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I ran a RQII campaign from October of 2010 until September 2011 and I also ran it at Toronto’s 2011 Fan Expo. Unless my players were lying to me, we had a pretty great time with it when playing both the campaign and the one-shot. This review reflects my experience running the game, so it is obviously a product of my biases, misreading and gaming habits.
The Gist
Like its predecessors Runequest II has a fairly simple percentile based system with skill based combat and task resolution. In general, the goal is to simply roll under a character’s skill. How much they roll under their skill doesn’t generally matter, unless
a) You are rolling against another character, in which case the highest roll without going over wins (‘Price is Right’ rules); or
b) Your roll comes up between 01 and the skill you are testing divided by ten (rounding up). In that case, you’ve rolled a critical.
Character creation is a mixture of random and lifepath based by default, although there are point buy options as well. PCs are assumed to be human, although every non-human character provided in the ‘Creatures’ chapter gives you the number of dice thrown if you are inclined to use them as a character race. Be warned, Runequest II isn’t really big on ‘balance’ though.
The Corebook also provides a fairly standard Equipment chapter, four different magic systems, and general chapters on cult creation and magic in the game; as well as fairly brief sections on game mastering and the aforementioned Creatures chapter.
It’s a pretty complete toolkit that provides more than enough tools to get a game off the ground.
The Awesome
Runequest II’s combat system is probably the best fantasy combat system I’ve ever seen because of two mechanics: Combat Actions and Combat Manoeuvres.
Combat Actions are derived from a character’s stats (along with an extra action if they wield a shield or second weapon) and determine how many actions they can take, including any defences against incoming attacks. If you are attacked and out of Combat Actions, you are in serious trouble. I can’t express how much tension this added to my games.
Combat Manoeuvres are where the game really shines though. Any time an attacker hits with an attack and the defender fails to either evade or parry, the attacker can choose a Combat Manoeuvre ranging from choosing a hit location, to impaling their opponent to disarming them. Defenders can choose from a similar list should they succeed in a parry roll and the attacker fails their attack.
This has two effects. The first is that no one ever has to call a shot and fail again and again. The second effect, is that every good, solid hit has a dramatic and cinematic consequence. Fights are often over as soon as one character scores a combat manoeuvre and uses it to their advantage.
Finally, the Divine Magic chapter, when used with the general magic/rune chapter and the chapter on Cults, provides a great set of tools to quickly put together a pantheon of deities, their cults and the mystical rewards their followers get. I found that spending twenty minutes sketching out some cults made the religions in my setting far more alive than they would otherwise have been. I will be using these tools next time I play in a fantasy setting.
The Less Than Awesome
The Spirit Magic rules were vague and left me with no idea of how I would actually use them in play. Honestly, they seemed so different from the rest of the magic rules that they felt like they belonged to another game. Thankfully, they rarely came up in my campaign.
The GMing section is a bit on the short side. I realize that very few people are going to be new to gaming when they pick up RQII, but a little advice on using Runequest II rules to build one’s own setting would have been great; especially in terms of dialling up or down the amount of magic in a setting.
Finally, I was bummed that the corebook did not include Ducks in the Creatures chapter. I realize they are Glorantha specific, but duckmen are awesome.
The Final Word
Runequest II is a criminally overlooked game. Next time you feel like running a fantasy game that isn’t D&D, take a look at it. If you like a bit of gritty, fast moving game, I think you’ll find RQII just what the doctor ordered.
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