Glorantha thrives with diversity. Multiple versions of the God Time myths exist. Different points of view are given for different cultures. Values and morals vary between cults. We honour one of the fundamental principles of Glorantha by telling different stories, with different voices, in different styles… and using different systems.

This is RuleQuest: a compendium of custom systems, house rules, and other resources that help you play better and more diverse stories in Glorantha. You can request changes for this page by contacting the God Learners.

Fan Systems

At the time of writing, Chaosium’s main and only still-supported game system for Glorantha is the venerable RuneQuest. But there are other ways! Here are game systems that have been designed from fans from scratch, or adapted from existing ones, and that are directly usable for playing in Glorantha.

Coeur de Runes (Rune Hearts)

Coeur de Runes is a rules-light game centered on Sartarite tribal heroism, written by French Gloranthan super-fan Uzz. Characters have no numerical abilities, only Runic affinities, boons, and magical aspects. The game is originally written in French, but an English translation is also available.

  • Website: Coeur de Runes (French) and Rune Hearts (English)
  • Type: 3D6 free-form
  • Characteristics: emphasis on shared storytelling over simulation, unified system for all scenes, divine incarnations.

PenDragon Pass

Double the Greg Stafford goodness! Gloranthan legend David Dunham smashed Greg’s setting with Greg’s game system by using the Pendragon rules in Dragon Pass. The result is described more as a series of house rules than as a playable system, but it has its place in this list.

  • Website: PenDragon Pass
  • Type: D20 roll-under
  • Characteristics: it’s Pendragon, but in Glorantha, what else do you want?

SpeedRune

SpeedRune is a rules-lite ancient world fantasy game written by Aaron King. It doesn’t specifically happen on Glorantha, but is designed to be usable in Glorantha with no effort on the gamemaster and players’ part. You can listen to an interview with the designer here on the God Learners podcast.

  • Website: SpeedRune on itch.io
  • Type: D100-based system with PbtA-inspired mechanics
  • Characteristics: semi-free-form magic and heroquesting, seasonal play structure, community rules, GM never rolls.

World of Darkness: Glorantha

This system effectively takes White Wolf’s classic Storyteller system (from Vampire: The Masquerade’s fame) to run games set in Glorantha. Designed by Jon Hunter, a well-known dweller of Balazar and the Big Rubble, WOD:G favours character relationships and politics, while making combat simpler and faster than RuneQuest. It plays to the strengths of both the Storyteller system and Glorantha.

  • Website: Back to Balazar
  • Type: Storyteller-based system
  • Characteristics: lets you play WOD-type games in Glorantha!

Other Official Systems

These are other non-RuneQuest (but still official) systems for playing in Glorantha! They have various degrees of current support.

13th Age: Glorantha

Technically a sourcebook to a different system, and not a standalone game per se, 13th Age: Glorantha lets you play cinematic, tactical action adventures in Glorantha using Pelgrane Press’ 13th Age fantasy game. Both the original system and this Gloranthan supplement are written and designed by Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, who you may know from D&D’s 3rd and 4th editions respectively. Their take on Gloranthan gaming offers gonzo-yet-on-the-nose powers, crazy heroquests, epic fights against Chaos, and more! It is also a good way to introduce Glorantha to anybody who only swears by D20s and armor classes.

QuestWorlds

This is the way Greg Stafford wanted you to play in Glorantha! QuestWorlds is the current edition of the game that started under the name HeroWars, and continued as HeroQuest before this latest incarnation. Originally designed by the excellent Robin D. Laws in collaboration with Greg, QuestWorlds is now a generic system with no ties to Glorantha. Sady, no Gloranthan sourcebook as been released for it yet, although we hear it’s coming. We are still including QuestWorlds here given its strong Gloranthan pedigree, with decades of (sadly out-of-print) Gloranthan material for its previous editions. Using the excellent gamemaster advice written by the current edition’s author Ian Cooper, it should take only a minimal amount of effort to make your own “Glorantha genre pack” for Questworlds.

  • Website: Chaosium
  • Type: D20-based semi-free-form narrative system
  • Characteristics: unified mechanics for resolving any challenge, whether combat or negotiation, community rules, heroquesting.

RuneQuest House Rules

Not everybody wants to adopt a whole new system, any many people are happy to simply tweak the RuneQuest rules one way or another. Here are a list of these house rules… use them at your own risk!

Please contact us if you have house rules you want to be shown here!

The Torang Engine

The God Learners’ own Ludovic started playing RuneQuest Glorantha around 2019. What started rules-as-written quickly became a growing collection of house rules until it somehow became a new system. Thus a new engine was born in Torang, mixing the old and the new with a bit of Chaos. The Torang Engine tries to be a modern system, but one that still feels like an offspring of RuneQuest. It also embraces the idea that if something is important to the setting and the stories therein, then it should be on the character’s sheet and in the rules.

  • Website: The Torang Engine
  • Type: D100-based system
  • Characteristics: unified and simpler version of BRP, no Strike Ranks but longer weapons still matter, no hit locations but you can still chop off some limbs, faster combat, rules for political negotiations and other social encounters, Heroquesting rules, Chaos corruption rules.

RuneBlogger’s Modifications

RuneBlogger has a few house rules for RQG posted on his website. They are written in Spanish but can be turned into English or any language of your convenience with the Google Translate button at the top of the page.