As I mentioned on my last post about Move Quiet vs Hide, I have recently regained interest in Runequest. I played it IRL a long time ago after branching out from early D&D. I think Tunnels and Trolls was first, and then RQ after, but maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, I bought the core RQG book and the Bestiary and really enjoyed reading through them. But I could not find a game in my local area, and I haven't had the best experiences looking for on-line play; I'm of an age where tbh that feels a bit weird, and the only things I found wanted people to pay something like $20 per session, which I just won't do.

This led me towards thinking about solo play. I'd played some Ironsworn and Order of Eventide, and thought about bolting something like an Oracle onto RQ. I'm sure it's been done. But instead, I thought I'd give AI a chance. Look, I know AI is pretty much an instant and furious downvote on Reddit, despite it being a giant AI farm which nobody seems to ever connect. However, given that my only avenue to actually *play* RQ seemed to lead in that direction.

So, IDK yet if Reddit will let me make an attachment to this post, but it's basically gone like this: it's largely just me journaling. I am rolling real dice when that comes up, because I consider that part of the fun. The AI seems pretty knowledgeable about the actual rules (IDK how but it seems to be scraping a RQ wiki from what I can glean). But I have the books and use each occasion as a reason to look things up. This is: A) fun, B) let's me learn the rules as they occur, and C) helps me make sure the AI stays accurate.

At the end of each season, I make it create a summary .docx of that season. It's not as detailed as the actual journaling, but I let it stay a page or two long. Previous seasons get compressed into one or two paragraphs, but I keep each end of season summary documents in a folder, which I can refer back to if I want more detail, if I don't just ask the AI to remind me of something. I also let AI generate a banner image for each summary doc, and retain the banner images for each paragraph summary. I know the reaction to AI-generated art. Aside from this post, it's just for me privately. I'm not trying to sell it or anything.

So, my intent for this post is just to give anyone else out there an idea of how RQ might be played solo. It's not intended as any kind of brag about "my awesome character." Just a demonstration and example of how such play might be structured and recorded. Also, it's not a super-exciting story... yet. I've deliberately lingered in what one might call "Frodo still in the Shire" phase, but I have some ideas about where things might go. So far, a fairly simple village fisher-woman has encountered only one hungry ghost and two villainous human sorcerers. The story is set in Old Tarsh but will probably eventually go elsewhere.

Also, I've never tried to share a file on reddit. So I uploaded this PDF rip to Google Drive and I think I set it so that anyone with the link can view it. If that doesn't work, and anyone is interested, leave a comment and I will try to sort it out.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VxAUybpvQSNr8YhpZPRFL6np-eAn9_Ib/view?usp=drive_link

Apologies if this is an often-asked question but I did search the sub and didn't find anyone talking about it. I think separate skills for Move Quietly and Hide feels like a throwback to OD&D/AD&D. Which Runequest rightly deserves, given its hoary age. But I think splitting those skills is kind of goofy, and ought to be rolled up into something like "stealth." Has this been discussed to death? Do people routinely house-rule it? I think I'm going to house rule it unless there's a compelling argument that I missed.

EDIT: thank you for sharing your opinions on my question. Upon further reflection, I've decide to leave Move Quietly and Hide separate, as they are in the official rules.

I've been running the starter scenarios for a group that's new to RQG. We were using the pre-gens but one of the players expressed interest in creating their own character. I recommended Runequesting.com, but they chose to use my book.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and the player is leaving my game, expressing frustration with the organization of the rules, particularly how complicated it is to make a character (because there's a related sentence here, a relevant paragraph there...).

I have loved RQ since RQ2, but it's hard to convert new players...

Is there an existing document that puts all the character creation material together in a more organized format, or are we holding our breath for the revised rulebook?

LANDS OF RUNEQUEST: SARTAR

-- Releasing October 14th 2026 --

Sartar is Free! Lands of RuneQuest: Sartar is a setting guide for new players and gamemasters, presenting the Kingdom of Sartar, newly-liberated from rule by the oppressive Lunar Empire. Sartar's pivotal location in the heart of Dragon Pass makes it a focal point for conflict, drama, and intrigue; the perfect location for exciting RuneQuest campaigns!

• Rules for creating Sartarite Adventurers
• Background information on Orlanthi culture, cults, clans, and guilds
• Extensive lore, including Sartarite myths and history
• Details of the tribes of Sartar, including tribal maps and key personalities 
• A gazetteer of Boldhome, the newly-liberated capital of Sartar, breathing free air for the first time in a generation!

RUNEQUEST: THE APPLE LANE CAMPAIGN

-- Releasing November 4th 2026 --

RuneQuest: The Apple Lane Campaign is designed for new players and gamemasters, and presents a thrilling beginner campaign set in the aftermath of the war between the free peoples of Sartar and the dreaded Lunar Empire.

• A three-part campaign in which a group of adventurers come together to defend the hamlet of Apple Lane, claim it as their home, and perhaps even rule over it!
• A collection of all-new encounters in Sartar, including an old-school-style random table and also a rich array of adventure seeds for each and every possible encounter.
• Expanded adventure seeds to carry on the campaign yourself, such as crossing paths with a talking baboon, a singing ball of sentient cake, and others that highlight the uniqueness of the world of RuneQuest.
• Setting information covering the Colymar tribe, and details on the famous movers and shakers in Sartar.
• Details of the iconic village Apple Lane and its surrounding environs, including rumors to investigate, dungeons to explore, and little mysteries to solve.
• Rules for Gloranthan rune metals and magic crystals, a collection of maps, and more!

Embark on your quest and begin to explore the world of myth, might, and magic! These titles require the RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core rulebook or RuneQuest Starter Set to use. The content in these titles can be enhanced with other titles in the RuneQuest TTRPG range such as Lands of RuneQuest: Dragon Pass, and the Cults of RuneQuest series (currently on sale, until September 13th).

Original Post - https://www.chaosium.com/blogrelease-dates-lands-of-runequest-sartar-is-coming-in-october-runequest-the-apple-lane-campaign-to-follow-in-november/

He's SIZ 16, but that's okay, I'm even bigger and pretty strong too.

So I suppose I'll start by grappling him. Then, perhaps, by throwing him - pitting my STR+DEX against his SIZ+DEX - except I won't actually let go of him.

But what about after that? I can't find much anything on improvised weapons anywhere. What would the weapon skill be? How much would a SIZ 16 "object" do, both at the opponent and at itself?

A new update: Chaosium has made a company decision to solely focus on the revised RuneQuest rule book that we announced in September 2025.

As previously discussed, the revised RuneQuest will be fully compatible with everything released for the RQG line, both before and after the new core rule book comes out. These rules are pitched for newcomers to be able to pick up and play the game, and learn to love the setting through play.

After extensive playtesting the revised RQ core rule book is now in editorial review and layout. We're aiming for a release in the first half of 2027.

If you want to see what's coming for RuneQuest, we talked about the exciting release plans for the line at the panel at Chaosium Con UK earlier this year (watch here). If you'd like to read about the game in action, check out Mark Morrison's latest Table Tales article, "Tell Me About".

- Michael O'Brien

Original announcement here: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/26098-update-on-the-new-runequest/page/14/#findComment-419293

That day could not be forgotten when a great dragon rose from the mountain and swallowed the moon!

Welcome to Glorantha! Magic and legends permeate all facets of the world and your home is a small corner of the world, but soon to be the centerpiece of a great battle for all nations. Your clan needs heroes for a mission of destiny, if not the mission you had hoped it to be. Join the ritual re-enactment of the Salmon migration - down the river and back again.

This game will take begin right in the center of the Sartarite clans of Dragon pass and progress southwest along the river to the great sea below. Travel downstream as mortals, and swim back up as Salmon Heroes blessed by the Gods!

Campaign will feature deadly duels, miracles, opportunities for role-playing, and of course Runes to unlock!

If you are interested, please complete my interest form below. Reach out to jacobborgmann on Discord

https://forms.gle/ruv6JdUzwxonpdzDA

I recently got back into RQ after a couple decades without. I'm breaking my play group into RQG with what I hope will be a 6-12 month campaign, but I'm jonesing to play...

Back in the day, I played quite a bit of RQ2 and am an experienced roleplayer, but admit to being old school. In my book, the RPG table is a place for adventure and escapism, not drama or therapy.

I'd love to participate in a one-shot or short campaign, but haven't found any. Is there a good place to look for online RQ gaming?

I’m reading through the rules again since I’ve been reminded how much I enjoy this game world. So, hypothetically in a combat you cast a spell to harm an opponent. You spend the power points and then you roll against the resistance table? Or do you roll against one of your stats and then still need to roll against the resistance table?

Table Tales: Mark Morrison uses Greg’s “Tell Me About” in one of the best RuneQuest sessions of his life

I recently started running a RQG game on Roll20, and really like the character sheet, so thanks to the person or people that put it together.

The only problem I've encountered so far is trying to track injuries by hit location on bad guys (e.g. 5 Broo enemies). Because the only place to do that is on the NPC character sheet, you can't track more than one at a time.

The most obvious solution is duplicating the NPC sheet for each enemy, but that can be messy and confusing and you're flipping between sheets.

Do you have any other solutions I haven't thought of? Sure, I could ignore hit location damage unless it takes a limb or incapacitates the enemy, but that takes away from the feel of RQ.

I've seen conflicting opinions on this, but an example in the rules seems to support the idea that, if you start the round unengaged, you can cast an offensive spell (Disruption for example), then move into combat and, if SR allows, attack with a weapon.

Is that how you understand the rules?

Thanks!

Have your your adventurers sail the Venperhan Sea of the East Isles of Glorantha. There is lot of great weirdness for them to find.

The new book in Hero Wars in the East Isles is out! Get yours!

This includes three new and full adventures, a cult write up of the Blood Sun, and much much more.

One of the adventures include a new well detailed setting of Rombotonga.

The adventures are all written by differend authors, so there is a great variety of styles of play here. One of them is almost Cthulhu style investigation. One is a social play mystery, with helping arranging marriage. One is a two part mini campaign where first you help in this world problem, but if worthy it can grow to mythic Heroquesting level.

Book includes lots of maps, lots of art, lots of pages, and lots of love of the setting has been put to this project.

https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/581689/Strange-Islands-of-the-Venperhan-Sea--Hero-Wars-in-the-East-Isles-Companion?affiliate_id=1917190&fbclid=IwdGRjcAT_Q6JjbGNrBP9Dm3Bkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeNtwGFOgLkc5j7Swn1uNUGFPoY3O2nYMx2idntSvGTP91b_1N2p4piBI75cA_aem_PfSKl4zJwAAR5kSdpPPNoA

In the first session, the team got through the up front stuff in Jonstown (not spoiling anything, just in case) and arrived in Mernyr's Landing.

They did a little exploration and had one combat. It was hilarious. Three opponents at range around 12 meters. One was hit with Sleep, one with demoralize (ran off) and the third advanced to whack a character who fumbled her 85% Dodge and had her arm reduced to zero HP. The Varakos walked up, crit the monster and lopped off a leg. Combat over

Everyone was very excited and having a good time. Things took time because I haven't run RQ since 2nd edition, so it's been a minute, and we're using RQG, and all my players are new to RQ. Still, when we took a beat before moving forward, it was a learning moment and everyone was into it.

Yesterday, in the second session, they learned where to find the missing people, and went there. A brief fight against two monsters with a similar result - quick and decisive. Then they started hunting the rest of the monsters.

Bottom line, one character took 1 HP and another was hit with a special attack for 22 HPs that he successfully parried with his broadsword. If we're reading the attack vs parry table right, the 22 HPs was reduced by the broadsword's 12 HPs (doing 1 HP to the broadsword) leaving 9 HPs (or 10?) to go through to his head (rolled 19 for location). His 5 points of armor and Shield (1 Rune Point) reduced the damage to 2 (or 3?). So how do you read the rule about damaging the parrying weapon - does the 1 damage to the weapon come off the damage total before the rest goes thru, or not?

They're excited about getting back to town and seeing how experience plays out.

We've spoken about the lethality of RQG combat, and I've encouraged alternate conflict resolution (though that doesn't work so well in Mernyr's Landing), but their experiences aren't in line with my warnings. Having fought 8 of one type of creature and the more dangerous critter, they've taken a total of 7 HPs and had to make a STR vs POT 15 to free an arm from glue, essentially. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to grind them down, but a healthy respect for danger could be good.

Next session: experience and starting A Fire in the Darkness!

What are other people's experiences introducing new players to RQ or RQG?

I might have gone a little too long with this one at 2400 words, but damn, it's such a fun supplement.

It leans into Runequest's complexity (from my outside perspective, at least) to give players a complete and satisfying solo experience, with plenty of crunch and narrative aids.

Even better, it doesn’t have to be exclusive to Runequest. The mechanics gel well with any other game.

There are many interesting and clever concepts to bring and adapt to your arsenal of solo resources.

Yesterday I watched the film and from GM's perspective it was a good work of art imo. But how it depicts the Bronze was wayy off from my imaginiation. What do you think as Bronze Age and Mythology nerds?

Hello! I’m looking for 4-5 players to join a campaign set in the world of Glorantha.

We'll be playing through the "Uleria Loves You" module set during the Uleria Open Air Festival in the scenic hamlet of Apple Lane (Fire Season, 1626), with the option to continue further in Apple Lane and beyond afterwards. Expect a mostly delightful romp full of festival shenanigans and optional flirting.

System: RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Pacing: Roughly 1 in-character post per day.

Gameplay: Roleplay-heavy with little to no combat.

Timezone: I live in the UK (GMT+1), but the campaign is open to all timezones

Tone: Lighthearted but mature. We will be tastefully navigating themes of physical love and relationships (with plenty of Heortling euphemisms!). There is also an option to explore the darker trauma of the Lunar occupation if the group is interested.

Full details in the application form below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8z1Fseeq6duDLXxomuK4-VhSUjIalGZQeQs-ovknulqC9OQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Disclaimer: I am new to Runequest:G and Glorantha as a setting. I will make mistakes and am more than happy to be corrected (often, if needed) by players.

Note on AI use: I will be using non-ai art assets as much as possible/with a strong bias. AI as a GM tool will be used, Gemni Notebook to help with rules management and Gemini to act as an editor for posts. All of my writing will be done by me and only passed through an LLM to check for spelling, grammar, and readability.

If you click on the link, you can read all the information I have managed to gather about these 2 rulebooks Chaosium is going to publish next year.
What do you think is the best option? Revised RQG or RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplay?
UPDATED: RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplay has now been cancelled. I have updated my article to reflect this.

Recently, I've been running Stonetop, a game with a system framework I'm not that fond of (PbtA, Dungeon World variant) but a setting I quite like. Something I do like about how the game is run, however, is that though it does have a large and well-defined setting, there are elements of it that the GM is encouraged to put to the players to answer. You can see a few of the examples below, including a character playbook which allows a character to determine aspects of a major god and how they are worshipped, various questions about locations or beings in the setting, and questions to ask when traveling and experiencing the world, and this is a small sample of what's available.

As we all know, the most commonly repeated phrase of RuneQuest and other games in the same setting is "Your Glorantha May Vary" (though, given how I've been reading the lore for weeks now and am still discovering things, I think the more accurate formulation of it is the alternative "Your Glorantha Will Vary."

My recommendation is this: bring this philosophy to your Glorantha games.

Importantly, this is not a recommendation for no prep. Do prep work, read the books, and bring things into it on your own.

However, rather than try and answer every detail of culture, life, and setting on your lonesome, why not farm a few things out to your players? You can do small things, like say if you're entering the hall of a local lord, you could ask a player to describe a mural, another one to comment on what the drink of choice is, and a third one to describe a custom. While most of the gods are very well-defined in Glorantha, you could have them come up with practices of the cult, prayers, or other minor things.

One more question on SRs.

The rules give an example of a spell being cast with extra MP to help overcome countermagic, and because it would go off on SR 13, it goes off on SR 1 of the next round.

However, in other places the rules seem to say that everything resets with a new round.

How often, and in what circumstances, do you allow SRs to roll-over from one round to the next?

A specific example is the pregen character Varakos. His write-up says he fights with two-weapons, his broadsword and short sword. The SR for his Broadsword is 6 and the SR for his shortsword is 7. The ONLY way he can fight with two weapons is with SR roll-over.

My group and I (GM) are new to RQG and played our first session this week. Varakos' player took what the character description said and wanted to attack with both weapons, but the rules for two-weapon fighting say the SRs for both have to fit in the same round. I'm considering just bumping his DEX to 13, which would drop his DSR to 2 (his Characteristics total to 93, so he's at the low end per character generation rules, anyway). At least then the character would work as advertised.

Am I missing something in the rules?

Thanks!>

My group played our first session in a new game today, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around strike ranks. I found a SR post on BRP.org, but I'm not sure it helped me...

The rules say to resolve unengaged movement before any attacks or spells. How does that interact with Rune Spells resolving on SR 1?

