting the adventures from the Gamemaster Screen Pack (unclear whether it’s merely the same stuff re-published with new art or if the content will have been improved); as a consequence, the current version of the Gamemaster Screen Pack itself will be discontinued, and it will be replaced by a newer version
Q4 2026: Greg’s unfinished novel, A Pyre for Gods and Heroes, with an ending written by Andrew Logan Montgomery
Q1 2027: The streamlined edition of the core rules, thinner, with fewer cults, with simpler chargen, but adding non-human adventurers (minotaurs, durulz, baboons)
Q2 2027: Welcome to Glorantha adventure pack; each adventure will showcase a different aspect of Glorantha:
- Prax
- the Lunar Empire
- disease spirits and Broo
- a hero quest
Q3 2027: Return to Snakepipe Hollow (adventure pack): the Dragonrise has affected the denizens of Snakepipe Hollow in unexpected ways…
Q4 2027: On the Royal Road (encounter collection): dozens of NPCs, each with their own adventure hooks, to be used as a collection of random encounters or as an NPC codex
Q4 2027: Cults of RuneQuest: the Gods of Darkness: as per its title, plus how to create troll adventurers
I don’t know who created the Adversaries Generator for RuneQuest (the page doesn’t mention any name), but this tool is fuсking brilliant. I absolutely love the detail of being able to choose the format under which the stats of the adversary shall be rendered. I choose FOES for old times’ sake!
As I have written here, the so-called ‘nuRQ’ has been ditched. In its stead, Jeff Richard is working on a lighter/simpler (but fully backwards-compatible) clarified version of RQG.
Here are some news about the latter posted today by Jeff on basicroleplaying.org:
New core rules book. This is 200-250 pages laid out. It is very focused on Sartar, Prax, and Pavis. Combat is much clearer and easier (what we have found is that a typical 4 round combat with 5 adventurers versus a group of NPCs takes about 45 minutes to run with a newish GM). Character Creation is MUCH faster. You should be able to make your first character in around thirty minutes, with it being 20 minutes or less once you get the hang of it. Faster if you use the PDF worksheet. The cheat sheet for the core rules, magic system, plus all common rune spells description takes up three pages total.
Gamemaster book. This is 250-300 pages laid out. It includes a full bestiary that is focused on being plug and play. It teaches all of the core rule systems, how to create encounters tailored for your characters, how to handle social interactions, spirits, run campaigns in Dragon Pass and Prax and Pavis, between adventures, and how to handle treasure (plus plenty of unique items). It includes the official and complete heroquesting rules and battle rules. This is something that reflects years of discussion between Mearls and I about how people learn how to run games and what they actually need to know.
Pavis and Big Rubble. This is the setting. Fully updated and expanded, with at least a half-dozen brand new adventures, starting with a Welcome to Pavis scenario intended to bring brand new players into the setting.
This was the first official Chaosium Con in continental Europe (after the various unofficial ones in Germany). It was organised as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Chaosium’s creation by Greg Stafford, and it took place from 30 October to 2 November in the beautiful port city of Gdańsk in Poland.
 |
| red bricks galore |
The venue was really nice: the Uphagen Manor, a former redbrick manor transformed into a hotel (see the picture). There weren’t that many gaming slots so I only played RuneQuest (twice), Pendragon and Age of Vikings, the latter GM’ed by Pedro Ziviani, its creator. It was still nice to catch up with the ‘tribe’ as I hadn’t been attending any con outside of France since the coronavirus pandemic.
I was very, very positively impressed by Age of Vikings. I initially thought it was ‘just’ the second edition of Mythic Iceland but it is much more than that. The rules are basically a streamlined version of RQ/BRP:UGE in terms of combat, skills, passions... honestly I wish Chaosium had trod this path rather than the inelegant nuRQ. Oh, well.
I shall provide other snippets of news gathered around the many pints of beers that were quaffed at the bar of the hotel—I couldn’t attend any of the panels (because of conflicting schedules with the games or with my wife’s desire to visit Gdańsk) so the following is all hearsay (also, probably old news by the time you read this).
The short term publishing schedule for RuneQuest is as follows:
- the Sartar book,
- the Pavis book,
- a new Starter Set with a focus on Sartar and Pavis,
- a new rulebook (see below),
- the remaining ‘cults’ books are going to be published after all of the above, Darkness then Water then Chaos,
- the cults books for the Invisible God and the Horned God are not in the pipe at the moment,
- the Harmast novel.
