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This review of Mongoose RuneQuest (MRQ) is from the point of view of a gamer completely new to RuneQuest. I don’t have the previous versions, have never played them, and have no interest in doing so.
One note, MRQ uses the Open Game License started by Wizards of the Coast, meaning all the core rules are available for free online except for the rules for rolling up Characteristics. Here’s a link if you haven’t paged through the rulebook: link to RuneQuest rules
This review will focus completely on the current Mongoose version. Do the current rules do what Mongoose and the back cover copy say they will do?
RuneQuest Overall Synopsis “This book contains the core rules for RuneQuest, everything you need to begin adventuring in a hundred fantasy worlds, with a thousand different characters”, reads the back cover text. Whew, that statement is quite a claim.
All the key pieces one would expect in a traditional fantasy RPG are included: complete character creation information, a handful of monsters, and some abilities usable only by more experienced PCs.
In reality, the book is really a Player’s Handbook with the RuneQuest Companion serving as a GM’s Guide and the RuneQuest Monsters serving as the Monster Manual. All three books provide for long-term play.
All three books are Open Source, so anyone can look over the rules without buying one book. RuneQuest is a solid system of rules and contains enough roleplaying bits to draw in both GMs and players. I’ll break the book down chapter by chapter to provide examples and more details.
Introduction The introduction makes the use of the book clearer. “The purpose of this rulebook is to provide the player with all the rules required to play RuneQuest in one handy place.” The core rulebook succeeds at achieving this goal.
Only two paragraphs are wasted on the ‘what are roleplaying games’, a short description of the Open Game License is covered, a welcome back synopsis is given for veteran RuneQuest players, and a plug for Glorantha the game world is given.
Finally, something truly useful is given. “There are three traditions in RuneQuest that separate it from other fantasy roleplaying games:” Runes, Quests, and Cults. Runes, Quests, and Cults and how they tie into RuneQuest are what make buying the book and playing the game worthwhile.
Runes are a unique magic system. PCs must find runes, integrate them, seek mentors to learn spells, and hold the rune to then cast the spell. Runes provide flavorful roleplaying, reasons to adventure, game mechanic advantages, and a magic rich tradition and ties them all together. Brilliant.
Quests are not simply adventures. They are not simply saving a village but saving an entire realm from danger over many adventures. Granted, this theme is found in many games, but it serves to further separate RuneQuest from simple dungeon crawling.
Finally, cults (or guilds or organizations) are another idea used in other games, but are tied in strongly to RuneQuest not just in a roleplaying sense but also in a mechanical sense. PCs who want to thrive will want allies outside of their group. Joining a Cult means increasing power and incidentally ties the PCs more strongly to the GM’s setting. Also, using those runes mentioned above is much easier if a PC belongs to a Cult that offers to teach spells tied to those runes.
The intro ends with what you need to play and how to roll dice. The intro is mostly standard fare, but only two pages are taken up and the three traditions are a really useful piece. An introduction focused just on these three traditions would have been the most useful in my mind (or one extra page could have been given over to including dragonnewts, see below).
Creating an Adventurer A checklist is provided to aid in character creation.
Humans are considered the standard race. Rules for playing other races are given in the Creatures section. Overuse of non-human creatures (even dwarves or elves) is cautioned against, which a departure from the majority of fantasy RPGs. RuneQuest focuses strongly on the human condition.
Playing a non-human race will require the player and GM to work together to create the PC and then integrate the PC into the campaign. Roleplaying challenges will be great, which can a great reason to play a non-human for a skilled player. The basic result of making non-humans rare is that non-human races seem truly alien, not simply short humans who see in the dark or pointy eared humans who are long lived.
Characteristics The seven characteristics in RuneQuest are similar to the six used in other Open Source games. Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma are standard. Power is life force and personal strength of will (like Wisdom used in other OGL games but strongly tied to rune integration and divine intervention, see both below). Size indicates overall massiveness of the character allowing for more damage but more difficulty in hiding.
Dice rolling for each characteristic is similar as well, using d6 rolls to create ranges from either three to eighteen or eight to eighteen, weighting rolls around thirteen. These final scores are used to form the base percentages for various skills.
Attributes Characteristics generate additional stats called attributes. Attributes include Combat Actions (one to four actions a Combat Round), Damage Modifier (for melee and thrown weapons), Hit Points (damage that can be taken to each body location), Magic Points (to activate spells), and Strike Rank (how fast the character acts in combat).
