The emphasis on communal obligations and day-to-day life is one strength of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG). This is built into the game's religious expectations like tithing adventuring loot to one's temple, and in how the game's cults describe reciprocal relationships and social hierarchies. Despite these strengths actual RQG adventures tend to focus more on … Continue reading Vignettes in RuneQuest
Category: Articles
The Esvulari & the Aeolians
The first RuneQuest character I ever played was a knight-sorcerer in RuneQuest 3. Coming from Pathfinder 1E and Dungeons & Dragons 3.5E I loved the idea that you could play anything you wanted due to the skills-based Basic Roleplaying (BRP) engine. Our game added in a bunch of insane spells from Sandy Petersen's RuneQuest sorcery … Continue reading The Esvulari & the Aeolians
REVIEW: Dune: Part Two
This review contains substantial spoilers for the 2021 film, the 2024 film, and Frank Herbert's original 1965 novel. Alteration is almost always necessary when adapting a book into a film. It's natural, really. Just compare the length of even a short audiobook to that of a typical short comedy or action movie. Even with film's … Continue reading REVIEW: Dune: Part Two
Art, AI, and Google Translate
After the explosion in machine-generated text and illustration over the last year or two, online controversy about these programs has been, well … constant. Yet there's something off about the discomfort expressed both by artists and by art fans about machine-generated content. A hole in a pattern, which I'm not quite clever enough to identify. … Continue reading Art, AI, and Google Translate
Unwritten Rules: Bonus Stacking
My trickster Illostan finally gets caught by Prince Temertain's guards—he thinks he's friends with “Temmy” and wants to give him more “presents”—and needs to Fast Talk to escape the situation. To improve his chances, he both casts the spell Clever Tongue and rolls an augment with his Harmony Rune (“No, I really am his friend!”). … Continue reading Unwritten Rules: Bonus Stacking
Trickster Animism in RuneQuest
The Trickster is a character found in mythologies all around the world, from Loki of the Scandinavians and Coyote of the Native Americans, to Sun Wukong in China and (I'd be tempted to argue) Judas in Christianity. This transgressive figure is nonetheless necessary for his culture's worldview to make sense. Judas's betrayal of Jesus is … Continue reading Trickster Animism in RuneQuest
Out Now! Treasures of Glorantha 2
Treasures of Glorantha 2: Relics of the Second Age is now available. Click here to get your copy! This book is the essential guide to lost magics of the Imperial Age. Within you will find the lost secrets of a dragon-worshiping empire, powers stolen by god-manipulating sorcerers, and other arcane mysteries. Treasures 2 contains thirty … Continue reading Out Now! Treasures of Glorantha 2
Landscape Animism on Akhelas
Landscape Animism on Akhelas Let's take a break from RuneQuest and Glorantha this week, and return to Akhelas. Akhelas is this site's namesake, a fantasy setting which has its roots in scribbles from before I actually started, well, writing-writing. My most recent articles about Akhelas outlined magic's function in the setting based on the world's … Continue reading Landscape Animism on Akhelas
Weariness in RuneQuest
The RuneQuest core rules offer a pretty flexible “fatigue-lite” system based on encumbrance (ENC) for how much stuff an adventurer can carry. While writing a new RuneQuest adventure which occurs through most of a single night, I found I wanted an additional tool for describing an adventurer's weariness. Artificially adding ENC based on how long … Continue reading Weariness in RuneQuest
RuneQuest’s Unwritten Rules
I love RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG), but it's hard to claim that the game is "simple." With features such as two task resolution systems, three magic systems, and inconsistent circumstantial bonuses or penalties, any argument for "simplicity" would be based on my familiarity with the system rather than its actual properties. That said, rules … Continue reading RuneQuest’s Unwritten Rules
Akhelas 