Later on, we should expect:
- a reprint of the RQ3 Dorastor supplement (à la Sun County)
- the new White Bear Red Moon wargame won’t be an identical reprint after all; it will feature less wargame-y rules than the original game (but not a reboot as what Chris Klug was working on).
The more general news about RuneQuest is that the ‘new rulebook’ will be a shorter but more streamlined book, less intimidating than the current one, and with bestiary elements and better indexing. Contrary to the tentative “nuRQ” of 2025 it won’t aim at being a ‘new edition’.
We shall also expect more PDF downloads like the Elder Race Adventurers and the Praxian adventure The Hunt for the Storm Calf.
The good news is that the con is back in 2026, also in Gdańsk, but probably a tad earlier in the year.
This is probably less of interest to my non-Francophone readers. Contes d’Automne is a fantastic con set in a former monastery in Provence. What I really like there is the sense of being with your friends during the whole duration of the con: all meals are taken together, whereas at Chaosium Con Europe you had to leave the con’s premises to find something to eat in the neighbourhood, which (1) broke the out-of-time-out-of-everything spell and (2) didn’t guarantee you’d have lunch with the tribe. I hope they fix it for next year.
Anyways, I discovered a lot of games at Contes d’Automne—which is usually what happens because GMs there tend to concentrate on lesser-known games. I played Cthulhu Dark, Blades in the Dark, and Candela Obscura (yes, quite an array of gloomy games), and I ran QuestWorlds, because I purchased the hardcover at Chaosium Con and couldn’t wait to use it.
If you speak French, I really recommend this con.
Whilst preparing the lastest episode of Runecast and researching through the various rule books and supplements, I realised that the rules of RuneQuest - Roleplaying in Glorantha were not crystal clear in terms of when it is, exactly, that a character dies.
First of all, and contrary to what happens in a lot of TTRPGs (especially fantasy ones, in which combat plays such a predominant role), there is no section titled ‘Death’ in the Combat chapter or ‘Character Death’ in the Adventurers chapter.
You have to read the non-emphasised text beneath the ‘Attributes’ heading of the Adventurers chapter of the core book (page 55) to find the following:
When your adventurer has taken sufficient damage to surpass their total hit points, they will die at the end of the combat round.
(Which is a very convoluted way of saying that the adventurer dies when their hit point total reaches −1 or below [not 0, because of “surpass”]). Honestly, I would have expected a side bar or something similar to make sure how a character dies is crystal clear to anybody who is reading the core book. And by the way, why restrict this to ‘adventurers’... NPCs and monsters will die at the same threshold. Also this is contradiction with the Starter Set, which specifies that a character “dies at the end of the melee round if the total hit points are equal to or less than 0”.
Of course losing all their total hit points is not the only way your player character might die in a RuneQuest game. Excess damage in a vital hit location is probably the main cause of death among RQ adventurers. But to get this kind of information you have to read on and reach the ‘Damage’ heading of the Game System chapter (pages 146-149), to find the following:
p147: Damage Equal to or More Than the Location’s Hit Points
p148: Damage Equals or Exceeds Double the Location’s Hit Points
p148: Damage Equals or Exceeds Triple the Location’s Hit Points
I believe I havenʼt mentioned it yet, but myself and fellow Gloranthaphile Dasfynx have started a French-language podcast about RuneQuest and the world of Glorantha, called Runecast.
There are quite a few episodes online already, with a significant variety in the topics weʼve addressed.
Don’t be fooled by the title, I did not go to Chaosium Con, UK. However, several of my friends did, and there’s a video of Jeff Richard’s panel available on YouTube.
I get conflicting impressions from all this. The new RuneQuest rules were not supposed to be a new edition, see my earlier posts and everything that has been shared on social media by Chaosium since February 2025. The general idea I could gather via FB & Discord exchanges with insiders, or people close to them, was that there would be a “starter set” sort of boxed set to play Griselda-like adventures in the Big Rubble, and that this could lead to people either being content of limiting themselves to this style of gaming or transitioning to RQ:G. However, the latest posts on social media and my private exchanges with friends who went to Chaosium Con are leading me to think that NuRQ will be a new edition indeed.
