Off the Shelf: Runequest

My 5E books are on a secondary shelf while I revisit Runequest. I like the BRP d100 system; it is solid and a 'character builder '- you level up what you use. Want to be stealthy? Do sneaky things. Want to use daggers well? Stab things.

You don't get free powers just to get a level. Every power is earned through hard work and making skill rolls. Since everyone has magic, your spells enhance your weapons and combat powers. Want a magic sword strike? Learn the spell that does it, and cast a sharpening spell on your blade. Learning magic is more than reading a spell list; a few magic systems are in the game, and they all work differently.

Unlike GURPS, you cannot "spend points on whatever." This is an involved character simulator, and if you want skills in areas where it takes work to earn skill points, you will need to work at them. You can't learn history sitting in a forest or how to get better at combat if you find a few thousand GP and convert them to XP.

Nothing comes for free in BRP. You earn every point. Your characters level organically. Combat is deadly.  Roleplaying and knowing the "who's who" in a tribe or culture matters. Getting favors and survival matter. Crafting even has a place. Parts of this game feel like Minecraft, where you hunt, forge, mine, craft, and build. This is another "thinking person's game."

And it is one world, the Bronze Age, with established lore and culture, without silly planar travel to multiverses. There are no robots or talking skeletons here. You play primarily humans, but with such a diverse civilization, you can find all the diversity you want in this game by being human. In D&D, diversity can feel "faked" in that humans are boring, primarily the European stereotypes, and diversity is equated with the fantastical cartoon races.

In Runequest, diversity is not just a feature; it's a necessity. To succeed and thrive in this world, immerse yourself in its cultures and understand their nuances. This game demands that you care about the world you inhabit, and that means doing your homework.

Do you want to be diverse in this game? Learn about the world your character lives in and its history.

Runequest also divorces the same-old Renaissance level of technology with the plate-mail, steel, crossbows, and tall ships that pervade the entire notion of fantasy gaming today. It feels like Minecraft, where you craft your gear, bartering, building shelters, and crawling through ancient ruins. You do not have worldwide trade, steel, universities, huge guilds, giant castles, armies of plate-mail knights, or even the stirrup. This is the Bronze Age, a different time where personal magic, skill, and heroism matter more than "gear loadout."

Everyone has magic, even if it is just minor incantations. Even people in town find ways to use "everyday magic" - minor spells to make the hard life a little easier. The setting isn't high magic; it is very spiritual and enlightened, where minor magic is a part of everyday life for many. You can play this up or keep it down as much as you like in your games, but this personal magic exists. It isn't used as a "technology replacement metaphor," but here.

Spells can be expensive to learn or held by cults, so while everyone may have magic, the spells needed to cast them are not always freely available. A tavern owner may only know two spells that ignite and extinguish small fires, but each spell costs 50 silver coins, and 60 silver per year is the average standard of living for a free family. Compared to today, this is like one minor spell, costing a household the entire cost of living for a year. Magical knowledge can be very expensive!

Runequest is a game with a lot of the lore and culture baked in, and learning about it is as much playing the game as playing is. This is the game that the 1990s AD&D always wanted to be, a mix of race, culture, world, and history where everything and everyone matters. Nothing is generic or cheaply borrowed from Tolkien. Dark Sun came close, but the dream died when TSR did. It is also a game like Traveller, where the setting is a massive part of the fun.

This game destroyed my love for Pathfinder 1e and the old-school Golarion theme park world. You can't throw tropes together and expect a world to happen. It showed me how to create a world, rules, and settings where everything makes sense together. Culture matters. History matters. Geography matters. Religion matters. Technology (and the lack of it) matters. Survival is the goal. Learning about the world makes you more powerful. Understanding people makes you more powerful. Magic is the key to power.

And knowledge is a powerful thing.