A list of alternative or out of ordinary melee weapons and their statistics for RuneQuest play.

Pilum

The pilum was actually a heavy javelin used by the Roman legions. Later on, variants were developed for melee use. The melee pilum was made out of wood and was shorter (1,83 meters) that the missile pilum. Its primary use was to thrust at the enemy from ramparts and to create pickets. Some versions were sharpened on both ends. For ease of play, the melee versions statistics have not been altered here.

Ikilwa

A short hafted stabbing spear invented by Shaka Zulu. It has a broad iron blade and short wooden haft. Similar in purpose to a gladius, vis-à-vis, to get in close to ones enemy and draw him into single combat, thereby forcing him away from his formation. The broad blade leaves a nasty wound but, being made of iron, is not too strong against metal armour.

Cestus Maximus

A combination of the heavy cestus and the fighting claw. Allows the wearer to pack more weight behind their fighting claw, thereby doing more damage. Also gives the user the advantage of their melee weapon having armour points.

Chompers

A set of oversize metal jaws inset with steel canines. Fitted tight over the jaws of the wearer and secured with leather straps around the back of the head, the real and metal jaws move in sequence. A biting action will produce an exaggerated mirror action from the chompers. Chompers have no practical every day use, but can have great intimidation value in battle, especially when forming part of an imposing helm or mask. Chompers are mostly used in the fighting pit.

Spatha

A roman cavalry sword, similar to the gladius but longer.

Jawbone Sword

Inspired by a Dark Ages Miniature. This sword is a partially modified jawbone of some great reptile or fish. It bristles with razor sharp teeth down its curved length and can be deadly when used against an unarmoured/soft armoured foe.

Razor Nails

Razor sharp steel blades, manufactured to look like a cats claws. They are usually half a centimeter high at the base and half again as wide, narrowing down to a needle point over their 3 centimeter length. Blunt down their convex back, their concave inner is usually extremely sharp. Inferior quality versions come as uniform rings which slip over the end of the wearers fingers, or embedded into a leather glove. Razor nails of a high craftsmanship have been known to come in many forms, the most exquisite being set into a series of rings, one for between each finger joint. The blades (blunt for areas that ride against the finger) have stretched all the way across the back of the hand where they have proceeded to merge into a jeweled, but sturdy bracelet. Each blade has been tailored for the finger it is to slip on, with the thumb blade being thicker and stronger, to allow for an effective scissoring effect with the finger blades. Clearly these items are not meant for battle against armoured foes, but rather as subtle but effective weapons for high ranking ladies, sorcerers and other people who would cringe from having to carry a dagger or sword. Due to the small amount of damage that razor nails can inflict, they are often poisoned to enhance their lethality.

Toe Ring

Originating from India, this device slips over the big toe. A sharp, 5 centimeter barb protrudes from the ring at an angle. A practiced kick can have the often poisoned barb strike an enemy with all the force of the wearers leg. toe rings were often used in gladiatorial type combat, where the combatants did not have much protection in the way of armour.

Trident

A heavy three pronged fork, used as a two handed weapon.. Similar to a spear in that it can be thrown, but is usually used in melee situations. Looks like I should read my RQ material more closely. just realized they have stats for Trident and Combat Net in the Monster Coliseum supplement. The Monster Coliseum Trident is a one handed weapon. For the sake of RQ rules consistency, the tridents are listed under the spear weapon category.

Combat Net

From the Monster Coliseum supplement. Full rules for ensnaring etc are given in the Monster Coliseum.

This article lists a few shields that were not defined in the original RuneQuest 3rd Edition rules.

Scutum

The RQ III rules refer to the large, heavy rectangular shield used by Roman legionaries as a hoplite shield. This is incorrect, the shields name is a scutum.

Thebe/Isihlangu

A large cow hide shield favored by many Southern African tribes. Thebe is the Sotho word for this shield, Isihlangu the Zulu version.

These are not a one size fits all shield style. Each nation has its own distinct design and usage. Only two of many nations’ signature shields are mentioned here, more by way of evidencing the differences, rather than similarities.

The thebe shield is quite small and would act much like a target shield in terms of RuneQuest rules. It has an interesting shape with a broad upper portion to provide torso coverage form missiles.

The isihlangu shield is possibly more universally familiar due to the well published accounts of Zulu warriors and their battles with other tribes and later with the British. This oval shaped shield is often as tall or sometimes even taller than the warrior that carries it. Widest at the middle, it tapers to a point at each end. It is usually slightly convex, to allow missiles and poorly thrust weapons to glance off. The concavity on the bearers side can be used to store items such as weapons and rations. They are made by stretching cow hide over a light wooden frame. Due to their size and relatively light weight, the shields can be used to form shield walls, testudo or phalanxes. They will effectively cover the legs, torso and shield arm in combat. In fact it will cover the whole body if the user crouches behind it, but the combatant will have to expose head, part of chest and weapon arm to strike. As a result it is very effective when seeking cover from missile weapons.

In terms of RuneQuest rules, coverage may be best likened to a kite or scutum shield, although due to size perhaps more body areas may be covered. The shield would still be relatively light, not carry too many AP, but at the same time create a degree of encumbrance due to its size.

Many new skills can be thought up. Some are suggested in the Deluxe rules, such as Scout (Terrain). Vis-à-vis a character who served as a soldier in mainly forest areas, may have learned how to scout in forest terrain. Thus his scout skill would be pretty useful for a party sneaking through the forest, but of little use in the desert. New skills are listed here as they are thought up.

Acrobatics

CATEGORY: Agility
BASE: 05%

Acrobatics Agility 05% The special ability to perform and acrobatic feat. Acrobatics is more advanced than simply jumping or dodging, it is a skill that takes a large amount of training to learn. Acrobatic feats can be used for entertainment (tumbling), in other, more stealthier activities (burglary) or even in combat. It should be the GMs discretion to call for an Acrobatics roll where a situation dictates that a simpler skill (such as Jump) may not suffice.

Insult

CATEGORY: Communication
BASE: 05%

In times gone by, a good insult was a prerequisite to any battle. No warrior worth his salt would deign to enter battle without severely insulting his enemies. A skilled insulter need not speak the language of the person he is insulting – body language and crude gestures can convey much. A successful insult roll can demoralize a foe (He only attacks at half his normal skill – See Demoralize Spririt Magic spell). Of course, a taunted foe can resist using his own Insult skill – A skilled insulter will be able to take what he gets.

Rope Tricks

CATEGORY: Agility
BASE: 10%

Rope tricks refers to the ability to work with rope, twine or similar items. This includes tasks such as tying knots as well as performing certain tasks with a rope – for example: tying a knot in one end of a rope and throwing it to hook a prison guards keys. Clearly this must be an agility skill, rather than manipulation as tying knots would otherwise work under a boat skill and most rope tricks involve some sort of throwing. This skill does not surmount specialist rope skills, such as using a net or rope lasso.

Row

CATEGORY:Agility
BASE: 00%

Row referrs to the ability to handle an oar on a large oar powered ship, such as on of the many configurations of galley or a viking long ship. A rower has to work in unison with other rowers and thus the skill is much more involved than that of handling a simple boat or canoe. Rowing is a profession that can pay well at times. On a galley, the crew and marines rely on rowers to keep them afloat and bring them in range of enemy shipping. A row check will usually be made when a specific skilled task is performed, such as ramming, or in other high stress situations.

Meditate

CATEGORY: Knowledge
BASE: 00%

This ability allows a character to increase the number of Fatigue Points gained during a period of rest by mentally blocking out all stress-causing factors. A successful roll means 1d3+1 Fatigue Points will be regained per round. One round, during which no roll is allowed, is required to obtain the proper frame of mind. A new roll is required each time the character wishes to ignore an interruption. Coming out of meditation is instantaneous. While meditating, all Perception rolls receive a 20% penalty. Note: This skill is published with thanks to David Smart from the RuneQuest Rules List. It is a house rule he has used for a long time so cannot vouch entirely for whether it is original or based on an idea from elsewhere.

