In RQ2 and RQ3 there was an approach to scaling encounters and working out appropriate loot.
RQ2 frankly had the better of the two. Treasure factors were a pretty flexible system for determining roughly how dangerous a foe was without getting too far down into the weeds. It even had a mechanic for pooling factors (although it terribly overvalued the danger of multiple weak foes). It was far too granular though and the treasure table was way too generous (if at least interesting).
RQ3 tried to get there with danger classes, which were far more subjective than RQ2, and frankly far less use. Its treasure tables were so generic as to be uninteresting and really didn’t tie into prices used elsewhere in the book.
In the forthcoming GM book, we are going back towards RQ2, with a simplified threat rating and treasure factor system (making it clear that some very powerful foes have little treasure and some weaker foes might have more treasure – like everything in RQ, life isn’t always fair or balanced). A triceratops is an apex foe in RQ, with little or no treasure. A rich duck might be rich, but is also a duck.
Now one nice thing is that it makes it easy to determine the threat rating of a player character for comparison purposes. If you know the party’s threat rating (let’s say Vasana and her bind have a threat rating of 10), you know that as a group they should be able to defeat a wild broo and three feral broo (TR8) with minimal losses, but a Lunar patrol of two lancers and five peltasts (TR10) are going to be dicey. And Snagag’s dark troll war band (TR 13) is likely going to wipe them out unless they run away.
Now threat rating is hardly going to result in balanced encounters or be as predictable as challenge ratings in 5e. This is RuneQuest after all and on a bad day even a young Rune lord with a threat rating of 5 can get taken down by a trollkin with a threat rating of 1. That’s just how life is.
But it gives the gamemaster an opportunity to see what might be reasonable. If the party consists of 5 scribes with a total threat rating of 4, that encounter with two dark trolls and a half dozen trollkin (TR 6) is probably too much. Maybe get rid of the two trolls and just have them encounter 5 or 6 trollkin.
Meanwhile Vasana and her party has a total threat of 10, so maybe you ought add a few more dark trolls or even a great troll to make it a little more challenging.
Again this is just guidelines and benchmarks to make it easier for you as the GM.
I’m very much going to credit Mike Mearls for keeping me on this. Now again, this is not intended to result in truly balanced encounters, but just to give you benchmarks about what is likely going to happen here.