Douglas E. Berry

RuneQuest: Weapons & Equipment by Richard August

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is titled "Weapons & Equipment" because "Complete Guide To Bronze Age Economies, Trade, Managing Your Lands, Hiring Everything From Porters and Guides to Sorcerors, and oh yeah, all the Equipment and Weapon Details You'll Ever Need" would take up too much space on the cover.

Seriously, this slim tome contains so much more than just equipment that, honestly, the gear lists and weapons and armor tables feel like an afterthought. We start with a primer on how markets work, and your chances of finding what you need in one. Tolls, selling treasure, Masterwork items, and what they are worth. That's chapter one. Then we get into Gloranthan metals pottery, weaving, and what people use as fuel for their fires.

Now we get into things, starting with common goods that pretty much everyone will own. There's a chapter on Beasts, how to buy them how they are useful, and gear for riding or hitching carts. An entire chapter on hirelings and services, including a frank discussion of slavery in Glorantha. Weapons and armor get their due, and what I like about this is that while the game characteristics don't change much, the story aspects change. For example, an initiate of Waha the Butcher would probably carry a Flensing Knife, since he needs to break down animal carcasses for food and hides. That knife is just as sharp and deadly as a war dagger, but in the terms of the character's story, that knife makes more sense. The same goes for armor choices.

After that, we get expanded travel rules, which of course include buying your own means of transport, and rules for dwellings, with a great bit about what happens when your clan or temple grants you a few hides of land for being so awesome. Then an expanded chapter on training rules, and finally some fun enchanted objects and rules from the prized magic crystals, which are literally the blood of dead gods.

This is the kind of book that sits on the game table for easy reference. It's also filled with hooks for the clever gamemaster. Just reading the rules on developing hides of land had me plotting ways to make it both a blessing and curse for the player who is now a minor noble in his clan.

"Weapons & Equipment" belongs in every Runequest library.



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Done today:

- Reorganized my gaming shelves so the Runequest stuff is more accessible.

- Put the redundant books up on eBay.

- I'm eying a few other things I may sell in the name of decluttering.

- I have a load of dishes running in the dishwasher.

- I'm going through five loads of laundry, including my reflective vest.

- Put new filters in my masks, which I'm going to wear until my kids have their mask mandate lifted.

- Cleaned my work Hydroflask. I drink 32 oz of water with a Nuun tablet every shift. Neen to clean out the yummy mold weekly.

On my gaming bookshelf, I have about 14" of space dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, most of it official WOTC stuff plus some stuff I've picked up on various Kickstarters. I've been playing various forms of D&D since 1978 or so. And I can't do it anymore. I can no longer keep making excuses for the glaring problems with class & level systems. Allow me to begin.

This is a brief summary of the jobs I've had as an adult: light weapons infantry, car wash worker (all positions), retail sales (several times), airport shuttle van driver and dispatcher, commercial truck driver, forklift operator, limousine dispatcher, and now school crossing guard.

What character class am I? Even if you just focus on my years as an infantryman, the skills involved went far beyond the core responsibilities of killing people and breaking things. I, for example, learned enough about how the company supply room worked to earn a secondary MOS as a Small Unit Supply Specialist. We are all like that, no matter what our main focus is, we've all picked up weird side skills from hobbies and old jobs.

Class systems lock you into an identity; you are a Fighter, or a Wizard, or a Rockerboy. Your options are limited by design. This means that your game options are likewise limited. D&D5e uses class options to offer more variety, but it still becomes a straightjacket. This has also led to an explosion of class options which has become almost as bad as the nightmare that Feats became in D&D3/3.5 and Pathfinder 1st. The end result is players show up at the table with an esoteric build depending on options given in some third-party book. This results in arguments and destroyed campaigns. I have seen this happen.

Next, we have Levels. As a mechanic to mark progress and increase the power levels it works, to a point. But most systems also tie new abilities to level increases, so very quickly the characters are nigh-unstoppable by any normal force. Which requires ramping up the threats in an ever-escalating arms race. The game becomes the same melee with changing faces. Enough about them, they simply are a kludge.

Finally, and strap in for this one. . . Hit Points.

I hate hit points as they are presented in most class&level games. To understand how low this has been an issue, I think the first defense and attempt to tweak hit points was when The Dragon was still in single-digit issues. Hit points date back to D&D's ancestral miniature gaming roots. When one figure represents a unit of Athenian hoplites, or Napoleonic Grenadiers, or whatever, a set number that counts down to when that unit is no longer combat capable for whatever reason makes sense. They may have died, been wounded, run off, whatever. It doesn't matter in the context of the game.

But when you are playing a single person of flesh and blood, wounds matter. Bleeding matters. Having the shoulder of your sword arm crushed by a mace, matters. This is all ignored with hit points. Joe the Fighter can start a fight with 75 hit points. Six rounds later, he's been ripped by massive claws, hit with a jet of flame, and been hit by six arrows. He's down to 3 hit points.

AND HE'S FUCKING FINE! He isn't holding his intestines in place, he isn't limping on a horrifically burned leg, and he's not coughing up blood from the arrows in his lungs. Joe will fight at absolute full capacity until he drops to 0 hp. There are no consequences to combat. Combat with hit point systems aren't combat, they're whittling contests devoid of any consideration of tactical thinking. Everyone just min/maxes their attack. The reason the joke about Warlocks always using Eldritch Blast is funny is because it is true. I've played a Hexblade Warlock, and I had no other effective combat option at my disposal.

So done with it. What are you replacing it with, you might ask if you've read this far?

Runequest - Adventuires in Glorantha

It's a skill-based system with no classes. There are professions, and some of them are combat builds, but everyone is a well-rounded character coming into the game. Honestly, playing someone who was a herder and got swept up into the wars against the Lunar Empire and is now seeking his fortune is far closer to the Hero's Journey. One of the more intriguing pre-generated characters in the Starters Kit is Narres Runepainter, an initiate of Eurmal, the Trickster. She was trained to tattoo the dead to prepare them for their journey to the Underworld. She's not a combat monster but has some useful magic and very useful skills.

Combat in Runequest is brutal. Every character has total hit points (work with me here) and hit points in seven hit locations, head, chest, abdomen, and arms and legs. Taking damage to these areas not only lowers your total but has very real consequences. For example, Narres has 14 total hit points, and location hit points:

Head: 5
Chest: 6
Abdomen: 5
R/L Arms: 4 each
R/L Legs: 5 each

Narres does not wear armor. So if a Red Earth pirate hits her right arm with a broadsword doing 8 points of damage, not only does that come off her total, having taken twice the locations total, she falls incapacitated. One hit. But it gets worse! Runequest has what are called "spacial" results if your to-hit roll is 20% of what was required. So if your weapon skill is 80%, a 16 or below is a special hit. This can get nasty, as damage is doubled and all sorts of fun can ensue. For example, if you thrust your spear at a Dark Troll, get a special success, and score enough damage to get past his armor, your spear is stuck in the troll.

RQ demands tactical thinking, using ranged weapons and magic first, and always having the option to run away. There are also rules for the shield wall (something I've never seen in another TTRPG) and challenging leaders to single combat.

So there you have it. Why I'm done with class & level systems and whitling down hit points.

So, here we go!

I'll admit that my character concept is entirely influenced by my recent reading of Maurice's Strategikon (you can read my review here)

The idea of a character who dreams of leading his people in a mass cavalry formation, with banners and horns sound, appealed to me. It gave me a character goal. So the first thing I had to do was choose my homeland. There are several cultures in the Dragon Pass region with strong cavalry traditions, but the nomads of Prax seemed a little too "tribal barbarian" for my tastes. So I went with the Pure Horse People of the Grazelands, as they have a well-ordered society and practice an early form of feudalism.

That's settled! Onto the next step, which is my family history. I choose my paternal grandmother as my first favored ancestor, a noble of the Pure Horse People, and she immediately dies covered in glory at the Battle of Grizzly Peak. But having a famous ancestor gives me a slight Reputation boost and +5% to my Orate skill. I guess that's from retelling Grandma's tale around the fires.

My father did no better, he died defending the Feathered Horse Queen which gives me another boost to my Reputation. But I finally come of age, and wearing my father's armor, go to war! I fought in the Esorolian Civil War and at the Siege of Nochet, I rally my side and win a great victory, becoming more skilled in Battle (+10%) and finally gain some reputation in my own name. At the Battle of Pennel Ford, I found myself face-to-face with Harrek the Beserk and barely escaped with my life! I Fear (Passion - 60%) him now and have a nasty scar on my arm to remember him by. But my reputation grew and I became more skilled and maneuvering in the chaos of battle.

Finally, in this the year 1625 I was part of the last Satar Army facing the Lunar Empire at their new temple. There I witnessed an event that shook me to my bones, the Dragonrise. Satarite priests managed to awaken a True Dragon, who rose from beneath the earth and swallowed the Lunar Temple and most of the Lunar army with it. I have nightmares about that day, and never want to see a True Dragon again (Passion Fear Dragons - 60%)

So there you have a real history for my yet unnamed character. He has fought the Lunar Empire, though he bears them no real ill-will, it's just that his loyalty to his clan and Feathered Horse Queen demands that he does his duty!

OK, the next one is Rune affiliations and skills.