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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.