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Ratings: Style 4 (easy and pleasant to read and to understand), Substance 2 (bare bones)
Quick Review This review is intended for players who have never heard of Runequest, never played Runequest, have primarily played d20 products and are looking for something a little bit different. If you are in this category you might find a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from getting into this game and playing it.
Just quickly, for those of you who have played Runequest, this system will probably seem inferior to previous editions. Those who like Runequest 2 are not going to like all of the new magic systems presented nor will you like the new Renaissance flavor of civilized cultures as compared to the previous Roman, Greek, Egyptian flavors of civilized society. Those of you who like Runequest 3 may be disappointed by the watered down cultural experience system of the new Runequest. In either case, though, this system will not leave you high and dry on a poor age roll. It is designed to give all players fairly good skill scores to begin with, and an opportunity to put skill percentages where you want them. This version of Runequest also integrates runes into the magic system, something that was lacking from previous editions.
The Basic Mechanic Mongoose Runequest (MRQ) uses a percentile mechanic. Its really easy to use. You have a percentage chance of doing something and if you roll equal to or less than that chance on percentile dice, you are successful.
If, for some reason you don’t have percentile dice, just use your d20s. Choose two d20s of different color and specify which color is going to be the ‘tens’ number and which is going to be the ‘ones’ number. Roll both dice. For instance if you designated the blue die as the ‘tens’ die and the red die as the ‘ones’ dies and the result was Blue 6 and Red 12, the result would be read as 62 (numbers like 12, 13, and 14 are read, 2, 3, and 4, respectively.)
Any modifiers (if they are used) are added to your success chance before you roll.
Modifiers: Very easy (+60), Easy(+40), Simple (+20), Normal (+0), Difficult (-20), Hard (-40), Very Hard (-60), Nearly Impossible (-80)
Critical Success: Roll 10% or less of your success chance. Nothing could be simpler. All fractions in MRQ are rounded down. So the ‘tens’ number of your success chance is equal to your chance at getting a critical. For instance the chance of getting a critical with a success chance of 48 is 04 or less. The success chance of getting a critical with a success chance of 79 is 07 or less.
Hint: If you want to use the extra success level of “Special Success” found in the old Runequest rules, merely multiplyl the Critical Success chance by 2. So, if you have a 79 percent chance of success, if you roll result between 08 and 14, you get a special success. This gives you the opportunity to use many of the rules out of older versions of Runequest, if you wish to.
Fumbles: Whenever you roll an unmodified result of 00, the character is assumed to have failed the roll.
Automatic Success: If you roll an unmodified result of 01 – 05 your success is automatically guaranteed.
Automatic Failure: If you roll an unmodified result of 96 – 00 you automatically fail the task.
Note: For every 100 percentiles you gain a level of ‘mastery’ similar to mastery levels in HeroQuest. One such mastery level decreases your automatic failure by 1. So if you had a skill of 105%, you would only fail on an unmodified result of 97-00. If you had 280%, you would only automatically fail on an unmodified result of 98-00. If you ever reach the point where you would only automatically fail on a result of 00, alone, then you no longer can critically fail, anymore.
Opposed Tests: Okay, I will admit I don’t understand the reasoning behind this particular mechanic. It may be a misprint, but I don’t think so, as the rule is repeated several times in the text. If somebody does understand the rule, perhaps they can write in and comment.
If only one character succeeds at their success roll, this is pretty much intuitive…the one who succeeds wins.
If both characters succeed, whoever rolls the highest wins the opposed test. (I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, unless the author was attempting to recreate the Pendragon mechanic. In Pendragon, you must roll equal to or less than your skill, but you still must roll as high as possible. In Pendragon, if you roll your success chance (unmodified and exactly on the mark) you have scored a critical success, because that is the best you can do before you begin to fail) If you wish to use the unified Pendragon mechanic, instead, I would suggest that you subtract your critical percentile from your success chance to create a ‘high range’ in which your character would roll a critical result. For instance, if your character has 68% chance of success, subtract 6 from 69 to get the lowest of the critical range. He would therefore strike a critical result on 63% to 68%.
If both characters fail, the one who rolls the lowest wins the opposed test. I don’t agree with this one, either. Use your common sense. If two characters are arm wrestling, this rule would probably make sense. If both characters were log rolling (both on the same log in the water, trying to balance and yet throw the other off balance), if both fail, both fall into the water. In combat, if both fail, nothing should happen. It would be unreasonable to assume that one opponent won just because he failed by less than his opponent. If you are using the unified Pendragon mechanic, mentioned above, the character who rolls higher would win the advantage, if there were one.
Assistance: Characters may assist one another. Each assisting player adds 10% to an assisted roll. In some cases this may involve assistance from characters very far away (perhaps a whole religious cult is praying for your success). In cases of large groups perhaps that are not present, it may be more reasonable to assume that every 1-50 people giving emotional support or praying for success give a +10% to an assisted roll.
Skills Runequest is a skill driven game. Skills provide most of the benefits for success. There are no base attack bonuses, for instance. Weapon skills are developed independently in groups. Skills are divided into Basic, Advanced, and Magic skills. Basic skills can be tried by anyone while Advanced and Magic skills require training in the skill in order to be able to use them.
The basic skills are Acrobatics (tumbling, etc.), Athletics (climbing, jumpint, swimming, etc.), Boating, Dodge, Driving, Evaluate, First Aid, Influence (similar to Bluff, Fast Talk, Diplomacy, Orate, etc. all combined into one skill), Lore (animal, plant, and world lore are the basic lores), Perception (covers listen, spot, scan, and any other 5 sense skills), Persistence (willpower check), Resilience (similar to Fortitude save in the d20 system), Riding, Sing, Sleight, Stealth (move silently and hide), Throwing, Unarmed (unarmed combat).
Advanced skills are Craft, Dance, Disguise, Engineering (large mechanics such as drawbridges, city gates, and sailing craft), Language (covers speaking and reading and writing, apparently) Lore (other kinds of lore than animal, plant, and world lore), Martial Arts (deals 2d3 damage instead of the normal 1d3 damage), Mechanisms (small mechanisms such as traps and locks), Play Instrument, Shiphandling, Streetwise (gather information and find fence), Survival, Tracking, Weapon Skills.
Magic Skills: Currently all that is offered is Runecasting skill, but I expect this will eventually be expanded to Ceremony, Enchant, Summon, etc. as other magic systems are introduced.
Character Creation Determine characteristics: roll 4d6, drop the lowest score, and total the remaining dice for STR, DEX, Power, and CHA. Roll 3d6, drop the lowest die and add 6 to the result of Size and INT. Size is an indication of a character’s mass and effects extra damage done and if a knockback occurs in battle. Power is a representation of a character’s life force and his personal strength of will.
Characteristics give skills a base chance for success. For instance, Survival has a base chance of INT + POW as a success chance. Mechanisms a base chance of DEX + INT. Lore has just INT as a base chance. Stealth has 10+DEX+STR as a base chance.
Next, players calculate Attributes based on the values of Characteristics. For instance, the Combat Actions of a character are based on his DEX. A DEX divided by 6 (rounded down) gives the number of combat actions per round with a maximum of 4 combat actions. Other attributes are Damage Modifier, Hit Points, Hit Points per location, Magic Points and Strike Rank.
Next, players select a cultural background and a profession. There are four cultural backgrounds, Barbarian, Peasant, Townsman, and Noble. These seem to be more social classes than cultural backgrounds, but they fit in nicely with the Runequest character creation system. Cultures give 30 percentiles to a group of culturally appropriate basic skills, and 20 percentiles divided among optional skills and cultural weapon skills. Characters also receive Language skill, one or two Advanced skills (at basic success chance) and sometimes a few other culturally appropriate lifestyle skills such as Regional Lore, Survival or Streetwise. Characters also receive 4d6 x (a base amount of silver appropriate to their culture). Barbarians receive 20 base amount of silver, peasants receive 25, townsmen receive 50, and Nobles receive 100 base amount of silver.
Professions are limited by Culture. For instance Nobles cannot have a Craftsman background and the Lord profession is limited only to Nobles. Professions offer 50 percentiles in Basic Skill bonuses and allow the character to pick an advanced skill appropriate to the occupation.
Players now receive 100 skill points to distribute freely among basic skills or weapon skills they already have or they may purchase new Advanced skills for the cost of 10 SPs to receive the skill at its base success chance. Once advanced skills have been purchased, skill points may be added to improve these, as well.