The following new books have been announced at Chaosium Con, all for the new rules, and apparently targeting H1 2026:
Honestly, these look like the perfect set to launch a new edition. And if the four-part campaign is the one that Robin D Laws had been working on before COVID, it’s going to be ace.
Q: Why doesn’t Godunya do anything against Can Shu?
A: Ignorance is part of the balance of the universe. And at least it’s controlled where it is [in Chern Durel]. If Can Shu were to be crushed, who knows where Ignorance would re-surface... maybe in Kralorela itself?
Q: What is the procedure to find a new emperor?
A: Who knows? There isn’t anybody left around from the last time this happened!
Q: I want to know more about Orathorn.
A: It will be in the 13th Age in Glorantha Sourcebook.
[Well, I’ve just checked, and except for a paraphrase of what we already know about the Nights of Horror from the Guide to Glorantha, there is absolutely nothing new ☹️]
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:
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.
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:
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
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!
New RuneQuest?The cat is out of the bag! Mike Mearls, Jason Durall, and I have been secretly working on refining and streamlining the RuneQuest rules for the better part of a year! The rules are in final playtest (and any playtesters present please do not comment on them publicly until we give the word). And man we are EXCITED! Loads more info very soon, so watch this space.But sharp eyed folk might want to carefully review some of my posts over the last year!
Day 21 — Classic Campaign
Shadows on the Borderland is my favourite product from the ‘RuneQuest Renaissance’ of the early 1990s, one of the few original Avalon Hill RuneQuest supplements that was not a re-issued or a re-packaged product from the RQ2 range.
Shadows on the Borderland was not officially presented as a campaign, but as a series of adventures set in the same area (Prax) and with a common theme: the ever-present threat of Chaos in this uncivilised part of central Genertela— which of course enabled resourceful GMs to build a campaign out of these adventures (which is exactly what our GM did).
Day 22 — Notable Non-Player Character
What is a ‘notable’ NPC? One that is central to the ‘lore’ of a role-playing game? In this case, Arkat, Argrath, Harrek, Ralzakark and many others are notable NPCs, especially Argrath, who is supposed to play a major role in the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha line.
Or is it an NPC that the player characters are bound to meet over and over again over the course of their adventures, and who acts as a useful deus ex machina tool for the [lazy] GM? In this case, le Club Pythagore from the French role-playing game Maléfices ticks all the boxes.
Or is it an NPC that you and your fellow gamers will remember from a great role-playing session or from a memorable campaign? In this case, everyone will have a different reference as to who is a notable NPC, irrespective of how well the NPC was presented in a given gaming supplement. From my recent sessions as a player, I have fond memories of Zaleena Silver-Tongue, a Lunar schemer from The Eleven Lights campaign written for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.
And, last but not least, me and my friends have notable NPCs from our house campaigns. These NPCs won’t mean a thing to you, but we of course love reminiscing about them. One such NPC is Sturm Martex, a dream magician from Orathorn who kept thwarting my players’ plans during our Chern Durel campaign. I think his appearance is what made him so memorable... he had no body, just a head that was carried around on a silken cushion resting on a precious palanquin supported by his slaves. He had tinkered too much with dream magic, and his body got stuck in the Dream World.
Day 23 — Peerless Player
Anyone who has ever attended a role-playing convention and enthusiastically played in a one-shot with total strangers is a peerless player 🙂
Day 24 — Acclaimed Advice
As someone of the show, don’t tell persuasion, I enjoy learning from experienced GMs at cons during the course of a game or at a panel.
For inexperienced GMs I will recommend the book Mener des parties de jeu de rôle (in French), which is a collection of articles written by French TTRPG professionals with loads of useful tips.
Day 12 — RPG With Well-Supported Campaigns
I expect a lot of people will wax lyrical about the Masks of Nyarlathotep or The Enemy Within. Well, let me stand out of the TTRPG crowd and highlight how good many of the campaign games I have played for HeroQuest/QuestWorlds are.
Blood Over Gold, the (unpublished) Harreksaga, and The Eleven Lights, all of these HQ campaigns rank high on my list of best-campaigns-ever-played. Except for the Harreksaga which is more like a series of one-shots in different locales, these HQ campaigns feature extremely detailed NPCs in a complex web of relationships, which is what makes them stand out and “feel real”— which is what any good TTRPG campaign should strive for.
