Customer Reviews

RuneQuest

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I was 13 when I first started playing 2nd Edition RuneQuest. It's been part of my life ever since - that's 20 years so far. A load of other systems came and went but the worlds Runequest inspired me and my friends to create have outlasted them all. Instantly immersive, intelligent, so much not a game as much as a handbook in emulating lives you could never lead, worlds you missed living in. We play RuneQuest for the same reason we go to the cinema, read a book or play a computer game - escape, thrills ... being made to think. But no computer game can yet replicate the creative challenge of a role-playing system as inspirational as the original RuneQuest's. Beautiful in its simplicity, the system is exactly as a system should be, the oil for the play, unobtrusive yet allowing a writer's mind to build a unique experience. These games and the people who play or played them have never been granted any social cachet. 2nd Edition RuneQuest is the outstanding reason their dismissal is a loss to any imaginative, creative and exploring mind. May the revelations and challenges in play continue for another 20 years of mine and beyond.

RuneQuest is an intelligent, lyrical system; by far the best fantasy role-playing game ever produced. You can truly tell that its creation was a labor of love: "Glorantha", the mythical backdrop of RuneQuest, is lovingly fleshed out in the main rulebook along with a myriad of supporting supplements. RuneQuest was a revolutionary system, eschewing the traditional class/level system of character generation for a free-flowing skill-based system of conceptualization. The end result was more three-dimensional characters. Regrettably, RQ is currently out of print in all editions, but it is still possible to find copies of it here and there (largely in the perfect-bound Avalon Hill "Deluxe" edition), if only you'll take a moment to check with some of the larger comic-book/gaming stores on-line before you hit the auction sites. Due to copyright reasons, RuneQuest's creator, Greg Stafford, is no longer able to use the title "RuneQuest", in future works, but has retained the rights to the world of Glorantha. He is currently putting the finishing touches on a new Gloranthan game system called, "Hero Wars".

No matter how many other rpgs I have seen over the years, I still return to Runequest. I am grateful for my cousin for first introducing me to the 2nd edition back in my early teens, and I eagerly bought the 3rd edition in my later teens. Since then I have been involved in other rpgs on and off for almost 20years, but I often return to GM a game with the RQ system when I can.

Chaosium should of held onto the rights for the system and the Glorantha world, rather than move into Stormbringer. The current Call of Cthuhlu rules are a version of these rules, but it can be a limited at times in it's scope due to the limits of the world setting.

Runequest, with all it's quirks and sometimes amateurish publications, firmly remains one of the best roleplaying systems I have ever seen, easily playable in any genre. With minimal adaption it can be played in a typical Tolkienesque style fantasy setting (I have played it in Middle Earth, and it works fine), but it's own world of Glorantha was just as rich, with more elements in common with Ancient Rome or the Norse sagas.

Any gamemaster worth his salt should own a copy of the Runequest 2nd Edition rulebook or the Runequest 3rd Edition Deluxe Rulebook - this is fantasy rolepaying at it's height, when roleplaying was a spirited past time, and not just another marketable commodity to try and rival the computer game industry as it is today.

Buy these books if you ever come across them!

Now sadly out of print (but reborn as Hero Wars using a totally different system), this was the best fantasy RPG out there. It built a truly magical world interwoven with myths and legend. Instead of paper-thin religon systems all crudely based on a Judeo-Christian model, they created realistic pantheons that interacted with each other. The built a creation myth that integrated all races instead of religions in a vacuum. The magic system is neat and subtle. No simplistic fireballs or lightening bolts, but it enhances your abilities. The combat engine was simple yet deadly. If you ever wanted to roleplay in a heroic world in the style of Achilles, or Cu Chulainn or Herakles, this is it.

Why? The world of Glorantha gets all the glory when people talk of Runequest, and it is indeed an incredible world set in rich detail, but it is the simplicity and playability of this system that really sets it apart. Keep in mind, the system we are talking about is well described in about 150 pages. Compare that to games with volume after volume of rule books like D+D and Rolemaster, etc and you will appreciate it. Not only simple, but in my mind the most realistic and fun. If you can get your hands on the Chaosium version you will know what we are talking about.

Back in the good old days, when Chaosium Inc., published RuneQuest, you couldn't find a better fantasy RPG anywhere. When Avalon Hill bought the game and modified it, it lost a lot of its original playability. RuneQuest 2nd Edition published by Chaosium Press is the one to get, if you can ever find it again...

This marvelous roleplaying game far eclipsed AD&D and it's overrated successors. Why is Hasbro holding onto this gem? It belongs to Chaosium.

RuneQuest was an excellent system designed for fantasy role-playing in an ancient setting. Instead of a static class-level system, it was mostly propelled by skills and abilities. The campaign setting is fully described and is exceptionally original and well-researched as far as historic details go. RuneQuest is fortunate in that it managed to die before it was over-encumbered with accessories, like a certain other game.

After Dungeons and Dragons, Perrin and Chaosium had another take on the fantasy role playing game setting, with an explicitly deity based magic system, and a skills based system in general, both for combat, and for everyday tasks.

This allowed characters to be whatever they wanted without classes, or other such distinctions.