RuneQuest Companion

''RuneQuest Companion'' is a tabletop role-playing game supplement for ''RuneQuest''. Originally published by Chaosium in 1983, it consisted of reprints of ''Wyrm's Footnotes'' magazine articles as well as new material to expand the game rules and setting. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including ''Dragon'', ''White Dwarf'', ''Fantasy Gamer'', and '' Different Worlds''. It was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.

Contents

''RuneQuest Companion'' is a supplement consisting of
* reprints of magazine articles
* an errata sheet with corrections and additions to the second edition of ''RuneQuest''
* new material left out of '' Trollpak''
* a new history and geography of the Holy Country by Greg Stafford
* a solo adventure scenario by Alan LaVergne
* a short story, "The Smell of a Rat", also by Lavergne
* details of illusion Rune magic by Stafford
* details of unicorns and trolls by Sandy Petersen
* fragments of fictional correspondence
* excerpts from chronicles of notable and historical figures of Glorantha
* and more.

Publication history

In 1976, the year after Chaosium released their first product, the fantasy board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'', the company published ''Wyrm's Footnotes'', a magazine dedicated to providing supplemental material about the game. When Chaosium released its fantasy role-playing game ''Runequest'' in 1978, set in Glorantha, articles about the fictional world began to appear in ''Wyrm's Footnotes''. By 1981, ''Wyrm's Footnotes'' was solely dedicated to articles about Glorantha. However, the magazine was discontinued in 1982, and as Ken Rolston noted, "When publication of ''Wyrm's Footnotes'' ended, a most important source of detail, both epic and trivial, about Glorantha disappeared."

In 1983, ''RuneQuest Companion'' was released as a 72-page book edited by Charlie Krank that contained a collection of previously published ''Wyrm's Footnotes'' articles as well as new material.

As several contemporary reviewers noted, ''RuneQuest Companion'' was initially publicized as the first in a projected series of Companion books. However, no other volumes were ever published.

Reception

In the July 1983 edition of ''Dragon'' (Issue #75), Ken Rolston noted the need for supplementary information about Glorantha, given the demise of ''Wyrm's Footnotes''. Rolston liked the production values of the ''Companion'', pointing out it was "edited and maintained according to Chaosium's usual high standards." Rolston concluded with a strong recommendation for ''RuneQuest'' players.

In the October 1983 edition of ''White Dwarf'' (Issue #46), Oliver Dickinson thought that the material included was "entertaining stuff, but not as interesting or useful to newer players as reprints of the 'Wyrm's Footnotes''articles on the elemental pantheons would have been, for instance, or the thought-provoking articles on aspects of the rules by various authors in the last four issues." Dickinson concluded by giving this supplement an above average rating of 8 out of 10, saying it contained "a high proportion of useful or entertaining material and little that is totally peripheral. Production quality is good overall, with a few errors or misprints."

References

External links

* {{official, http://www.chaosium.com/runequest

Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1983
RuneQuest 2nd edition supplements