Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers

Cults of RuneQuest #2

by Greg Stafford, Jeff Richard, Loïc Muzy (Art & Cover)

Cults of RuneQuest: The Lightbringers is the second book in the new Cults of RuneQuest sourcebook series for the RuneQuest TTRPG. This book is the player’s guide to the storm pantheon, opening up character creation and advancement to a whole new level.

A player-facing RuneQuest supplement.

19 cults, each of which can be used as the bases for a new RuneQuest character, offering a unique selection of spells, skills, and special traits.

Expand existing RuneQuest characters by adding cults from this book to their roster of worshiped gods.

Lore and history of the Lightbringer pantheon of gods.

Rules to advance your character to a God-Talker, Rune Priest, or even a mighty Rune Lord!


This supplement requires only the RuneQuest core rules to play.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy

168 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2023

Reviews

[Haakon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book with lots of interesting information, but layout/editing a mess.

Really enjoyed the general information about the gods, especially the bits about what was expected of members, how the myths tied to daily life and generally provide the "why am I here and what is my purpose" type questions. Having some heroes mentioned and why they are heroes of a particular cult is also fun. Useful for fleshing out characters, and generally enjoyable just to read.

Did not enjoy how the mechanics were wrapped into the info text as it made the info at times annoying to read and the mechanics hard to look up. On top of that, several spells are printed several times throughout the book and some subsystems like healing herbs loosely tied to a deity is printed in the "misc info" part of that god. And neither the spells or these subsystems are put in the index, just to make it even more confusing.

Missing from the book is an overview/summary of the mechanics spells, ideally in the back of the book for easier access to them. Some tables or something to get a clearer overview even better. Some in setting texts for some of the myths, even if it was just small blurbs, would have been amazing instead of just encyclopedia type writing.

Art amazing, some of the full page color art is unreal, the in setting art very evocative.

Mostly a book to fill up on setting info, I highly doubt I would ever want to open it to use in play given how the mechanics part of it is.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had been unsure about whether to dip my toes into this Runequest book series, but am glad I did. The Lightbringers book seemed an obvious choice as it covers a solid number of cults that my players would likely choose (3/4 of those in my current campaign). Indeed, most of the others would be in the Earth pantheon book.
As expected, Orlanth gets the lions share of text, but we get entries for Chalana Arroy, Issaries, Llankhor Mhy, Waha, Humakt, Storm Bull, and Odayla. We also get more niche probably NPC choices in Eurmal, Lanbril, Gargath, Ygg and other crazy storm gods. The entries follow a format established in prior publications: lore, rationale for cult existence, organisation, then ranks, from lay to rune priest/lord; there's then extra flavour notes about spirits, associated cults, heroes, organisations etc
The detail is what makes Runequest, and I constantly marvel how granular it is.
The book is aided by beautiful illustrations, not least Loic Muzy's depictions. Superb.
Definitely considering the Earth pantheon and the Lunar way.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing overview of a pantheon which will likely take central stage in many RuneQuest games (especially if you are using the recent Starter Set). Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[John Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unevenly written. Is it a reference book or a player resource of stories? It's not sure what it is, and the writing shows. It also could have stood with some copy editing to polish off the redundant writing and typos.

An otherwise useful book.