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by Krisse Tuominen

Some very personal thoughts about the new and old RuneQuest and Glorantha material

In my early adolescence and through my teenage years, to me, RuneQuest was "the One Game Above them all". And when I am talking about "the RuneQuest", I mean especially the third version of RuneQuest RPG, which was also translated into Finnish. Our family bought the box edition in 1988, if my memory serves me right. I ran it and played it a lot with my brothers, mother, family, our neighbors, and friends. Oh, how many adventures and quests we had back then! It still has a special place in my heart. For obvious reasons, I still have some RuneQuest material in my RPG book collection.


I took this photo (above) to show you fine folks, some of my RuneQuest collection. There is quite a lot of printed '80s and '90s stuff in Finnish. I also have a printed softcover version of RuneQuest II: Deus Vult: Ex Cathedra. Deus Vult is a fantasy game that uses RuneQuest II as its game engine. Ex Cathedra is an adventure series for the Deus Vult game. And as you can see, I also have the Quickstart rules set for the newest version of RuneQuest. The sixth edition of RuneQuest, that is.


I want to have an extra mention for a Finnish Do-It-Yourself publication, Malnoth. It was printed in Vantaa and published in 1992. It was written by a group of four friends, and one of them also made the art. In the photograph above, you can see a sample of the art and the text style of the Malnoth gaming book.

The gaming book is only 40 pages plus the covers, but it provides some world-building, a few places (with maps), and quite a lot of colourful NPCs and monsters. And some adventures. There are quirky humour, ducks, giant spiders, orcs, glass lizards, and some chaotic beasts. This all has rules and statistics for (Finnish edition of) RuneQuest. Very compact publication and a pretty good one. Especially on the standards of '90s RPG publications. I am very happy that the Library system of the Tampere area still keeps this DIY gem in its collections.

The Finnish publications (DIY or not) for the RuneQuest RPG did not stop in the long-gone days of the '90s. Quite the contrary! Finland has its own Glorantha and RuneQuest association, called Kalikos (the link: https://kalikos.org/). You can check out Kaliko's publications here: https://kalikos.org/julkaisut/. Gotta mention once again the great amount of RuneQuest and Glorantha material that Hannu Kokko has made and published to the world in his blog. Check out the blog: https://notesfrompavis.wordpress.com.


Also, a Finnish RPG enthusiast, Hannu Rytövuori, has made material for the RuneQuest RPG. Hannu has teamed up with their creative friends abroad. And Oh Wow, how they have been very busy and active, making a lot of high-quality RPG material in a short time! The material has come through the Jonstown Compendium publishing program and has been made public in the DriveThruRPG service. There are already five published books in the series of adventure books. And a whole lot of maps, character packs, and other usable content to use with the adventures.

The latest book in the series that Rytövuori et al have made is Bezarngay Boil: Hero Wars in the East Isles - Vol 5, which I have linked below. Bezarngay Boil is meant to be played with the 6th edition ruleset of RuneQuest. Bezarngay Boil: Hero Wars in the East Isles - Vol 5 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/515412/bezarngay-boi... You can find more releases by Hannu Rytövuori: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?author=%22Hannu%20Ryt...

Bezarngay Boil is an enormously gigantic package of information and adventure. There are 129 pages. On those pages is information about the islands and folks on them, tips and hints for adventures, and also some suggestions on how to run this on your own campaign.

Because this is an adventure package, there is a lot to quest and adventure. The main adventure is a massive cave- and dungeon crawl, that contains all the rules needed to run it using RuneQuest. Of course, if you like, you can use the adventure material in your D&D campaign, too. Especially if you want to bring a "A little bit different" kind of dungeon questing to your gaming table. Which I sincerely suggest and recommend for the brave adventurers!


The pictures in this adventure book are delightfully colourful and good-looking. Like in most of the earlier books in the series. The art more or less fits the style of the sixth edition of RuneQuest. Occasionally, the art pieces are a bit grotesque and also thought-provoking. Which also means that as a considerate person, I give you a heads-up, a small trigger warning for pictures that have some gore and violence.

By the way, there is no need to be on one's guard by the number in the title. The book is obviously a part of a series, but it stands steady on its own feet. The adventure book is its own independent opus. You can easily enjoy it without owning any other books from the series.

The book contains play-ready characters, which makes it easier to play and run the adventure in the extensive book. The book also offers usable advice on using the material in your own campaign if you are not using it in the world of RuneQuest, Glorantha, in your games.

Feel free to check out the four other releases in the five-book series by the same author. All in all, the material in the books is great, and there's plenty of it. So, go and check it out! You can find more releases by Hannu Rytövuori: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/browse?author=%22Hannu%20Ryt...

It's a bit colder chilling in Imatra than qruising in Eastern Isles in Glorantha :laugh: :whistle: And, yes, that is me in the picture.

by Fritz Mulnar

It is chrismas.
I am not very consumeristic, I guess. And I already wrote about that scary point in the past weeks, when I realised the pure wall of things, which seems to loom around me. steadily growing, and I fear it coming down some day, on me.

But yeah, I seems at the end of the year I go through my whimsical desires, "Grillen" ("crickets") they are called in german, with a fine comb. And pluck them like colourful flowers at my wayside:

I got some boardgames I fancied in the last year, about a dozen.
Some I did not back at first at their crowdfunding, but they got good reviews in the meantime.
Some Stuff I read about and though "Nah." at first but I got enticed then, with time.


For instance Unmatched volume 3: There is a Loki in it, my daughter wanted him.

Well. ok. It will be, most propably, the last Unmatched Set I will get, because: I played that game two or three times. I liked it both times, the heroes felt well curated, different in their ways and always thematic.
I like the minis, those were the first I painted after a long hiatus in painting minis.
My daughter even played the game with me, it is very fine with two, and she has loads to choose to play as: Red riding hood, Alice, monkey and many more.

But I haven´t played it more than two or three times. Not nearly enough to have all those boxes of it.

An even if I would play it more: I have, I think enough of it.
there is supposed to come a Hellboy set. Hm. I already have that boardgame, painted, taking a whole board on the gameshelf in my room.


I do not like most of the comics. I like those characters. I like their backstories. I like the optics, aestetics , of the comics.

I hate how the stories are working out. Hate the endings, almost all of them. Mostly it ends like a Bud Spencer movie. And those are way better.

I hate the handling of those interesting premises. I find the overall ending a lukewarm copou
, typical postmodern copout.

And, until now, I never played the game. Not for want of trying, cause I believe it could be great fun!


Maybe in that unmatched thingy they have a (partly?) seethrough version of that german ghostastronautDoctor. Ah. Yeah. And the werejaguar, but no. That is not Mignolas, as it blocked him from appering in the boardgame,, so no.

Or, another topic: Four, five, six games by Dr.Rainer, I skulked around on the net, did not back in their coming onto crowdfunding... But then read so much good stuff about them, that I... caved? I don´t know. I like them and they are well made in every regard: Game design, graphic design, theme.

But, reality knocks:
In the gaming group I have fairly regularly, it is almost a running gag: The FreakGeek bringing some saddlebags full of "classics" by Sid Sackson or the Doctor, freshly acquired.
I love those games, those companion gamers are mostly lukewarm about them.

As I said it already, I know by now, I mostly buy for the shelf. Maybe I find someday to soloing those games. In Elysium, perhaps, someone, somerones are waiting for me to play them.
But right now I... I think I am content with sleeving them, ordering them, reading the rules sometimes and dreaming of and in them.

And, by the end of the year, I get, well, I think I got too much, too many of those gems.

It is ok, I use the second market to acquire those upgraded editions. They are not cheap, but not overpriced and at the moment, I seem to have enough money for my "Grillen". The space in my lodgings is enough for it. But.

Part of me sees the inner child in me prancing through his treasures, the cave from Ali Baba somehow, and comments: Well. Let him. But, No, it is not really essetial for him. Not really. He could do without it. I will not get more next time.

I have also things in preorder, coming beginning next year. So there are some boxes coming still, quite some boxes: Siege 6 (absolutely not needed), the last of the Dune War (ok, its not too much), cthullhu death may die (I have not even finished the monsters from the stuff I have and there are coming loads. When that cmon desaster is finished. Well. I may be already.)
I am so glad not backing Mordred. I do not like the game designers and the art was wonderful, though. But I did not like the story, and would have gotten just the artbook if possible.
It would have been a game, never played.

And inside my mind, I can find no cause for getting more. I strongly hope, the reissuing of those "classics" can only go so far. I hope I do not get bored by the rooms of my inner palace. I hope they still talk to me, my ghosts.

by gatekeeper86

It's been a while since I played and reviewed a solo gamebook, but recently, I got some time at hand and decided to take a closer look at one of the classics, the first entry in the Lone Wolf Gamebooks series, which conveniently is even readily available in German translation. Does "Flight from the Dark" live up to his good reputation to someone who hasn't experienced it in his early teens?

About this book
This is a 550 section Choose-your-own-adventure-style gamebook. It is a revision of the original Book 01: Flight from the Dark which I haven't read, so I won't be able to make any comparisons and just judge this book in his own right.

The story takes place in your typical fantasy realm. You are slipping into the role of a young adept of an order of warrior monks named the Kai. When your monastery is under surprise attack by the dark lord with an overwhelming force, it is your task to find a way to the capital city of Holmgard to warn the King of the impending doom. I'd say that the book is clearly targeted at adolescent readers, but its written well enough that adults can enjoy this book.

At the beginning of the book, you will create your character by determining your starting endurance (your hitpoints) and combat skill. You will also select 5 out of 10 possible "Kai disciplines". These disciplines will buff up your fighting skill with specific weapons, provide additional options in certain sections or have other benevolent effects like a passive healing ability out of combat.

Everytime a random element is needed, a random number table at the end of the book is chosen by randomly pointing at a point on the page with a pencil with eyes closed. As the distribution is uneven, this table cannot be easily replaced by a die roll. As long as you see trying to memorize the "good" areas of the table as part of building the skills necessary to play the game, this works surprisingly well. It baffles me a bit though that the publisher (Mantikore Verlag for the German version) doesn't offer the table as a separate download, especially during fights there's a lot of page-turning between your current section, the random number table and the combat table.

The latter is used during fights to link the random numbers to an outcome that will depend on the difference in fighting skill between you and your enemy. When you encounter an enemy, the book will inform you about its endurance and combat skill. Before starting the combat, you will subtract the enemy's combat skill from your own, taking all modifications e.g. due to the used weapons into account. The result shows you which column of the battle result table to consider for this fight. You will then use the random number table to generate a random number and determine the outcome of the battle round by consulting the right column and row in the battle result table. This will be repeated if needed, until either the enemies or your character are out of endurance.

And that's it basically the flow of the game - go from section to section, fight enemies and continue until you either reach an ending or die in combat.

My experience playing through this book
All in all I liked this book. The writing is solid, and especially in the middle part of the book I got the feeling that the story is different enough to justify replaying at least parts of the story. I've played through the book in two sittings - maybe three hours total? - which seems reasonable to me for one playthrough. The outcomes of the choices never felt completely random in a "gotcha" kind of way to me. The combat resolution mechanism was ok to me, but a bit tiring after the third or fourth fight against some random orcish guys. This made me realize that I really prefer a single-round combat resolution mechanism (like e.g. in Heart of Ice) over any kind of multi-round minigame, even if it is quite streamlined. It's just no fun to me to die because I get a bad result on the random number table a couple of times in a row.

However, my experience with the book was soured a little bit by two of its weaknesses that kind of tie into each other. The first weakness is character creation. Both your endurance and fighting skill have a random component - depending on your results on the random number table during character creation you could start with 20-29 Endurance and 10-19 combat skill. This is a pretty wide range. And while you can play around this for parts of the book, there is a boss fight at the end that you just can't prepare for in any way that is as meaningful as the random number you got before you start the adventure. You will always be fighting this fight, always with the same weapon you automatically get shortly before the fight, and your other weapons will useless against the boss. Having a couple of additional points of endurance and combat skill will be huge in this fight. I got kind of average stats in the beginning and died in the final fight without the desire to replay it.

The bottom line
All in all, this is a solid gamebook. I could do without the randomness during character creation though, and the fights sometimes overstay their welcome. I'll probably give the second installment of the series a chance at some point.

Flucht aus dem Dunkel, German translation of Flight from the Dark by Joe Dever published 2010 by Mantikore-Verlag. This version is available as paperback for 14,95€.

Disclaimer:
Please note that I have read and played the German version of this book. Bear that in mind if you stumble upon the occasional funky name or phrasing in my review – these are on me and the fact that I am writing in English about the German translation of an English product, and should not be blamed on the writer of the original book.

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