It's here...at least the digital version is, and it does not disappoint! Chaosium's new RuneQuest, which they refer to as their 4th edition of the game, reunites the RuneQuest game and the original setting world of Glorantha. Building upon the classic 2nd edition, which was re-released a couple years ago following a massively successful Kickstarter, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG) claims backward compatibility with all the older RuneQuest products available again from Chaosium.
At almost 450 pages, Chaosium has added a lot of new material to the basic d100 roleplaying system which was their first RuneQuest RPG back in 1978. The new volume is beautiful to look through on my device and I anticipate the printed version will be of the same high quality that Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu 7th edition books are.
Glorantha is not your generic late medieval European based fantasy world as can be seen from the cover illustration above. Glorantha is a mythical bronze age setting which reminds me more of the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia, China and Mycenaean Greece and the illustrations throughout the book set that up nicely.
I understand that one of the goals Chaosium has in the new RuneQuest is that it remain compatible with older editions and in this they seem to have succeeded nicely. Anyone familiar with the classic 2nd edition mechanics will recognize this game as RuneQuest. There are some additions in the form of rune associations and additional rune magic, passions and a lot more skills, but the system works pretty much like 2nd edition.
What is added in RQG is a lot more Glorantha setting material. If you are new to roleplaying in Glorantha, the designers have included the material needed to understand what kind of setting Glorantha is and how to roleplay in this setting. Character generation can be done quickly by skipping a lot of the character background or can make use of the extensive background setting material which includes family history which is linked to recent events in Dragon Pass so that your character (through their family) becomes a part of the story even before play begins.
RuneQuest is a game about myths and gods and how characters relate to their gods and their culture. There are no homeless adventurers looking for a quick kill and some fast loot here, this is a game about people with family and neighbors and priests and priestesses and religious cults. While this was implied in classic RQ, this is made especially clear in RQG. Also, the role of the runes has increased making the game's name more relevant.
Combat is definitely a part of the RQG game, as it was in older versions, and the mechanics of combat have changed very little from 2nd edition, which means it can still be deadly, even to experienced characters. One concession to the modern trend towards a less deadly game is that when a hit location takes damage that doubles the location hit points, the limb is now disabled rather than severed and results in unconsciousness if taken to the head or chest area. It now takes damage that triples the location hit points to result in limb loss or instant death.
What is obviously not included in this tome are stats for any creatures other than humans. Therefore I will consider this a Player's Handbook. The bestiary information will follow (I presume), maybe as part of a referee's guide. The Chaosium website currently has a link here to a 15 page Bestiary Preview document which includes material on a dozen creatures (6 are elementals).
Glorantha is a human setting first and foremost, and although previous editions have allowed for players to control non-human characters such as Ducks and Trolls (two of the uniquely Gloranthan sentient creatures described in the Bestiary Preview), the non-humans are truly alien in their thinking and the game seems to rely on human PCs.
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