Day 13 — Evocative Environments
Given my obsession with all things Gloranthan, I reckon no one would believe that my favourite TTRPG genre is the historical role-playing game. And since my favourite city is Paris, I feel the most evocative environments are:
- the 17th century Paris rife with the swashbuckling exploits of the musketeers from les Lames du Cardinal,
- the early 20th century Paris full of occult mystery from Maléfices
(of course, both of these are French TTRPGs).
Day 14 — Compelling Characters
This question is not super clear. Are we talking about the player characters? the non-player characters? If it is the latter, I am going to repeat myself and refer to the incredibly detailed NPCs from the HeroQuest/QuestWorlds campaigns I’ve mentioned at the ‘Day 12’ entry.
If it is about PCs... any TTRPG that allows you to flesh out believable player characters rather than two-dimensional ones will do the job. Which I think favours narrative role-playing games. And the only one I’m really familiar with is, again, HeroQuest/QuestWorlds.
Day 15 — Great Character Gear
Groan. Honestly, this is probably the last thing I’m interested in when I play. For me ‘horse’ or ‘rifle’ are good enough on my character sheet and, despite being a lifelong fan of Tunnels & Trolls, I’ve always found its list of weapons ridiculously long and detailed for a game that is supposed to emphasise simplicity.
So I am going to mention a supplement that is supposed to be a ‘character gear’ manual but which is, in reality, an immersive guide into the day-to-day life of the people of central Genertela:
the Weapons & Equipment book for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.
Day 6 — RPG That is Easy to Use
I’m not sure what this entails. All RPGs are easy to use. All you need is a table, a few friends, and your imagination.
This may leave out a few RPGs that mandate the use of minis or of weird dice but that still leaves 99% of games in.
Day 7 — RPG with ‘Good Form’
Without the shadow of a doubt, the RuneQuest Starter Set.
RuneQuest has often been maligned as being “only for Grognards” or “only for Gloranthaphiles”. The Starter Set shows how this criticism is rubbish.
The Starter Set is a beautiful, sturdy box containing everything needed to start playing RQ in the world of Glorantha: four booklets, a set of pre-generated characters, several maps, and a few accessories, like the super cool Strike Rank Tracker for mathematically-impaired players.
The first booklet contains the rules, which are perfectly laid out (I feel they’re even clearer than in the core book). The absence of what is probably the most daunting part of RQ:G, character generation, makes them almost standard fare as far as fantasy RPGs go. The slim booklet makes the rules easier to use as reference than a thick book.
The second booklet gives an overview of the world of Glorantha, with an emphasis on a single city, which I think is a good idea because it sets the tone of RQ adventuring, which is often city- or wilderness-based rather than dungeon delving.
The third booklet is a solo adventure. This is a terrific idea— an inexperienced GM can get the gist of RQ adventuring before they set up a table for their friends by playing this advenure, although I think the adventure itself may be a tad too complex.
The fourth booklet contains three adventures. The focus of the adventures is to have the novice players slowly discover the peculiarities of RQ and Glorantha as they start adventuring. The adventures are really good— but while I appreciate the surprise effect of the third one on long-term RQ aficionados I’m not sure it’s a good example of what a 21st century RQ game usually revolves around.
The character sheets are practical and beautifully illustrated. The characters are a good mix of adventuring types and make it perfectly clear that RQ is not your typical vanilla fantasy TTRPG.
Day 4 − RPG With Great Art
For me, one of the outstanding features of the latest edition of RuneQuest, i.e., RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, is its art, and in particular the illustrations by Andrey Fetisov, Katrin Dirim, Antonia Doncheva, Jakub Rebelka, Ossi Hiekkala, Michelle Lockamy...
I feel art in RPGs has always been a ‘filler’, with little if any relationship with the text it was supposed to, er, illustrate. Don’t get me wrong— I love the humorous vignettes in the original AD&D DMG, and I am a lifelong fan of the early Chaosium or Flying Buffalo artists like Luise Perenne and Liz Danforth, but I feel none of these Old School products featured art that enhanced the immersion in the game world like the latest RQ:G art does.
Day 5 − RPG With Great Writing
This might seem paradoxical, but although I really do not like 13th Age in Glorantha as a TTRPG engine, I immensely enjoy the book for its clear writing, many examples, and insightful side bars explaining why this or that choice has been made, including instances of where the two authors may have disagreed upon a given option. I wish all rule books were written like this one.
