Jeff

Just to let folk know, the new RuneQuest will definitely have hit locations (and general hit points are back in after much deliberation).

A few notes on the Esvularings (Aeolians): BACKGROUND INFO First a few facts. There are about 100,000 Esvulari people in Kethaela. About 30,000 of them are in Bandori County and Marcher County, where they make up about 50% of the population. Another 60,000 of them are in what used to be the Kingdom of Malkonwal, where they made up only about 20% of the population. The remaining 10,000 are scattered in the County of the Isles, in God Forgot, the Left Arm Islands, Hendrikiland, and in Nochet. Lets say there are about 1500 in Nochet. The most important settlements of the Esvularings are Mount Passant and Refuge. Durengard, Vizel, and Leskos are also significant urban centers for the Esvularings. The Guide - always our first source - describes them as such: The Esvularings were once atheists like the folk of God Forgot, but have embraced a unique henotheist variation of Malkionism called Aeolism, which holds that the Orlanthi gods are emanations of the Invisible God. They worship the Invisible God, but heartily participate in the Orlanthi rites as well. [Page 247] In the Second Age, the God Learners described the Esvularings as: "descendants of the folk of New Malkonwal too sinful to be taken to Solace with Malkion's sacrifice, but have the temerity to claim that Malkion abandoned them. They were once foolish atheists and are now little more than idolators who venerate Worlath as an emanation of Makan and even claim Makan sanctified the god through the deeds of their founder Aeol. They are a people temperamentally incapable of conviction or strong faith. However, they do not offer blood sacrifice to gods and view that as abhorrent. They are ruled by their Talari and pay tribute to the Hendriking kings, but do not follow their laws." In the later Second Age, the Esvularings were ruled by the Zistorites of the Clanking City. This radical materialist and atheist movement sought to build the Divine Automaton to transmute Creation. Many Esvularings embraced worship of the Machine God, until the Clanking City was destroyed and cursed in 917. The Esvularings were directly ruled by the Hendriki from 917 to 1337. RELIGION The Esvularings worship the Invisible God as the supreme Creator, He is the Source, the Egg of Wonder, the One. He is sometimes depicted as an elderly god with thirteen (eight powers plus five elements) heads and four arms. He holds no weapons, but instead a measuring stick, a book, and string of eyes. He is crowned. The Invisible God is viewed as too remote and too unapproachable to directly worship. Instead, the Esvularings worship Orlanth, Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, and Eurmal as personifications/emanations of the Creator. Of these, Orlanth is most important. These gods have consorts who are worshiped in combination with them. Much of Esvularing philosophy focuses on the series of emanations from the Invisible God to the Cosmic Court down to the gods and then down to mortals. The wars of the gods are viewed as part of the ongoing process of creation until the Unholy Trio rebel against creation and bring Chaos to destroy the universe. The cosmos is saved by the Lightbringers' Quest. Aeol is the founder, a sage (note - the name Aeol might be a title or a description!) and a (semi?) divine being who composed the verses that form the basis of Aeolianism. These verses were first written down in the First Age, but then were provided with copious amounts of commentary under God Learner influence, that brought Aeolianism within the broad range of Malkioni philosophy (albeit in the outer limits). Malkion is acknowledged by the Aeolians as a prophet preceding Aeol who taught Aeol the revealed truth of the Invisible God. Some God Learners identified Aeol with Malkion. The Aeolians have only three castes: noble (talar); advisor (the priestly families); and free (commoner). These castes are endogamous. They do not practice caste mobility, but leaders from the noble and advisor castes are chosen by the free commoners. The priestly caste performs the rites and ceremonies for the community. Although they are called priests, they are in fact sorcerers. GOVERNMENT The Esvularing a tribal confederacy of chieftains called talars chosen by the local commoners from the noble families. The chieftains serve as military leaders and judges, and are roughly equivalent to Heortling chiefs. There is no Esvularing king. Instead the talars have annual councils in Mount Passant and Refuge where they resolve disputes between each other.

