Mounted warriors from RuneQuest and Pendragon ride toward one another.

How Pendragon Improved My Gamemaster (RuneQuest) Skill

One nice thing about having a Kink Shelf is that even if you don’t get to play it, reading through one game improves your gamemastering tools in others. It’s even better yet when the two games are related to one another, like Chaosium’s recent Pendragon 6E and their 2018 RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG). As … Continue reading How Pendragon Improved My Gamemaster (RuneQuest) Skill

Why BWT is Awesome

It has come to my attention that there's a few important RuneQuest works I've not actually reviewed on this site. I mentioned this in passing—and in bafflement—in my review of Sacred Earth, Sacred Water. Somehow, I've not actually managed to discuss the excellent Cups of Clearwine and Dregs of Clearwine by Beer With Teeth (BWT). … Continue reading Why BWT is Awesome

Vignettes in RuneQuest

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

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

REVIEW: A Bad Day at Duck Rock

When there's smoke in the air and Ennio Morricone's warbling Western sting fills your ears, you know someone is destined to have a bad day. Hopefully, that won't be you! This week we're taking a look at A Bad Day at Duck Rock, Peter Hart's first foray onto the Jonstown Compendium. Bad Day is an … Continue reading REVIEW: A Bad Day at Duck Rock

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

REVIEW: Sacred Earth, Sacred Water

Considering the consistent quality of their publications, I'm a big fan of the indie RuneQuest publisher Beer With Teeth (BWT). Skimming over my archive, it looks like I haven't actually reviewed their work on my site! A travesty, I tell ya. I love how their Clearwine books delve into Sartarite daily life on a personal … Continue reading REVIEW: Sacred Earth, Sacred Water

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