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RuneQuest – 2nd Edition Rulebook
RuneQuest - 2nd Edition Rulebook (144 pages)
In July of 1978, the Origins Game Fair was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over 3500 people attended what was the largest gaming convention in the US at that time. In the main hall gamers could pick up the latest games from all the major publishers: Cross of Iron by Avalon Hill, Atlantic Wall by SPI, and The Hall of the Fire Giant King module by TSR. In one small booth near a corner you could also purchase RuneQuest, the first Roleplaying game published by The Chaosium, a quirky 3 person company from the Bay Area. It sold out over the weekend, and every print run continued to do so for the next several years.
This is the second edition of the RuneQuest rules in its final form, with all errata incorporated into the text. Additional material has been added to the appendices at the end.
RuneQuest took the young world of roleplaying games by storm; it cast aside many of the approaches most other games took. It had no character classes, no experience points, no levels, and far fewer restrictions on how weapons, armor, and spells could be used. Instead of a D20 it uses a percentile 01-100 system. It also has the built-in fantasy world of Glorantha.
During what many consider to be the golden age of roleplaying, RuneQuest enjoyed its greatest popularity, second only to AD&D in sales. It won numerous awards, starting in 1978 with the Strategist’s Club Award for “Outstanding Miniatures Rules”, which may sound quirky, but that was because the industry had yet to create award categories specifically for roleplaying games.
Hardcover Bundle Includes:
Hard Cover Reprinted RuneQuest 2nd Edition with an updated layout. It contains all the 2nd edition text, and with all the errata incorporated where it belongs. Additional material has been added to the appendices at the end.
Newly-designed GM screen inspired by the "Judges Screen". Check out more details from the Kickstarter post here.
Twenty page printed players handouts. You can download them here.
In July of 1978, the Origins Game Fair was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Over 3500 people attended what was the largest gaming convention in the US at that time. In the main hall gamers could pick up the latest games from all the major publishers: Cross of Iron by Avalon Hill, Atlantic Wall by SPI, and The Hall of the Fire Giant King module by TSR. In one small booth near a corner you could also purchase RuneQuest, the first Roleplaying game published by The Chaosium, a quirky 3 person company from the Bay Area. It sold out over the weekend, and every print run continued to do so for the next several years.
This is the second edition of the RuneQuest rules in its final form, with all errata incorporated into the text. Additional material has been added to the appendices at the end.
RuneQuest took the young world of roleplaying games by storm; it cast aside many of the approaches most other games took. It had no character classes, no experience points, no levels, and far fewer restrictions on how weapons, armor, and spells could be used. Instead of a D20 it uses a percentile 01-100 system. It also has the built-in fantasy world of Glorantha.
During what many consider to be the golden age of roleplaying, RuneQuest enjoyed its greatest popularity, second only to AD&D in sales. It won numerous awards, starting in 1978 with the Strategist’s Club Award for “Outstanding Miniatures Rules”, which may sound quirky, but that was because the industry had yet to create award categories specifically for roleplaying games.
Hardcover Bundle Includes:
Hard Cover Reprinted RuneQuest 2nd Edition with an updated layout. It contains all the 2nd edition text, and with all the errata incorporated where it belongs. Additional material has been added to the appendices at the end.
Newly-designed GM screen inspired by the "Judges Screen". Check out more details from the Kickstarter post here.
Twenty page printed players handouts. You can download them here.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 2, 2008
This was one of the many RPGs my friends and I bought but never actually played in the misspent days of our youth (and, to be brutally honest, it was my mother who "bought" them until I was old enough to hold down a job).
I give Runequest a 4-star rating not for its game mechanics (obviously) but for its effort to create a non-medieval, non-Western European world to adventure in that wasn't overly beholden to any other culture but built its own, unique vision.
I give Runequest a 4-star rating not for its game mechanics (obviously) but for its effort to create a non-medieval, non-Western European world to adventure in that wasn't overly beholden to any other culture but built its own, unique vision.
March 26, 2010
RuneQuest, by Chaosium, is probably the single best RPG book I've ever read or used. It is not without flaws and ambiguities, but I still run RuneQuest campaigns, and have done so for many years. The "Basic Role Playing System" by Chaosium eliminated the Dungeons & Dragons character classes and alignment system which always felt like bizarre constrictions on what was ultimately meant to be a free-form fantasy style of play. RuneQuest characters were defined instead by their physical attributes (like Dungeons & Dragons) and the skills they chose to study and train (unlike Dungeons & Dragons). The result was that a player could decide to have an eclectic mix of skills, unconstrained by artificial notions of what "fighters" did as opposed to "wizards." The combat system bears special note for its realism, though it comes at the cost of speed of play. The authors note that the combat system is largely derived from early SCA combat, and it shows, in isolating hit locations on a target, as opposed to the Dungeons & Dragons method of attacking an undifferentiated wad of "hit points" (or health, for the uninitiated).
The supplements, such as Pavis, Big Rubble, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, TrollPak, Griffin Mountain, and Borderlands, are all classics, and most have recently been reprinted. The supplements have a mixture of narrative storyline with linked adventures and stand-alone encounters, a consistently high quality of writing and imagination shown in devising a cohesive fantasy world, and the (unique for its time) notion that individual gods would have politically divided cults and pantheons of associated divine forces.
The supplements, such as Pavis, Big Rubble, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, TrollPak, Griffin Mountain, and Borderlands, are all classics, and most have recently been reprinted. The supplements have a mixture of narrative storyline with linked adventures and stand-alone encounters, a consistently high quality of writing and imagination shown in devising a cohesive fantasy world, and the (unique for its time) notion that individual gods would have politically divided cults and pantheons of associated divine forces.
July 25, 2016
Though the book is poorly laid out and some of the mechanics are outdated or poorly structured, the game itself is still wonderful. It helps that it is closely tied to one of the best game settings ever devised, the inestimable Glorantha. Talking cartoon ducks who worship the god who wields Death as a sword? Sure. Walktopuses? Yes. Bears with halloween pumpkins for heads? Absolutely. One of the most in-depth, realistic portrayals of mythology? Yes.
Just reading it again makes me want to join a game immediately.
Regarding the actual mechanics: I've never been keen on the percentile system of Chaosium's RPGs. It always felt clunky and time-consuming. It always looks more intimidating than it is. But, I do like the old advancement system present here (even if it could be easily streamlined with the same mathematical odds of advancement), wherein if you use a skill in a way that some risk is involved, you put a check next to it and roll to see if it increases during downtime. The probability curve is such that the better you are at something, the less likely you are to get better. I like this, it feels naturalistic and doesn't rely on any meta-currencies like experience points or skill points.
I also like the way initiative is handled, with Strike Ranks. It gives the proceedings a somewhat deterministic, almost tactical quality even with all of the dice rolling involved. There are ways today that I would improve it or houserule it, and even the 3rd Edition did a lot to improve the mechanics, but nonetheless it's an innovative system that manages to truly differentiate weapons and characters without relying on countless charts and graphs.
Just reading it again makes me want to join a game immediately.
Regarding the actual mechanics: I've never been keen on the percentile system of Chaosium's RPGs. It always felt clunky and time-consuming. It always looks more intimidating than it is. But, I do like the old advancement system present here (even if it could be easily streamlined with the same mathematical odds of advancement), wherein if you use a skill in a way that some risk is involved, you put a check next to it and roll to see if it increases during downtime. The probability curve is such that the better you are at something, the less likely you are to get better. I like this, it feels naturalistic and doesn't rely on any meta-currencies like experience points or skill points.
I also like the way initiative is handled, with Strike Ranks. It gives the proceedings a somewhat deterministic, almost tactical quality even with all of the dice rolling involved. There are ways today that I would improve it or houserule it, and even the 3rd Edition did a lot to improve the mechanics, but nonetheless it's an innovative system that manages to truly differentiate weapons and characters without relying on countless charts and graphs.
December 11, 2022
This system achieves a ton of what I have been looking for in the customization of other RPG systems.
January 3, 2023
Simply the greatest fantasy RPG core rulebook ever released in the hobby's first decade. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...
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February 20, 2024That such a strong whacked-out hippie vision of mythology came married to such clear, idiosyncratic, and playable procedures, in 1978 no less, is wild. Totally going to play this.
November 1, 2025
No, no es nostalgia.
April 5, 2013
The first RPGS I ever played and still the best with it's 'realistic' combat system freely available magic and lack of character classes it provides a much less restrictive system than D&D. Plus it has anthropomorphic ducks!
May 27, 2012
The only game that back in the day gave Dungeons and Dragons a run for it's money. Full of tribal shamanism and alternative magics, Glorantha is a very fascinating (and often scary) place.
February 12, 2016
This is still a classic RPG - it ages very well.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews