Runequest (for those unfamiliar with it) is one of the old-time gaming systems set in Glorantha, a very original gaming world designed by Greg Stafford. It is a world where the gods daily take an active part in the lives of their worshippers (and enemies), and altercations between temples can alter the weather and the laws of nature as the balance of power in heaven shifts. The world itself is pretty bizarre, with many magical regions and technology is at an advanced bronze-age, early-iron age level. The general feel is very different from most generic fantasy settings, and is worth a look, if you are interested in a different setting for Fantasy Hero games. You can pick up the rule books from a variety of sources, but there's a gazillion web pages exploring various aspects of the world on line. A few good starting places are:

•  Pete's RuneQuest Page
•  Issaries, Inc.

Characteristics

The statistics of Runequest translate reasonably easily to Hero system and it also uses skills and powers rather than levels, so the mechanics translate well. Here's how to do it:

While it functions exactly as EGO does in the normal HERO system, in the conversion, EGO is referred to as POW

Skills

Runequest characters tend to start with similar skill sets and have many skills generic skills which are subsumed into "everyman skills" in Hero system. As a general rule, most Runequest skills can be rapidly assigned a Hero system equivalent (for example "climb" in Runequest is pretty obviously "climbing" in Hero system, and "hide" in Runequest is "concealment" in Hero system. If you come across a Runequest skill that is not easily identifiable as a Hero system skill, then simply translate it directly into Hero system as "skill X" at the usual cost. Runequest uses a percentile dice system, which translates to Hero system as follows:

The easiest thing to do is to simply move the Runequest skill up to the first Hero system skill band (marked in yellow) above it (thus a 19% skill become 8 or less, while a 80% skill becomes 13 or less). This will give characters an awful lot of FAM:s at 8 or less, which can get expensive. Alternatively, you can (depending on character concept) drop skills which are below 8 or less - many of which are everyman skills anyway.

For Runequest skills above 100, simply increase the Hero system dice roll by +1 for the first 10% then add further +1 for every doubling of 10% of the Runequest skill. For example:

Magic

All Runequest characters have access (at least in theory) to magic. However, enchantments are not generally of earth-shaking power. Magic comes in three kinds - spirit magic, rune magic and divine magic.

Spirit Magic

Spirit magic and Rune Magic are essentially the same in game play, but the special effect - and some things pertaining to their use - are very different. Shamans (those who use spirit magic) also have magic powers unattainable to normal sorcerors. Shamans can travel to the spirit plane, where they can meet (for good or ill) the spirits of the dead as well as certain powerful spirits of other kinds (spirits of regions with spiritual qualities, or of powerful beings). The Amerindian idea of the spirit quest gives you a pretty good idea of the overall feeling. This power is bought as: Extradimensional movement (to spirit plane), extra time (1 hour, -2 1/2), requires a skill Roll (-1/2), leaves body behind (-1). If successful, the spell transports the shaman to the spirit plane, but his body remains behind and he must return to it. If it is killed or he does not return to claim it, before it dies of thirst or hunger, he is lost. Shamans can also buy a Fetch (treat as a follower) who is a faithful spirit that lives on the spirit plane. The fetch is normally only resident on the spirit plane, but can take the form of the Shaman's totem animal to guard his body when the shaman travels to the spirit plane himself. The Fetch shares a mindlink with the Shaman and can boost his spellcasting ability. (See the typical Fetch character sheet). The Fetch keeps control of captured spirits, which can be requested to cast a spell the spirit knows for the caster. Essentially this means that shamans keep their spells in the form of spirits, and can only cast spells that spirits they have captured know. Spirits must be captured by the shaman on the spirit plane and beaten in combat - but once this is done, the Fetch can keep them subdued - the Fetch however can only keep as many spirits subdued as it has POW - if his POW falls, the spirits can (and will) flee.

So spirit magic works thus:

All shamans must be able to travel to the spirit plane. Thus, they must buy Extradimensional movement (to spirit plane), extra time (1 hour, -2 1/2), requires a skill Roll (-1/2), leaves body behind (-1) for a cost of 5 points.

While not necessary to start with (a shaman could learn spells from his master's fetch) a Shaman should also buy a Fetch - as noted above.

The shaman buys a power pool - these represent spirits, familiars and so on that power the shaman's magic. He can only use spells that he has learned from a spirit, so the control cost for his power pool is limited by "Only learnt spells (-1/2)" and "Pool cannot contain more spells than Fetch's POW " (-1/4) as well as the limitations that apply to the spells themselves. These are: "requires a Magic Roll" (-1/2) "Gestures and incantations (only to cast)" (-1/2) and "spells use POW " (-1/2).

This last limitation is an essential part of Runequest magic - all spells cost POW to cast - in other words, when you cast a spell, you also lose one off your POW for each 10 active points. POW lost in this way will regenerate given a good night's sleep, but it limits the number of spells you can cast.

Rune Magic

Rune magic works the same way as spirit magic in that it requires skill rolls and requires a point (or more) of POW to cast each spell. The difference is that spells are learned by learning runes. A rune identifies something and in a sense gives it existence. The gods created things by creating runes for them, so to control a rune allows a character to control the thing the rune describes. Thus people who wish to cast magic must somehow acquire runes (beg, buy, steal, etc) and they can only cast spells for which they hold the runes. Most people get their rune magic from their temple or cult. Rune magic users also use power pools and their pools are limited as follows: "Only learnt spells (-1/2)" as well as the limitations that apply to the spells themselves. These are: "requires a Magic Roll" (-1/2) "Gestures and incantations (only to cast)" (-1/2) and "spells use POW" (-1/2).

Divine magic

Divine magic is the easiest to deal with - essentially it is a one-use spell provided by your temple (which means you have to be a member in good standing, and then buy it off the priests). In addition to the cost in gold or magical items, divine spells also normally require the user to sacrifice a point of POW - this goes to the temple, which uses it to power their own magics. In game term, the player must give up 2 experience points or a point of POW. Divine magic requires no skill roll - it always works. Once it's used, it is gone. Characters who become Rune Priests get to reuse this magic, although it requires a period of meditation and prayer. This means that these spells, which are normally fairly powerful, are bought with the limitations "one use" (-2) and "charge does not recover (-2)" for normal individuals or "one use, recoverable charge (-1 1/2) for Runepriests. The charge can only be recovered in a temple of the priest's deity. Divine magic spells are bought outside of power frameworks - which is just as well, since they often have a high points cost.

Sample Characters

Below are fairly loose translations, designed to give the flavour of the characters. All of these characters have groovy character portraits too!

• Ardana Rei. Tarshite warrior scout
• Tarek. Half-ogre
• Kanan Kanansson. Renegade Sable rider Barbarian.
• High Llama rider barbarian

Back to the Character Archive

The joke is just that when Runequest was bought out by (I think) Avalon Hill, they took the system and genericised it, calling it "heroquest". No challenge to the (probably long-lapsed) trademarks of Avalon Hill (if it was them) or Issaries Inc (who "own" Glorantha today) is intended, yadda, yadda, yadda.