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Now, I am not here to crucify the new edition; actually, I think it has some good points. But having gone over the three books now, I have more questions than answers, and find myself frankly mystified by some of the things Mongoose has done to the game.
REVIEW FORMAT
Like my December 2003 review of HeroQuest, I will be dividing this review into questions and answers. With a game as old and as celebrated as RuneQuest, one needs to both detail the new edition and introduce new players to the context in which it rests. So if you already know the answer to a question, feel free to skip that section, as the full review covers a lot of ground.
WHAT IS RUNEQUEST?
In 1978, Chaosium (the company that since went on to make history with Call of Cthulhu and several other fine games) published the first edition of RuneQuest. It is difficult now, nearly three decades later, to convey to younger gamers the impact RQ had on the industry, particularly in the limited space I have here. While Chivalry & Sorcery (1976) was really the first RPG to focus on realism, and Traveller (1977) was the first to use a skill based system, RuneQuest is famous for doing both better. Its original designers (who for reasons I cannot fathom are not even mentioned in the credits of the Mongoose edition, as if the game emerged Athena-like from the brow of Matthew Sprange) were members of a medieval re-enactment society and had long experience with pre-industrial combat. This showed in the realistic combat system, which dispensed with the abstract concept of hit points merely as a whittling-down mechanism, and made it possible to maim or even kill with a single blow. Realistic combat was not the only innovation RQ brought to the gaming table. RuneQuest was the first game built around a single, unified mechanic...something rather novel back in the day. Everything was resolved with a simple percentile roll (more on that later). It was an elegant and intuitive mechanic everybody could instantly apprehend. All of a character's capabilities were rated with a percentile number. Thus, having Spot Hidden on your character sheet at 55% meant just that; you had a 55% chance of spotting something hidden. It was these percentile abilities—not an archetypical profession or “class”—which defined your character.
But it is a widely held opinion that what really made RuneQuest a classic was its integration of system and setting. Prior to RQ, systems were generic. Even 1975's Empire of the Petal Throne (which like RuneQuest had an intricate and detailed setting) used the generic D&D rules. RQ's mechanics, however, were designed for its setting (Glorantha, which we will discuss next). This may be common practice today, but back then it was a new idea. There were no abstract “levels” to gain; if you wanted power, you had to obtain it by securing a higher position in Gloranthan society, and the magic system was part of the complex mythology of that world. This is not to say that the rules cannot be adapted to other settings (indeed, the RQ system was adapted by Chaosium to “Basic Role-Playing,” the first generic, multi-genre rules set, and went on to become the foundation for games like Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer), but doing so means “weeding out” the Gloranthan elements. Perhaps for this reason, attempts to make RQ more generic have never done very well.
The textbook case for this was the third edition of RuneQuest, or RQIII. In 1983, Avalon Hill produced RQIII under license from Chaosium. Because Chaosium retained creative control over Glorantha, the setting, there was an attempt to make RQIII more generic, and Avalon Hill released several non-Gloranthan products, such as Vikings or Lands of the Ninja. None of these did very well, and by 1993 Avalon Hill had repackaged RQIII with a Gloranthan emphasis, and was publishing exclusively Gloranthan sourcebooks.
Mongoose...take note.
(Wanna know more? Take a look at “Pete's RuneQuest Page” at www.maranci.net/rq.htm or Wikipedia's entry on RuneQuest)
WHAT IS GLORANTHA?
Glorantha emerged 40 years ago from the imagination of author and game designer Greg Stafford (whose credits also include the magnificent Pendragon, just released in its 5th edition last year). Glorantha, like Barker's “Tekumel,” is one of the gaming industries oldest, richest, and most developed settings. It has been the backdrop for war games (White Bear & Red Moon, and Nomad Gods), roleplaying games (RuneQuest, Hero Wars, and HeroQuest), magazines (Wyrm's Footnotes and Tales of the Reaching Moon), fiction (King of Sartar), a computer game (King of Dragon Pass), and more websites and conventions than you can shake a stick at (whatever that means, but my grandmother always said it, so I assume it means something). While it began with Stafford, thousands have contributed to its richness, including other top game designers like Sandy Petersen and Robin D. Laws.
