Vampires and Glorantha

I have never been a fan of vampires in Glorantha. Even before Greg Stafford’s world became firmly grounded in a Bronze Age/Iron Age mythological milieu, and was still a kind of “old school” kitchen sink of various fantasy tropes, I disliked the presence of vampires.

Why? Well, because as a mythical creature, the vampire only appeared in European literary fiction in the 18th century. It’s a creature from the modern era, not from Antiquity, and not even from the Middle Ages. I actually even found vampires lame in D&D.

But we can fix this, because mythical creatures feeding on the vital fluids of the living have been present in myth and legend since... forever. However, their depiction is in stark contrast with the ‘charismatic villain’ type popularised by Bram Stoker’s novel and by classic horror film. Vampire-like creatures from antiquity are almost invariably monstrous and repulsive, resembling ghouls rather than European aristocrats.

Given Chaosium’s current art direction for Glorantha, much more inclusive of non-European influences, I would like to suggest the following as alternate inspiration for the vampire:

First and foremost, the vetāla, a class of spirits in Hindu mythology that live close to charnel grounds and that can take possession of dead bodies as vehicles for movement. These animated corpses then cause mischief in nearby villages.

Bhairava is the god of vetāla. As with many fearsome South Asian deities, he is not ‘evil’— his frightening appearance may indicate that he is a fierce protector of the faithful or that he teaches how to transform anger or hatred into understanding. This being said, the way he is depicted can be a source of inspiration for the ‘new’ Gloranthan vampire, in line with the current art used in the game.

Bhairava

Second, the strix of Ancient Greece. It was a monstrous bird that fed on the blood of children [hence the D&D ‘stirge’].

Third, let’s look at Inner Asia. The ḫortdan is a vampire-revenant that gets out of its grave at night to feed upon the blood of the living. It can become invisible or turn into an animal. The ḫortdan look bloated (especially after having fed), with a ruddy complexion.

Hence my suggested modifications to the description of the vampire (RuneQuest Bestiary, p105-106):

–Instead of “it takes on a pallid white skin and lustrous hair”: “it becomes bloated with a ruddy complexion”.

–Instead of “it may now turn into a bat, wolf, or smoke”: “it may now turn into a monstrous bird or become invisible”.

 

Also, since Darkness creatures are so strongly opposed to Chaos, I believe the vampire should be associated to the Shadow Rune, and not to the Darkness Rune.

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.

Hero Quest ‘Rules’

On one of the French RuneQuest forums, I have been reminded of this very long and complete essay about hero quests by Andrew Logan Montgomery: 

Heroquesting in RuneQuest: Some Thoughts

Honestly, read it and you won’t be waiting for the ‘official’ hero questing rules any longer; the guidelines therein are more than sufficient for an experienced gamemaster to run hero quests in their own games.

News from Chaosium Con, UK

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:

• Core NuRQ rulebook
• Gamemaster’s handbook (containing a bestiary)
• A four-part Pavis-based campaign
• Player aids, cardboard standees, etc.

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.

Nu Tunnels & Trolls — A First Glimpse?

Rebellion Unplugged, the new owners of the Tunnels & Trolls licence, have been pretty secretive about what they are going to do with our beloved D6 tabletop role-playing game. All we know is that Scott Malthouse and Chris Bisette are the lead writers, and that they are keeping the D6’s. Anything else is top secret.

Well, the lucky people who are going to UK Games Expo may get an opportunity to lift the veil! Rebellion Unplugged have a stand there (3A−502), and Scott Malthouse has said he’d be demoing the game. As for me, I’m not attending, alas!, but I sure am going to pester Scott once UK Games Expo is over 🙂

Kralorela Q&A

I have been tidying up my stuff a lot recently — or rather the missus coerced me into tidying up — and at least the good thing is that I have recovered a lot of beloved belongings I’d thought lost, like the RQ3 boxed sets or the Mongoose RuneQuest Lankhmar books. One of the things I’ve found is my notebook with all my scribblings from Eternal Con 2017, and in particular the notes I took at a Q&A Jeff Richard gave during the con. They are already on the blog, but its always good to re-read the original. Here is the snippet about my current interests (I am running a campaign set in eastern Genertela):

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 Stat Blocks

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!