The original decision to license RuneQuest to Mongoose was back in 2005 or 2006 (I'm not going to look up my file). Issaries had largely assigned publication of the HeroQuest line over to Moon Design. At that time, I was writing with Greg, but on a part-time basis. Greg and I had neither the time, the capital, or the interest to try to rebuild RuneQuest - we were focused entirely on Glorantha as a setting. On retrospect, giving the license to Mongoose was a gigantic mistake for a myriad of reasons that I am not going to go into here. When Mongoose lost the license, the RuneQuest brand was frankly badly tarnished. Sales of MRQ products had dropped off dramatically after the initial rules book. And for other reasons, Greg and I were both extremely unhappy with the Mongoose relationship, which we both considered to be as bad if not worse than the Avalon Hill relationship. Rick and I felt that we had our hands full just getting Glorantha on track and to deal with the collateral damage to that brand. So when Loz and Pete asked for the RuneQuest license, we were glad to help them get it. We knew we wouldn't be able to do anything with it for several years and they were passionate about presenting the rules system they had developed without the awful Mongoose editing, layout, horrible art, and just general awfulness. When Greg assigned over all the Glorantha and RuneQuest rights to Moon Design (back in 2013), Moon Design became the owner of RuneQuest and of all of Greg's notes, design ideas, unpublished campaigns, etc. It was an embarrassment of riches - and huge amounts of it worked its way into the Guide to Glorantha. Greg wrote his material for the RuneQuest 2 rules in mind (or a variant like Epic), not for HeroQuest 2. So even though this was all statless, the seed of doing RuneQuest for Glorantha was very much in my head. The whole Moon Design team had been talking internally about this since we published the Guide, and it accelerated after we finished writing HeroQuest Glorantha. It was a combination of GenCon, HeroQuest Glorantha, some of Greg's Nephelim notes, and then carefully rereading Epic, the Dragon Pass campaign, and Enclosure 1 that revealed the solution to working the Runes into the rules and made us realize that we could make the RuneQuest rules really work for Glorantha. Feverish work with Jason Durall and Chris Klug, and gigantic email discussions with Ken Rolston cemented it. Sandy presenting us with some 50 files of RQ rules material he had worked on was the icing on the cake. But as the development process proceeded it became pretty clear that this was not RQ6, but the RQ4 (or even RQ3) that never was. So TDM and MD went their separate ways, and we expect they will do great stuff with their rules engine. However, we've been feverishly moving forward. Decades of work from key collaborators - Greg, Sandy, Ken, David Dunham, Chris Klug, MOB, and myself - all have finally come together into a coherent and consistent package. But it was built off RQ2 (and to a lesser extent RQ3), not RQ6. We most recently brought on Steve to advise, counsel, and edit - particularly with regards to the combat mechanics.

Greg had no involvement at all in the MRQ rules beyond approving the license. The only publication Greg had any substantive feedback on was Dara Happa Stirs. Greg and I both scrambled to get the Middle Sea Empire and the History of the Heortling People ready for Robin as a resource for the Second Age, but Matt's deadline was too fast for us and by the time we finished, it was too late. Other than Dara Happa Stirs, I am pretty sure Greg never even looked at a single MRQ-related manuscript.

That's been both of our opinion for a very long time. And Greg has worked on solving it since about 1980, but never got there. Incorporating the Runes directly into HQ2 was a last minute design decision, that eventually showed the way to do it for RuneQuest. If you think this is six months of work, guess again. Greg (I only joined into the process a mere 20 years ago) has been working on this for well over thirty years. My file of Greg's drafts and notes is a good 18 inches thick. This work was weaved through Pendragon, Epic, Nephilim, Pendragon Pass, and had a huge impact on Pendragon Pass, King of Dragon Pass, HeroQuest 2, and HWG. Annoyingly, working out how the Runes could fit into this and thus solve the last mechanical hurdle only revealed itself to us last year.

The biggest problems that RQ2+ had with Glorantha were: 1. the Runes had no game relevance; 2. the front-loaded nature of Rune magic (a character couldn't simple call upon the god to use the god's magic, but needed to determine prior to adventuring what spells - usually one-use - the character could use); and 3. the absence of mechanics to handle a character's drives and relationships - which made writing gameable heroquests extraordinarily difficult. None of those were a good fit with the setting, and HeroQuest did this far better. We've now fixed all of these for RuneQuest, and the playtesting results are that this is now a good fit if you want to run games where the characters do things like described in Gloranthan stories and history.

I know that Special Effects has its fans. But we made the decision to drop them after careful deliberation. They may "streamline combat results" but they don't streamline the game (which is not the same thing). This is part of the controversy of RQ6. For some people, rules like Special Effects speed up combat results and gives them fun and cinematic combats. For others, the same rules are overly complex, counter intuitive, and the very act of narrative control with regards to combat results runs counter to the nature of RuneQuest. Different strokes for different folks. We chose to not use them because we don't think they don't fit well with what we are putting together.

It should be edited to read, "Certainly. That is just what sometimes happens in business."

That is very much the goal of this edition. We have over thirty years of Greg's unpublished ideas, edits, and design concepts that were developed *for* RQ2 to draw on, plus Sandy, Ken, and Steve. What we have very much feels like "What RuneQuest would have been had Chaosium not done the Avalon Hill iicense (let alone the Mongoose license) and kept RQ2 as their active Gloranthan rules systems since then."

Or the reverse - the player who is personally very loquacious and outgoing, playing a low-CHA taciturn Humakti who gives speeches far better than their character could. We make a dice roll to see if a sword hits (we could just agree to talk that through), I see zero problem with rolling dice to see if a speech, seduction, quick excuse, etc works.

Actually RQ already does this through the skill system. If you want to do something, you look for an ability that covers it (or default to a raw characteristic). Where the skill is complex (like melee combat or Demoralizing someone), you require additional rules to handle the complexity, but in most circumstances, the ability description more or less covers it. Additionally complexity concerning resources or ability improvement also gets rules coverage (do I get Rune spells back? When do I get magic points/temporary POW back? etc). Important game concepts (what is a cult and why do I care about it?) gets rule coverage. I think we are in agreement, just approaching it from opposite ends.

I wish I could take credit for those two Design Rules, but they came straight from the Oracle that is Uncle Ken. I think there's a bit of overthinking going on here - these rules come from Ken's observations over 40 years of tabletop and computer game design. They are rules of player behavior that need to be design rules - because whatever your rules say, this is what your players will do with them. If there is something that you as a designer thinks is important for gameplay put it on the character sheet somehow. If it isn't there, most players won't use it. RuneQuest has traditionally been very well-designed in this regard. If you need to know how to handle a situation, you look down the character sheet until you find an applicable skill. If you don't find an applicable skill, you are hosed. If you want to hit or parry with a weapon, you look at the character sheet until you find the relevant entry, which also tells you the damage it causes and how much damage it blocks. And so on. If you introduce social skills, like passions, or want to have Runes be in play, then put it on the character sheet. If community is important, make sure that is on the character as more than just a "of Apple Lane" entry. Give it a number, a tool, a hook. Then players will do something with it. Now this all real basic stuff, but Ken, Chris, and I all find it very useful to always keep in mind at the beginning of the process. What is going to be the "tool" that the players have in front of them? How are they going to know that something is significant? Make sure you know your result (ie what the heck are you trying to do?) before you start making rules and mechanics. And then think about how it gets expressed to the player in the single most important tool they have - the character sheet. Jeff

I agree with all of the above. Just to add on it: This is a self-contained book. You don't need the Sourcebook, let alone the Guide, to start play. It is intended that you can use this book to run the RQ2 scenarios (it will contain material on how to handle Rune magic, which is a bit different now). The book will be somewhere in the vicinity of 240 pages. Maybe little more, maybe substantially less (as I plan to then cut, cut, cut). It currently stands at 200 pages, and will go up once the monster stat blocks are added. My expectation is it will be about the size of HeroQuest Glorantha. Hope that helps!

But I do hope people at least find these notes interesting. The goal is to let you all know what we are thinking and how we are coming at it.

For what it is worth, I have a copy of the 1993 Elric! book right on my desk. I've been looking quite a bit at Stormbringer, Elric!, Hawkmoon, even Ringworld. And since Jason Durall will be coming into the process at some point pretty soon, I'm pretty sure that elements of those rules will have been considered carefully.

You attack and parry at the same weapon skill. And where you would learn two weapons together (say, 1h Spear and Shield) you use your 1H Spear and Shield skill for attack (1H Spear) and for parry (Shield). It is kind of silly to have those separated out into different skills given that they are learned and used together.

It will be released this year,

Believe me, my group of play-testers don't idolize the system (only one had even played any iteration of RuneQuest prior to this - and that was RQ3) . And they are wonderful at bringing basic things to a screaming halt. I'm know the other leads currently testing stuff out have the same experience.

RQ is not being released according to an arbitrary deadline. But we will have pre-release version of the rules ready for GenCon.