Glorantha had already existed more than a decade, and been the basis of White Bear & Red Moon, when in the mid-70s Stafford started to explore the idea of setting a roleplaying game there. Unhappy with attempts to use the generic rule systems in existence then, he approached Steve Perrin with the problem. The eventual result was RuneQuest. When RQ lapsed out of print in the mid-90s, Stafford (working with Robin Laws) took the opportunity to create a whole new system, and a whole new company to print it. That game became HeroQuest, and the company was Issaries (see my December 2003 review). With the re-emergence of RuneQuest, there are now two different games on the market featuring this setting (it's worth mentioning that Issaries holds the RuneQuest trademark, not Mongoose).
As a setting, Glorantha draws its inspiration from classical epics, like the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid; from the mammoth and wonderful sanskrit Mahabharata; and from ancient Germanic sagas. It's a Bronze Age world, where iron is a rare and magnificent treasure. The world is flat, and the sky is a dome. The civilizations resemble those of the ancient Mediterranean, Persia under Darius, pre-Mongol China, and Augustus' Rome. There are areas where feudal culture appears, but these are largely peripheral (the Mongoose edition spends a great deal more time focusing on them than previous versions had). Glorantha is more Clash of the Titans or Troy than Lord of the Rings (not in the quality of the films, but in the setting!).
The influence of scholars like Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell are heavy on Glorantha. “Myth” is what drives the world, not physics. Everything that happens does so because of events in a mythical prehistory, where the gods bickered and warred and in doing so broke the world. As a result, Chaos entered Glorantha and nearly destroyed everything. To stop it, the gods were forced into a compromise; time was created and the gods themselves became doomed to repeat their actions during the Gods' War. Thus the sun rises and sets because during the War he was killed and fell into the Underworld. Rivers run to the sea to help the ocean fill a hole torn by Chaos in the center of the world. Perhaps the best illustration is in the year itself, which repeats the course of the entire war in an endless cycle, year after year. Spring mirrors the Green Age, an idyllic time when Earth Goddesses reigned supreme. Then comes the summer, the Golden Age when the sun was emperor of all creation. In Autumn the emperor's power wanes, until finally in Winter the Great Darkness comes, when the sun was murdered and the Earth Goddesses slept. The Gloranthan year ends in something called Storm Season, which has no direct earthly parallel, but which mirrors the time when Chaos stalked the world and the few remaining gods—led by stormy Orlanth and his kin—struggled to bind it. Then the cycle is restarted, and spring returns. Mind you, a key feature of the setting is that every culture has there own view on what really happened during the Gods' War, and these can often be quite different.
Everything that happens in Glorantha has a mythic rationale, and the way characters gain power is to interact with and emulate the myths. Magic is a way of drawing power from the realms of myth into the world, reshaping it. And ultimate power comes from stepping outside “normal” Gloranthan time and entering these ageless realms.
WHAT DO I NEED TO PLAY?
Here is the first bone I have to pick with Mongoose and their handling of the new 4th edition. To play RQIII, you needed one 280 page book. Period. If memory serves, it ran around $35 (American). If you remember better, please drop me a line. In that book, you got complete character creation rules for several cultures (Primitive, Barbarian, Nomad, and Civilised), four magic systems (spirit magic, divine magic, sorcery, and ritual magic), a bestiary with nearly 100 creatures, extensive rules for running the game, a scenario, conversion notes to make it compatible with earlier editions, and a lengthy overview of Glorantha (notes were also given for the more generic setting of “Fantasy Earth”). I strongly recommend you take a look at Sergio Mascarenas' review of this edition for a complete picture. Mongoose, by contrast, has taken this material and divided it among three (actually, four) hardcover books, priced at $24.95, $24.95, and $34.95. These three volumes, RuneQuest, RuneQuest Companion, and RuneQuest Monsters, still don't contain the same amount of information, however. There is no sample scenario (you must buy Rune of Chaos at $9.95), no conversion notes, and not so much as a bloody map of Glorantha (or any other setting, for that matter). If you want a setting for your game, you need Glorantha, the Second Age ($34.95).
