''Questworld'' is a boxed supplement published by

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon ...

in 1982 for the fantasy

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first publis ...

''.

Description

In 1978, Chaosium created the fantasy role-playing game ''RuneQuest'', and used

Greg Stafford Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism. Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Gloranth ...

's mythical world of

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game ''White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQuest'' and ''Her ...

as the official setting. Stafford tightly controlled material proposed for Glorantha, editing or vetoing material that did not match "the complex Gloranthan cosmology, theology, biology, sociology, and politics." In an article in ''

Different Worlds ''Different Worlds'' was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987. Scope ''Different Worlds'' published support articles, scenarios, and variants for various role-playing games including ''Dungeons & Dragons'', ''Rune ...

'' in 1981, Stafford and co-author

Lynn Abbey Marilyn Lorraine "Lynn" Abbey (born September 18, 1948) is an American fantasy author. Background Born in Peekskill, New York, Abbey was daughter of Ronald Lionel (an insurance manager) and Doris Lorraine (a homemaker; maiden name, De Wees). She ...

wrote, "Glorantha is a closed world, and is intended to stay that way." Chaosium recognized the need for a more "open" world if RuneQuest was to expand its market share, and the result was a product called ''Questworld'', where writers would be free to create ''RuneQuest'' material without Stafford's oversight. As Stafford wrote, "''QuestWorld'' is intended to be an open campaign world for ''RuneQuest'' and its variants... Chaosium will minimally direct the development of this planet, intending it to serve as an example of an open world in the same way that Glorantha has been our example of a closed world."

Publication history

''Questworld'' was written by John E. Boyle, Mark Florio, Rick Goldberg, Mark Harmon, Janet Kirby, Alan LaVergne,

, and Michael Trout, with art by Luise Perenne. It contains * an 8-page introductory booklet * three booklets, each containing three linked adventures: ** Candlefire ** Greenwald Tales ** Lord Skyppen's Mansion * two maps * a reference sheet.

Reception

In the April 1983 edition of '' Dragon'' (Issue #72),

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company B ...

noted that although the materials were professionally produced, the writing "is a little more uneven than in several of the company’s other recent publications." He found the included scenarios to be "well written, carefully introduced, and coherently organized," although he found some of the adventures to be less compelling than others. He concluded "On balance, ''Questworld'' is a worthwhile purchase." In the July 1983 edition of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...

'' (Issue #43), Oliver Dickinson had a lot of issues with the supplement. He criticized the lack of background detail, saying "Scarcely any detail of the history, population, etc., of Greenwald is provided, and the map shows a few major geographical features and a scattering of places, many not referred to anywhere in the text." He also noted the many errors, commenting, "The pack shows many signs of having been compiled in haste, without adequate editorial supervision." Finally Dickinson was not impressed with the quality of the nine adventures, saying, "All this might not matter so much if the actual adventures were really novel and interesting, but they are mostly conventional." He concluded by giving the supplement a below average rating of 6 out of 10, stating, "Any hope that ''Chaosiums first publication on its own continent, Kanos, would give a lead in exploiting the new freedom will (it pains me to write it) be disappointed."

Other reviews

*'' Fantasy Gamer'' #1 (Aug./Sept., 1983)

References

{{reflist Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1982 RuneQuest 2nd edition supplements