RPG A Day 6–7

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.