History TabletopGame / RuneQuest

After that, Chaosium, needing money to expand, sold the rights to the name to Avalon Hill, and co-wrote the subsequent third edition, but retained the rights to the Glorantha setting and editorial approval of all use of the world (the third edition, originally published in 1984 as a large box set, included both Glorantha and an alternate generic fantasy Europe setting). After some time, the game went dormant (a planned new edition in 1994 was cancelled mid-development), and Stafford left the company after unrelated financial issues, taking the rights to Glorantha with him (he retained a large ownership stake in Chaisium, though). Stafford partnered with a company called Moon Design Publishing to create an entirely different, more narativist game called ''[=HeroQuest=]'', and eventually bought the rights to the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name from Avalon Hill.

* TheHerosJourney: [=HeroQuests=] work like this, with the [=HeroQuester=] deliberately playing the role of the hero.

* PoisonIsCorrosive: Supplement ''Dorastor: Land of Doom''. The claws of the powerful evil Chaos being Cacodemon inject a potent corrosive venom that can inflict up to 114 HitPoints of damage. The claws of his Fiend minions inject a similar poison that can do up to 20 HitPoints of damage.

** ''Trollpak'' boxed set, "Book of Uz" Book 2. Centipedes can grow up to 40 paces (33 yards) long.

** For humans, sure they are, but trolls are subterranean creatures; troll Hell is located ''in human Heaven'' and vice versa.

** As an in-universe example: the Carmanians follow a dualistic religion. While they believe in Idovanus and Ganesatarus as the main good and main evil gods, respectively, with the latter being definitely not okay, their philosophy states that it is actually sensible for a man to combine "light" and "dark" aspects in his life, following a balanced path; for instance, being good and kind to his friends, but remorseless and cruel to his enemies, or tempering the dark action of revenge with the light idea of justice. What this means is that a Carmanian may well come across as a cruel and evil bastard, while actually just acting that way towards his enemies to better protect his family. Of course, they are as often just classical LawfulEvil feudal overlords.

* GodIsDead: Orlanth killed Yelm and it [[TheNightThatNeverEnds ended]] [[HellOnEarth badly]]. Luckily he got better, thanks to Orlanth's RedemptionQuest.

** Wakboth the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Devil]].

* LightIsNotGood: The Sun God Yelm
** He is consided evil by the followers of Orlanthi Storm Pantheon, but good to the followers of the Sun pantheon.
** The Durulz hate Yelm, as he was the god who stripped them of their ability to fly and cursed them to their current state, and aren't too fond of other Sky gods, who goaded him into accepting a racial FateWorseThanDeath instead of exterminating them, even though they admit that these gods did so to save the Durulz from extinction.

* NeverMyFault:

** AllTrollsAreDifferent: Among other things, they're matriarchial, cannibalistic, and [[ExtremeOmnivore Extreme Omnivores]]. You could argue that they're pre-Blizzard [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Blizzard-style Orcs]].
** OurDragonsAreDifferent: True Dragons are beings of unfathomable power, and human beings can become dragons if they follow Draconic Mysticism. The Empire of Wyrmfriends wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate everybody into being dragons. Or at least part of the messianic Great Dragon to Come]].
** OurElvesAreBetter: They're kind-of dryads, or PlantAliens.
** OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Massively averted. Dwarves are made into one of several castes, very different from each other. And they are not Viking-like, they are instead living tools dedicated to repairing the once-perfect World Machine.
** OurGodsAreDifferent: The gods gave up their free will as part of the peace treaty that ended the Gods' War (the war that nearly destroyed them, and the world). Now the gods are locked into their roles, unable to choose to change--though it's possible that their ''worshipers'' can change the gods, by changing the myths or by going on mystical quests into the Godtime.
** OurOgresAreHungrier: They're a Chaotic subrace of humans who look like handsome, tall people with sharp teeth. And yes, they're cannibals. Cannibals who can [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse look like normal humans]].
** OurVampiresAreDifferent: Most commonly associated with the Chaos god Vivamort, the vampires are immortal and possess some frightening abilities, but are also severely handicapped by the various elemental curses placed on them by the gods due to their treachery (being fervently hated both by Humakt as undead and by Urox as Chaos isn't a good place to be either). Sunlight doesn't destroy them, but does take away their powers; to sleep, they require special soil, as regular earth had rejected them. Their mist form is scattered by winds, but their greatest weakness is probably running water (a fact eagerly exploited by duck undead-fighters, of course...). A drop from the river Styx would destroy a vampire in an instant. And notably, in some versions, they're also extra vulnerable to swords - as they are the image of the Death rune, that they seek to escape from.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Deconstructed with the broo-they were created as a warped parody of life meant only to destroy, and they know it. [[TorturedMonster And they have never forgiven their creators.]]

