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In addition to these there were weird versions of the AH publication such as the Player's boxed set, the Gamemaster's boxed, and the rules-lite "Standard Edition" (which never had an "Expanded Edition" supplement published). These were apparently valiantly flawed attempts by AH to bring down the extremely hefty price-tag that came with the boxed set when it was first published (in Australia it cost $85 AUD originally - and this was in the mid-eighties!).
The cover artwork on the Deluxe editions (a male and female warrior; note the runic emblems on their shields) is quite competent. The interior art is not so great, but at least it's contextually appropriate and the historical maps are quite evocative. There is a good use of highlighted sections in the text, and there is an good table of contents and an excellent index for each book. The serif text is reasonably well-organised and the style formal and complete, even a little verbose. In the GW version, the cover art is again quite competent, but also includes a great deal of very good internal art, both colour and black-and-white.
Character generation begins with personal information; adventurer name, species (finally a game whose designers know the difference between 'species' and 'race'), gender (I presume they mean 'sex'), age (2d6+15 for humans), culture (first characters "Barbarian", subsequent rolled with "Primitive", "Nomad", "Barbarian" and "Civilized"), religion, homeland and Parents Occupation. The latter determines initial skills and equipment and in also be used for in-play experience. It is randomly rolled according to culture and provides - to this day - one of the best example of "realistic" professions (e.g., soldier, farmer, herdsman, hunter) rather than the run-of-the-mill classes (e.g., fighter, magic-user, cleric, thief).
Characteristics are STRength, INTelligence, DEXterity, SIZe, POWer, APPearance, CONstitution and are determined on either a random roll, a point-buy, or a combination thereof. The scale is a familiar 3-18; POW represents a character's "spiritual force" and is all-important when it comes to casting and resisting magic. In RuneQuest, nearly every sentient being, and certainly every human has at least a couple of spells to help them through the day. In addition to these characteristics there are derived attributes such as hit points (which are calculated as a total and per body section), damage modifier, strike rank, magic points, fatigue points, and movement.
Skills are percentile based and organised into categories (agility, communication, knowledge, magic, manipulation, perception and stealth), with base chances modified by experience and, with a rather clumsy implementation especially given the prior example in ElfQuest, characteristics. Annoying is the standard emphasis on military endeavours with some forty basic skills (some with specialisation) and about twenty weapon skills - with each of the latter learned separately as attack and parry. Despite this the skills as a whole do give a reasonable coverage of probable adventurer activities. The skills themselves are discussed with a modicum of detail with specific environmental effects provided (e.g., the effects of encumbrance on swimming, the terrain/perception chart)
Task resolution is usually either characteristic vs characteristic or skill-based. In the former, a table is provided which sets equal characteristics with a 50/50 chance of success or failure with a modification of 5% for per point of difference. Essentially the formula is (Active-Passive)*5 + 50%. Simple skill resolution is diferentiated by 'special successes' (1/5th of basic chance), 'critical successes' (1/10th of base chance) and fumbles (1/10th of failure chance). Simple characteristic rolls (roll under a multiple of the characteristic) and opposed skill tests (subtract successful "defenders" skill value against "attackers" untested skill value) are also provided. Skills may be improved by experience, training, or even research. The highest percentage is 100% plus (or minus!) the category modifier. With obviously greater difficulty, most characteristics can also be improved, especially POW. Negative Fatigue (STR + CON - ENCumbrance -Activity) also effects task resolution. On the more extreme scale, having a location's hit points reduced to zero disables the location, and double may effectively disables it permanently.
Combat in RuneQuest is gritty, detailed and deadly. Actions are resolved in order of strike rank; effectively big fast characters with long weapons will act before short slow characters without. A character is normally limited to one attack and one parry per round, with a dodge substituting for either; characters with over 100% can engage in multiple actions. The normal process is roll to hit, the opponent rolls to defend, and resolved according to the degree of success. Special and critical attacks and parries have bonus effects, such as impaling, causing additional knockback, ignoring armour, and so forth. These do not scale particularly well. For example, a special knockback simply causes 1m per 5 points of damage, ignoring the opponents SIZ. Fair enough on the human scale, but a Hobbit versus an Elephant? Further there is the ever popular fumble tables. Armour subtracts (soft leather 1 point, plate 8 points) from the damage rolled, which is just as well; a standard sword will usually disable a location in a single blow. Weapons can be slowly chipped away over a battle, especially if they are used to parry and block hefty attacks. The damaging effects of the prosiac world (fire, falling, drowing, poison, disease and age) are also provided.
There are three types of magic in the RuneQuest system, each reflecting a well-described metaphysical viewpoint. The "three perspectives" are Spirit Magic, Divine magic, and Sorcery. Finally, there is Ritual Magic, common, time-consuming and powerful projects, such as Ceremony (an augment ritual), Summoning, and Enchanting. Overall, the RuneQuest magic system is playable, evocative and "realistic" (that is, stylistically appropriate to the setting). Magic-using characters may advance to "prestige" levels of ability, such as Shamans, who get to control a spiritual fetch and the ability to go discorporate, Priests who recover the ability to cast Divine spells with significant ease, and Adepts who gain familiars.
With Spirit Magic, spells are learned after capturing a spell in spiritual combat, limited by INT and magic points and casting ability is POW*5. Spells are resisted by caster's magic points vs defender's magic points and cast at DEX+(spell-1) in SR. Divine magic requires a sacrifice of POW points equal to the spell. It is known without memory limits and with a 100%-ENC chance of success (depending on resistance), and does not require magic points to cast or delay in Strike Ranks. With Sorcery each spell is effectively skill requiring a point of INT to memorise. In addition, sorcery skills (Intensity, Duration, Range, Multispell) costing INT and MPs can modify a spell's capabilities. Spells are cast on DEX+spell SR. The percentage chance for casting is the lowest of the spell's chance or any of the sorcery skills used. Again, if resisted, use caster's magic points vs defender's magic points to resolve success. Gamemaster information includes sensible game advice, and an excellent essay on the literary model in roleplaying (previously published, at least in part, in Different Worlds) and scenario design, encounter tables (I once pointed out in Murphy's Rules that the standard tables suggested that 3 people per day in a city of 10 000 are lost to the Godplane), treasure, income and some more sensible advice on where loot is derived and a simple schema for the relative danger classes for creatures. Pricing and availbility of goods varies according to proximity to civilization, and typical experiences according to living standards are provided. A significant section is dedicated to ships and sailing with a useful number of sample vessels and the most important characteristics (beam, draft, freeboard, capacity, seaworthiness etc) and speed. Finally, there is an amusing and challenging (subtly) Glorantha-based scenario, "The Money Tree".
The "Creatures" book in the Deluxe edition and the "Monsters" GW book contains what one would expect. There is a particular discussion on the difference between "fixed" and "normal" INT in creatures, the former representing the sort of instinctual rather than calculated intelligence and notes on hit points for diverse locations. RuneQuest was a pathbreaker in the idea of "monster equality", the suggestion that creatures also deserved a full array of characteristics and skills and therefore, not surprisingly, there are also sensible suggestions for creatures as PCs. Cultural and occupational data are provided for broos, centaurs, ducks, dwarfs, elves, halflings, humans, ogres, orcs and trolls. The artwork in this book is particularly twee, with pains taken to contextualise illustrations (e.g., in the letter 'B': "Two bears pause on a ridgetop while a giant beetle creeps by. Below a behemoth ambles to the water, warily watched by the brontosaur"). In the GW version of the Monsters Book, a number of sample characters are also provided.
Missing entirely in the GW books, but included in the AH edition is a book dedicated to RuneQuest's original integrated world, Glorantha. Many Glorantha fans were unhappy with this relegation, but by the same token, many RQ players did not want the suggested world so strongly tied to the system. Subsequent support by AH for Glorantha was slow and often questionable, but a number of excellent products (Gods of Glorantha, Genertala: Crucible of the Hero Wars, Elder Secrets) did eventuate. In the AH Glorantha book there is a world overview, a description of the mythos and history, magic and religion and especially the all-important runes, a sample cult, and notes on Glorantha-specific creatures, with particular attention to Dragonewts and Chaos creatures. Although the overall quantity of detail was significantly greater than RQ2, it was spread a little thin without the detail on Prax, Dragon Pass and the Lunar incursions that characterised the previous edition.
Compared to its contemparies, RuneQuest was miles ahead. Compared to current standards, it's a bit creaky these days but still a very workable product. Problems with the game system, typically associated with scaling issues, the level of 'crunch' in the combat system and simulationist character generation to a fault (e.g., rolling age and parental background) do not prevent the game system receiving an overall distinction, and backed with enormous scope and depth of information for play. The language, production, layout and art are of acceptable quality, but with additional points for lending to evocative, mythic and heroic play. Even after twenty-seven years, RQ3 still makes a fair pitch to the title of "best RPG of all time". Get yourself a copy.