Nu RuneQuest − Habemus nomen!

There has been a short announcement of sorts about the new RQ rules, which clears up a few uncertainties:

BTW according to this announcement, the new game is going to be called RuneQuest: Fantasy Roleplaying.

Also this is kinda cool in an Olde Schoole way as Pavis and the Big Rubble were the locations where Steve Perrin and friends playtested the Chaosium Game (the working title of RuneQuest) back in the 70s)!

Nu Tunnels & Trolls

Well, a mere fortnight after the announcement by Chaosium of a new e̶d̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ version of RuneQuest, Rebellion Unplugged has announced that a new edition of Tunnels & Trolls is in the works and is going to be published in 2025.

Yay! Talk about living in interesting times.

A lot of people were worried that the new T&T wouldn’t be true to its roots (or even that Rebellion Unplugged would be sitting on the licence), but the announcement today mentions that Scott Malthouse (of Trollish Delver fame) is one of the people working on the new ruleset. Scott is a true blue fan of Tunnels & Trolls, so I know we can only expect Good Things from the new edition.

Yay! Can’t wait!

Mike Mearls About the New Rules

Mike Mearls has been interviewed by Luke Gygax on his Twitch TV channel.

Obviously, he addresses Nu RuneQuest; the ‘meaty’ part starts at 00:33:30 and ends at 00:40:30, so it’s a mere 7 minutes to listen to.

If you still don’t want to listen to it, here is the salient information:

1. Nu RuneQuest is not a new edition; it’s more like Pulp Cthulhu vs ‘normal’ Call of Cthulhu.

2. Nu RuneQuest will concentrate on adventures set in Pavis & Big Rubble: dungeon crawling, treasure hunting, dealing with chaotic foes…

3. In the rules, social actions will be as important as combat [c’mon this is already the case in RQ...]

Nu RuneQuest

So Jeff Richard dropped a bomb today on Facebook. Here it is, verbatim:

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!

OK I’m way too lazy to review Jeff’s FB posts over 12 months, but someone over at BRP Central noticed that he posted a lot about Pavis & Big Rubble. I thought this was because the new Pavis & Big Rubble book would be the next in line, but someone smart wrote that Nu RuneQuest may drop all the extra chargen shit and concentrate on Pavis & Big Rubble as a single locale for starting PCs, with a fair bit of dungeon delving.

Anyway, it is clear to me that the reason Jeff hired Mike Mearls is that Mike has been successful with D&D 5E and Jeff wants to sell RQ to new players looking for a simpler FRP game rather than to (or on top of) us grognards.

Then obviously the next question is: on top of the complex chargen chapter, what is going to be removed from the core rules in Nu RuneQuest? On Bluesky, Facebook, BRP Central, everybody is speculating... Some think the rules are merely going to be streamlined (everything in one place, errata included, Passions/Runes going to work in boon/bane mode); some others are expecting major overhauls like removing the SR system altogether.

Anyway, you may sign up to the playtest rules — but then you have to also sign an NDA. I’m signing up so don’t expect anything from me from now on.

Oh, and BTW, how should we refer to Nu RuneQuest? ‘New RQ’? ‘RQ 2025’? ‘RQG 1.1’?

Tunnels & Trolls Back in 2025?

Remember? Two years ago, Rebellion Unplugged purchased the Tunnels & Trolls licence from Webbed Sphere who were idly sitting on it.

We haven’t heard much since; however, a few days ago, Rebellion Unplugged posted the following on Bluesky:

2024 is drawing to a close but we're already looking ahead to 2025. We see big, big things on the horizon that may change TTRPGs forever... Illustration by @nathanandersonart.bsky.social

[image or embed]

— Rebellion Unplugged (@rebellionunplugged.bsky.social) 20 décembre 2024 à 11:45

That sounds rather... bombastic, but here’s hoping.

Cthulhubane

So this started as a joke on Bluesky with Old Scouse Roleplayer: if Dragonbane = streamlined RuneQuest then we ought to have ‘Cthulhubane’ = streamlined Call of Cthulhu, right?

I have pondered this and jotted down a few ideas.
(post updated on 1/1/2025 with input from ian.fenrisgames) 

DAGONBANE

Your Investigator

Attributes

Same as Dragonbane; add a new attribute, EDU (2D6+6).

