RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha

Links to other RQ:AiG or RuneQuest Rules Discussion: Loren Miller's Page

Much of the information about RQ IV or RQ: AiG is dated but below is the summary by one of its creators.

RuneQuest: Adventures in Glorantha

The Summary

This summary is Copyright (C) 1994 Oliver Jovanovic, but may be freely distributed. It is meant to provide people with information as to some of the major rule changes in Adventures in Glorantha. The information is laid out in the order the chapters appear in the book. There are numerous minor changes, improvements and adjustments, but these would take far too long to detail. This summary should allow those without access to a playtest copy to get an idea as to what some of the new rules will look like, and even make it possible to playtest a few of the changes summarized below. Those with access to a playtest copy may find it useful to look through this, as it may highlight a change they've missed. Unfortunately we cannot provide all comers with a copy of the full draft, as it is available only in manuscript format, and the costs of copying and mailing the manuscript make this prohibitively expensive.

Comments may be sent via Internet to

"jovanovic@cuccfa.ccc.columbia.edu" [may not be active. -md.]

COVER

The cover painting will be done by a commercial artist who works on fantasy, science fiction and children's book covers for a living. If you are by any chance familiar with the writings of Gene Wolfe, the artist did the covers for the last few Gene Wolfe (Book of the Long Sun, etc.) novels.

INTRODUCTION

One of the aims of Adventures in Glorantha is to present the world of Glorantha to players and gamemasters in a single volume. The introduction explains what role playing games are, introduces the world of Glorantha and the runes, and gives information on the cosmology, history, lands and peoples of Glorantha, focusing on the regions around Dragon Pass. It also includes information on play aids, including other sources of Gloranthan material and other resources, such as RQ magazines.

Based on the feedback we've gotten, we will probably split this chapter into a shorter Introduction chapter, with another page of material aimed at new players and gamemasters added, then follow with another chapter containing more detailed information.

CREATING AN ADVENTURER

Our aim here was to improve upon a number of mechanics, including how attributes are calculated, and to present a system for character generation which would have three aims: 1) Allow players to generate fleshed out Gloranthan characters, 2) Allow gamemasters to quickly generate realistic NPCs, and 3) Give players and gamemasters a picture of the range of skills and skill levels one encounters in day to day life in Glorantha. Some specific changes are discussed below:

Characteristic Increase - characteristics can increase to half again the original value, or species maximum (generally 21 for humans). The STR, CON, SIZ limitation is no longer in effect. Why? Simplicity and realism.

A short human can put on muscle or build endurance as well as a tall one.

Damage Bonus - this is now a single value that is added to or subtracted from weapon damage dice rolls. STR + SIZ = 16 to 20 is -1, STR + SIZ = 21 to 25 is 0, STR + SIZ = 26 to 30 is +1, STR + SIZ = 31 to 35 is +2, etc.

Why? Simplicity and realism. The adjustment of human SIZ to 2D6+6, while reasonable in terms of making human SIZ have a more reasonable range, also gave nearly everyone a +1D4 damage bonus. Thus, a normal dagger blow can easily sever an arm, and a normal kick will cripple an unarmored target. We would prefer a more reasonable range of damage, and to not force characters to wear armor to survive a fist fight. In addition, this provides a much smoother gradation of damage bonus values, eliminating the old 1D4/1D6 breakpoints. A single add also makes it much easier for gamemasters to roll NPC weapon damage. The only disadvantage of this system is that it makes a weapon do a minimum amount of damage, particularly at higher levels. A mighty gladiator with a Cestus will do 1D3 + 4 damage, or a minimum of 4 points.

However, this was a problem in RQIII as well (the same gladiator would do 1D3+2+1D6, or a minimum of 4 points). From our point of view, a missed attack roll does not only represent a clean miss, but can also represent being clipped or nicked by an attack - a blow that causes a shallow cut or bruise doesn't have to cause a HP of damage. We may include an optional rule to allow for finer damage resolution, but we're not sure it is really worth using normally.

Skill Category Modifiers - the calculation of these has been considerably simplified. For example, the Communication Skills Modifier = APP + INT -20.