OKAY...WHAT IS IN THE MAIN RULEBOOK?
For $24.95 you get a slim hardcover rulebook, with 128 attractive pages, clear, easy to read print, and fairly uninspired art. The pages and pictures are black and white, on medium grade paper. The binding seems solid, and the book lays flat with a little coaxing. Mention has been made by other reviewers that the cover looks suspiciously like Another Big Open Game License Game© and I am not inclined to disagree. I can't help but wonder if the “you need to buy three rule books to have the complete game system” ploy didn't come from the same source.
A chapter by chapter summary is in order:
– CREDITS & CONTENTS: For a game nearly thirty years old, RuneQuest apparently did not exist before Matthew Sprange wrote this 4th edition. No mention is made of Steve Perrin, Lynn Willis, Charlie Krank, Ray Turney, or anyone else who designed the original system. “Special Thanks” are generously given to Greg Stafford, which is not surprising considering he holds the trademark and the rights to Glorantha. As an intriguing side note, no one is listed as authoring the Companion: perhaps it appeared, ex nihilo, like the Abiding Book.
– INTRODUCTION: My second gripe is with the quality of the writing, and it begins to manifest here. Fault for this does not, I suspect, lie solely with Mr. Sprange, as both Companion and Monsters suffer from the same defect. It would appear the directive from on high was “dumb the writing down, so that even a moderately dim 12 year old can read it,” at least with regards to the three core rulebooks (to be fair, the two Gloranthan books I have read, Glorantha the Second Age and Cults of Glorantha, Volume I were of a much higher calibre). By contrast, the previous editions of RuneQuest exhibited strong, fluid prose as a trademark characteristic. Compare these two mirror passages on Runes; FROM RQIII Rune (roon) is an ancient term of similar pronunciation and meaning in most Northern European languages. Runes were symbols cut into wood and stone to warn, charm, curse, or heal...A magical rune has within it, by shape or creation, a power deriving from the potency of the force or forces which the rune symbolizes...
FROM THE MONGOOSE RQ A rune is an inscription or symbol cut into a hard surface such as wood or stone. It is imbued with magical power related to the shape and title of the rune.
The entire Mongoose text reads like the Cliff Notes version of the previous edition, or perhaps those easy-to-read Penguin adaptations of classic literature designed for people learning English as a second language.
– CREATING AN ADVENTURER: Allow me to now temper these criticisms with some praise. I like this chapter. It significantly streamlines the character creation process from RQIII, but doesn't deviate so much as to be unrecognizably RuneQuest. In essence, the player rolls six-sided dice, generating scores of 3 to 18 for seven characteristics; STRegnth, CONstitution, DEXterity, SIZe, INTelligence, POWer, and CHArisma. While many of these are no doubt familiar to you, Size measures physical mass and Power represents life force and will. The Mongoose edition (wisely) returns to the RQII characteristic Charisma rather than RQIII's Appearance. Incidentally, these scores apply only to humans; to generate non-human characters, you need to consult the appropriate entry in the “Creatures” chapter or the Monsters book.
A character's DEX now determines how many actions it may perform in a Combat Round. This ranges from 1 action for a score of 6 or less to 4 for a score of 19 or greater. Totaling STR + SIZ next allows you to ascertain your damage modifier, which goes from -1d8 for a combined rating of 1 to 5 up to + 2d12 for a total of 91 to 100. The application of this will be discussed when we get to combat.
Hit Points, determined by finding the average of SIZ and CON, measures how much damage you can withstand before succumbing to unconsciousness or death. Unlike d20 games, however, RuneQuest employs hit locations—each leg, each arm, the abdomen, chest, and head. A simple chart on page 6 tells you how many hit points are in each location, based on your overall score. For example, if my total hit points are 12, I will have 3 points in each leg, 4 in the abdomen, 5 in the chest, 2 in each arm, and 3 in the head. A limb reduced to -1 or less is rendered useless, while the same befalling the abdomen, chest, or head may result in unconsciousness or death. Likewise, if the total amount of damage from various wounds exceeds my hit points rating, I am also in trouble.
