BRP Classics: RUNEQUEST - Glorantha

[Trifletraxor]

RuneQuest was the first incarnation of Chaosium's BRP rules, a grim and gritty fantasy game created by Steve Perrin and first published by Chaosium in 1978. The game was set in the 3rd Age of the mythical world of Glorantha, created by Greg Stafford. The game was notable for its unique gaming system and quickly established itself as the second most popular roleplaying game after D&D. The RuneQuest supplements published by Chaosium in the early 1980s set a new industry standard for quality and was a major factor in the game's success. The first (1978) and second (1980) editions was published by Chaosium and set in Glorantha. The third edition (1984) was published by Avalon Hill under an agreement with Chaosium. It was more generic, but less successfull, mostly because of the lack of support it recieved from Avalon Hill. A fourth edition set in Glorantha was well underway, but was not approved by Greg and shelved in 1994, mid-project. An attempt to salvage it for another setting stranded in 1996.

[img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/runequest1.jpg]RuneQuest 1st edition (1978) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/runequest2.jpg]RuneQuest 2nd edition (1980) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/runequest3.jpg]RuneQuest 3rd edition (1984) [img=http://basicroleplaying.com/own/pics/classics/runequest4.jpg]RuneQuest AiG - the almost finished playtest copy of the 4th edition (1994)

RuneQuest have had an remarkably strong fanbase which continued to keep the game alive during many of the lean years, through fansites on the net, roleplaying conventions and high-quality fanzines. The fanbase is less active today, but the game still have a lot of fans and many of the old grognards continue to play their own houserules version of RuneQuest 2 or 3. Some of the supplements are still available and many resources can be found online. If you haven't tried it, do so! RuneQuest and its old supplements is a unique find that can provide many good years of fun.

Some useful links:

eBay - The best place to find dead tree versions of the classic RuneQuest rule books and supplements.

RPGNow - PDF versions of the fantastic four Gloranthan Classics supplements for RQ2.

Moon Design - Publisher of HeroQuest for 3rd Age Glorantha. Same setting but totally different rules.

Mongoose Publishing - Publisher of Mongoose RuneQuest for 2nd Age Glorantha. D100 system, but different setting.

Simon Phipp's RuneQuest/Glorantha Site- The largest RuneQuest site on the net, with lots of good content!

Devin Cutler's The Word - Several great RuneQuest scenarios including the epic "Quest for the Windsword."

Jonas Schiött's the East Wilds of Ralios - Information about the East Wilds & several RuneQuest scenarios.

Steve Marsh's Heroquest Home Page! - Some RuneQuest and HeroQuest scenarios.

Jane Williams' Glorantha page - A Vinga cult writeup and the foumous DuckPak!

Matti Järvinen's RuneQuest page - A RuneQuest character generator and some Glorantha resources.

Paul Honigmann's RQ page - Some RuneQuest articles, NPCs and a short scenario.

Alain Rameau's Glorantha Wars - Rule variants, new cults & spells and other game aids.

Frederic Moulin's The Stabbing Cat - Griffin Island resources, magical items and houserules.

Stephen Watson's Kero Fin - Cult writeups for Donandar, Gark the Calm and Odayla.

Toby Partridge's Griffin Mountain Campaign - Resources for a campaign situated in Balazar.

Kim Englund's Glorantha and RuneQuest Pages - Several campaign logs and some houserules.

RuneQuest Rules - A message group for discussing the classic RuneQuest rules.

Gringle's Pawnshop - Another forum to discuss RuneQuest 2 in Glorantha.

The Classic RuneQuest download section.

[cough!]eMule[cough!]

More links to sort through:

Nikk Effingham's RuneQuest Crucible - Ralios campaign & cults.

Pete's RQ & Roleplaying! - Scenarios & the Chaos Project. East Wilds of Ralios - East Wilds resources & scenarios.

Runequest Campaign - Campaign log & houserules

Ultimate RuneQuest Resources - Spells, creatures & houserules.RQ Pavis - Pavic/Praxian campaign.rqaddicts, rq3, & classic_runequest - Discussion groups. griffin_mtn_rq2 - RQ2 PbEM game set around Griffin Mountain.

Edited December 7, 2010 by Trifletraxor

[GianniVacca]

A fourth edition set in Glorantha was well underway, but was not approved by Greg and shelved in 1994, mid-project.

I thought the 4th edition had been shelved because of Oliver Jovanovic's personal problems.

[Trifletraxor]

I thought the 4th edition had been shelved because of Oliver Jovanovic's personal problems.

Well, that was the final hit that killed it totally, I should probably include that too, but the playtest version most of us have was not approved by Greg, so they would have to remove all references to Glorantha (which is a major part of the book) to be allowed to publish it. They thought about salvaging it in some form, but then Oliver's arrest in 1996 brought an end to that.

SGL.

[Trifletraxor]

"Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes", for HeroQuest - has anyone bought it? How difficult would it be to convert the scenarios? Do you have to the the HQ2 book too?

SGL.

[Rungard]

I have the Sartar book, but not the HQ2 book. I wanted to own it even though I'm not going to read the scenarios because another GM is going to run them and I'm going to play them.

Conversion must be simple, because the book does not include any stats, only the background and the events of the story.

[Trifletraxor]

Will you play it with HQ or RQ or BRP or MRQ rules, or something else?

SGL.

[Rungard]

I'm going to play with HQ, because this GM is a fan of the system.

I just want to play that campaign, I don't care which system we use actually!

[Lev Lafayette]

Some useful links:

RuneQuest Rules - A message group for discussing the classic RuneQuest rules.

Much appreciated that this has been included; it is also worth noting that the site has archived over twenty years of RuneQuest material from various mailing lists.