The Runecasting skill may be purchased by players who have characters with backgrounds that allow Runecasting as one of their Advanced skills. Runecasting skill is purchased and developed separately for different spells.
Movement: All human characters have a movement of 4 meters (I imagine this is equivalent to four 1” hexes on a battle grid).
Hero Points: Each character receives two Hero Points. These can be used like they are used in many other games to grant re-rolls, downgrading the damage of a blow, or on legendary abilities (these are much like feats in the d20 system).
Combat Players begin combat by making a Strike Rank roll (similar to the Initiative check in the d20 system) by rolling d10 and adding the character’s Strike Rank modifier to the roll. This Strike Rank indicates the character’s chance to act (initiative) in comparison with others in that particular Action phase. For the rest of the battle the character’s Strike Rank is always on this number. Strike ranks do not represent passing seconds as they did in previous versions of Runequest.
Characters with one action all resolve their attacks first, in order of strike rank from lowest to highest SR. If two characters have the same SR they act in order of DEX values, highest to lowest. If they both have the same DEX value they strike or act simultaneously.
Characters with one action only are all done. Now characters with 2 actions act in order of Strike Rank, next characters with three actions act in order of strike rank, etc.
Tip: If you want to run your game more like previous editions of Runequest give all players two actions (one to strike and one to parry) regardless of their DEX score. If characters have a prepared weapon or shield that has not been used to attack in the round, allow them to make a parry with it. They roll against their parry success chance (try halving attack scores to determine parry success chance). This parry can be made at any time to stop an effective attack. In other words, if a player holds one of his actions and one of his weapons in reserve, he can always try to parry at least one blow. A player may only make two attacks if he has two weapons or if he halves his shield parry skill to make a shield attack. Players may ‘hold’ all of their attacks in order to parry more than once. If a player rolls less than or equal to his character’s parry chance , the parry was successful. The weapon or shield absorbs all the damage of the blow, and any damage left over goes on to the character. If any damage goes on to the character, the weapon loses one armor point of defense. If the weapon or shield is reduced to 0 armor points the weapon or shield is smashed or breaks. Characters gain one extra attacks for every 100 percentiles in their weapon skill score. This will give your combats a more ‘realistic’ feel, and they will go faster in the beginning because all characters will only have two actions each round. Allow characters to move up to their full move score each Strike Rank beginning with the first SR that they can take an action on.
Combat actions: Characters have different combat actions available such as aim, casting spells, change stance, charge, close combat attack, defend, delay, fighting retreat, flurry (of blows), move, ranged attack, ready weapon, skill use, sprint, other. All of these have detailed rules. You need to read the combat section to learn more about them.
Critical Hits: Critical hits are merely critical successes made when attacking. A critical hit delivers the maximum amount of damage that the weapon can do. A character that makes a critical hit with an impaling weapon causes maximum damage and additional benefits. The impaling character may yank the weapon out of an impaled character to cause normal damage in addition to impaling damage, if he succeeds at a Brute Force Athletics test. If the brute force check fails, 1d4 damage is caused to the target’s hit location and the weapon remains stuck. Impaled target’s suffer –20% penalty to all skill rolls and is cumulative for various impales all over his body. For instance, a poor little trollkin impaled with 3 spears would recieve –60% to all skill rolls, including attack rolls.
Reactions: Characters may make reactions (dodge, parry, dive for cover, and free attacks) which allows d20 players to simulate attacks of opportunity in the Runequest game, if they really want to. Reactions do not cost Actions to use, but only one of them may be used per reaction trigger. So, if you get attacked three times from different sources, you get to try to dodge or parry three times, as well, without having to spend attack actions to do so.
Tip: If you want to make combat speedier and less tedious, replace the reactions rule with the two-action tip given at the beginning of this combat section. Allow players to try to dodge any attacks from one designated opponent during a round without the use of an action, and if you wish to use attacks of opportunity, simply allow one free attack of opportunity per character (although this will slow the round down, considerably). Using attacks of opportunity will require quite a few rules from the d20 system to determine what exactly provokes an attack of opportunity.
Armor: Armor provides protection against damage. When a character is hit, you must roll for a hit location to determine where the damage was done. After the armor point value for the armor covering that hit location is deducted from the damage the remaining damage is applied to the hit location.
