RuneQuest 90s (Part One)

Back when my daughter and her husband went to Japan for their honeymoon, they had the excellent idea of bringing back a copy of RuneQuest 90s as a gift to me.
Now obviously I cannot read Japanese, but I have this magic item called ‘Google Lens’ that does miracles to understand what is written in that book.

 

A bit of context first. While the rest of the world, in the late 1990s, was experiencing a dearth of RQ products, Japan had its very own edition of RQ, with a new set of rules, and a slew of supplements.

Since I only have the core book, this post will concentrate on it: ©1992, 160 pages, perfectbound, with apparently everything needed to start playing (so kind of like RQ2).

Summary of the book (note that these are the English-language headings of the chapters):
1. Introduction
2. Character Generation
3. Basic Laws of RuneQuest
4. Melee Combat
5. Power of Spirit & Rune
6. Character Development, Natural Damage, Large Scale Movement, Item Pricelist, and others
7. Game Masters Guide
8. Creatures of Glorantha
9. Introduction to Glorantha or Gate to the Dragon Pass
10. Wings of the Wind [an introductory scenario]

I will try to delve deeper into some of these chapters using my magic item.

Character Generation

Characteristics are the usual 3D6, except INT & SIZ, 2D6+6.
HPs are CON+SIZ halved, MPs are equal to POW, damage bonus is also the usual.
Then choose a cult from the list that starts on page 21.
The cult you choose will determine the skills, equipment, and spells you start with.
Skills: The base percentage of each skill is either INT% (knowledge-based skills) or DEX% (athletic skills). Then for each skill from the cult list, add +40%. Finally, choose three skills from outside your cult list and add +20%. Cults with a ‘*’ cannot be selected in this way.
Spells: An adventurer starts with 2 Spirit Magic spells from the ones available in their cult description.
Cults are listed from page 21 on, they are: Orlanth Adventurous, Yelmalio, Humakt, Storm Bull, Odayla, Bebeester Gor, Issaries, Chalana Arroy, Donandar, Ernalda, Lhankor Mhy, Lanbril, Eurmal.
That is all! Nice and easy. No encumbrance, no fatigue, no useless bookkeeping.

I like Issaries, so let us have a look at the Issaries cult:
Cult - Issaries is worshipped by people who are involved in travel and business. There are many types of faithful, such as shopkeepers, merchants, and monks. They are known for their shrewd negotiation skills and their ability to travel far and wide. They are at their best in negotiations and bargaining siruations. There are temples to Issaries in every city of Dragon Pass.
Myth - In the Gods Age, Issaries was famous for his great wisdom and his extraordinary talents. When the world was destroyed, Issaries was heartbroken so he accompanied Orlanth on a journey to Hell to rescue the Sun God Yelm. Issaries became the eyes and ears of the Lighbringers, guiding them to a successful journey.
Enemies and allies - The followers of Issaries, who govern communication, make no enemies. The followers of Etyries, the Lunar goddess of trade, are rivals with Issaries.
Runes - Harmony, Issaries, Movement.
Symbols - Quarterstaff, Mule.
Skills - Two-handed weapon attack, two-handed weapon parry, Speak Tradetalk, R/W Tradetalk.
Spirit Magic Spells - Mindspeech, Mobility.
Rune Magic Spells - Spell Trading, Lock, Passage [Rune spells are listed because there is an optional rule that lets you start with Rune Magic].
Equipment - Quarterstaff, knife, soft leather armour, sacred items (pen and two parchment scrolls), goods worth 200-2000 L (to be determined with the GM), blanket, waterskin, backpack, tinder and flint, 7 days worth of preserved food.

NuRQ Scope and Logo revealed?

Chaosium have been advertising their 50th anniversary playmat on social media. Here it is:

click to enlarge

What is interesting is what this image reveals to the general public about NuRQ:
- You can see a fighter/adventurer type looking at a vast ruin: the default setting for NuRQ is going to be the Big Rubble, and the PCs are going to have adventures in ‘dungeons’ that they are going to loot...

- The logo is different from the current RQG logo; it is NuRQ’s logo.

Death in RuneQuest

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

• Abdomen: If not healed or treated with First Aid within ten minutes, the adventurer bleeds to death.
• Chest: The adventurer bleeds to death in ten minutes unless the bleeding is stopped by First Aid.
• Head: The adventurer is unconscious and must be healed or treated with First Aid within five minutes or they will die.

p148: Damage Equals or Exceeds Double the Location’s Hit Points

• If the head, chest, or abdomen suffers more than twice as much damage as the adventurer has hit points in that location, the adventurer becomes unconscious and begins to lose 1 hit point per melee round unless healed or treated with First Aid.

p148: Damage Equals or Exceeds Triple the Location’s Hit Points

• A head, chest, or abdomen hit for three times as much damage as the adventurer has hit points in that location results in instant death.

French-Language RuneQuest Podcast

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.