SAN is replaced with RESolve. Starting RES is equal to the average of WIL, INT and EDU. Whenever a scenario calls for a SAN roll, make an EDU roll instead. Success: nothing happens; failure: lose 1 RES. 

Professions

Athletic

Key attribute AGL

Skills: Acrobatics, Awareness, Bluffing, Brawling, Evade, Swimming

Heroic ability: Veteran

Sample occupations: acrobat, boxer, gangster, soldier…

Charismatic

Key attribute CHA

Skills: Acrobatics, Bartering, Bluffing, Languages [Living], Performance, Persuasion

Heroic ability: Insight

Sample occupations: actor, clergyman, prostitute, solicitor…

Cultured

Key attribute EDU

Skills: Awareness, Etiquette, Evade, First Aid, Languages [Dead], Spot Hidden

Heroic ability: Intuition

Sample occupations: archaeologist, author, book dealer, librarian, occultist, humanities professor…

Investigative

Key attribute AGL

Skills: Acrobatics, Awareness, Bluffing, Brawling, Sneaking, Streetwise

Heroic ability: Word on the street

Sample occupations: journalist, police detective, private investigator…

Scientific

Key attribute INT

Skills: Awareness, Evade, First Aid, Languages [Living], Sneaking, Spot Hidden

Heroic ability: Practical Science

Sample occupations: laboratory assistant, physician, psychiatrist, science teacher…

Skilled

Key attribute STR

Skills: Awareness, Brawling, Sleight of Hand, Spot Hidden, any skill based on the investigator’s occupation (Drive Auto, Elec. Repair, Mech. Repair, Pilot Aircraft…)

Heroic ability: DIY

Sample occupations: driver, mechanic, pilot…

List of Core Skills

Acrobatics

Awareness

Bartering

Bluffing

Drive Auto (like ‘Riding’ but for automobiles)

Elec. Repair (like ‘Crafting’ but for electrical gear)

Etiquette (like ‘Bushcraft’ but in the jungle of high society)

Evade

First Aid (‘Healing’ renamed)

General Knowledge (new skill, EDU)

Languages [Dead]

Languages [Living]

Mech. Repair (like ‘Crafting’ but for mechanical gear)

Occult (like ‘Myths & Legends’ but based on EDU)

Performance

Persuasion

Pilot Aircraft (new skill, INT)

Pilot Boat (‘Seamanship’ renamed)

Riding

Sleight of Hand

Sneaking

Spot Hidden

Streetwise (like ‘Bushcraft’ but in the urban jungle)

Swimming

Weapon Skills

Brawling (STR)

Firearms (AGL)

Mêlée weapons, ancient (STR)

Missile weapons, ancient (AGL)

List of Heroic Abilities

Catlike

Contortionist

Defensive

Disguise

DIY (works like ‘Master Blacksmith/Carpenter/Tanner’, but is based on the investigator’s occupation, Requirement: Elec. Repair/Mech. Repair 12)

Eagle Eye

Fast Footwork

Fast Healer

Fearless

Focused

Guardian

Insight

Intuition

Iron Fist

Iron Grip

Lightning Fast

Magic Talent – you can cast a single mythos spell without incurring the associated RES loss (TBD). This heroic ability must be selected for each such spell.

Marksman (new heroic ability: boon on firearms, Requirement: Firearms 12, WP 3)

Monster Hunter (only available in pulp games)

Musician

Mythos Creature Slayer (‘Dragonslayer’ renamed, only available in pulp games)

Practical Science (works like ‘Master Blacksmith/Carpenter/Tanner’, but is based on the investigator’s speciality, Chemistry, Medicine, Physics…)

Relic Hunter (‘Treasure Hunter’ renamed, only available in pulp games)

Robust

Sea Legs

Veteran

Word on the street (like ‘Intuition’, but for street wisdom-based decisions, Requirement: Streetwise 12)

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Eight

Despite its title, the eighth and last chapter of the Dragonbane rulebook, Adventures, does not provide any adventures (those are in a separate book of the core set). What it does provide, though, is a miscellanea of GM advice and campaign game rules for ongoing campaigns.

