Runequest

After losing the license to use the RuneQuest name and Glorantha setting, Mongoose Publishing announced the release of a new series of books under the title of Legend, which are designed to be 100% compatible with the RuneQuest II ruleset.

A new company, The Design Mechanism, was formed by the authors of RuneQuest II, and ownership of the Gloranthan supplements produced for the "RuneQuest II" line was transferred to them (PDF versions continue to be sold).

A new sixth edition of the RuneQuest rules, RuneQuest 6 (RQ6), was published in August 2012, but no Gloranthan material has yet been published.

RuneQuest 6 rules are largely similar to the Mongoose RuneQuest II rules.

The HeroQuest game system, written by Robin Laws in collaboration with Greg Stafford, is radically different from RuneQuest in that it emphasises narrativist aspects of role-playing; in contrast, RuneQuest emphasised simulationist aspects.

This edition both loosened the connection between RuneQuest and Glorantha, introducing 'Fantasy Europe' as the principal game world for RuneQuest, and much broadened the scope of Glorantha, which was treated as an alternative game world.

Unfortunately, RuneQuest did not prosper with its association with Avalon Hill, and the relationship between Chaosium, who held the rights to Glorantha, and Avalon Hill, who held the rights to RuneQuest, finally broke down completely in 1995.

At a time when many RPG settings were cobbled together, RuneQuest offered players a vibrant living world, giving them a much more developed fictional world with established geography, history, and religion.

Call of Cthulhu uses the Basic Role-Playing system used by other Chaosium games (first seen in RuneQuest ).

Chaosium entered into a licensing agreement with Avalon Hill in 1983 to produce a third edition of RuneQuest.

Chaosium once again became the licensed publisher for RuneQuest, HeroQuest and other products related to Gloranthan universe, and continue to publish the Call of Cthulhu line.

Critics consider these later "Gateway" publications inferior to the earlier RuneQuest publications.

Cults and Religion A key element of RuneQuest flavor is a character's affiliation with a cult.

In 2003 the rights to the name "RuneQuest" were acquired from Avalon Hill by Issaries.

In 2010, Mongoose published a much-revised edition written by Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker called RuneQuest II, known as "MRQ2" by fans.

In a departure from the level based advancement of Dungeons and Dragons, Runequest allowed characters to improve their abilities directly; the player needs to roll higher than the character's skill rating.

In RuneQuest, a lucky hit against a character's leg, weapon arm, or head could have specific effects on the game's mechanics and narrative.

It is planned to be based on the 2nd edition, drawing upon ideas from later editions. citation They also successfully raised funds through Kickstarter to produce a hardcover reprint of the 2nd edition as RuneQuest Classic.

Lower rolls than needed can cause increased effect from Specials (equivalent to Impales in RuneQuest ), or Criticals, and high rolls can cause critical failures (Fumbles).

Mongoose Publishing released a new edition of RuneQuest, in August 2006 under a license from Issaries.