Next, the player determines Magic Points—which are equal to the POW characteristic and used to fuel spells—and Strike Rank, the average of INT and DEX. Strike Rank influences how fast a character reacts in combat.
All character possess Basic Skills, such as “Athletics” and “Perception,” and these are determined by one or more of the characteristics. This is a departure from the previous edition, where skills had a base value modified only slightly by characteristics. For example, characters in RQIII started with a base 40% in “Climb” and 25% in “Jump.” Now, both are under the umbrella of “Athletics,” which has a base of STR + DEX. This greatly accelerates the creation process, and since the final step of character creation entails spending free percentile points to bump up skills of your choosing, your character should come out ahead of RQIII. Previous experience is determined by selecting a cultural background. In what has annoyingly become too common in this edition, only a few backgrounds are presented in the core rulebook—Barbarian, Peasant, Townsman, and Noble. If you want Civilised, Mariner, Nomad, or Primitive, you will need to buy the Companion. Those of us who remember RQII will be perfectly happy with the selection presented in the core rulebook, but RQIII players will need the Companion.
Finally, there are professions linked to each cultural background, such as “Acrobat” and “Hunter.” Professions and cultural backgrounds give us bonuses to our basic skills, and allow us to obtain “Advanced skills” like Craft, Lore, and Tracking. These operate just like basic skills, but not everybody has them (we all can jump, but we can't all handle a sailing vessel). – SKILLS: There is some good here, some bad, and some bizarre. Basically, all abilities in the game are measured as percentile skills. All actions are resolved by rolling a d00. If you roll under your percentile score, you succeed. If you roll over, you fail. The GM may modify your base roll up or down depending on the situation. If you roll under 10% of your modified value (i.e., 5 or less with a 50% skill), you have a critical result and performed the skill so well an additional benefit is gained. If you roll a 00 (100), you have a fumble. You fail spectacularly, and bad things happen. Finally, regardless of your skill percentile, a roll of 01-05 always succeeds and a roll of 96-00 always fails. This is essentially to classic RQ system, as well as the system used by Call of Cthulhu and virtually all of Chaosium's games.
Now for the twists. On the positive side, Mongoose has introduced Hero Points to the game. Hero Points are earned at the end of each story, and can be spent in game to reroll failed rolls, reduce the severity of wounds (see Combat), and alter the plot in small ways. I've like Hero Points ever since they appeared way back in the James Bond 007 game, and they are a nice touch here.
On the negative side, I don't know what they were thinking when they designed the Opposed Rolls system. Mind you, this was not handled all that well in the previous edition either. Let's say two characters wish to arm wrestle. To determine who wins, both make Athletics skill rolls. If one succeeds and one fails, the outcome is obvious. If both succeed, the higher roll wins, and if both fail, the lower roll wins. [insert head scratching sound] Now, I may only be an amateur, but it seems to me this makes little or no sense. If Rurik has Athletics 70 and rolls a 69, and Jargan has Athletics 80 and rolls an 02 (a critical), shouldn't Jargan win? It seems to me the simple solution is that the greatest margin of success should be the measure of victory, except for criticals, which always beat mere successes.
And on the topic of really broken rules, if two characters compete, and one or more of them has a skill over 100%, the system calls for both sides to halve their skill rolls, and keep halving, until both are under 100. In other words, if Rurik has 120%, and Jargan has 220%, they both must halve their skills to 60% and 110%. Since Jargan still is at 110%, they halve again down to 30% and 55%. Jargan's 100 point advantage has been reduced to 25 points. Hmmm. If you really want to have some fun, see what happens when a character with 100% and another with 10% compete, and then change it to 101% and 10%. The character with the higher percentage actually has a worse chance of winning.
– EQUIPMENT: As this review is already long, I think I can safely skip this chapter. Suffice it to say, it contains a wide selection of armour and weapons, as well as a discussion of magic items and adventuring equipment.
– COMBAT: I think we all need to take a moment and salute Mr. Sprange for the immense cojones it must have taken to rewrite what are probably the most celebrated combat rules in the history of RPGs. Like the new rules or hate them, this took guts.
In RQIII, combat rounds consisted of 12 second rounds divided into strike ranks. A strike rank was a value based on the character's SIZ, DEX, and the length of the weapon being used. Lower was better. In a combat round, the GM would begin counting at 1, and characters would be able to act when their strike rank arrived. At 10, the strike rank ended, and everyone did book keeping (hit point loss, fatigue loss, etc).
In the new edition, things have changed. Strike Rank is determined by averaging INT and DEX, and this time, higher is better. Also, characters may perform a certain number of actions each round, determined by DEX (and a table in the character creation chapter). If my DEX is 14 and my INT is 12, I would have a strike rank of 13 and could take up to 3 actions each round. (Note: there is a mistake of some sort in the examples given. The three characters all have much lower strike ranks than they should [8, 5, and 7], which leads me to believe a change was made in the rules but the example was not updated. Looking at the sample character sheet in the back, clearly strike rank is the average of INT and DEX, as it states on page 6).
At the beginning of each combat round, the characters involved roll a d10 and add the result to their strike rank. The character with the highest total goes first, followed by the second, third, fourth highest etc. The cycle is repeated until all characters have used all their actions up. This ends the round, and now book keeping is done.
If a character is attacked, he may respond with a Reaction; a Dodge, a Parry, a Free Attack, or a Dive. You have as many Reactions as you have Combat Actions. • Dodge: roll your Dodge skill against the attacker's weapon skill. Depending on your roll, and that of the attacker, the result ranges from getting out of the weapon's way to actually suffering more damage by falling right into the blow. • Parry: roll your weapon (or shield) skill against the attacker's. Note that in the new RQ there are NOT different skills for attack and parry. Results range from being able to riposte (counterattack) to taking damage or having your weapon break. • Free Attack: certain combat actions can trigger an Attack of Opportun...er, I mean a “Free Attack.” This uses up one of your Reactions, but not a Combat Action. • Dive: throwing yourself prone, or getting behind cover constitutes a dive reaction. This is generally a response to area attacks and can halve the damage suffered. As the rules are written, it is not at all clear whether a reaction is taken in response to an attack or specifically a successful attack. As on the whole I have been critical of the new rules, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming it must be the former. If indeed it is the latter, then apparently the attacker must make a second attack roll after he has already made one successful one, and frankly I cannot believe anyone would write a rule so grotesque, PARTICULARLY after stating that the original rules were overly complex and needed streamlining.
A successful hit allows the attacker to roll damage dependent on the weapon in hand, plus his innate damage modifier. A d20 roll determines which Hit Location (head, arm, abdomen) is struck. If that location is hit, the damage total, minus the amount of armour worn there, is applied. For example, if Rurik Runespear lands an unparried blow with his shortspear, he rolls a d8 for the spear plus his d4 damage modifier. Let's assume the total is 6. He rolls a d20 and gets an 18...the left arm. If his opponent is wearing a scalemail shirt (4 points of protection), he suffers 2 points to his arm.
The original rules were quite detailed, and so are they here. It is thus not possible to go over them all. The key change in the two editions is that rather than one attack and parry per round, a character may now have two or more. As a result, high DEX becomes far more valuable than before, as the key is to get more Actions and Reactions than your enemy.
– MAGIC: In RQI and II, there were two kinds of magic; Battle Magic, which was a collection of quick and easy spells powered by the user's own Magic Points, and Rune Magic, which were powerful spells obtained from the gods. In RQ III, these were more generically renamed Spirit Magic and Divine Magic. To the amusement of many long-time RQ players, Mongoose has renamed the old Battle Magic “Rune Magic,” and the old Rune Magic is now “Divine Magic.” One wonders how confusing this must be for people in Glorantha: Rurik says, “I learned a new Rune spell.” Nestor replies, “Do you mean a Battle Magic Rune spell or a Rune Magic Rune spell.” Rurik, puzzled, scratches his head. Hilarity ensues.
Under the old rules, characters would learn—er—“Rune Magic” by studying it under a mentor or at a temple. Spells were rated in points; a 1 point—um—“Rune spell” cost one Magic Point to cast, and was weaker than a 2 point—eh—“Rune spell,” which cost 2 points to cast. A character couldn't learn more points of—ahem—“Rune Magic” than his INTelligence score. An INT of 12 meant no more than 12 points of—ah—“Rune Magic.”
To cast a Rune spell, the character would need a focus of some kind, like a Rune etched into the blade of his sword or painted on his shield. He would then make a POW x 5 roll and spend the required number of points.
Apparently in an attempt to make the game live up to its name, characters in the new RuneQuest now must go out and find “Runes” before they can learn Rune Magic. These Runes are said to be drops of blood from the gods, but reading other sources—such as the Monsters book, suggests they can be obtained from supernatural beings or objects as well. For example, if you kill a water elemental, there is a chance you may find a Water Rune in its remains.
Once you have a Rune, you can attune yourself to it by making a roll and sacrificing a permanent point of POWer. This has two benefits; 1) you obtain some special power or quality from the Rune so long as you are touching it (for example, attuning to the Water Rune gives you a +50% bonus on swimming rolls), and 2) you may now learn Rune Magic spells derived from that Rune. Attuning the Rune gives you a starting “Runecasting” skill percentage which you will use for all spells associated with that Rune. For example: Rurik Runespear discovers a Spirit Rune after defeating a nasty wraith. He attunes the Rune by making a Persistence roll and sacrificing a point of POW. His POW of 15 drops to 14, but he gains the Spirit Runecasting skill at 29% (his POW + CHR). In addition, all spirits now suffer a -30% penalty to resist Rurik's magic against them (the bonus of attuning the Rune). Rurik may now go to a shaman or temple, and learn Spirit Rune spells such as Second Sight or Spirit Screen.
If you have never played RuneQuest before, this magic system is just fine. But if you have, there are some difficulties. On a purely cosmetic level, I preferred the imagery of the old system, with characters painting Runes on their shields, etching them into weapons, or even tattooing them on to their skin. The idea of going out and “finding” Runes seems odd, and makes continuity between the editions difficult. On a deeper level, there are real technical problems with the new system. For example, both Bladesharp and Bludgeon now depend on the Metal Rune. Does this mean Bladesharp can't be used on a flint knife, or Dragonewt klanth? Can Bludgeon be used on a wooden club, or stone warhammer? Skybolt, a new spell, calls a bolt of lightning down out of the heavens. This sounds like the kind of spell used by Orlanth, the Storm King. And yet, Skybolt comes from the Chaos Rune...and I cannot imagine any Orlanthi integrating that hated power. Odd.
– CULTS: Cults are one part guild, one part religion, and one part secret society. They form the backbone of Gloranthan society. In RuneQuest, the term can be understood to encompass all organizations characters may join to obtain power, support, and guidance. A thieves' guild, a temple, or a wizarding academy can all be understood using this framework.
RuneQuest details five distinct levels of membership. A Lay Member has minimal obligations, but also minimal access to magic and temporal power. An Initiate gets greater access, but has more responsibilities. At the Acolyte level, real power is obtained, but the duty is great. Above all of these are the Runepriests—who run the cult—and the Runelords—who are its heroes and champions.
Religious cults may offer divine intervention. In dire circumstances, the character may call upon his god for aid, and roll a d00. If he rolls below his POW score, the god answers and performs a miracle. Unfortunately, the price is high; an amount of POW equal to the roll is permanently lost. In the new edition, cults do not grant Divine Magic (unless you buy the Companion, heh heh heh). Instead, characters gain access to stronger and stronger Rune Magic spells. In addition, it is now impossible to be both a Runelord and a Runepriest. The requirements to become a Runelord are more strenuous, but they have all the benefits of a Runepriest (remember, old-timers, there is no more Divine Magic in this book to even be reusable), plus they roll a d10 for divine intervention rather than d00.