Basic Skills Every character also starts with twenty starting skills and two basic combat skills based on their starting characteristics. Skills cover the basics of physical tests (Acrobatics and Boating), social (Influence and Sing), combat (Dodge and Unarmed), and mental tests (First Aid and Lore—world). Basic combat covers All Close Combat and All Ranged.
Most checks against skills are a simple roll under using percentage dice with a few other options thrown in for combat and for skills over 100%. With characteristics generated and attributes and basic skills figured, a PC already has the ability to do many things, just none of them very well. Previous experience, which comes next, addresses that issue somewhat.
Previous Experience Three stages are involved in determining a character’s previous experience. First, a cultural background is chosen. Second, a profession is picked. Finally, free skill points are spent.
Basic cultural backgrounds include barbarian, peasant, townsman, and noble. However, a GM could create specific backgrounds for each realm in their own world and then provide professions for each realm to customize his setting.
Professions include bard (non-caster), blacksmith, explorer, farmer, lord, physician, soldier, etc. A large range of professions from the mundane to the adventuresome are provided.
Cultural backgrounds provide bonuses to basic skills, access to advanced skills (usually at the basic derived-characteristic level to start), and starting money. Professions note the normal cultural background required and more basic skill bonuses and advanced skills.
Finally, one hundred free skills points are spread out among the basic skills, weapon skills, known advanced skills, or can be used to purchase more advanced skills.
Some professions, such as the witch or wizard, start with Runecasting as an advanced skill. This skill provides the PC with an integrated rune and one starting spell. Every provided rune provides at least one spell option in the Magic section.
General Information A final page includes information on Movement, Hero Points (used to accomplish seemingly impossible acts and to purchase Legendary abilities), age, appearance, and personality. The last paragraph directs the player to the Equipment section to buy gear.
An example of character creation follows with a filled out character sheet being provided on the last page of the book.
Everything is laid out in a simple to follow manner that still generates a well rounded and useful character. The sample barbarian shaman has skills ranging from 40% on the high side to around 20% on the low side.
Hs Spirit rune allows him to cause spirits he targets with spells to suffer a -30% penalty on attempts to resist or counterspell them. He also starts the game with the spell Second Sight (gauge magic power of creature and items, bonus to see hidden people, and see invisible people as hazy objects).
The sample character has sixteen Magic Points. Casting Second Sight requires a successful skill test against Rune casting (Spirit) 38%. Success means the spell is cast for three Magic Points. Failure means the spell is not cost and costs one Magic Point.
These thirteen pages (fourteen with the character sheet) provide a huge range of character types, skills, abilities, and backgrounds. Nearly any character based on medieval western European fantasy can be created from barbarian mercenaries to noble spies to peasant witches.
In addition, the magic system is flavorful, thematically linked to the game (any character can Quest for Runes to gain the ability to cast spells, and join Cults to gain access to spells), and is not a simple fire and forget system. Casters must work at their spells just as they would at any other skill.
Skills This section covers how to handle situations not covered by any skill (use GM fiat) and what to do if a character does not have a needed advanced skill (either auto failure or use a related basic skill at -20%). Modifiers follow as well as critical successes and fumbles.
Next up is automatic success and failure, opposed tests, group tests, using very high skills, assistance with skills, and using skills in combat. As skills cover almost everything the character can do, this attention to detail is both necessary and well considered.
I have read reviews noting that the practice of halving high skills in opposed tests is broken (if two skills are over 100% both are halved and halved again as needed until one skill is under 100%). However, this halving of skills over 100% only applies if BOTH skills in the opposed test are over 100% not just one skill. It does not apply when only one skill is over 100%. The system should work as written
Basic skills are described next, some of which are broken down into smaller rules. For instance, Athletics has separate rules for using the skill for climbing, jumping, and swimming.
Advanced skills are covered next. Advanced skills cover a wide range of difficult topics from dancing to engineering to shipbuilding. Depending on which skills a PC focuses on will direct game play in vastly different ways. If a PC improves Dance and Play Instrument he will be better suited for different adventures than another PC improving Engineering and Shipbuilding. The wide range of skills should allow GMs and players to focus in on stories that interest them.
Weapon and magic skills round out the chapter. The Close Combat and Ranged Weapon skills build off the basic skill for each in various categories like 1H Sword and Bow. The Rune casting skill is actually thirty-five skills, one for each rune. A caster could spend a lifetime pursuing magic and not master everything.
Equipment Weapons, armor, basic gear, crystals (three types), and potions (three types) are listed. Two interesting additions to the standard lists are wergild and ransom (which encourages capturing enemies to avoid having his relatives come after you and to get paid to return him) and crystals.