POW, which can fluctuate from session to session, has been removed from the modifiers, so that modifiers and skills need not be recalculated every time POW changes. POW is still essential to the working of magic, and in some ways even more valuable than before so this change has little effect on its importance.

Move - a Move score now exists, equal to (SIZ + DEX)/5 for humans. Why? It allows for some variation in human speed, based on quickness and length of stride.

Character Generation - background information on four areas in the region of Dragon Pass: Sartar, the Lunar Empire, Pavis and Prax, as well as profession templates specific to those areas, allow players and gamemasters to generate characters with magic, skills and possessions appropriate to these areas, and provides information on the history, culture and people of each region. Additional templates allow for the generation of characters from other regions, or the generation of unusual characters. A Renown system allows gamemasters to track how well known players become. The system is not as linear or dependent on age as the RQIII system, so all elderly farmers are not necessarily weaponmasters and skillmasters, and older adventurers do not automatically outshine younger ones.

GAME MECHANICS

To both make the system more consistent and easier to explain to new players, we have instituted the following meta rules for handling numbers and dice.

With percentile dice, rolling low is always good. With other kinds of dice, rolling high is good. An 01 is a critical, an 00 a fumble. Always round up from .5, round down below .5. These rules are then consistently applied throughout all of the game's mechanics, which makes the system logical and easy to explain, and allows gamemasters to easily improvise on the spot.

SKILLS

In general, a few new skills have been defined, and the definitions and organization of skills have been improved. A few specific changes are discussed below:

Complementary Skills - with non combat skills, if one skill is the most appropriate to a task, but another skill could help, one can add 1/5 of the second skill to the first one, increasing one's chance for success. Thus a character with Craft/Armoring trying to bargain for a piece of armor would add 1/5 his or her Craft/Armoring skill to their Bargain skill.

Skill Difficulty - skills can now be Easy, Medium or Hard. In general, a hard skill takes twice as long to learn as a Medium one, while an Easy one takes half as long. Why? A simple way to point out that some skills are easier than other. The crossbow is an easier weapon to learn than the bow. It also allows for lore skills of narrow scope, which are easier to learn than harder ones.

Subskills - to allow players and gamemasters some control over the extent of skill proliferation they desire, skills are organized into skills and subskills. Thus, Sleight has the subskills Juggle and Pickpocket; Stealth has the subskills Hide and Sneak. If you want to run a character that can do both parts of the skill equally well, or don't think that level of detail is necessary, use the main skill. If you want a character that knows how to juggle, but knows nothing about picking pockets, you could learn only the Juggle subskill. Subskills are easier than the main skill they belong to.

TIME AND LEARNING

Learning by Experience - the system has been modified so that skill check hunting is deemphasized, and allows characters to learn from failure as well as success. If gamemasters do not want to have to award checks during the course of the session, a system for awarding skill checks after the session exists.

POW gain - human (and other) POW can now increase above 21, though with only a 5% chance of success. Only 1 point of POW is gained through each increase. This brings humans, elves, etc. into slightly greater parity, and allows for characters of more heroic stature, though increasing POW above 21 is a slow and painstaking process, due to its difficulty (priest no longer automatically gain a point of POW leading worship, they gain free divine magic instead).

Spending your time - the rules now provide for a means for characters to spread their time among jobs, duties, practice, training, research, or socializing, each with attendant benefits. Socializing gains friends and allies, which can be even more helpful than mastery of a weapon skill in a sticky situation.

Skill Training - the training rules and calculations for training time have been simplified and streamlined. Time is calculated in days of training instead of hours.

Characteristic Training - a system which is simple, yet makes extraordinary characteristic gains more difficult than initial gains has been put into place, to both simplify the process and make it more realistic.

COMBAT

One of our major goals has been to streamline and simplify the combat system, so that a combat can be settled in a reasonable amount of time, letting you get back to the rest of the game.

Melee Round - the melee round has been more clearly structured, and includes a new movement system. The changes are intended to make combat less confusing, less prone to artifacts, and quicker to run. A number of combat options allow characters a wide range of choices, but combat is structured so that this variety does not slow things down.