Nothing really particular here, but a meaty selection of useful gaming advice:

Travelling

You get travelling times, including the effects of a forced march on the player characters; getting lost; a mishaps table for wilderness adventures (which is much more fun than wandering monsters), etc.

Foraging

To my taste there is waaaay too much detail on foraging in the wilderness and on the effects of not having enough food 🥱, but I understand this may sound ‘fun’ to other players (after all, why should combat be the only area where frp games rules are über detailed?)

GM Advice

This section is both classic and useful. We old timers may safely ignore it, but inexperienced GMs will find helpful advice. I particularly like the paragraph about managing mooks. In a stat-heavy game such as Dragonbane it can be tedious to keep track of fully-statted ‘low-level’ NPCs, and you get plenty of advice here as how to reduce bookkeeping in this area.

Creating Adventures

On top of useful advice about the kind of challenges the PCs may encounter, and when and where, there are a few random tables reminiscent of my own adventure generator 🙂

Monsters are such a central and peculiar part of Dragonbane, what with their automatic and diverse attacks, each with their own tables. Therefore I am slightly disappointed that there aren’t any guidelines for creating your own Dragonbane monsters.

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Seven

The seventh chapter, Bestiary, is one of the areas where Dragonbane shines, because of one peculiar feature of Dragonbane: monster attacks succeed automatically. My mind went boom 🤯 when I realised the implications. The days and nights spent at trying to create interesting challenges for my players, which they destroyed in a few lucky rounds… The yawn elicited at the mentions of the creatures I’d throw onto their player characters… If monster attacks succeed automatically, fear will change sides.

How does this work? The GM will draw an initiative card per each monster attack (monstrous creatures often have multiple attacks per round). When it is the monster’s turn to act in the combat round, the GM determines who the unlucky target of the monster attack is, rolls a D6 on the monster attack table, and applies the results to the hapless victim.

Each monster has its own unique ‘monster attacks’ table; it’s not simply a ‘roll D-something for damage’ (well, it can be, but it’s usually just one of the entries in the table).

Demons possess or curse their opponents; dragons flap their wings and create hurricane-strong winds; ghosts inflict all kinds of conditions… Even more mundane monsters such as giant spiders have deadly poison attacks or may mesmerise you with their many eyes.

The monster becomes the ultimate foe in an adventure, not a mere passing threat.

The only drawback is that, since each monster takes up several pages, the selection in the bestiary is quite limited.

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Six

The sixth chapter, Gear, is all about the various pieces of Equipment that can be purchased by Dragonbane player characters, with a big emphasis on combat-related gear. Expect the usual [boring] lists of weapons, armour, etc. from frp games.

The Good

1. Heavy/noisy armour gives banes on various rolls, rather than minus something penalties.

2. Weapons are divided into bludgeoning, slashing, etc. categories, with optional rules to take this feature into account if you want more of a simulationist approach to combat.

The Bad

This chapter is literally a compilation of lists. Do not expect anything like the RuneQuest Weapons & Equipment book.

Actually, what is most fun about the Dragonbane gear is the vast array of improvised weapons, which however are not described in this chapter but on a set of bespoke cards that are part of the Dragonbane core set.

Dragonbane Readthrough, Part Five

The fifth chapter, Magic, explains how a player character may become a spell-caster, describes Dragonbane’s three different magical systems/schools, and gives all the in-game details of magic use. There will be many differences here, possibly much more than in the areas of combat and damage, between Dragonbane and the BRP family of games.

Firstly, Dragonbane is strikingly different from RuneQuest, where famously ‘everyone is a spell caster’, and is somewhat more like the Basic Role-Playing System, where access to magic depends on the PC’s profession.

Getting back to the professions post, remember how each profession had its own unique heroic ability? Well, the mage’s heroic ability is “Magic Talent”, meaning he or she can use magic – actually a single school of magic: each school of magic, of which there are three, has to be learnt separately, i.e., is a discrete Skill, with its skill level. Each given spell belongs to a school of magic and also has to be learnt separately (using up an experience check). The three schools of magic are:

1. Animism

2. Elementalism

3. Mentalism

Note that there is a short collection of ‘general’ spells that can be learnt by practitioners of any school of magic.

