7 April 2010

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net

ROGUE FEED Stafford and Sandy Petersen. Illustration by Lisa Free.

Gone but Not Forgotten

APR 07, 2010 12:01A.M.
ROGUE FEED

Musings on RuneQuest Skills

APR 06, 2010 05:25P.M.

For various reasons, my thoughts have been turning to RuneQuest a lot

lately, particularly RQ II, which is the edition with which I have the most
familiarity. RQ is a game that attracts a lot of attention from gamers
dismissive of the concept of “old school gaming.” I presume it’s because
RuneQuest has both a skill system and a highly detailed game world
associated with it, which they mistakenly assume to be contrary to old
school design principles — but that’s a topic for another post.

Anyway, while looking at my RQ II rulebook today and I paid careful

attention to the skills it includes. If one leaves out combat-related skills,
here is the standard complement of adventuring skills:
David Lance Arneson
(October 1, 1947 - April 7, 2009) • Camouflage

• Climbing

ROGUE FEED • Evaluate Treasure

Staffordian Naturalism? • Hide in Cover

APR 06, 2010 10:06P.M.
• Hide Item

• Jumping

• Listen

• Lock Picking

• Map Making

• Move Silently

• Oratory

• Pick Pockets

• Read/Write Foreign Language

Courtesy of Uz Lore, Book One of Trollpak (Chaosium, 1982) by Greg
• Read/Write Own Language

1
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
• Riding
• Speak Foreign Language
• Speak Own Language
• Spot Hidden Item
• Spot Trap
• Swimming
• Tracking
• Trap Set/Disarm
There are also a handful of very specialized skills, mostly pertaining to
crafting. Now, when I looked at the list above, what I immediately
noticed is that, with very few exceptions, the skills are those I’d associate
with D&D‘s Thief class (even Oratory, which is primary about swaying
the emotions of others for one’s own benefit), that is, physical/athletic
skills and larcenous/”adventuresome” skills. That’s not what I was
expecting to find.
On the one hand, I suppose I shouldn’t have been at all surprised.
Despite its subsequent development, RuneQuest in its early days shared
a lot with Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls, and other fantasy
games, where characters were assumed to be ne’er-do-wells in search of
fame, fortune, and power by delving into ancient ruins and contending
with foul monsters. In that context, the skills make perfect sense. On the
other hand, it’s still striking to see how different one’s perceptions of a
game don’t always match up to the reality of how the game is actually
presented. When I think of RQ nowadays, I am almost always thinking
not so much of the game itself but of the game world with which it is
associated, Glorantha, and the full-bore Glorantha that only came to pass
after many years and many supplements describing it — the serious
mythopoeic Glorantha that seems to have pushed aside the wild and
woolly gaming Glorantha of yore.
I’m not sure there are any deep insights to be gleaned here, but I thought
I’d share my thoughts nonetheless. I’ll have more to say about
RuneQuest and the role it plays in the old school renaissance in the days
to come.
2
7 April 2010
ROGUE FEED
Off with Her Head!
APR 06, 2010 10:05A.M.
As I’ve mentioned more than a few times, the cult of Turms Termax was
predicated, at least in part, on the notion that the ascended mortal
Turms was the greatest of all the gods. Indeed, all the other gods were
little more than feeble prefigurations of his perfect plenitude — “past
echoes,” if you will. Consequently, once the cult seized full control of the
Thulian Empire, it began to systematically co-opt all the sects of the
Great Church, teaching that each of the gods they served was an aspect of
Turms, whose full majesty could only be appreciated by a select few,
namely the “True Spirits” of his cult.
Lesser men cannot grasp Turms in his fullness and thus must content
themselves with understanding only a part of him, as mediated through
one of the sects dedicated to a god-aspect. To emphasize this point, many
representations of the gods had their heads replaced with that of Turms
Termax (or, occasionally, his consort Sarana). In Dwimmermount, there
are many statues of the gods to be found, almost all of whom have had
their heads replaced with that of Turms. Indeed, some of them were even
intentionally fashioned that way. Needless to say, this practice wasn’t
popular with some devotees to the gods, who were persecuted for them
obstinacy and formed the core of the resistance that eventually brought
down Termaxian — and, by extension, Thulian — rule.
Tales are told that removing the head of Turms Termax from a statue of
one of the gods and replacing it with its proper one grants a divine boon.
If such tales were true, the strength of the boon would depend on
whether a new head were fashioned for the statue or if, by some chance,
the original could be found and restored to its former place. Likewise,
the gods are often unpredictable when dealing with mortals, meaning
that the nature of the boon itself cannot be predicted.
Here is one example pertaining to gods of the Dwimmermount campaign
(I’m leaving the others as surprises for my players, after all):
Tyche
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 7 April 2010

Original Head: Make a saving throw vs. spells. Success grants the one-
time ability to turn a failed roll of any type into a success. Failure grants
the permanent ability to re-roll any die roll once per day, but the result of
the second roll supersedes the first, even if it is worse.

New Head: Make a saving throw vs. spells. Success grants a one-time
bonus to any upcoming die roll of the player’s choice, with the bonus
being equal to the difference between the number needed to save and the
actual roll. This not a guarantee of success, however, so the decision to
call upon this blessing of Tyche must be made before the dice are
thrown. A saving throw roll equal to precisely the number required
results in a permanent +1 bonus to one of the following:

1 = To hit rolls
2 = Damage
3 = Armor Class
4 = Initiative
5 = Saving Throws
6 = Reaction