Runequest

RuneQuest

RuneQuest Deluxe Edition (boxed set) as published by Avalon Hill in 1984. Illustration by Jody Lee, 1983.
Designer(s)	Steve Perrin Ray Turney Steve Henderson Warren James Glorantha Material by Greg Stafford
Publisher(s)	Chaosium Avalon Hill Mongoose Publishing The Design Mechanism
Publication date	1978 1st edition 1980 2nd edition 1984 3rd edition 2006 Mongoose RuneQuest 2009 Mongoose RuneQuest II 2012 6th edition
Genre(s)	Fantasy
System(s)	Basic Role-Playing

RuneQuest is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1978 by Chaosium, created by Steve Perrin and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. RuneQuest was notable for its original gaming system (designed around a percentile die and with an early implementation of skill rules). There have been several incarnations of the game. The most recent is the 6th edition that was released in July 2012 by The Design Mechanism under the title RuneQuest.

In Britain in the 1980s, RuneQuest was recognised by the gaming world as one of the 'Big Three' games with the largest market share, the others being Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller.

With the exception of the third and sixth editions, which still offered it as an option, the default setting for RuneQuest has been the world of Glorantha. The well-developed background of the game offered a breadth of material for players and gamemasters to draw from. 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.

The original rules contained a map of an area called Dragon Pass, a region offered as the default setting for adventures. The original RuneQuest game was set during a period of invasion, offering opportunities for game scenarios. A supplement titled Cults of Prax added more detail to many of the setting's locations.

A key element of RuneQuest flavor is a character's affiliation with a cult. Characters begin as lay members and progress through a series of membership levels, such as initiate or Rune Lord. This system offers narrative and mechanical benefits to players who chose to have their characters join a cult.

The basic rules described a handful of original and mythological gods. These were greatly expanded upon in the supplements Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror.