I. Characters

Characters and all intelligent living creatures are defined by characteristics and skills.

A. Characteristics

All living creatures in RuneQuest posses seven basic characteristics: Strength, Constitution, Size, Intelligence, Dexterity, Power, and Appearance. These define the basic potential which the creature is born with.

* - Cannot normally be increased. See "Non-Raisable Characteristics", below.

** - Can be increased through a special form of experience only.

Increasing Characteristics: STR, CON, DEX, and APP can be increased through special training. The time needed is 25 hours times the characteristic. Thus a character with a STR of 11 would need to train for (11 x 25 hours) = 275 hours in order to get a chance to increase. Once the training is completed, roll 1D3-1 (0 - 2) to determine the amount of increase in that characteristic. Yes, it is possible to roll a 1 and have no increase.

Training isn't free and is usually quite expensive. For the poor, research is also an option. To research a characteristic, a character spends exactly the same amount of time as for training it, doing various exercises to improve themselves (lifting weights for STR training, for example). Cost on this is minimal. Once the research is complete, the player makes a roll over his current characteristic times 5% on percentile dice. A character with STR 11 would have to spend 275 hours researching, and then roll over (11 x 5%) = 55% for the research to be successful

Training Time Note: A normal character can spend about 50 hours per week training or researching. Of course, this takes time away from other activities. It is possible to train several different skills and/or characteristics in a week; hours may be divided as the character wishes, although of course training may not be available at all times.

Non-Raisable Characteristics: INT and SIZ cannot normally be increased.

Increasing POW: POW may be increased through a form of experience. If a character (or NPC) succeeds in overcoming an enemy with a spell, overcomes a spirit in spirit combat, or (optionally) resists a spell cast by a more POWerful enemy, they gain a chance to increase their POW. This is called a POW gain roll.

The chance to increase is their maximum POW (21 in humans) minus their current POW x 5%. Thus a character with POW 17 would need to roll (21 - 17) = 4 x 5% = 20% or less on percentile dice in order to increase their POW. If successful, he may chose to either roll 1d3-1 OR take a flat 1 point. You decide which option to use before rolling.

Limits: It is not possible to raise POW through training or research. Characters cannot cast spells on each other in order to gain a roll. Likewise, a POW gain roll cannot be gained by casting spells on enemies who are too weak to be a real challenge; the character cannot be more than 9 POW higher than their target (in other words, if the chance of success was 95% or higher, it wasn't a real contest to begin with). Sincerity and risk are the essential qualities needed to increase POW. A creature cannot gain more than one POW gain roll per week.

Characteristic Maximums: STR, CON, DEX, and APP may be increased to 1.5 times their original rolled value, rounded up. Thus a character born with a STR of 14 can increase their STR to no more than 21; if born with a STR of 15, the maximum STR is 23. POW can only be increased to the species maximum. Species maximum is determined by adding the lowest possible roll for that characteristic to the highest possible roll; for humans, this is 21 (3 + 18).

Characteristic Rolls: In some cases a characteristic roll is called for. Luck is a common example. In order to make a Luck roll, the player must roll their characteristic POWer x 5%.

The GM may require other types of characteristic rolls depending on circumstances. For example, when walking over slippery ice a character might have to make a DEX x 5% roll on d100. If the ice is also wet and he is wearing smooth-soled boots, his chance of success might fall to DEX x 3% or even less! On the other hand, he could improve his chances by (for example) throwing sand ahead on his path. This might raise his chances to DEX x 8 or higher.

Opposed Resolution Rolls: When two characteristics are in direct opposition, an opposed resolution roll must be made. This is a core RQ mechanic. The chance of success is 50%. However, your chance is reduced by 5% for every point that the opposed characteristic is higher than your own. If your characteristic is higher than your opponent's, you chance of success is increased by 5% for every point higher.

Opposed resolution is used most often in magic, to overcome a target with a spell (POW vs. POW). It is also used in determining resistances against disease and poison and a variety of other game situations e.g. INT vs. APP when resisting seduction; SIZ vs. STR to avoid being knocked down.