Quick Roll Up Guide

The RuneQuest III rules assume that a character starts working at 15 years of age. Therefore his or her skills are based on the years in an occupation after that age.

Herewith a quick reference for rolling up new characters:

1. Decide what Age, Sex and Culture you character will be.
2. Decide what the characters parent’s occupation is.
3. Decide if your character remained in his parents occupation until his current age, or whether he tried other occupations
4. If your character tried other occupations, decide the periods in each. Remember at least a year must be spent to accumulate the skills allocated by that occupation. Remember that equipment obtained in occupations is not cumulative
5. Apply the formula: Age x Multiplier + Base + Modifier. Where Age is Age – 15 years (if you stayed in your parents occupation), or the number of years in an occupation (per occupation), Multiplier is the multiplier given by an occupation, e.g.: Throw x 3, Base is your base ability, e.g.: Agility = 3 and Modifier is the skill modifier if applicable, e.g.: First Aid (10) vis add 10.
   NB: Check the cultural weapons table when allocating weapon skills as the modifier’s can differ from the standard weapons table.

Modifiers
Character skills are split up between several self-explanatory categories:

• Agility
• Communications
• Knowledge
• Perception
• Manipulation
• Stealth
• Magic

Each of these categories is used to modify a skill within that category. This modifier can be increase or decrease an overall skill and is worked out from a character’s basic statistics as per the following formula:
PRIMARY: Statistic minus 10. Thus if STR is 17 its PRIMARY will be +7. Note that negative results remain negative, vis-à-vis a STR of 8 will produce a PRIMARY of -2.
SECONDARY: Statistic minus 10, divide the result by 2 and round total up. From the above; STR is 17, its SECONDARY would be 4 IE: (17-10)/2. Negative results will remain negative.
NEGATIVE: Statistic minus 10. Insert a minus sign in front of result. From the above; STR is 17, its NEGATIVE would be -7. Note that is the result is already negative, adding a minus sign will make the result positive. From the above; STR is 8, its NEGATIVE would be +2.

Note: Try not to confuse NEGATIVE with its mathematical meaning, as the results of a formula may contradict its strict meaning. IE: A NEGATIVE formula may have a positive result.

These formula are applied for a reason; to create realistic characters. A huge (SIZ 18) clumsy (DEX 7) character will not have a decent Stealth modifier, in fact his Stealth will likely be a minus. thus a player should be careful with how characters statistics are applied. The best way is to have an even mix where a good statistic will negate any bad statistic while applying the formula.

Remember that a characters Agility modifier is applied to his or her weapons attack skill while the Manipulation modifier is applied to the Parry skill. Thus if a character plans to do any fighting (usually an unavoidable happening in Rune Quest), it would be helpful to have decent modifiers for these Categories. Remember too that Dodge (sometimes the last hope of savings a characters skin) is and Agility based skill.

Downloadable templates I created for RuneQuest 3rd edition some years ago.

CHARACTER SHEET

I have never been satisfied with the basic characters sheets offered by most old school RPG’s. A single page, while handy as a starting point, was never sufficient to contain all the details required for a decent three dimensional character.

This enhanced sheet is based on a friends basic design concept, which I subsequently re imagined to fit my own style.

GM Log

A simple two page document that can be used to assist Game Masters keep track of characters in an adventure.

NPC Card Template

This document provides a template for NPC cards. These tarot size items can be completed and then cut out, with the reverse folded back.

They can provide a useful way to have a pool of prepared NPC’s ready for any eventuality. It is also handy to have some blanks available for NPC’s who crop up on the fly.

GM Shield

A bit old school, but can be a useful resource. Six pages of RQ3 tables which can be printed and glued to a cardboard backing to create a handy quick reference for GM and players.

Six Barbarians

Using the RuneQuest NPC card template I created six random barbarian personalities.