RuneQuest was one of the first second-generation roleplaying games originally developed by Stere Perrin and the gang of folks at Chaosium. It has an interesting history as a strong gaming system that was — and still is — easily applied to many different genres. For example, if you have ever played Call of Cthulhu, you have played the basic RuneQuest rules set. It eventually was streamlined down into a set of rules called "Basic Role Playing." RuneQuest is still being published. The latest version, RuneQuest 6, was released in July 2012 by The Design Mechanism under license from Moon Design Publications.
In a message board game, it is the Gamemaster's intent to keep as much of the game mechanics invisible. The players should be more concerned with stepping into the role of an inhabitant of The Heartwood and far less concerned about describing action and play in detailed mechanical terms. Players will post their attempted actions, and the Gamemaster will manage the combat or skill checks in the background and then post the results. For example:
Squire Kelvin turns, his gaze intent; his concentration focused. With the slightest of arcane shimmers, his blade clears his scabbard. He offers a brusque en garde to his opponent — the proper warning offered by a Squire to a combatant — as he lays into the foul brigand with a powerful stroke.
Squire Kelvin draws his weapon, casts Bladesharp 3 and attempts to hit Bandit No. 2, his Strike Rank 3, using his Broadsword. Using the onboard dice roller, he rolls a 53 and then adds his attack bonus of +05 percent.
In general, combat mechanics and challenge rolls will occur off screen and be managed by the Gamemaster. It is imperative to understand this is not to hide or keep secret anything about the play of the game. The intent is twofold. First, it ensures that the narrative of the game maintains a high level of realism in order to increase the immersion of a player into their character's role. Second, it takes the drudgery and pain of managing the mechanics off the players and lets it be the Gamemaster's headache. If there is any question about the results of a particular action, simply ask.
The rest of this file is a general overview of the RuneQuest/Basic Role Playing game system. The Gamemaster presents if for general information purposes only. If you just want to focus on the roleplaying and storytelling aspects of The Heartwood, the techie bits are the responsibility of the Gamemaster, and you can stop right here!
That said, the principles of RuneQuest/Basic Role Playing are extremely simple.
RuneQuest is a classless gaming system without alignments. A character's role is not defined by a job description but by the Skills they decide to collect. Technically, a character can have any set of Skills they wish, it is just a measure of deciding what you wish to learn.
A character's alignment is set simply by how the player decides to play their character. If you do good things you are a good person, if you do bad things then you are a bad person. Most folks are somewhere in the middle.
The Heartwood is a medieval environment. Thus, it has its own culturally based castes (for lack of a better word). That is, to represent the various cultures and factions within the world, only some folks who meet specific requirements may learn certain Skills; usually this requires belonging to a church or cult. Also, to help players get a handle on one's character quickly, several occupations do have a collection of Skills normally associated with them. For example, a person wanting to play a traditional fighter might then have an appropriate background... perhaps the son of a guardsman who would teach him a number of particular skills. They would then have the choice to be independent or join one of the Cults — such as Lord Rames, Old Jvrill, New Jvrill, Jagnar or Khannish. In each of these churches, they would teach their individual flavor of advanced skills.
Please note that these are a streamlined version of the rules. The Mechanics file contains more details and a general listing of the most commonly used Skills.
RuneQuest uses a 1 to 18 scale for stats, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. The stats are fairly straightforward and should be familiar to folks. Stats feed into your abilities, creating a plus and minus modifier to your skill rolls and damage. In general, high is good (positive modifiers), low is bad (negative modifiers) and average (no modifier) is just that (a stat of 12 is considered average).
The Statistics are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Size (SIZ), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW), Dexterity (DEX) and Appearance (APP).
The Gamemaster will crunch the numbers, so don't fret too much over them.
The average of your CON and your SIZ is your hit points. Forever. You don't magically get more difficult to kill over time; a dagger in the tummy is going to hurt the same if you are twenty years old or twenty-five years old. You make yourself tougher by getting better armor, learning new magics, improving your dodge and parry skills and hitting your opponents better than they hit you (improving your combat skills).
POW is a catch-all stat used to determine your presence and self-confidence; it also represents your magic potential. Power is a volatile stat; it will go up and down during the game. Don't worry, this is natural.
Combat oriented characters will prefer Strength, Size, and Dexterity stats. Sneaky sorts of characters will want a small Size and a high Dexterity. The traders and clerical categories of characters will want a higher Intelligence stat. And of course if you are joining one of the many cults to serve as a Priest or Priestess, Power will be your important stat.
In RuneQuest, the entire game system works around three simple principles:
Anything you want to do is a Skill. The Mechanics file lists a bevy of traditional roleplaying skills. This list is a basic starting point and usually accounts for most things one will encounter in the game. If your character is interested in doing something that is not in the list, simply talk to the Gamemaster, and it can easily be set up. One's level of a skill is a number from 0 to 100, with the ability to go above 100 in extraordinary cases. This number is your percentage chance to accomplish this task. If you have a skill of 75, you have a 75 percent chance to perform that skill successfully. If you were to roll the dice, you would roll a d100; if you rolled beneath 75, ta da! Success.
Low rolls are good; high rolls are bad.
You can't get much simpler than that.
That said, just remember... 75 percent is a good percentage, a relatively high skill in something. It means you will succeed three-quarters of the time. It also means you will fail one-fourth of the time. A skill of 90 percent is a master, an expert at the task.
If it comes to dice rolling, anything between 01 percent and 05 percent always hits. Anything between a 95 percent and 100 percent roll always misses. If you roll 05 percent or less of your chance to succeed, it is a critical success, and something good happens; for example a sword blow ignores armor. If there is a roll so high that it gets into the high 05 percent bracket for failure, then you have fumbled, and something remarkably bad will happen. For example, your shield strap breaks, and it falls off your arm.
Combat is just using skills. You hit using a Weapon skill; your opponent gets a chance to parry with their Parry skill. If your opponent does not parry, your successful hit damage is done! Do this enough times, and your target falls over. However, what this also means is that two evenly matched opponents of a sufficient skill are going to be exactly that: evenly matched. The fight could go on forever in an exchange of Hit-Parry, Hit-Parry. Anyone who has seen a Tourney of the Society of Creative Anachronism knows that this is not simply a hiccup of numbers, it's what actually happens in combat.
Strike Rank is a secondary stat that indicates when in a combat round you hit. Again, low is good, high is bad. Dexterity and weapon length help with a low strike rank; thus, a fast person with a great sword will have the chance to hit prior to a clumsy person with a much shorter dagger. Bigger people have a longer reach than shorter people. Most bows are designed to be fired twice in a combat round, and crossbows have a fixed rate per round.
Armor represents a buffer between you and damage. Thus, armor has points... the better the armor, the higher the points. If someone successfully hits you, they roll damage and then subtract your armor points. If there is any damage left over after the Gamemaster subtracts your armor points, that damage is subtracted from your Constitution.
If your Constitution drops to 2 you are unconscious; if it drops below 0 you are dead.
Cloth (normal clothing) is the lowest armor; Ironsilver plate is the very, very best.
RuneQuest uses a hit location system so that each hit location (arm, leg, head, etc.) will have a certain number of hit points. If a location drops to 0, you can no longer use it. The effects of using this method will mean that a chest number brought to 0 will incapacitate you. If you take twice as much damage to a limb than it has it is considered maimed, if this happens in one blow it has been severed.
Then you hope you have a Lady of Attera nearby!
The total of hit points in your hit locations will often exceed your Constitution; however, you cannot take more overall damage than is set by your Constitution. Luckily, the Gamemaster will crunch all these numbers for you.
Challenges occur when you take an action that requires that you overcome another person. For example, if you are going to try and fast-talk your way out of a problem, you have to convince the other person to believe you. This challenge is accomplished by comparing the relevant stats of each character and making a d100 roll.
If the relevant statistics are equal, the active player has a 50 percent chance of succeeding. For every point difference, there is a plus or minus 05 percent added to or subtracted from the roll.
For example:
Derrick challenges Rolf to an arm wrestling match. Derrick posts, "Ha! Rolf, I am the best arm wrestler this side of the Silk Creek; there is no way you Lowsiders can best me!"
The Gamemaster then goes... hmm... since there's not an actual Arm Wrestling skill, let's make this a Strength Challenge. Derrick has a strength of 15; that's pretty good. Rolf, however, is the local blacksmith and has a strength of 17. Let's see if Derrick can do this! Since Derrick has the lower strength, two points lower, we take 10 from 50 to get a 40 percent chance to succeed. Reaching toward the side of the table, the Gamemaster grabs a set of percentile dice and rolls a 10. Well, I'll be! Not only is the Highsider's honor retained, but he defeats Rolf solidly. The Gamemaster then replies in his post.
Facing each other across the table, the two clasps hands. There is a grim moment, staring into each other's eyes, before the barkeep barks out a "Ready, set... go!" The fight goes one way, then another, knuckles almost touch the tabletop several times before — with a resounding thump — Derrick squarely forces Rolf's hand down against the worn wood.
It is important to note that Power versus Power challenges happen a lot in the game. Remember the statement about Power being a volatile statistic? If you are successful in a Power versus Power challenge, you have a chance of your Power going up, similar to improving any skill. A Power versus Power challenge is the way Power can get above 18. So do not be surprised if now and then you get a note from the Gamemaster telling you that you are feeling much more in tune with the universe.
There are two types of Magic upon the Heartwood: Common Magic and Divine Magic.
Common magics are everyday spells anyone can learn or simple magics taught to members of a particular cult. Divine Magic is the most powerful magic available, usually as a one-time cast. Divine Magic is literally calling down the power of one's Deity; this is the Wrath of God magic.
Common Magic is the general magic that can be used by most anyone. These are an array of simple spells for general utility use such as starting a campfire, creating light, simple healing or basic weapons enhancement. The various and sundry churches usually teach these magics; sometimes they are passed down like a hauberk of mail. Most churches will teach anyone these spells for a small fee, even if they are not even a member of the church. The guiding principle being that if they don't teach you, your coin will just go to someone else.
What this means is that there are probably as many different spells for starting a campfire as there are churches, each one having their its particular flavor. In game mechanic terms, the different flavors are treated the same. A character is encouraged to add descriptive flair when casting a spell to reflect where and how they learned it.
The basic principle of casting a spell is simple. Each spell takes a certain amount of Power, usually from 1 to 3 points. Certain spells, such as Healing spells, can use up to 6 points of Power. The cost of the spell gets tallied against one's Power as the character casts each spell.
Note that some folks look at it as having Magic Points equal to your Power. The difference is just game system semantics; whichever way helps you understand it the best is fine; in the end it works the same away.
When your Power (magic points) hits zero you are exhausted; you can do no more magic, and need to sleep.
To restore Power "lost" in this way, one need only rest. Over the course of a normal waking day (considered to be 12 hours), a character will completely restore their Power. If one does nothing else and rests, one can restore their Power in half a day.
Thus, a person with an average Power stat of 12 normally restores 1 point an hour (12 points restored over 12 hours). If resting, they will restore 2 points an hour (12 points restored over half a day).
In game play terms, feel free to cast your spells as you feel they are needed. The Gamemaster will then inform you if you are starting to feel tired or worn and how tired or worn; it is a qualitative, not quantitative response.
These spells literally bring down the Wrath of one's God upon one's enemies. Alternatively, the caster is requesting their Deity to intervene personally on the player's behalf (such as using Lady Attera's power to restore a severed limb). These spells tend to be very dramatic and powerful. These are only available to those who are Initiates or Lords or Priests of a Church or Cult. This is one of the major benefits of belonging to a cult.
Similar to common magics, there is a pool of Divine Spells that are available to all churches. Then each particular cult has their own special teachings.
The mechanics of casting Divine Magic is very different. It is done on a "Pay In Advance" model.
To get a Divine Magic spell, one must be a member of a cult. In all cases, you arrange a ceremony with the ranking Priest or Priestess and permanently sacrifice 1 to 3 points of Power to obtain the spell, depending on the spell.
For Initiates and Non-Priest members (such as a Knight as opposed to a Father of Rames), this is on a one-time basis. You obtain the spell, know it, and when you have the need, you cast it. It goes off at the very beginning of the combat round, or immediately if not in combat. Then, in order to use it again, you must find a Priest or Priestess and re-sacrifice for it.
But horrors! You had to lower your Power stat to do this! Yes, that's true. But as stated above, Power is the most common stat used in various challenges. In this way, you will, through the normal course of the game, be able to restore the sacrificed Power.
The difference for a Priest or Priestess is that once sacrificed for, the Priest or Priestess can use many (but not all) spells over and over again.
Starting Player Characters will be allowed a certain number of Divine Spells, and unless you are a Priest or Priestess these will be the one-shot type. However, it is assumed that they were sacrificed before the start of the game and by the time the game starts you have recovered your Power. In other words, they are free.