This is an introduction to Runequest for those who have never played and don’t own a copy of the rules. The object of RQ is to acquire mastery of one or more Runes. Success is marked by the player becoming a Rune level character. A Rune Lord has proven his right to the Mastery rune. A Rune Priest has proved his affinity with the Magic rune.
Characteristics:
RQ uses 7 characteristics: Strength (STR), Constitution(CON), Size(SIZ), Intelligence(INT), Power(POW), Dexterity(DEX) & Charisma(CHA).
Strength: affects damage a character can do, armor he can wear & weapon he can wield.
Constitution: measure of the character’s health. Major factor affecting hit points.
Size: the mass of the character. Affects ability to do and absorb damage.
Intelligence: ability to deal with abstractions & memorization. Determines how many spells a character can memorize.
Power: ability to work magic. A high power indicates a character in favour with the gods. A high POW makes it harder to use stealth. Casting a spell uses Magic points (MPs) which are regained over time. A character can cast as many spells as his POW allows. Magic point maximum equals POW.
POW will go increase and decrease as characters sacrifice POW to gain spells, become initiates, gain divine intervention and overcome the MPs of the recipients of cast spells.
Dexterity: affects how quickly and accurately a character can perform manual tasks
Charisma: measure of leadership
Training Characteristics: Strength, Constitution & Dexterity can be trained to higher values with some limitations.
Hit Points: when a character’s HP reach one or zero he is unconscious. When HP become negative he is dead. Hit points are distributed into 7 locations according to the HP Location chart. The total of HPs in each region will be greater than the character’s HP. When the HPs in a location are exceeded bad things happen.
Abilities & Skills:
Skills/Abilities are divided into 6 major groups. Each group is affected by characteristics. The affect is measured as a % modifier to all skills within that group. The modifier can be a positive or negative number.
The groups are: Attack, Parry, Perception, Stealth, Manipulation/Agility, and Knowledge.
A Melee round is 12 seconds long
Movement is measured in ( units) increments of 3m or 10 feet. A human can move 8 units per melee round.
Strike Rank (SR) : is used to determine when a attack lands during the round and the limit of what you can do during the round. Each activity takes a number of SR to complete. There is a maximum of 12 SRs per round approximating the 12 secs of a round. The lower the SR the earlier the activity happens in the round.
Attack SR is based on SIZ of attacker, DEX & weapon length. Movement, readying spells, readying weapons & being surprise all affect SR.
Melee Combat: The attacker rolls D100 for attack success & D20 for hit location. If the defender is parrying he rolls D100 for success. A roll of 01-05 is always successful attack or parry. A roll of 96-00 is always unsuccessful.
Attack Results:
Attacker makes roll & defender fails parry – Damage is rolled
Attacker makes roll & defender succeeds in parry – Parrying weapon is affected – some damage may get through
Attacker misses roll – No damage is taken
Special results:
Impale ( thrusting
weapons): occurs if an attack roll is 20% or less of what
is needed to succeed. If
parried by a weapon the attack has no effect on the defender or his
parrying weapon. If parried by a shield the weapon is stuck in the shield.
If attack is not parried add maximum weapon damage to the
normal roll. The weapon
is now stuck. Roll 2x chance of impaling to extract the weapon.
Slash ( for
slashing weapons):
if an attack roll is 20% or less of what is needed to succeed.
If parried the
attack has no effect. Weapon damage is rolled twice & added
together. STR & SIZ damage bonus is rolled once. The weapon is
now stuck. To extract it the attacker rolls ½ normal attack chance.
Crush ( smashing weapons): if an attack roll is 20% or less of what is needed to succeed. If parried the parrying object is affected as usual. If not parried the maximum STR & SIZ damage bonus is added to the normal damage rolls.
Critical Hit: if an attack roll is 5% or less of what is needed to succeed. A critical hit ignores the effects of armor unless parried. A parried critical hit does 2x damage to the parrying object.
Critical Parry: if a parry roll is 5% or less of what is needed to succeed. A normal attack is stopped perfectly with no effect to the parrying object. A critical parry of a critical hit is treated as a normal hit and a normal parry.
Fumble: If the attack or parry roll is 96-00 it may be a fumble. A roll of 00 is always a fumble. Roll on the fumble tables for effects of the fumble.
Damage results:
Weapons have a hit points. All damage over & above the HP of the weapon used to parry get through to the hit location rolled. Every time a weapon parries a successful attack is loses 1 hit point. Once the cumulative damage absorbed to the weapon exceeds its hit points the weapon is broken. Shields & armor do not break as weapons do.
Shields: absorb damage of a parried attack. Any damage over and above AP of the shield get through to the hit location attacked.
Damage is absorbed by the armor covering the hit location rolled. Any damage in excess of the armor pts in that location get through and reduce the characters hit points.
