New player...

[Obbehobbe]

Hello
Maybe I will buy RuneQuest, but I'm not sure. I read somewhere that "everything" is magical and all (or most) people use magic (runes). Is this true? Do every common people use magic in some way...

How about characters that don't want to use magic and just want to be a skilled swordsman, is this game made for those?

Is everything about magic and getting runes?

Please give me a neutral and correct answer!

Thanks!
/T

 

[Mage]

I'll try to answer this as best I can. I bought the rules with the intent of just having a system I can play around with, and it is possible to do a game without runes, you just need to do a tiny bit. And people do not use them in everyday life. They are valuable (runes that is), rare enoguh, and each one only does certain things. A very expereinced alchemist would gain a special feat or ability or something if they had a certain rune.

Ussually getting a rune invovles a scenario or even campaign (Rune quest after all).

The system is just as well built for a swordsman character as it is for wizards. Not everything is magical. Hope that helps. If you got anymore questions, fire away.

 

[Rurik]

You should seperate the Rules from the setting. RuneQuest is very flexible, and can be played as a magic rich world or a magic poor system.

The core rules is designed to be generic contain a magic system called Rune Magic based on the runes you mentioned. The Companion contains 2 other systems, Divine Magic (from worshiping gods) and Sorcery. The magic systems can be mixed and matched to your preference and be made as common or uncommon as you want. They all exist in the games primary setting Glorantha (detailed in other books).

Glorantha is a magic rich world that is very detailed (it has been around for about 30 years). Even common farmers have magic they use to help with their tasks. Swordsmen have magic that makes them better swordsmen (enhancing their weapon damage, or skill, or armor, etc).

The other setting published so far is Lankhmar, based on the Fritz Liebers Grey Mouser books. It is a very low magic world, where most players will be swordsmen but not magicians. The Rune Magic system from the core rules is not used.

 

[Sorn]

I'll jump in with a question on this one too.

I have been reading this board since a few months before the game came out. What I read convinced me to try Runequest as an alternative to D&D. So far I have the core rules and the companion, and I'm looking for more books to buy.

I don't really want to get into Glorantha - reading these boards has let me see that while it is a fascinating world it is also deeper then I have time for, and I'm not sure it fits with my players' style anyways. I am not averse, though, to stealing good ideas from Glorantha books and working them into my campaign.

So what I am looking for is more magic (rune, sorcery, and divine, in roughly that order), more backgrounds and professions, more cool items and equipment, cults, etc. I have been thinking about the Player's Guide to Glorantha and Cults of Glorantha One, and maybe the Arms and Equipment Guide; but I am not sure how much of what I am looking for they have, and how easily stolen it is. So if anyone who has these (or an early copy for the Player's Guide) could let me know in general if these would work I'd appreciate it. I'm especially wondering if Cults has a decent number of non-divine spells that could be used, as well as the divine ones.

 

[weasel_fierce]

Honestly, the glorantha books are worth getting, even if just for generic play. Lots of magic, spells, tricks, cults and ideas that can be used in any game.

Runequest works great as a low magic, grim sword and sorcery game though

 

[Obbehobbe]

Thanks for your reply, but I'm after a more neutral fantasy world with not too much focus on just magic. That is why I left DnD because it's just too much with everything...

If I would play RuneQuest (with Glorantha), then the first thing to do shall not be to make modifications. If I buy a game I want to use it as it is ment to be used...

And Lankhmar just seems too small with too few products... :?

Thanks

 

[weasel_fierce]

well, RQ as written, works pretty well with limited magic. The default rune magic system requires the character to find magic runes to wield spells, the acquisition of which is entirely up to the GM. So you can taylor it as you see fit

 

[CharlieMonster]

Thanks for your reply, but I'm after a more neutral fantasy world with not too much focus on just magic. That is why I left DnD because it's just too much with everything...

If I would play RuneQuest (with Glorantha), then the first thing to do shall not be to make modifications. If I buy a game I want to use it as it is ment to be used...

And Lankhmar just seems too small with too few products... :?

Thanks

I would have to say RQ with little or no magic should play very easily, there are lots of non-magical and non-spell options and routes for, to take your example, an expert swordsman in the shape of high quality weapons and legendary abilites many of which aren't actually magical. Running the rules "as read" for character gen only a few professions start with magic and they are the obvious ones such as Priest, Witch, Wizard etc...

 

[Loz]

To both ObbeHobbe and Sorn,

The Design Mechanism is in the process of preparing the RQ rules to power its shared fantasy world of Gwenthia. The setting is available in PDF from http://www.gwenthia.org/ and it might be what you're looking for. (or it might not; but take a look first and see what you think).

We're looking for playtesters to test the character generation and magic rules, which are different to the 'standard' rune magic of MRQ.

If you're interested in knowing more about Gwenthia, or in helping with the playtest of the rules and setting, drop me a private message on this board.

Lawrence

 

[Halfbat]

If it helps I have played RuneQuest with no magic at all (or, at least, just psychological "magic"), albeit RQ2 and RQ3. I would have had no problem running either setting using MRQ.

The main issues were with healing, which have been somewhat fixed in MRQ, and in making sure the Craft skills concerned with medicines were more broadly fleshed out. Characters in RQ can develop themselves completely without magic (see the Exceptional Item rules in the Companion) and still kick donkeys.

-----
btw If you're a gadgets and gizmo person then the A&E might be useful, otherwise for a GM Monsters is more useful than might be thought.

 

[ninthcouncil]

Characters in RQ can develop themselves completely without magic (see the Exceptional Item rules in the Companion) and still kick donkeys.

I can see the advertising now. "Runequest: The game where you can kick a donkey." :lol:

Seriously, it's very easy to separate the magical elements from RQ. Much easier than it is for D&D, where the widespread use of magic is an essental assumption of the entire game structure. (You can get away from this in alternative builds using d20 mechanics, but in vanilla D&D it's really difficult; as a "generic" fantasy system, D&D is laughable, because it contains so many preconceptions, many of them quite eccentric.)

In genre fiction terms, D&D is "high fantasy", emphasising the fantastic elements, while RQ is "low fantasy", emphasising the people who inhabit the created world.

 

[Deleriad]

RQ works perfectly well with either no magic or very limited magic. That has, essentially, what Call of Cthulhu has done for about 20 years.

The only problem is healing. PCs are quite fragile and are particularly at risk of having a limb chopped off. Although this can be fun, you do need to ask yourself how the players would take it if their characters routinely became disabled.

The First Aid & healing skills become vital and at least one PC needs to be a specialist.

If you are running a magic lite world then you probably ought to have some sort of healing salve that can replenish HPs quickly. For example, a salve which applied to a location suffering from a major wound stabilises it and stops any bleeding or which can turn serious wound into a minor wound and can recover x number of Hit Points for a character suffering from a minor wound. It'll be a bit of a wonder salve but you can state that it takes about an hour to have any effect and can't be applied to the same location twice within 24 hours. You can also have NPC based healing so that the PCs have to visit temples, undertake quests etc to reattach severed limbs.

If you are running a completely magic free world then you might need to slightly increase the number of Hero Points that PCs receive and ensure that the players are aware of the potential to use them to downgrade injuries as HPs are going to be the main thing that keeps them alive.

I have run both magic free and magic lite using previous versions of RQ and it is actually a lot of fun.

 

[gamesmeister]

I don't really want to get into Glorantha - reading these boards has let me see that while it is a fascinating world it is also deeper then I have time for, and I'm not sure it fits with my players' style anyways. I am not averse, though, to stealing good ideas from Glorantha books and working them into my campaign.

To be honest, Glorantha is as deep or as you light as you make it. As the standard maxim coined by the world's author goes, YGWV (Your Glorantha Will Vary) - in other words, use it as you wish, and change it where you want. Don't worry too much about all the history that's gone before - that's for us old hands to pore over.

For example, you could pick up the Ralios PDF from DriveThru, which is extremely good value for money, and just play in that particular part of the world. You don't need to know much about what's going on in the big wide world, you can have a lot of fun in that area alone (in fact most old timers did exactly that, growing up in a small but detailed part of Glorantha called Prax).

So what I am looking for is more magic (rune, sorcery, and divine, in roughly that order), more backgrounds and professions, more cool items and equipment, cults, etc. I have been thinking about the Player's Guide to Glorantha and Cults of Glorantha One, and maybe the Arms and Equipment Guide; but I am not sure how much of what I am looking for they have, and how easily stolen it is. So if anyone who has these (or an early copy for the Player's Guide) could let me know in general if these would work I'd appreciate it. I'm especially wondering if Cults has a decent number of non-divine spells that could be used, as well as the divine ones.

Cults book one has only Divine spells, with no new Rune or Sorcery spells. Book two is the opposite, having no divine spells but lots of new rune and sorcery spells. The rune spells are actually spirit spells, equivalent to rune magic but cast by summoning spirits instead, and are based about shamanic worship. That said, if you're not playing in Glorantha, there's no reason why you couldn't use them as standard Rune spells instead.

Arms and Equipment is good for completeness, but I wouldn't buy it to begin with - you have more than enough equipment and enhancement rules in the core rulebook and companion.

If you want more magic, the two Cults books are the way to go.