Armor Values - armor values have been reduced (to RQ2 levels), to both simulate the partial armor worn in the Dragon Pass region and to make fighting in little or light armor a more reasonable (and realistic) option.

Weapon Values - weapon damage values have been simplified, generally to values of 1D4, 1D6, 1D8, 1D10, 2D6 or 2D8. This is meant to simplify and speed the calculation of weapon damage, particularly for gamemasters.

Thus, with the new damage bonus rules, a scimitar would do 1D8+2, as opposed to 1D6+2+1D4 in RQIII. The Parry AP of weapons have been slightly reduced to adjust for the reductions in weapon damage and damage bonus.

Hit Locations - a single hit location table is used for all attacks, which simplifies combat, particularly for new players and gamemasters. The separate melee/missile tables will be included in an appendix for those that don't mind the added complication of using them

Hit Points - death now occurs when one has taken twice their total HP in damage, or three times the hit points in their head or chest. Thus it is still possible to kill someone with a single, spectacular blow, but more difficult to die from a number of small wounds. It is easier to knock someone out (they go unconscious once they have taken their total HP in damage) without killing them accidentally.

This is meant to simulate the true effects of injury and shock more faithfully.

Spirit Combat - the mechanics of spirit combat are now integrated with the melee round, so that a battle involving physical and spirit attacks can easily be run.

Special Successes - a special success with a parry now has an effect, doubling the weapon's parry AP. Any kind of weapon that achieves a special success on an attack does double weapon damage. Optional additional special effects for impaling, crushing and slashing weapons exist as well.

Special Weapon Tactics - a number of special weapon tactics, typically the provenance of weaponmasters and the fighting cults, now exist.

These special tactics (Flurry, Evade, Feint, Riposte, etc.) add color and help to differentiate skilled fighters, and make highly skilled opponents less predictable foes.

Special Combat Rules - a set of spot rules covers the unusual situations that may arise in combat (mounted combat, flying, cramped quarters, etc.).

THE NATURAL WORLD

This chapter provides rules for dealing with the hazards of the natural world, including fire, falling, and fatigue. The fatigue rules have been greatly simplified, requiring only a single roll every minute of combat, and include provisions for fatigue due to lack of sleep, wearing heavy armor, and exhaustion.

ECONOMICS

This chapter provides information on trade and barter, giving information on standards of living, income, and prices for a wide range of items and creatures, both magical and mundane, in the regions of Sartar, the Lunar Empire, Prax and Pavis.

THE WORLD OF MAGIC

This chapter provides information on the basic mechanics of magic, magical phenomena, enchantments, magic items, and details on the spells and mechanics of the most common form of magic, known as spirit magic to shaman and cult magic to divine magicians.

Based on the feedback we've gotten, we will probably split this chapter into two or more parts, one dealing with basic mechanics and spirit/cult magic, the other dealing with enchantments and magic items. The general term for spirit/cult magic will probably change from battle magic to personal magic. Some specific changes are detailed below:

Attack With MP, Defend with POW - spells now use a character's current MP to attack, but attack against POW (that is, all characters resist spells with their POW, not their MP). Why? Primarily to make characters less dependant on MP storage items. You can now safely cast a spell or two and not leave yourself magically undefended if you lack MP storage.

If you cast too many spells you will find it difficult to affect others, but can still cast spells on yourself or your weapons and armor, and attack less directly.

Spirit/Cult Magic limits - it is now considerably more challenging to gain access to large spirit/cult magic spells. A Bladesharp 8 is now a very rare spell. The mechanics of this are fairly straightforward - it takes a shaman longer to find larger spirit magic spells, which means you must seek long and hard and pay dearly for the privilege of learning a large spell, while divine cultists are limited in the size of the cult spells they can comprehend by the depth of their initiation into the cult and the importance of the spell to their god.

Spirit/Cult Magic casting - the chance to cast a spirit/cult magic spell is POW x5. Characters may elect to have favored spells, whose casting chance is POW x6, but must select a spell that they do not use as often (casting chance POW x4) for each such favored spell. Spell casting range is always equal to POW x5 in meters.

