History TabletopGame / RuneQuest

* IKnowYourTrueName: ''Gygax'' magazine #4 article "Djinn: Spirits between Heaven and Hell". All jinn (imps, djinn, foliots, ifrits and marids) can only be summoned if the magician knows their true name.

** One encounter with Jack O'Bears includes Jack O'Bear #2. It has four tentacles in place of its arms, each of which can inflict 4-24 HitPoints of damage.

*** Issue #57 article "For the Blood Is the Life". When exposed to sunlight, vampyrs lose their ability to charm opponents and their immunity to attack by bronze weapons. They also lose two points of CON each round they remain in the sunlight. If their CON reaches zero, they will become inanimate.

** ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' #45, article "Dealing With Demons".
*** Demon wolves must be summoned at night because they are demoralized by daylight.
*** Nightmares are black demon horses that dissolve into mist if sunlight falls upon them.

* MindScrew: There are lots of mutually exclusive mythologies, and all of them are true because reality before Time started was fluid. And sometimes (the Sunstop, which temporally broke Time, being the main example) it can still be. And traveling to the reality before Time started, which still exists as a separate plane, can potentially retcon reality after Time started. Needless to say, all of this can be ''just a little'' confusing.

* WeakenedByTheLight:

** ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' #45, article "Dealing With Demons". Nightmares are black demon horses that dissolve into mist if sunlight falls upon them.

* WeakenedByTheLight: Several Gloranthan creatures are demoralized by daylight, the cave troll can't regenerate damage taken while in daylight, and ghouls lose one Magic Point per hour in direct sunlight.

* SuperSpit: Supplement ''Dorastor: Land of Doom''
** The Gnarl, one of the Slime Broos gang, can spit acid up to 20 meters away that does 12 HitPoints of damage to a hit location of his choice.
** The Spit Snake is one type of Chaos Snake. Each Spit Snake can spit a different liquid substance, such as potent acid, a skunk spray-like oil, glue, contact poison, dyes, and one that gives off a smell that attracts Chaos creatures.
** The Howler can spit acid 9 times per day that does up to 20 HitPoints of damage.
** The three-headed Chaos creature Yeachi can spit acid from its central head (that does up to 32 HitPoints of damage) five times per day.
* {{Synchronization}}: Supplement ''Trollpak'', "Book of Uz" part 2. The Aranea cult has a special type of Divine Intervention. The supplicant can link themselves to another person so that if the supplicant dies, the other will as well. This is an excellent way to persuade another person not to kill you.
* TooDumbToLive: Hey, God Learners and Empire of Wyrm's Friends? Did ya ever think that ''maybe'' mucking around with the ''source code of reality '''might''''' have consequences down the line? Like, say, forcing a pair of goddesses to do the others' job as a ''thought experiment?'' Given how you managed to blow yourselves up, guess not.
* ToHellAndBack: The Lightbringers, to rescue Yelm and end the Greater Darkness.
* TopGod: Many pantheons have one, but Sedenya, Yelm and Orlanth are the most important. Arachne Solara can be seen as a [[GodofGods Goddess of Gods]].
* TricksterArchetype: Several.
* VampiricDraining

** 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.

* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: ''Champions of the Reaching Moon''. The Tardy Newt inn in the city of Glamour.

The history of the game is somewhat convoluted, with many offshoots. The first edition debuted as a 120 page book at the Origins Game Convention in 1978, and sold over 1,000 copies. It was reworked into a 2nd edition in 1979, which went on to sell over 10,000 copies by 1981. The most popular version of the 2nd edition was the boxed set (which were popular at the time). It included Apple Lane and the Rainbow Mounds (a pair of starter adventures), a set of dice, and a stripped down quick-reference for new players called "Basic Role-playing" along with the main rulebook, which was given all new typesetting and error corrections. It is commonly considered the definitive edition.

After that, Chaosium, needing money to expand, sold the rights to the name to Creator/AvalonHill, and co-wrote the subsequent 3rd 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). Stafford left Chaosium in 1997 after unrelated financial issues, taking the rights to Glorantha with him (he retained a large ownership stake in Chaosium, though). Stafford formed a new company, Issaries Inc. to create an entirely different, more narrativist game called ''[=HeroQuest=]'', and eventually acquired back the rights to the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' trademark from Avalon Hill in 2004.

In 2005 Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006. It cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original copyrighted wording (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was published in 2010, and was far better received than the first Mongoose edition. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company, The Design Mechanism, published under license a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition. Three years later, however, after ongoing financial issues at Chaosium, Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen (who collectively owned a majority ownership of Chaosium) brought in the management team from Moon Design Publications to run Chaosium on their behalf. Moon Design Publications had previously purchased all of the rights and trademarks for [=RuneQuest=] and Glorantha from Stafford in 2014. With the trademark and copyright for [=RuneQuest=] under its control, Chaosium is developing a new edition of [=RuneQuest=], called [=RuneQuest=]: Roleplaying in Glorantha, scheduled to debut just before the end of 2017.