Extreme Contests: If one side in an opposed resolution contest has a 10-to-20 point advantage over the other, there is still a 5% chance of failure. In other words, even a very weak opponent will successfully overcome a greater force on a roll of 01 - 05. Likewise, even a dominant force fails on a roll of 96 - 100. However, if one side is more than 20 points higher than the other, the chance of failure drops to a mere 1%.

Movement: Movement for human beings is 3 meters per strike rank in combat (there are 10 Strike Ranks in a combat round, and there are five rounds in a minute). If running this rate can be doubled to 6 meters/SR. Of course combat is not possible when at a full run! For long-distance travel a character may hike up to 5 kilometers per hour, depending on terrain and weather. Of course magic, a mount, or a vehicle are usually quicker than hiking.

B. Skills

Skills are divided into seven categories: Agility, Communication, Knowledge, Manipulation, Perception, Stealth, and Magic. There are no artificial limits on skills; anyone can learn any skill. However, natural ability (characteristics) affects how easily skills can be learned.

Skills are percentile-based; they range from 1 - 100 (in extreme cases, higher). When a skill is used, the player must roll equal to or lower than that skill on D100 in order to succeed. If the GM decides that the circumstances are particularly difficult, a penalty may be assigned.

Skill rolls aren't always required. If a task is easy, no roll is needed. For example, no Climb roll is needed to climb a ladder. If the ladder is partly broken and someone at the bottom is shaking it, though, a roll would definitely be required-probably at a penalty! The GM decides when a skill roll is required.

Use of a skill can sometimes be attempted again, at the GM's discretion. A second attempt may involve a GM-determined penalty.

Agility & Parry: skills which involve moving the whole body. Includes Boat, Climb, Dodge, Jump Ride, Swim, and Throw, as well as shield and weapon parries.

Communications: Includes Fast Talk, Orate, Sing, and Speak (languages).

Knowledge: Purely mental skills. Includes Animal Lore, Craft (substance), Evaluate, First Aid, Human Lore, Mineral Lore, Plant Lore, Read/Write Languages, and World Lore.

Magic: Spellcasting and enchantment.

Manipulation & Attack: Skills which mainly involve fingers, hands, and arms; body mass is not a major factor in their use. Includes Conceal, Devise, Sleight, and Play Instrument, as well as all weapon attack skills.

Perception: Includes Listen, Scan, Search, and Track.

Stealth: Includes Hide and Sneak.

Skill bases: All skills have a base chance: the number in parentheses next to it on the character sheet. This represents the basic chance that a totally untrained person has with this skill. Climb, for example, has a base of 40% for humans. The base is added to the skill category bonus to determine the character's starting skill. Of course it is possible for the skill to be raised higher than the base.

Increasing skills: Skills may be increased through experience and training. Characters will also be created with some skills already above base through the character creation process.

Experience: Every time a skill is successfully used in a meaningful situation, there is a chance that it may increase. This is called an "experience check", because when a skill has been used successfully the player places a pencil check-mark in the box on the character sheet next to that skill. One game-week after the check was made the character has a chance to have learned something from the experience. The category bonus (but NOT the base) is subtracted from the skill to be checked. The player must then roll OVER that amount on percentile dice.

If the roll is failed, nothing was learned-this time. The experience check is erased.

If the roll is successful, the player must choose to either roll 1d6 OR take a flat 3 points. The result is added to the current skill total. The experience check is erased.

Note: Not all skills can be learned through experience. Those skills on the character sheet which do not have a box next to them cannot be increased through use; for example, recognizing a rare type of plant will not increase your general Plant Lore. Such skills can only be increased through training.

Skill Results: Criticals, Specials, and Fumbles

In addition to normal success or failure, it's also possible to have an extreme result when using a skill. This occurs if the die roll is particularly high or low. The Skill Results table in the upper left corner of the front of the Game Sheet lists the Critical, Special and Fumble rolls needed for all skill percentages.

Critical: If the d100 roll is equal to or less than 5% of the skill, the result is spectacular success: a critical (or "crit"). In combat, for example, this results in a far more damaging blow. The effect can be roughly three times the expected result or better. The GM determines the effects of a critical with a particular skill.

Special: A roll of 20% (i.e. one fifth) of the skill percentage (but greater than 5%) results in a special success, or "special". The result is approximately 2 times the expected outcome. Again, the GM determines the precise effect.

Fumble: A Fumble occurs when an extremely high roll is made-at least 96 or higher on d100. The higher the skill, the less chance of fumbling. Consult the Skill Results table to determine the Fumble chance for a particular skill. The chance to fumble is a roll greater than or equal to 100 - ((100 - skill)/20).

When you fumble, you fail badly. If you're jumping, you fall and hurt yourself. If you bandaging a friend, you increase the damage. If you're singing for your supper, you anger or annoy the listeners and are egged or attacked.

Automatic Failure and Success: Unless otherwise indicated, a roll of 01 - 05 on d100 is always a success. A roll of 96 - 100 is always a failure. This is in addition to whatever special skill result may apply.

Skill Training: A skill may be improved by spending as many hours training as you have points in the skill. That includes base and category bonus! Training may be with a tutor or in a class, and generally is not cheap; costs vary by skill and location, of course. Once the necessary training time has been spent, the player may choose to either take a flat 2-point add to the skill OR roll 1d6-2 (yes, it's possible to go down when training).

Skill Researching: A skill may be improved by spending as many hours researching it as you have points in the skill, including base and category bonus. Some material costs may be assigned by the GM, but these will generally be much lower than the cost of training. Once the researching is complete, the player must make an experience check roll; a d100 roll OVER their current skill, minus their category bonus. If they succeed, they may choose to either take a flat 1-point add to the skill OR roll 1d6-2 (again, it's possible to go down when researching).

Training Time Note: A normal character can spend about 50 hours per week training or researching. Of course, this takes time away from other activities. It is possible to train several different skills and/or characteristics in a week; hours may be divided as the character wishes, although of course training may not be available at all times.

Skills:

Most skills are self-explanatory, but here are details for some skills:

Agility Skills

Skills which are used to move (including Climb, Swim, Boat, and Ride):

Normal success: move a set distance (for Climb & Swim, 3 meters). If more distance remains to be travelled, roll again.

Failure: no progress made.

Fumble: Disaster! Fall, sink, crash, or be thrown. Damage is a strong possibility.

Special success: Travel twice the normal distance.

Critical: Travel four or more times the normal distance, with great style and panache.

Communication Skills

Fast Talk: Confuse the listener.

Orate: Speechmaking.

Speak Language: Normally no roll is required. Skill level indicates fluency. 30% is a basic ability to communicate; 50% is "normal" speech; at 70% the speaker sounds quite cultured; and 90% or more is an absolute master of the tongue.

Knowledge Skills

Animal, Plant, and Mineral Lores: Ability to recognize a type within the category, and possible uses, locations, etc.

Craft (specific substance): Create an object from the particular substance. Examples: Craft Wood is carpentry & carving, Craft Hide is leatherworking, and Craft Metal is blacksmithing.

First Aid: A successful use of this skill can stop bleeding in a round. Five rounds spent on First Aid will restore 1d3 hit points. A special success in this case cures 2d3 damage, and a critical cures 1d3 + 3.

Human Lore: Identify ethnicity, assess general character and truthfulness, etc. These rolls are usually made by the GM, since the player should not know how successful they have been.

World Lore: Geography, general information about areas, and general catch-all lore.

Manipulation Skills

Conceal: Camouflage

Devise: Create a simple trap or snare, jury-rig a simple device, disarm a trap, pick a lock, etc.

Sleight: Pick pockets, juggle, pick a card (any card!), etc.

Manipulation Skills

Scan: Spot something. For example, an ambusher peeking from behind that tree. Or a golden key half-buried in dust. The GM may secretly roll this for the players when appropriate.

Search: Unlike Scan, this isn't something you do while strolling along; it's a deliberate attempt to find hidden items. It takes one melee round to search a 4-meter square area.

C: Living and Dying

Hit Points: Total hit points are the average of CON and SIZ, rounded up.

Hit Locations: In addition to total hit points, areas of the body each have a number of hit points; this makes it possible for a specific location (or locations) to be disabled, maimed, or even destroyed. In humanoids, these are the seven hit locations: Right leg, left leg, abdomen, chest, right arm, left arm, and head. The hit points in each location are determined by the total hit points.

If you add up all the hit points in every hit location, the total is higher than the total number of hit points. This is because it is possible to die from accumulated wounds in several locations (no one of which is itself fatal), while other locations are untouched. In other words, the force needed to destroy every part of a body is far greater than that needed to simply cause death. Of course vital locations (the head, chest, and abdomen) can be mortally wounded, and it is possible to bleed to death from a single bad wound anywhere on the body.

Hit locations are different for non-humanoids, of course. The number of hit points in a location is a percentage of the total HP, and depends on the proportional size of the location. The range is generally 25%, 33%, and 40%. For a human, for example, each leg has hit points equal to 33% of the total, the abdomen also has 33%, the chest has 40%, each arm has 25%, and the head has 33%.

There are unusual creatures, of course. The legs of insects usually have 16% of the total, and perfectly round creates have 100% of their hit points and only one hit location.

Damage Bonus: A high STR and SIZ allows a damage bonus in combat. Low STR+SIZ can reduce damage below normal (a negative damage bonus). The damage bonus applies to all hand-held weapons. One-half of the damage bonus applies to thrown weapons such as javelins and sling-stones. The bonus does not apply to machine-propelled missiles such as crossbow bolts, bullets, and rays.

Combat

Combat in RQ combines realism and logic. Weapons do damage. Armor and shields absorb damage. For example, a broadsword does 1d8+1 damage plus whatever damage bonus the wielder has. Hard leather armor has two "Armor Points" (AP), which means it blocks the first two points of damage. Example: Bob swings his broadsword at a leather-wearing troll. Bob's skill with broadsword is 70%, which means he must roll a 70 or less on d100 to hit. If he hits, he rolls 1d8+1. Say he rolls a 5, (4 + 1). The troll's leather armor automatically blocks two points of that damage, which means that 3 points get through.

Hit locations - The body is divided into locations rolled on a D20 - these are detailed on your character sheet.  There are separate equations dependent on whether you are hit at range or in close up melee.

Time/The Round - There are 10 strike ranks in a melee round designed to simulate 12 seconds of real time combat.  A character has TWO actions in a round, usually an attack and a parry.  The faster you are and longer the weapon you use, the earlier in the round you're likely to strike.

Missile weapons are handled differently to melee weapons and have a rate of fire dependent on the user's stats and the speed that the weapon can be reloaded.  For example, an archer with high DEX can fire 3 arrows from a longbow in a single combat round whilst a crossbowman can only fire 1 due to the time his weapon takes to reload.

Damage - Damage is based on the weapon you use and the type of success you have rolled.  Critical attacks ignore all armour and achieve maximum rolled damage so in Bob's example above if he had rolled a critical (one fifth of 70 on a D100 would be 03 or lower) the troll would take 9 points and none of his armour would have counted - yeowchy!

Specials - If a player rolls 20% or less of his skill, he has scored a special success.  In combat, this means an Impale (if using a weapon that impales - arrows, spears, swords, daggers etc).  If using a crushing weapon (maces, hammers, morning stars etc) it is Crushing damage.  An Impaling or Crushing weapon rolls x 2 damage.

Armour - Armour prevents damage from getting through but comes at a financial and physical cost.  The heavier the armour, the more one tires which can affect how long an individual can fight and still be effective.  The two game mechanics involved in this are FATIGUE and ENCUMBRANCE.

Fatigue:  Your maximum fatigue level is determined by adding STR and CON together and then deducting your Encumbrance figure from the total.  Encumbrance is the total weight of everything you are personally carrying.  For example a Round shield weighs 3 ENC and a broadsword weighs 1.5.  Add a suit of chainmail to an average sized adventurer and that's an extra 11 to the total.  Let's say our adventurer has average STR & CON stats at 12 each - this gives him a max fatigue of 24 - take off his shield, chainmail and sword (3 + 11 + 1.5 = 15.5) and we're left with 8.5.

How Fatigue is used: Each full round of fighting deducts 1 Fatigue Point in normal conditions.  The GM may deduct more if fighting in extreme environments - on a snowy mountainside, in a raging river etc.  You can only fight a number of rounds equal to minus the equivalent of your unencumbered fatigue.  Continuing our example adventurer above, this would equate to Minus 24 fatigue points.  Given that our adventurer starts on 8 positive Fatigue (we're rounding down), he can fight for 32 melee rounds total before he collapses, wheezing for breath, arms like lead etc. He started to decline after Melee round 9 when he went into negative Fatigue - each point after that reduced ALL SKILLS by -1%.

Dodge/Parry: Damage avoidance skills - an adventurer can choose to dodge or parry as one of their TWO combat actions

Dodge - This is an Agility skill and is reduced by a % equal to your encumbrance - plate armoured knights don't often dodge...You can dodge one target multiple times in a round.

Parry - As we know, armour points stop damage points getting through.  Shields and weapons all have an AP rating and can also decline as they take a battering.  Any damage that exceeds the current AP total goes on to the character and reduces the parrying item's APs by 1.  Critical strikes can still be blocked but they reduce the APs of the parrying item by a point per point - cue exploding shield! The rest of the damage goes through to the adventurer - and being a critical it ignores the armour the adventurer is wearing - still better a broken shield or sword than a hacked off limb!  Parrying items can be repaired by both mundane and magical means if broken but each time they are done so, 1 AP is taken off the original maximum total.

MAGIC IN RUNEQUEST

There are four types of magic in RuneQuest. The kind of magic you use depends on what kind of character you're playing. Here's a brief summary of the types, and some info on how you get and improve magic spells:

POW and MPs

POW (often called Permanent Power) is the characteristic that defines life force and magical ability.  Everyone in Glorantha can cast magic but some are better than others!  Your POW stat can change dependent on game events and situations.

MPs: Stands for Magic Points - you have as many magic points as your POW stat.  Magic points are used to cast and power spells.  They are also used as your defence against hostile spells being cast on you so a balanced approach is usually advisable.  Magic points regenerate at the rate of 1/24^th per hours so an adventurer with a POW of 18 will regenerate 1MP in about an hour and a half.

SPIRIT MAGIC: Spirit magic is the most common kind of magic in Glorantha. Spirit Magic is gained by defeating a spell spirit in spirit combat. Spirit spells tend to have a fixed cost (Bladesharp 2 is always a 2 MP spell) to get a more powerful version of a spell you must re-buy it. (Bladesharp 3 is a whole different spell than Bladesharp 2, you're not just "adding a level.") Your chance to cast a spirit spell is based on your POW; your chance to cast will not change unless your POW changes. Your casting chance is your POW x 5 and costs a Magic Point per spell point.  Spirit spells last 5 minutes which in combat terms would be 25 melee rounds.

DIVINE MAGIC: Divine magic is a direct gift from your god to you, in exchange for your sacrifice to him/her of permanent POW. For Initiates in a cult, this powerful magic is one-use only, and must be sacrificed for again to regain a spell. Priests and Rune Lords have access to reusable divine magic; once they have sacrificed for a divine spell they may reuse it. Again, cults have divine magic specific to their cult. Your chance to cast them is 95%.  Some Divine spells have a fixed cost and some are variable e.g. Divination is a single point spell and allows you to ask your God a question whereas Heal Wound is a variable point spell and heals a point of damage in a specific wounded location for each magic point used with it. 

RITUAL MAGIC: Ritual Magic is the magic used to enchant magic items and enhance one's own spellcasting abilities. The skills associated with ritual magic are Enchant, Intensity, and Ceremony. These skills are most often used by sorcerors and shamans. Ritual Magic is used in combination with another type of magic; for instance, the Spirit Spell Summon/Bind Wight could be used in combination with enchant and ceremony to bind the wight into a ritual object. Permanent sacrifice of POW is necessary to enchant items.

SORCERY: Sorcery is practiced by few Gloranthans, but has the potential to be as powerful as divine magic if not more so. Most Sorcery spells can be boosted or enhanced to increase their power. Sorcery spells are skills, just like any other type of skill, and your ability to cast them increases through practice and experience checks.  Most Malkioni use sorcery or have sorcery cast on them.  More on this to follow....