RuneQuest — Bronze-age myth, runes, hit locations

"Not fantasy with elves. A mythic world where gods walk and the Truth rune is mechanics, not flavor."

Diced100 (BRP)

Players3–5

Prep~60 min

Foundry VTTCommunity

Complexity

What is this system

The grandparent of the entire BRP family — the system that birthed Call of Cthulhu. d100 percentile skills, hit locations, no levels: characters grow by using skills. The 2018 edition is a direct sequel to RQ2 (1980), reissued by Chaosium under Greg Stafford's guidance. Gritty, deliberate, mythological.

Setting

Glorantha — a bronze-age world Greg Stafford has been building since 1966. Myths are literal: the sun is a god who died and returned, runes are actual cosmic forces, and cults shape destiny more than class or race ever could. Dragon Pass, Sartar, the Lunar Empire. Orlanthi barbarians vs. Lunar magic. Ducks, trolls, plant-elves. A world that is NOT Tolkien — deeper, weirder, anthropological.

What it looks like at the table

Vasana, an Orlanthi rider with Air rune 75%, Movement 60%, passion 'Love (Sartar) 80%'. Fighting a Lunar hoplite. Roll d100 vs. Broadsword: 23, success. Hit location d20: 07, left leg. Damage 1d8+1d4: 9 points, leather absorbs 2. The leg is wounded — half HP for that location. Vasana limps, Movement penalty. Next round: spend Magic Points on Spirit Magic 'Heal 4'. Your hand on the leg, the wound knits. But your Truth rune aches — you swore never to retreat.

Playstyle

Combat worldbuilding Exploration Fantasy

Key mechanics

Runes & passions

Your character has rune affinities (Air, Truth, Movement…) and passions ('Hate Lunars 80%'). Not flavor text — you roll them as d100 skills, and they swing scenes.

Hit locations

Every hit rolls d20 for body part: head, chest, arm, leg. Limbs have their own HP. Break a leg — your fighter drops. Head shot — likely fatal. Combat is consequential.

d100 with no levels

Percentile skills. Use a skill, it grows. No levels, no classes. After 20 sessions, your blacksmith is genuinely 90% at smithing — not a 'fighter 5 with tool proficiency'.

Cult magic

Spirit Magic (Heal, Disrupt) is broadly available; Rune Magic is the miraculous gift of your god. Orlanth grants Wind Words and Lightning; Humakt grants Sword Trance. Magic is faith, not a spellbook.

What people say

where historic realism mixes with raw, primitive magic that hangs in the air like early morning mist— Richard Jansen-Parkes, Tabletop Gaming

breaks away from the core tropes of gleaming armour and codified magic that have come to dominate fantasy in recent decades and replaces it with something that feels closer to ancient myths and legends – more The Odyssey than Lord of the Rings.— EN World

Art & materials