The sample cults provided are very sketchy and generic. – ADVENTURING: This chapter contains rules for movement, chases, vision, healing, poison, and disease. The only remarkable thing is that Fatigue has been rewritten, so that characters make periodic fatigue checks to avoid levels of weariness, rather than having to keep track of Fatigue points. – IMPROVING ADVENTURERS: Here are rules for improving characteristics, skills, and acquiring Feats...er, “Legendary Abilities.”
In the old days, it was simple; if you used a skill significantly during the game, you had a chance to improve it afterwards by rolling above your current skill level. For example, if my Athletics was 30%, I had a 70% chance of increasing it. If it was 70%, I only had a 30% chance of improving. This mechanic remains in the new edition, but there has been one big change.
Now, GMs award improvement rolls—usually between 1 and 5—and characters can “spend” them on any skill they like. In addition, three improvement rolls can be spent to try and improve a characteristic. In addition, the GM awards Hero Points. These can be spent during the game to fudge rolls, or saved up to buy powers and abilities which I can only think to compare to d20 Feats. There are also guidelines in this chapter for creating more experienced heroes.
– CREATURES: This chapter contains about 20 bland, generic beasties. Want more, go buy the Monsters book, suckah! These nasties are mostly non-Gloranthan, and those that are have been dumbed down enough so that you wouldn't recognize them as such.
BOY, YOU REALLY HATE THIS BOOK, DON'T YOU?
No. But I am immensely disappointed with it. 1) There is no reason why Mongoose could not have published the main rulebook (128 pages) and the Companion (under 90 pages) as one book. It is absurd to present a 4th edition of the game so incomplete. 2) As it is a 4th edition, some continuity with the previous game might be expected. Even the massive d20 facelift Dungeons & Dragons received left it possible to translate old characters. Publishing an RQ book without Divine Magic or Sorcery would be like publishing the Player's Handbook without clerics. 3) There are a lot of ambiguities, errors, and mistakes. This is a 4th edition, not a 1st ! 4) I have come to admire Mongoose a great deal, particularly their Conan and Babylon 5 lines. I own a lot of material for both. After the high quality treatment given to other lines, I had expected the same for RQ. They really let me down.
WHAT ABOUT THE COMPANION?
Again, there is no way to justify this as a separate book. It contains the two missing magic systems (Divine Magic and Sorcery), rules for creating cities and towns, water travel, temples, spirit combat, and additional cultural backgrounds. On the plus side, they seem to have fixed all the flaws in the old (RQIII) Sorcery system, but at the same time have mucked up Divine Magic in a big way. In previous editions of RQ, Divine Magic was purchased by sacrificing permanent points of the POWer characteristic. For example, if Rurik had a POW of 15, and obtained a 3-point Divine spell, his POW would be reduced to 12. This wasn't as punitive as it first seems; anytime a character defeated another in magical combat, there was a chance the POW characteristic could be increased. At the end of the play session, the character would subtract his current POW from 21 (or whatever his racial maximum was) and multiply the result by 5%. If he rolled under that number, his POW increased. In this way, POW could be fairly regularly increased and spent on Divine Magic. For initiates, Divine Magic spells were used and then lost. Rune Priests could “recharge” their spells by praying in a temple.
In the new edition, POWer is no longer spent...it is allocated. When a character learns a Divine spell, he must allocate a number of POW points to it equal to the magnitude of the spell. In other words, if Rurik with his 15 POW learned a 3-point spell, his POW would be temporarily reduced to 12, with a subsequent loss of Magic Points and skill percentages (those affected by POW). Once he cast that spell, his POW would bounce back to the original level. While this at first appears beneficial (after all, POW is no longer permanently lost), in reality it cripples Divine Magic users. Under the old rules, Rurik's loss of POW actually gave him a greater chance of getting a POW increase (there is a 30% chance of increasing a POW of 15 and a 45% chance of increasing a POW of 12). The result was that characters could “stockpile” Divine Magic, using it only when they really needed it, while maintaining a robust POW. Looking over my old edition characters, I found one who had a 16 POW and 12 points of Divine Magic. In the game now, this is impossible; if the same character wished to keep those 12 points of Magic, his POW would have to be reduced to 4 until he used his spells.