There are also ‘magic tricks’, similar to D&D’s cantrips, which are always ready to be cast and do not count against the limit of spells that the PC has memorised (see below).

Animism

Animism is slightly reminiscent of RuneQuest Battle/Spirit Magic, and/or of some of D&D’s druidic spells (like Entangle). 

Elementalism

Elementalism harnesses the powers of the elements and provides whizz bang spells, more reminiscent of RuneQuest Rune Magic or of D&D spells.

Mentalism

Mentalism makes use of the mage’s psychic abilities to affect others. It is a mix of D&D psionics and of RuneQuest shamanic abilities or Darkness-/Moon-related Rune Magic.

Learning & Memorising Spells

Spells are not skills but must be learnt separately. Each spell has a rank, a value that has no in-game effect except indicating the minimum skill level (in the relevant school of magic) necessary to learn it. Some spells also have a prerequisite, e.g., you cannot learn Purge if you haven’t learnt Banish before.

A starting mage receives three rank I spells from their school of magic.

The maximum number of spells a PC may hold in their memory, ready to be cast, is approximately equal to INT/2. The PC, however, may learn any number of spells… the player must just state, after each shift rest, which spells the PC has now memorised.

Casting Spells

This will be exceedingly familiar to players of BRP-powered frp games: casting a spell requires the expenditure of the relevant number of WPs and a successful roll against the skill level in the corresponding school of magic. If the roll fails, the WPs are still expended.

Once you have run out of WPs, you may cast spells by ‘sacrificing’ your HPs. This is a great rule, but it may have been more fun to restrict this ability to a certain category of mages (e.g., “blood mages”) rather than make it generally available. This adds to my general impression of the game: the rules are great but they do not manage to impress a particular “flavour” of fantasy in my mind… 

Casting a spell is the PC’s action in combat. Period. No complex strike rank calculation, or initiative by spells, ranged weapons, and mêlée combat. As a lazy GM, I love this.

If the skill roll was a critical, the mage may choose one of three effects:

1. Spell damage or range doubled,

2. The spell doesn’t cost any WPs,

3. The mage may immediately cast another spell but with a bane on the roll.

If the skill roll was a fumble, you roll 1D20 and check the magical mishaps table. This is pretty fun, with my favourite ill effect being ‘you vomit a frog the moment you tell a lie’.

Edit− Resisting Offensive Spells

There is no BRP-like Resistance Table in Dragonlance, nor anything like the Mythras opposed rolls.

Spells which affect unwilling living targets all have different ways of being resisted/avoided:

- Spells that create a tangible threat like e.g. Fireball or Lightning Bolt can be dodged or parried as a ranged attack. Others like Pillar (which suddenly creates an earth o stone pillar) can be avoided via a successful Acrobatics roll.

- Some other elemental spells, e.g. Frost or Whirlwind, simply cannot be avoided in any way.

- Some area spells (e.g., Ensnaring Roots) cannot be avoided when first cast, but the target can then break free from the area of effect.

- Most mind-affecting spells, like e.g. Dominate or Sleep, can be resisted via a WIL roll. Some others, however, like Mental Strike, cannot be resisted.

Spells – Some Personal Considerations

The spells are quite diverse, with a good mix of D&D favourites (Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Sleep, Stoneskin) and RuneQuest ones (Countermagic, Detect XXX, Enchantment, Farsee, Fear, Summon/Control XXX Elemental)

My main beef with the spells is that the implied setting is ‘vanilla fantasy’/Old School D&D, yet most of the spells feel ‘magic-user’-ey; there aren’t many ‘clerical’ spells beyond the obvious Cure-like spells, and the Banish/Purge spells (which work like the Turn Undead power of D&D clerics).

Globally, there is a total lack of clerics/priests in the implied setting. I am OK with that – Tunnels & Trolls is one of my favourite frp games, and it doesn’t feature clerics/priests either. But then Trollworld is atheistic, whereas Dragonbane’s implied setting constantly mentions demonic threats (both in the rulebook and in the core set adventures) so I would expect either clerical PCs whose role is to protect the world from demons, or evil NPC priests à la Robert E Howard trying to bring forth demonic dominance into the world.

Also as a diehard RQ fan no gods/deities means no cults.