With development beginning on July 4th, 1977 ''[=RuneQuest=]'' was published by Creator/{{Chaosium}} in June of 1978, making it one of the oldest tabletop RolePlayingGames. Among other things, it introduced an experience system that replaced levels (as in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') with skills that increase if you successfully use them (''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' replaced levels with skills first but they didn't increase with use). It also introduced hit regions instead of general HitPoints and did not use Character Classes, which removed weapon and armor use restrictions.

[[caption-width-right:350:RuneQuest 2nd edition cover]]

In 2005 Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006. It cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original copyrighted wording (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was published in 2010, and was far better received than the first Mongoose edition. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company, The Design Mechanism, published under license a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition. Three years later, however, after ongoing financial issues at Chaosium, Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen (who collectively owned a majority ownership of Chaosium) brought in the management team from Moon Design Publications to run Chaosium on their behalf. Moon Design Publications had previously purchased all of the rights and trademarks for RuneQuest and Glorantha from Stafford in 2014. With the trademark and copyright for RuneQuest under its control, Chaosium is developing a new edition of RuneQuest, called RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, scheduled to debut just before the end of 2017.

Since 1980 Chaosium has used the core RuneQuest rules for other games like ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', ''[[Literature/TheElricSaga Stormbringer]]'', and the ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' RPG, and many, many others, which are all now collectively known as the Basic Role-Playing System (BRP). The fantasy world of Glorantha is also the setting of the video-game ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' and the web-comic ''Prince of Sartar''.

[[quoteright:200:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rq6-front-cover_2777.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:RuneQuest 6th edition. Earlier cover art was... of its period sometimes.]]

In 2005 Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006. It cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original copyrighted wording (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was published in 2010, and was far better received than the first Mongoose edition. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company formed by Nash and Whittaker, The Design Mechanism, received a license to publish a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition they had largely written. Three years later, however, after ongoing financial issues at Chaosium, Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen (who collectively owned a majority ownership of Chaosium) brought in the management team from Moon Design Publications to run Chaosium on their behalf. Moon Design Publications had previously purchased all of the rights and trademarks for RuneQuest and Glorantha from Stafford in 2014. With the trademark and copyright for RuneQuest under its control, Chaosium is developing a new edition of RuneQuest, called RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, scheduled to debut just before the end of 2017.

In 2005 Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006. It cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original copyrighted wording (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was prepared by designers Pete Nash and Lawrence Whittaker and published in 2010, and was far better received than the first Mongoose edition. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company formed by Nash and Whittaker, The Design Mechanism, received a license to publish a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition they had largely written. Three years later, however, after ongoing financial issues at Chaosium, Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen (who collectively owned a majority ownership of Chaosium) brought in the management team from Moon Design Publications to run Chaosium on their behalf. Moon Design Publications had previously purchased all of the rights and trademarks for RuneQuest and Glorantha from Stafford in 2014. With the trademark and copyright for RuneQuest under its control, Chaosium is developing a new edition of RuneQuest, called RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, scheduled to debut just before the end of 2017.

In 2005 Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006. It cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original copyrighted wording (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was prepared by designers Pete Nash and Lawrence Whittaker and published in 2010, and was far better received than the first Mongoose edition. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company formed by Nash and Whittaker, The Design Mechanism, received a license to publish a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition they had largely written. Three years later, however, after some more financial issues at Chaosium, Stafford engineered a merger between Chaosium (of which he still owned a large chunk) and Moon Design, leading to a full reunion of all classic ''[=RuneQuest=]'' rights, and the plan for a new edition firmly set in Glorantha based largely on the early editions.

In the intervening years, Chaosium used the same underlying rules for other games like ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', ''[[Literature/TheElricSaga Stormbringer]]'', and the ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' RPG, and many, many others, and it was in 2004 developed into the generic Basic Role-Playing System (BRP), which included a generic fantasy version called "Magic World".

Other variants and off-shoots in the fantasy genre are plentiful; the first Mongoose edition was published under an open gaming license, leading to a fan named Paul "Newt" Newport using it (and years of personal house rules) as the basis of a rules-light version called ''[=OpenQuest=]'' (first released in 2009, 2013 saw a second edition), Mongoose themselves have continued to print their second edition as ''Legend'' (with the Glorantha material removed) and The Design Mechanism plans to do the same with the 6th edition under the title ''Mythras''. As it's a largely modular system, they're all largely compatible, and players can freely lift elements from any one edition and use them in their home games easily.

Glorantha is also the setting of the video-game ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' and the web-comic ''Prince of Sartar''. There are two separate continuities: that of Mongoose ''[=RuneQuest=]'' (Glorantha Second Age) and the main, more canonical one (set in the Third Age).

With development beginning on July 4th, 1977 ''[=RuneQuest=]'' was published by Creator/{{Chaosium}} in 1978, making it one of the oldest tabletop RolePlayingGames. Among other things, it introduced an experience system that replaces the levels (as in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') with skills that increase if you successfully use them (''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' replaced levels with skills first but they didn't increase with use). It also introduced hit regions instead of general HitPoints.

The original ''[=RuneQuest=]'' was set in the ConstructedWorld named Glorantha created by Chaosium co-founder Greg Stafford. The setting shares many tropes in common with other fantasy worlds (despite Stafford's insistence that it was more inspired by studies in folklore than popular fantasy), though it does have some unusual features, such as talking, cigar-chomping Ducks (blame Comics/HowardTheDuck, who was at the height of his popularity at the time).

The history of the game is somewhat convoluted, with many offshoots. The first version was published as a booklet in 1978, and sold very well. Soon after, they decided to expand it into a small box set (which were popular at the time). The subsequent second edition, released in 1980, didn't change the game particularly; it included a pair of starter adventures, a set of dice, and a stripped down quick-reference for new players called "Basic Role-playing" along with the main book, which was given all new typesetting and error corrections. It sold even better and is still considered the definitive edition.

After that, Chaosium, needing money to expand, sold the rights to the name to Creator/AvalonHill, 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 Chaosium, though). Stafford partnered with a company called Moon Design Publishing to create an entirely different, more narrativist game called ''[=HeroQuest=]'', and eventually bought the rights to the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name from Avalon Hill.

Stafford licensed the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name to Mongoose Publishing to create a new version, published in 2006, which cloned the basics of the rules but didn't use the original texts (which had reverted to Chaosium). A revised Mongoose edition was prepared by designers Pete Nash and Lawrence Whittaker and published in 2010, and was far better received than the first. However, Mongoose's license was not renewed, and in 2012, a new company formed by Nash and Whittaker, The Design Mechanism, received a license to publish a 6th edition of ''[=RuneQuest=]'', an expansion of the second Mongoose edition they had largely written. Three years later, however, after some more financial issues at Chaosium, Stafford engineered a merger between Chaosium (of which he still owned a large chunk) and Moon Design, leading to a full reunion of all classic ''[=RuneQuest=]'' rights, and the plan for a new edition firmly set in Glorantha based largely on the early editions.

''[=RuneQuest=]'' was created by Creator/{{Chaosium}} in 1978, making it one of the oldest tabletop RolePlayingGames. Among other things, it introduced an experience system that replaces the levels (as in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') with skills that increase if you successfully use them (''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' replaced levels with skills first but they didn't increase with use). It also introduced hit regions instead of general HitPoints.

''[=RuneQuest=]'' was created by Chaosium in 1978, making it one of the oldest tabletop RolePlayingGames. Among other things, it introduced an experience system that replaces the levels (as in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'') with skills that increase if you successfully use them (''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' replaced levels with skills first but they didn't increase with use). It also introduced hit regions instead of general HitPoints.

Glorantha is also the setting of the video-game ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' and the web-comic ''Prince of Sartar''. There are two separate continuities: that of Mongoose ''[=RuneQuest=]'' (Glorantha Second Era) and the main, more canonical one (set in the Third Era).

** The Sun God Yelm

* 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. Although Hrestol is pretty much a Jesus-like figure.

After that, Chaosium, needing money to expand, sold the rights to the name to Creator/AvalonHill, 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 narrativist game called ''[=HeroQuest=]'', and eventually bought the rights to the ''[=RuneQuest=]'' name from Avalon Hill.

In the interviewing years, Chaosium used the same underlying rules for other games like ''TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu'', ''[[Literature/TheElricSaga Stormbringer]]'', and the ''ComicBook/ElfQuest'' RPG, and many, many others, and it was in 2004 developed into the generic Basic Role-Playing System (BRP), which included a generic fantasy version called "Magic World".

Glorantha is also the setting of the video-game ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' and the web-comic ''Prince of Sartar''. There are two separate continuities: that of Mongoose ''[[=RuneQuest=]]'' (Glorantha Second Era) and the main, more canonical one (set in the Third Era).

Glorantha is also the setting of the video-game ''VideoGame/KingOfDragonPass'' and the web-comic ''Prince of Sartar''.

** There's a most straightforward example of the trope: the Devil is said to appear once every 600 years.

After that, Chaosium, needing money to expand, sold the rights to the name to Creator/AvalonHill, 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.