Crystals are the blood of the gods fallen to earth. Crystals enhance spellcasting in various ways.
Combat Combat follows the system of rolling for to determine the order of everyone’s actions, than following that order to resolve conflict. However, some characters will have more than one Combat Action in a round, so each combat round will consist of a serious of first actions for each combatant, followed by second actions, then third, and the final fourth action.
In addition, each combatant has a number of Reactions in combat equal to his number of Combat Actions. Reactions include Dodge, Parry, Free Attack, and Dive most allowing characters to avoid some damage to themselves.
The rules also include rules for impaling weapons (leave it in or try to yank it out, more damage either way) and precise shots to parts of the body. Criticals and fumbles are covered as well. A nice mix of offense, defense, and tactical choices.
Hit points are assigned to seven locations and each location has its own armour points if armour is worn. An extra d20 must be rolled to determine which body part is hit (unless a precise shot targets one body part specifically).
If hit points in an area fall to negatives, minor and major wounds are assigned. Major wounds may result in the loss of limbs and/or permanent impairment. Combat is deadly and harsh in RuneQuest, requiring careful thought or desperate action on the part of PCs.
Hero points are covered last, allowing PCs a little extra ability to avoid being maimed or killed. Hero points allow for dice rerolls, reducing a Major Injury to a Serious Injury, alter the storyline in a minor way, and to purchase Legendary Abilities. An example of altering the storyline is the character surrenders in combat and spends a Hero Point to get a chance to escape.
A two page combat example wraps up the chapter.
I haven’t playtested combat, but the rules seem to contribute to a frantic, terrifying, fast combat that would feel “real” to PCs. They would have to react quickly, fear that every blow could hurt or kill them, and generally avoid combat whenever possible and when not possible seek to defeat the enemy as quickly as they can to save their own skins. Hero Points would allow them a little leeway to act more fearsome and heroic as needed.
Magic The practice of magic is unique in RuneQuest. Casting a magic spell requires finding the right rune and integrating that rune. This integration provides an immediate benefit depending on the rune type but reduces Power by one point.
After a rune is integrated, the runecaster gains the Runecasting (rune type) skill and can seek out teachers of spells (or spell) for that rune. Learning a new spell costs money and joining a cult reduces the cost.
Casting a spell requires a successful test against Runecasting (specific rune) as well as holding the rune itself in hand. Success casts the spell and cost Magic Points equal to the Magnitude of the spell. Failure means the spell is not cast and costs one Magic Point.
Any character can seek out any rune and learn Runecasting. Since Runecasting must be improved like any other skill, however, only characters who work at improving their Runecasting skills will become better at casting spells.
Various other types of magic are mentioned as option in the game but are not detailed. The modular nature of the system means a GM could even remove runecasting entirely and replace it with another spellcasting system.
This unique magic system is one of the great strengths of RuneQuest despite a few missing pieces in the base rules (see below). Acquiring Runes ties to going on Quests and joining Cults rewards runecasters with access to more spells.
And a GM who wants more options can add Sorcery or Divine Magic from RuneQuest Companion. Or make up his own system of spellcasting.
A few minor problems crop up in the presentation of the basic runecasting system. The rune of Movement is mentioned for Slow and Speeddart. I assume the writer meant the rune of Motion since there is no rune of Movement. Errors like this one do creep in, but it is unfortunate to see it in the core rulebook.
Dragonnewt and Undead have no spells at all. However neither Dragonnewt nor Undead can be picked as starting runes for new characters so the lack of spells does not impact starting characters.
Also, the Dragonnewt rune is completely useless as written. It allows the user to become a dragonnewt on his death.
Unfortunately, the dragonnewt is not a monster presented in the core book. A GM would need to go online to get the mechanical stats (which at least are free). I think this rune must have been included for the use of future books but it is wasted space with just the core book.
Cults Along with the magic system, cults are truly a rules system that makes RuneQuest shine. Cults usually revolve around the worship of a god. Each Cult attracts certain types of followers (soldiers, wizards, farmer etc) and allows for various levels of membership and corresponding commitments in the Cult.
Benefits include reduced cost for spells, the ability to ask for Divine Intervention, and the ability to become Runepriests or Runelords (using the Legendary Abilities rules). Duties include tithing, attending worship, and at higher levels running the Cult.
Cults replace the abstract idea of alignments. As a member of a Cult or Cults, a PC must decide what beliefs that accept or do not accept of their chosen Cult. If they choose to rise in the ranks, they lose connections to other Cults and become more strongly tied to one chosen Cult. Actions of the PC that may reflect on the Cult will affect the standing of the PC in his Cult.
