''RuneSlayers'' is a free

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

first published in 1998 by its authors, J.C. Connors and Christopher Lawrence. The game was originally developed as ''RuneQuest: Slayers'', a follow-up to the third edition of ''

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

'' by the publisher

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...

, which owned the ''RuneQuest'' trademark at the time. In 1998 Avalon Hill was acquired by

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

and the project was canceled. The authors then published the game on the Internet as a free PDF file, under the title ''RuneSlayers''.

History

The first two editions of ''

'' were published in 1978 and 1980, respectively, 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'' ...

. They were firmly set in Chaosium founder Greg Stafford's fictional 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 ''He ...

. The third edition was published in 1984 by Avalon Hill as part of a deal where Avalon Hill took ownership of the ''RuneQuest'' trademark while Chaosium retained copyright to the rules text and full ownership of the Glorantha setting, which Avalon Hill used under license. In the mid 1990s, Avalon Hill began work on a fourth edition of ''RuneQuest'' subtitled ''Adventures in Gorantha'', however Stafford did not approve of the project and it was canceled. Avalon Hill, to assert their trademark to the ''RuneQuest'' name, instead hired new designers on the project to start over with a fresh approach. Slated for a 1998 release, ''RuneQuest: Slayers'', did not resemble previous editions in regards to rules and focused on a low-magic setting inspired by pulp

sword and sorcery Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tale ...

fiction. ''RuneQuest: Slayers'' was already at the printers when

purchased Avalon Hill and canceled the project. ''RuneQuest: Slayers'' was never formally released. The rights to ''RuneQuest: Slayers'' then reverted to the authors, and they released the retitled game as ''RuneSlayers'' as a free

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

on the Internet.

References

{{rpg-stub Fantasy role-playing games Role-playing games introduced in 1998