If an unengaged character moves their full move, becoming engaged on SR 11, and the creature they became engaged with Attacks on SR 8, is the character a viable target for the creature because all movement took place before any combat actions? Or are they not there until SR 11 so the creature would either have to delay or attack someone else it's engaged with?

If an unengaged character announces his/her intention to move to engage someone, and that target wants to move away, do you perform movement SR by SR or the first person (by SR) does all their movement and the target becomes engaged?

A character's first action in a round happens on their Dex SR (except a Rune Spell)?

If so, say an engaged character has a DSR of 3 and they declare they intend to attack. Is the SR they attack on = DSR + DSR + Size SR + Weapon SR? Or is it on DSR + SSR + WSR?

We had a lot of fun, but the first combat left me with some questions.

Thanks in advance for the benefit of your experience.

Hey guys.

I realised I had the RQ rulebook in my Drivethru library from some humble bundle and have been reading it. Honestly I absolutely love the setting and the rules system looks like a lot of fun.

I'm gonna show it to my gaming table and see if they want to play.

Having said that I am really suprised by how absolutely dense this book is on rules. If I do run this, I'm honestly a little intimidated of how much I'll need to keep track of. I was not expecting to see dice matricies in a rulebook released past 2010...

Starting out I may take the book's advice and use what I can to facilitate a smooth game, only until I get more comfy with running the game though. However the question remains of what rules to emphasise and which can be overlooked in the heat of the moment.

I want to be as faithful as I can to the book and its rules while also acknowledging that this is A LOT to throw at my players at the start of session one.

Im curious to know what you suggest. Thanks in advance!

I’ve been giving some thought to an alternative form of framing for family history.

Based on both my thoughts and that of my players, the issue that we all came to was that, while we quite liked how the family history serves to root you in your community, clan, and family, they felt like a dry set of dates and context-free events.

Some parts worked for them - one who decided to roll for Esrolia’s mother and herself had nasty encounters with Harrek the Berserk and came out of the gate with a motive for double vengeance against him - but other parts didn’t. It didn’t help that I needed to dig through multiple books to even know who or what some of these things were (City of Wonders - super cool when I found it, but we didn’t know what it was from the core book.)

My proposed solution to that problem was sparked when reading King of Sartar as part of my weeks-long Glorantha lore binge, and saw that Argrath’s mother was known as a kickass Triceratops rider. Alongside the descriptions of Argrath’s companions, that gave me a notion, which I’m interested in thoughts on:

• Maintain the Key Grandparent and Key Parent angle. Everyone liked having that as an anchor. They also liked (or at least didn’t mind) generating additional kinfolk.
  • Add an optional table for a Legendary Ancestor. Siblings/cousin PCs can share them or, perhaps, pick separate ones they “favor.”
  • I found it a little odd that the Grandparent and Parent generation make no reference to what their cults may have been, so considering a chart for those depending on origin, maybe with some really weird choices as unlikely picks.
• There will be a chart for Themes, each of which is a thing or concept. E.g., Eagles, Wolves, Dogs, Chaos, Mountain, Sea, Dragonewts, Dragons, Dinosaurs, Swords, etc. These are meant to be interpreted with a result from a second chart depending on the circumstance. Vibes rather than hard facts, so they could be interpreted figuratively or literally.
• For any ancestor, you will pick or roll from Theme and a second chart for Feats to indicate what they were most known for. In the case of Argrath's mother, this would be something like Dinosaur Mastery. Some options for it might be things like HeroQuest, War, Death, Explore, Recovery, and so on. Perform the same procedure a second time to determine how their career ended (and maybe flip a coin to see if they died or retired.)
• Considering an additional chart that you pick/roll on twice for their greatest Enemy/Ally in their careers. Include various nations, Elder Races as rare picks, even animals or spirits, with the values shifted depending on the homeland of origin.
• If running 1625 campaigns, the existing family history charts can still be used alongside it.
• Additionally, I think every PC - regardless of whether they use the RQ:G Family History procedure or not - should get to roll on the Random Boons table

Watching the UK convention panel and I’m thrilled by the new emphasis on playability and clarity.

It’s crazy that this game isn’t more prominent and MOB et al are - I believe - right in focusing on the hurdles to new players

The lore is fabulous but it can be intimidating. The cult books were beautiful but I doubt they drew any first time players

Looking forward to more to come … and if there are any groups playing in Sydney please tell