Designing the New RuneQuest - Part 2

By Jeff Richard

As we started to develop the design goals of the new RuneQuest, Ken Rolston, Chris Klug, and I had a discussion about "what are the key features of RQ"? Here are some of the conclusions (in no particular order):

Percentage Skills Character Sheet

RuneQuest is Awesome and Elegant because of its percentage skills character sheet. For NON-COMBAT roleplaying, it has no peers, because the player looks at their character sheet, finds an ability, and rolls against it. A super-simple system for non-combat RPG conflict resolution.

The RuneQuest percentage skills character sheet elegantly serves non-combat roleplaying through these two important design rules:

• RPG Design Rule a: "If it's not in the rules, it's not in the gameplay." [ie, player knows it's not an important thing to think about]
• RPG Design Rule b: "If, in a scenario crisis, a player can't find problem-solving tools on their character sheet, they won't look elsewhere for them." [ie, When players are flummoxed, they look to their character sheets for inspiration. And they won't be inspired to use any tool they don't find there.]

For COMBAT resolution, everything is present on the character sheet. Strike rank for character and weapon, weapon damage, hit points, armor points, magic points, spells, etc - all there. The rest can be intuitively handled: "I want to shoot at the sentry from behind while he doesn't know I am there - do I get a bonus?" or "I want to push the dark troll backwards over the cliff by rushing her" and so on. These additional rules need to be easy and intuitive. And importantly, the player doesn't need to know the rule in order to suggest it.

RuneQuest Combat

RQ combat is deadly and relatively quick. It uses hit locations, and there's a rapid resolution once a character either gets really lucky (a critical hit!) or really unlucky (a fumble! I'm boned!) Limbs HAVE to be hacked off, weapons need to get impaled and stuck in the enemy. RQ combat ideally ends within 3-4 rounds because one of the opponents SHOULD be dead or incapacitated within that time.

RQ combat is deliciously realistic and immersive - which is why RQ combat should be about AVOIDING combat, where possible. Unless PCs are ambushing. And if ambushed, they should be running away!

RQ Combat also needs to be simple. The more detailed the combat system becomes - the more a tactical wargame experience it becomes, and the more likely it is to bog down under its own weight. RQ has a pace to combat: Attack, Parry, Attack, Parry, CRITICAL HIT - limb severed! Or: Attack, Parry, Attack, Parry, Attack, FUMBLE - shield thrown away and limb severed!

As the characters improve in skill, that pacing extends (as they only miss on a 95%). However, as they improve in skill, they should be also increasing their devotion to their cult and getting more and more Rune magic. Thunderbolt does wonders to speed up a combat, as does Truesword, elementals, or Fly. Beyond that, extremely high skilled characters need to be able to be funneled into heroquests, where blasting your way through is rarely a solution - even for a war god.