Skip to content
The Well of Daliath
Menu
Menu

Best Features of RuneQuest

Posted on April 8, 2024

So it should be of no surprise that RuneQuest is among my absolute favorite BRP rule systems (and that BRP is my favorite rules engine). But it might be interesting to know what I personally think its best features are.

  1. Combat. In my opinion, RQ has the most exciting combat system of ALL the BRP games. The interplay of attack, parry, hit locations, armor points, and the dangers of specials, criticals, and fumbles make for something that is exciting, gut-wrenching, and cinematic. It light years beyond attritional systems like D&D or narrative games. RQ combat simply rocks.
  2. Character psychology. Your RQ character is 3 dimensional thanks to the Runes, Passions, and their ties with cult and community. Thanks to this, you can have an awesome session of RQ without ever needing to use combat to generate excitement.
  3. Skills. I love skill driven games, especially when there are enough skills that there is always something I can try to use in a situation. Like all BRP games, RQ characters have a wide range of potential skills to use.
  4. Rules interact and reinforce setting. To me this is as big a draw as the others combined. In RQ the rules encourage us to act in accordance with the assumptions of the setting. Magic comes from the gods and spirits, so we better join a cult. We get our Rune Points back by offering sacrifice and worship, so offer that war booty to your god! The rules help us to interact with the setting, and reinforce good roleplaying.

And when I say that in my opinion RQ has the most exciting combat system of all the BRP games, I probably should have just gone ahead and said it has the most exciting combat system of all RPGs! Since we know BRP in general has the best combat system of RPGs.

To me this is the four corners of a good RPG engine – an exciting combat system, something to help frame the characters’ psychology, skills instead of classes or levels, and something that interacts with and reinforces the setting.

Jeff Richard

Next
Previous
RQG

Sections

  • Search Tips
  • Current RuneQuest Glorantha Publications
  • RuneQuest Glorantha Corrections and Q&A
  • Catalogue
  • References for Glorantha
    • Gloranthan Canon
  • Gloranthan Documents
  • RPG Systems & Versions
  • Gallery
  • About This Site
  • Get involved!

Latest Posts

  • Thog the Giant

    In 870, Thog the giant appeared with an army of …
  • The Nine Good Giant Mountains

    The Nine Good Giant Mountains are about 60 km or …
  • Why Most Sartarites Hate the Lunar Empire

    From time to time it is worth reminding people why …
  • Suntown and the Eiskolli

    Suntown has always been in the hands of the Sun …
  • A Few Notes on the Grantlands

    To the south of Sun County are the former Grantlands, …
  • Sartar Cities

    Sartar can be thought of a confederation of small cities …
  • Catalogue of the Gods revisited

    This piece from the Mythology book is among my absolute …
  • Thunderbolts in Art

    One of the things that really got me down the …
  • RuneQuest Art

    So let’s talk RQ art for a moment. For the …

Links

  • Chaosium
  • Chaosium’s RuneQuest RPG Wiki
  • Glorantha on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on BRP Central
  • RuneQuest on Discord
  • Prince of Sartar Webcomic
  • Glorantha G+ Archives on Tapatalk
  • Search mailing list archive

Latest from BRP Central

  • Question about cult Initiation for characters in the Six Seasons in Sartar Campaign
  • RQG corebook reprints?
  • Dragon pass and Cults of Light and Fire........UK restock dates ?
  • Help dealing with high-Darkness and high-Fire/Sky Sartarite in Six Seasons campaign
  • RQ Tekumel
  • Rune Affinities of the Tribes of Prax
  • Mallia and Modern Archeology
  • Post Dragonrise Sartar Tribal Politics
  • Glorantha Dryard
  • How compatible is Mongoose's Pavis Rises

Popular Tags

Boldhome (large city) Chaosium Colymar (Sartar tribe) Contents Cult demographics Cults of Runequest (preview) Ernalda Esrolia (homeland) FRA Furthest (large city) G+ post Genealogies Gods Wall Greg Stafford Guide to Glorantha (preview) Humakt Jar-eel Lunar Empire Lunar Pantheon Magazine Malkioni pantheon Map Michael O’Brien Mongoose MRQ1 New Pavis (small city) Old Glorantha Q&A Orlanth Orlanthi pantheon Photo reference Population demographics Prax (homeland) RQ3 RQG Sandy Petersen Sartar (homeland) Spirit Cult Star Subcult Tarsh (homeland & Lunar province) Troll Pantheon Yelm Yelmalio Yelm Pantheon Youtube

Recently added or updated

  • CHA1002 Nomad Gods (1977, 2017)

  • CHA4015 Borderlands (1982, 2018)

  • Wyrm’s Footnotes #09 (1980)

  • Alarums & Excursions (US 1979-1984)

  • AH8591 River of Cradles (1992)

  • Dragon Pass (1983)

  • Part 4 – Sea Mammals

  • Boldhome Map Preview III

  • Geology of Genertela map

  • Zola Fel

  • Yelmalio Adventurers

  • What Happens When You Die

  • CHA4030 The Coming Storm (2016, 2025)

  • Ian Cooper’s Red Cow Website (2006-2010)

  • 15 Sun Dome Temples

  • Issaries

  • Yelorna

  • Vrimak

  • Kralorelan Equivalencies

  • Basmol

©2025 The Well of Daliath | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme