Pyramid Review
RuneQuest Companion
Published by Mongoose Publishing
Written by Greg Lynch, Kenneth Hite, & Ian Belcher
Cover by Bob Cram, Dan Howard, & Jeff Koch
Illustrated by Bob Cram, Jeff Cram, Rick Hershey, Ryan Horvath, & Colin Throm 98-Page Black & White Hardcover; $24.95
The new RuneQuest from Mongoose Publishing reinvigorated an almost three-decades-old RPG classic. Although slightly leaner, the new version of the rules offered sound, if slightly old school, game play. Though not as old school as other games of its age, nor as mechanically abstract, the Basic Rules contained everything needed to play, but still there were things missing in comparison to previous incarnations of the game.
Most notably magic. The only type of magic available in the Basic Rules was Rune Magic, the powering of magic through attuned runes of power. The RuneQuest Companion addresses this omission by detailing four new types -- Divine Magic, Sorcery, Enchantment, and Spirit Magic. It also has new spells for all four, plus new character options, a discussion of what to do between adventures, rules for travel, and temple details.
The new character options add six new cultural backgrounds: Civilized (slightly more educated and technologically advanced), Mariner (island dwelling rather than sea going), Nomad (Arctic, Desert, and Temperate), and Primitive (representing Stone Age cultures). There are four new professions: Healer, Knight, Peddler, and Scribe, along with new Advanced . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: November 17, 2006
Copyright © 2006 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.