Power Points ( or Magic points MP) are a measure of the quantity of spells that a character can cast. Your maximum MP equals the characters POW. MPs are regained at a rate of 25% of the character’s total POW per 6 hours. Battle magic spells can be learned from virtually any cult. Learning a spell takes one week at the cult you have paid to teach it to you.
There is no limit to the number of Battle magic spells that can be learned. Your character can keep a maximum MPs of spells in his/her mind at any time available to cast equal to INT. The action of switching spells in the character’s mind takes 1 hour per MP of spell.
Most Battle magic spells are passive. Once cast nothing needs to be done to maintain them. Fireblade & Invisibility require the caster’s concentration to maintain them and are called active spells.
Instant spells last only to the end of the round they are cast. Most temporal spells last 10 rounds then are gone.
Focussed spells require a focus to be cast. A focus is a carved rune. Without a focus a spell takes 2 rounds to cast.
If a spell caster’s concentration is broken or he/she takes damage before finished casting a spell it must be started again. No MPs are lost.
The spell caster loses MPs equal to the cost of the spell once cast. Additional MPs may be added to a spell to overcome Countermagic & Shield spells.
A Spell SR is based on its readiness, the DEX of the caster & the MPs in the spell.
To succeed at casting a spell against a resisting target compare the total MPs of the caster to the MPs of the defender. The basic chance to succeed is 50%. The caster gains +5% for every MP greater than the defender or –5% for every MP less than the defender. 01-05 is auto success 96-00 is auto fail.
Failure means the MPs used lost anyway.
After an adventure in which a character successfully overcame the MPs of a defender to cast a spell the character may roll for a POW increase. Roll (20-POW)x 5% to succeed. If successful roll D100 again. 01-10 equals 3 POW, 11-40 equals 2 POW, 41-00 equals 1 POW increase.
A life form is composed of a spirit & physical form. Separation of spirit from the body is known as death. Disembodied spirits exist on the Spirit plane. They are normally indifferent to the physical world. They have INT & POW ( DEX is 20 ).
Spirits can sense other spirits and sources of POW at roughly 10 meters per POW of the sensing spirit. They can also sense Mind links & Runic associations & use Spirit Speech at that range. In contact range spirits can sense exact INT, POW, CHA, and cult or religious affiliations of other spirits. Spirit combat takes place at contact range.
Spirit Combat: To engage a spirit in combat, a character must locate one with Detect Spirit spell or arrange for a priest or shaman to find one. He then challenges the spirit. Spirit Combat temporarily breaks Mind Links or other links with spirits the character might have until combat is over.
Each makes a POW vs POW attack with the other.
If an “attack” by either is successful they have the following options in the order shown:
Break Off Combat:
option for the disembodied spirit only.
To bind a spirit the character must know the spirit binding spell and have an animal or spirit binding crystal ready. A bound spirit has a permanent telepathic link to the binder. If the binder dies all of his bound spirits are immediately freed. A newly bound spirit usually knows no spells. The binder can teach the bound spirit any spells she knows over the usual time period.
The binder can use the INT & POW of the spirit for knowledge of and to power spells. A spirit bound in an animal can also act as the eyes and eyes of the binder. The animal on command may fight for the binder. It will also follow any other commands. The range of the telepathic link is 5 km. If the range is exceeded or the animal dies the spirit is freed.
Bound spirits can increase their POW through spirit combat with other spirits.
Binding limit: total number of spirits = CHA/3, if a character has more than this number a spirit will rebel if the character fails a CHAx5% roll ( when the character tries to get the spirit to do something). If she fails they will enter spirit combat. A spirit will likely flee the combat if its POW is weaker.
The runes are symbols that have power inherent in them. They serve as aids in manipulating the universe. A Rune cult can be involved in the worship of deities, minor ancestor spirits or anything in between. A cult consists of worshippers and a hierarchy. The hierarchy officiates at sacrifices and acts as the intermediaries between worshippers and the deity. The hierarchy gains magical power, the god gains power from the sacrifices, and the worshippers receive whatever the hierarchy feels obliged to give them.
To join the hierarchy of a cult is to become an initiate. An initiate can progress to become a Rune Lord and/or a Rune Priest. The object of RQ is to acquire mastery of one or more Runes. Success in this is marked by the player becoming a Rune level character. A Rune Lord has proven his right to the Mastery rune. A Rune Priest has proved his affinity with the Magic rune.
Intiates: The character must worship the god associated with the cult. Candidates will hace to pass a test to join the cult. Initiates gain 3 benefits for their services to the cult.
Divine intervention: may attempt once per week. Must roll current POW or less on D100
Unsuccessful rolls mean nothing happens no POW is lost.
If the roll is successful the god intervenes. The character will loses POW equal to the D100 rolled. If the roll equals the current POW of the character he becomes a spirit in the service of his god.
Limited Use of Rune Magic- the
character may sacrifice POW equal to the MP cost of the spell to
gain the spell for one use.
Special training. Special cult battle magic and skills may be learned at the cult price.