Spirit/Cult Magic spells - these have been expanded and corrections have been made to a number of spells.

DIVINE MAGIC

Temple sizes - temple sizes have been adjusted for Glorantha.

Divine Intervention - the most common effect of divine intervention now allows characters to manifest a portion of their god's power, and draw upon their link with the god to cause magical effects appropriate to the god to occur. The effects can be devastating, but so is the cost.

Cults and pantheons - eight different pantheons and cults from each pantheon, including many previously unpublished cults (such as Danfive Xaron, Deezola, Jakaleel, Hwarin Dalthippa and Pole Star) are described in a capsule format that includes information on the worshippers that belong to the cult, skills and duties special to the cult, and what cult and divine magic is available to the cult, as well as providing background information on each cult.

Cult Magic spells - some of the unique cult magic spells which only members of certain cults have access to are described.

Divine Magic spells - corrections have been made to a number of spells, and a number of divine magic spells have been added.

SPIRIT MAGIC

This chapter provides information on shaman and the unique spells, skills and abilities available to these specialists in spirit magic.

Spirit Magic - some of the unique spirit magic spells which only shaman have access to are described.

Shamanic Traditions - a number of shamanic traditions are described (including the Kolating, Black Fang and School of Red Masks), with information on their followers, favored spirit magic spells, favored shamanic abilities, and taboos.

Shamanic Abilities - shaman now function differently. To summarize, not all shaman have the same shamanic abilities (second sight, discorporation, possession, spirit trapping, mind expansion, etc.). What abilities a shaman will have will depend on the abilities available to the shaman's tradition, and the focus the shaman chooses to take. A shaman may specialize in hunting and trapping spirits, in casting spirit magic, or discorporating and possessing others. Their abilities increase as their fetch grows.

Finding Spirits - A simpler and far more convenient system by which shaman can seek and find spirits is described. The larger the spirit sought, the greater the investment of time on the shaman's part required.

SORCERY

A new system of sorcery is presented, which differs in a number of ways from the system of sorcery presented in RQIII. To summarize, free INT no longer plays a role - sorcery is strictly skill based. The mechanics of sorcery are simpler and easier to use. A number of additional sorcery manipulations have been added, some unique to particular schools of sorcery. Sorcerers cannot obtain the extreme durations and ranges they could before without the expenditure of permanent POW, although they can maintain a few spells without spending POW. By expending POW, sorcerers can gain saint's blessings or greatly enhance the effects of casting their spells. This is meant to more accurately portray the kind of sorcery used by Gloranthan sorcerers, and better balance their abilities against shamans and divine magicians.

Schools of Sorcery - a number of schools of sorcery are described (including the God Forgot, Black Arkat, Trader Prince, Carmanian and Dying Moon schools), with information on their students, duties, saints, and the sorcery spells and manipulations available to them. Schools have unique spells and manipulations that they jealously guard.

Sorcery spells - sorcery spells have been divided into Low Magic spells (available to any student of sorcery) and High Magic spells (whose teaching is carefully guarded). The spells have been rebalanced and a number of additions, changes and corrections have been made to bring them in line with the effects of Gloranthan sorcery.

Familiars - familiars are now created differently. Briefly, their creation now involves the sacrifice of POW, not other characteristics, and they may take on a variety of forms, including animated or inanimate objects or enchantments.

CREATURES

This chapter presents information and statistics for creatures, both magical and mundane, and the elder races that can be found in the area of Dragon Pass. For those of you concerned with the absence of ducks, fear not, they will be added to the finished product, along with a few other missing creatures.

GAMEMASTERING

This chapter will present information on introducing new players to the game, running games, creating Gloranthan adventures, and adapting the world and rules to your particular needs.

THE WORLD OF GLORANTHA

This chapter further details the world and mysteries of Glorantha, and is primarily intended for the gamemaster, containing information on the Six Worlds, Genertela, the Islands of the Central Seas, Pamaltela, and an extensive timeline of Gloranthan events across the world.

APPENDICES These are not yet complete, but will include a character sheet, information on converting characters and scenarios, optional rules, and an index.

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Updated December 22, 1995