* AssimilationPlot:

* AttackReflector:

* DarkIsNotEvil coupled with LightIsNotGood

** Also, the Sun God Yelm is evil to the followers of Orlanthi Storm Pantheon, but good to the followers of the Sun pantheon.
*** The Durulz hate Yelm, as he was the god who stripped them of their ability to fly and cursed them to their current state, and aren't too fond of other Sky gods, who goaded him into accepting a racial FateWorseThanDeath instead of exterminating them, even though they admit that these gods did so to save the Durulz from extinction.

** There is a supplement called ''Orlanth is Dead''. He isn't, because the act that would symbolically kill him was rigged by the Orlanthi, [[EndlessWinter but it sure as hell feels like he is]].

** There is a supplement called ''Orlanth is Dead''. He isn't, because the act that would symbolically kill him was rigged by the Orlanthi, [[EternalWinter but it sure as hell feels like he is]].

** There is a supplement called ''Orlanth is Dead''. He isn't, because the act that would symbolically kill him was rigged by the Orlanthi, but it sure as hell feels like he is.

* DeityOfHumanOrigin: [[DeusEstMachina Zistor]] and Nysalor, who was to be the [[MessianicArchetype perfect deity]].

** Later, the Lunar Empire also wants everybody to worship their Goddess, so that the world can be one in All again. And damn are they succeeding. According to ''King of Sartar'' the Goddess would be eventually defeated, but [[HesJustHiding she probably is just hiding.]]

** Later, the Lunar Empire also wants everybody to worship their Goddess, so that the world can be one in All again. And damn are they succeeding (for starters, several goddesses who were unrelated to Sedenya are now facets of her and ''[[CosmicRetcon they have always been]]''). According to ''King of Sartar'' the Goddess would be eventually defeated, but [[HesJustHiding she probably is just hiding.]]

* CosmicRetcon: After performing the biggest [=HeroQuest=] in history, the Red Moon assimilated several goddesses into her being. Now those goddesses have ''always'' been facets of her.

* EternalRecurrence: The [=GodTime=], a concept pretty much inspired by Mircea Eliade's eternal return.

* TheHerosJourney: HeroQuests work like this.

** Later, the Lunar Empire also wants everybody to worship their Goddess, so that the world can be one again. And damn are they succeeding (for starters, several goddesses who were unrelated to Sedenya are now facets of her and ''[[CosmicRetcon they have always been]]''). According to ''King of Sartar'' the Goddess would be eventually defeated, but [[HesJustHiding she probably is just hiding.]]

** Later, the Lunar Empire also wants everybody to worship their Goddess, so that the world can be one again. And damn are they succeeding (for starters, several goddesses who were unrelated to Sedenya are now facets of her and ''[[CosmicRetcon they have always been]]''). According to ''King of Sartar'' the Goddess is eventually defeated, but [[HesJustHiding she probably is just hiding.]]

* OurOgresAreHungrier: They're a Chaotic subrace of humans who look like handsome, tall people with sharp teeth. And yes, they're cannibals. Cannibals who can [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse look like normal humans]].

** Played straight with the Vadeli, the corrupt relatives of the sorcerous Brithini people. Like their nicer if xenophobic relatives, Vadeli are TheAgeless so long as their follow the rules of their FantasticCasteSystem. ''Unlike'' the Brithini, the caste systems of the Vadeli generally involve breaking the laws of Malkon, which is to say things like "Murder is bad", "Incest is abhorrent", "Don't lie"... about the only reason they're tolerated is that those same rules make them [[ProudMerchantRace ideal, if untrustworthy businessmen]]... and because they cheerfully blackmail port cities into playing along.

* CrystalDragonJesus: You may think so given the Invisible God, but no; about the only commonality between his church and Catholicism is some sects having saints. Otherwise, they're more like Zoroastrians and Hindis.

** OurDragonsAreDifferent: True Dragons are beings of unfathomable power, and human beings can become dragons if they follow Draconic Mysticism. The Empire of Wyrmfriends wants to [[AssimilationPlot assimilate everybody into being dragons]].

[[caption-width-right:200:RuneQuest 6th edition. Earlier cover art was ... of its period sometimes.]]

** The Empire of Wyrmfriends wanted ''everybody'' (mortals, gods, you name it) to embrace their draconic nature (because according to them everybody has a draconic nature waiting to emerge, whether they agree with them or not). It worked like an enormous pyramidal scheme based on the goal of creating a True Dragon.