MOB posted this to the Glorantha list, but this really should be here in the RuneQuest Gateway folder! Plenty of info here! ----------- In the spirit of bringing the band back together, Chaosium is delighted to announce that Steve Perrin is joining the design team for Chaosium’s new edition of RuneQuest. "We knew that Steve Perrin’s place at the table, as both the creator and lead author of the original groundbreaking ‘78 and ‘79 editions of game, was a natural fit that harkens back to the genius and originality of RuneQuest", said Rick Meints, President of Chaosium. In late 2015 Moon Design Publications and Chaosium successfully Kickstarted the RuneQuest Classic Edition campaign, a triumphant reissue of the iconic 2nd Edition of the RuneQuest rules and the supplements produced for it: Cults of Prax, Pavis, Big Rubble, Griffin Mountain, TrollPak and many others. “We want to usher in the newest exploration of Glorantha with a tribute to the masterpiece opus of work that has come before. Part of Steve's role is to help insure that this edition contains the best possible game mechanics while maintaining backwards compatibility with RuneQuest 2", said Jeff Richard, creative director at Chaosium. The new version of RuneQuest maintains backwards compatibility with earlier editions, while also containing a number of unique innovations that resonate with Glorantha, Greg Stafford's mythical campaign setting where RuneQuest started and to which it returns. This new edition incorporates Runes directly into both your character and the magic system you use, including their passions and motivations. "The rules reinforce immersion in the setting even more than the original RuneQuest rules did, and ideas experimentally brought forth in Griffin Mountain reach their fruition", said Richard. Seizing this unique chance to get this right, Chaosium has brought in a team of notable game designers to support Chaosium’s rebirth of RuneQuest, including Sandy Petersen (Call of Cthulhu), Ken Rolston (Paranoia, Elder Scrolls, RQ3), Chris Klug (James Bond 007 RPG, DragonQuest) and Jason Durral (BRP, Conan). A special pre-release version of the new rules will be revealed at Gen Con later this year, along with introductory scenario sessions. A wealth of all-new campaign material and supplements for the new edition will follow.

Barley is the staple grain of the Orlanthi, supplemented by wheats and oats. Beer is the staple beverage, wine is the drink for festivals, feasts, and ceremonies. Apples, berries, cherries, and grapes are common. Lamb is the most common meat, followed by pork. Wild game is common. So with that in mind, let's look at your questions: If you were a guest at a clan feast or cult intitation ceremony, what food and drink would you be served? Depends on your status at that feast! But let's say you are a member of the community in good standing or a favored guest. Then you'd likely eat meat from the sacrificed animal (depends on the god), drink wine from a communal dish, eat flatbread, and have whatever fruits and vegetables are in season. Feasts are important times to show off the wealth of the community, honor the gods, and so on. They aren't how people eat every day! What do travelers eat on the road, and does anyone make a living preparing food for them at resting places on their journeys? Flatbread, dried or cured meat or fish, fruits, cheese, etc. In Sartar, most towns and many villages have designated places where travelers are hosted. Generally, if you travel a day on one of Sartar's Royal Roads, you will find a place where you can rest and eat. What did you eat growing up, and what will you feed your children when you have them? Your daily diet is going to depend on your status and occupation - the household of a priest eats better than the household of a tenant farmer! Priests and thanes have access to pretty much everything that is grown or raised in a region. Free farmers eat what they grow or raise, plus what little they can trade for with whatever surplus they have. Tenant farmers and herders eat from their share of the crop.

The houses in New Pavis are very normal Orlanthi houses adapted to the environment of Pavis County. The homes of notables in Sartar are often built of stone, not timber.

For what it is worth, I have no problem with the idea of spells that take effect on SR0 (they just happen before anything physical is possible). And I greatly prefer 12 SR to 10, for purely aesthetic reasons. But my interest in feedback is not for "rules fixes" or mechanical preferences - just which approach was easier to understand or grasp as presented in the rule books.

Just continuing a discussion started on G+ (check it out here). How do you find that the original RQ2 strike rank rules hold up compared to that of RuneQuest 3? I'm curious not just conceptually, but how easy are they to apply in game? Do players have difficulty understanding them? Are there elements of them that don't make sense to you?

I will be including some canonical maps/plans/layouts of a common Heortling/Kethaelan stead in a 2016 publication. They are NOT what folk generally assume. The most typical Heortling stead is built in a square shape (an Earth Rune). It consists of several buildings built around a central courtyard/garden. The buildings typically include a barn, an entry hall, a place for guests and storage, a "guard room" (usually includes a shrine to the guardian deities), an outer hearth, and a inner hearth (which has the shrines to ancestors and to the personal deities), There are usually smaller huts for tenant farmers and other dependents who aren't part of the close family. Building materials depends on the local area and varies from wood, stone and timber, fired clay, adobe, etc. These sorts of farmsteads can be found throughout Sartar, Heortland, Esrolia, Maniria, and even the Vendref communities in the Grazelands.