Furthermore, since all spells are essentially reusable, the benefit of being a Rune Priest is erased.
HOW ABOUT THE MONSTERS BOOK?
Staggeringly, the creature descriptions are abbreviated versions of their RQIII counterparts, even though they have been collected into their own book rather than tucked neatly into the main rules! On the other hand, this book is full color, with some nice pictures. So.
I AM A LONG TIME FAN, SHOULD I BUY THIS EDITION?
No. If you are curious about the changes to the system, go to the Mongoose website and download the free SRD files. Frankly, the greatest oddity of the new game is that Mongoose seems to have done everything in its power to dissuade long time players from buying the game. I don't believe, in 25 years of gaming, I've ever seen this before. The core rule book contains only a third of what the previous edition did, and there are no conversion rules at all. If you wish to upgrade an existing campaign to the new system, you will find no support, only obstacles. For example, if one of your players has a shaman character, you will need to purchase the main rulebook, the Companion (which contains rules for spirit combat), and then wait for the Cults of Glorantha Volume II book (due out in January 2007) which will detail shamanism. Everything contained in the single RQIII rulebook has been cleverly scattered among multiple volumes. Even Divine Magic, a staple of RuneQuest since the beginning, has been banished to the Companion book. At every turn, the previous edition was superior, in the quality of its writing, in its completeness, and in providing a foundation for play in either Glorantha or other worlds. I find this mind-boggling. I have been a fan for 25 years, loyally purchasing a great deal of RQ material. If I am not part of the target audience for this game, who is? I would remind Mongoose that most long-time RQ fans are now professionals in our 30s, 40s, and 50s, with more money to spend indulging in our hobby than when we were kids. Why on earth try to exclude us?
I AM A GLORANTHA FAN (HEROQUEST FAN, ETC), SHOULD I BUY THIS EDITION?
Again, no. The core rulebooks have nothing for you. The magic systems are generic, and in some cases show either total ignorance of Glorantha or callous disregard for the integrity of the setting. For example, Bladesharp now depends on a new, “Metal” Rune. Ignoring for the moment the fact that the Death Rune is the mythic First Sword, associated with blades and severing, one can't help but wonder if this means Bladesharp no longer works on flint knives or dragonewt klanths! Likewise, Skybolt, which calls lightning from a clear sky, is now derived from the Chaos (!!!) Rune. I am sure the Orlanthi would be thrilled with this. However, you should take a look at Glorantha, the Second Age, which has no system specific material and could easily be used as a reference for HeroQuest or other RuneQuest editions. I intend to write a review of this volume, as it is far superior to the core rulebooks.
I LIKE RUNEQUEST, BUT I THINK GLORANTHA SUCKS. SHOULD I BUY THIS EDITION?
You don't like Glorantha? What kind of sick, twisted freak are you (just kidding...sorta)!? You would still be better off laying your hands on the previous edition, if at all possible, which managed to be sufficiently generic despite containing Gloranthan material. However, this new RuneQuest is clearly targeted at people like you, so I am going to have to say “yes.”
I AM A D20 PLAYER AND HAVE NEVER TRIED RUNEQUEST. SHOULD I BUY THIS EDITION?
Yes. You are exactly the person Mongoose produced this product for, and they have done everything in their power to make RQ more d20 friendly, with new analogues of Feats, Attacks of Opportunity, and even Saving Throws to make you feel more comfortable. The core rulebooks are a pale shadow of the former editions, but still a great game. Buy them. And then take a look at Glorantha, because it is still one of the finest settings out there.