Divine intervention is a beseeching cry to the Cult member’s god. A roll of 1d100 is made. If it is equal to or under the cultist’s Power characteristic, the request is granted. Success reduces a cultist’s Power by the amount of the successful roll. If Power is reduced to zero, the request is still granted but the cultist’s soul is taken by his god to serve him directly, ending the cultist’s mortal life!
Anything up to bringing back another person from the dead might be granted by divine intervention at the GM’s discretion. However, divine intervention will not result in great harm or death to a mortal and must be within the sphere of the god’s influence to be granted.
Adventuring This chapter covers time, movement including chases, vision, fatigue, environmental hazards, healing, encumbrance, various hazards like falling and poison, and inanimate objects.
Improving Adventures After a successful adventure (usually two to six hours of game play) a PC gains three improvement rolls, with poor or good play reducing or increasing the number by up to two (a range of one to five).
PCs should also receive two Hero Points (with a range of zero to four).
One improvement roll can be used to roll a 1d100 and compare it to an existing skill. If the roll is greater than the skill’s current score, the score increases by 1d4+1 points. Otherwise it increases by one point.
Most skills must have been practiced (either used during the adventure or worked at during down time) at some point during the adventure to be eligible for improvement. Lore can only be increased through research and a few other skills can be increased this way as well. Research allows a +10 to +20 bonus to the 1d100 roll to try to increase a skill.
Finally, for a cost mentors can train others in skills. A mentor makes a skill test for the skill they are teaching. If successful, the student gains a bonus to their 1d100 roll equal to their mentor’s critical success range with the skill. In addition, if the 1d100 roll exceeds their skill’s current score, it increases by 1d6+1 points instead of 1d4+1 points.
Encouraging research and seeking out mentors rewards roleplaying which is a nice touch.
Two improvement rolls can buy a new advanced skill and three improvement rolls can be used to try to increase a characteristic by one point. A failed attempt still allows an increase of one point in a skill associated with that characteristic.
Legendary abilities can also be taken by PCs. Each legendary ability has basic requirements and costs a number of Hero Points from eight to twelve. Skin of the Bear, as an example, gives one point of natural armour to all hit locations which stacks with equipped armour.
Levels of experience provide break points of power based on free skill points, money, characteristics, runes, status, hero points, and at higher levels legendary abilities. Each level allows for creating characters at levels of power beyond novice more quickly and easily. It also provides a baseline of comparison for various characters.
Creatures Rules for playing non-human characters are given here. Non-human PCs will be rare in the standard RuneQuest campaign as they can be overpowered mechanically and suffer severe roleplaying impediments in the standard human-centric world.
Standard fare includes animals, centaurs, dragons, dwarves, elves, and giants. Unique to RuneQuest are broo (men/goat hybrids dedicated to Chaos) and ducks (either men cursed to humanoid birds or ducks cursed to be bipedal and intelligent).
Index and Appendices An index is included. Also a rune sheet (which unfortunately does not list spells), a two page character sheet, and a one page character example finish the core rules.
Overall Impression RuneQuest is a great system for quasi-medieval western European fantasy roleplaying. The rules encourage both active roleplaying and an interest in the mechanics of building a character.
Runes, Quests, and Cults are the core strengths of the system, with flexible characters coming a close second. To me, longevity matters as well and RuneQuest games could be run for years based on the improvement system.
As for Style, I like the look and presentation of the book. The Infinity rune on the cover looks great and having depictions for each rune works well. The writing is crisp and the author does not waste words or wander off topic. The artwork is good and rules are located mostly where I’d expect to find them.
And an index is included.
The book earns a solid five for Style.
As to Substance, the idea of Runes, Quests, and Cults works well both mechanically and from a roleplaying sense. The mostly good editing is much appreciated. The mislabeling of required runes for two spells is basically just a typo (unless a rune is missing and I’m totally wrong) but does reflect on the workmanship.
The useless Dragonnewt rune detracts slightly from the content. And two runes without spells and no rules for alchemy also drag down the Substance rating. I give the book a solid four.
If the core book didn’t have minor typos in a couple of spells, included spells for Dragonnewt and Undead runes, had rules for alchemy, and included the dragonnewt in the monster section the book would be a solid five for Substance. It would include every rule needed to launch and run a RuneQuest campaign using just the core rulebook. The minor glitches are easily solved, however, and the system is well thought out.
I highly recommend RuneQuest based on its strengths: Runes, Quests, Cults, focus on character options and roleplaying, and the longevity the system offers. If your style of play focuses on story and character backed up by solid rules then this system is worth a look.