Degree of Injury: If the damage doesn’t exceed the hit points of the location, the damage is considered minor (scrapes and bruises, minor cuts) and has no effect on game mechanics. Each time the location is hit damage is subtracted from the location hit points. When the hit points in a location is reduced to 0, the location has suffered a Minor Wound (serious cut, hairline fracture, etc.). The location is permanently scarred and the character loses his next combat action. If a location is reduced to –1 or more points, the location has suffered a serious wound (serious cut, fracture, etc.). The character loses the next 1d4 combat actions, the limb affected is useless until the hit points of the location is restored to 1 hit point or more, and if the area affected is the abdomen, chest, or head the character must make a successful Resilience test or fall unconscious. If the damage to a location exceeds twice the number of original hit points for the location, the target has suffered a Major Wound. This may indicate a severed limb and the character must make a Resilience test or fall unconscious, and a Major Wound to the head, chest or abdomen requires a successful Resilience test or die.
Knocbacks: If damage from a wound exceeds the target’s Size, the target is knocked back and for every five points of damage (round down) that exceeds the target’s Size, the target is knocked back a full hex (or meter).
Magic
Magic requires the expenditure of Magic Points to be successful. A character begins the game with a number of MPs equal to her POW characteristic. Characters automatically gain Magic Points equal to their POW every 10 hours.
Characters must first acquire and integrate (become successfully attuned to) a rune, then a spell that uses it during the casting may be learned and cast. To cast a spell the character must make a successful runecasting skill test and a number of Magic Points equal to the magnitude of the spell must be spent. If the spell is unsuccessful, 1 magic point is spent, and the spell has no effect.
Once a character has integrated with a rune, he immediately gains the special power of the rune.. For example, the Air rune power gives +10% to Athletics skill when jumping and reduces falling damage by half. Characters can use the powers of the rune without training and without knowing any magic spells. In tegration with the rune is all that is required to use the powers of the rune.
Spells can be overcharged (boosted) to increase spell parameters such as area of effect, duration, and to make the spell harder to resist
These are the most basic rules of runecasting magic. The system is more complex than this, but what I have given should give a basic idea of how magic works.
Cults Several cults are available to players with this rulebook. Cults are religious factions of the game setting of Glorantha. Cults serve as support groups for characters providing them with hiding places,contacts, items, and training for certain skills. There will undoubtedly be more cults coming forth in a special rules supplement that will add to the meager listing of cults given in this rules book.
Ratings I give this game a rating of Style 4. This is basically because the layout of the material makes it easy to find things and is user friendly. Artwork is okay. The borders are nicely decorated as if the book was an old magic tome with runic inscriptions around the edges of the page. Artwork is good in some cases, and is misrepresentative of the setting and out of proportion in other cases. However, the general look of the book is pleasing to the eye. It's classy, but not exceptional.
I give this game a Substance of 2. The book is only designed to give players a basic character creation system, a basic combat system, a few spells, and a few cults. It literally tells nothing of the game setting, Glorantha, for which it is designed. The book is only 127 pages compared to the D&D Player’s Handbook with an impressive 304 pages which sells for only about 5 dollars more and has almost three times the material. It seems to me that, at the very least, the same amount of background material for Glorantha that was provided in Runequest 2 could easily have been provided in this book. The spell system is incomplete, and for the number of pages the book could have head, they could have presented Runecasting, Divine Magic and Sorcery. However, enough information is presented that you could make characters and run the game in some other setting(such as the Forgotten Realms setting) to try it out.
If you want to spend your hard earned money on this system rather than on obtaining a copy of Runequest 2 or Runequest 3, that’s your choice. Both of the older systems are better than this one in terms of solid game mechanics. However, this system is more user friendly to players who are only familiar with the d20 system, or are beginning players.
Do yourself a favor, though. If you buy this book, spend your money on future supplements for this product rather than on buying past supplements or games materials for other Runequest products. The new Runequest will feature materials for the Second Age of Glorantha rather than for the Third Age, the age used for older versions of Runequest. The two ages present cultures and magic that are very different from each other, and from the looks of the Cults presented in this book, they are going to be using different versions of the Cults (or at least different names) which will make things confusing for new players. The Runequest world is complicated enough to understand without leaping back and forth between different ages and without using different names for the established cults of Glorantha.
