The future Revised RuneQuest and other publications

Below I am compiling all the information Chaosium has released regarding the upcoming books for RuneQuest. In the first half of 2027 they are going to publish the Revised RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha rulebook. At first, Jeff Richard was also working on a parallel edition titled RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplaying, but they later cancelled it. I'll keep this article updated with any new information that comes up. I have also added my own view at the end.

Excerpt of the cover for the upcoming Return to Snake Pipe Hollow scenario by Ossi Hiekkala

Revised RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha

RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha (RQG) was published in 2018. Some years later, I recall Jason Durall mentioning on BRP Central that there were plans for possibly doing a revised reprint of the rulebook, that is, with the errata corrected and some sections better explained. This was probably due to the amount of rules questions asked by the fans and painstakingly addressed at the Q&A for RuneQuest on the Well of Daliath website.

At Chaosium Con UK 2026 Brian Holland and Michael O'Brien revealed the revised rulebook will be published on the first quarter of 2027. It will be the same rulebook, only with less material, better explained rules to avoid confusion, and with a small bestiary. It will have only 60% of the extension of the current rulebook. Meanwhile, RQG will still be available, it won't be discontinued. Therefore, this revised edition is basically an easier entry point for new players. When these new players feel confident to add more rules to their games, they can purchase the original RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha.

Slide in the presentation Chaosium gave at Chaosium Con UK 2026 depicting some of the cultures available in character creation

The revised rulebook will not include:

• Family history generation
• Chariots and phalanx rules
• Some rune cults. It will only include: Orlanth, Ernalda, Issaries, Chalana Arroy, Babeester Gor, Storm Bull, Yelmalio, Humakt, and Lanbril.
• Some homelands for playing characters: Esrolia, the Grazelands, Old Tarsh, and Lunar Tarsh.
• Shamanism rules
• Sorcery rules

What the revised rulebook will include that is not already in the current RQG rulebook:

• Quicker character creation
• Baboons, minotaurs, and ducks as player character options, on top of human Sartarites and Praxian bison riders
• The cult of Lanbril (god of thieves)
• A short bestiary
• Reformatted spell descriptions focused on clarity
• Optional rules for playing combats with miniatures
• A short introductory adventure "The Mouth of Chaos" (it is unclear if it will be released as a separate PDF)
• New art by Ossi Hiekkala (possibly new pregens)

Slide in the presentation Chaosium gave at Chaosium Con UK 2026 depicting some of the cults available in character creation

Since the revised rulebook will be 100% compatible with the current RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha (it's the same game) and they will keep selling that, Chaosium will keep publishing supplements for it. The Sartar book is coming in October 14th, The Apple Lane Campaign in November (99% identical to the GM Adventures booklet in the GM Screen Pack). On the 2nd quarter of 2027 Chaosium will publish a book with short scenarios (including a mundane world heroquest), and the new GM Screen. In the 3rd quarter, the Return to Snake Pipe Hollow mega dungeon bash with totally new denizens, and in the 4th quarter a book of encounters with adventure seeds, and the Cults of RuneQuest: Gods of Darkness, which will also include rules for creating troll player characters (as in the old Trollpak supplement).

Upcoming releases for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha until the end of 2027, some with mock-up covers.

RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplaying UPDATED: This has now been cancelled

At Chaosium Con UK 2025, Jeff Richard revealed the mock-up cover of the upcoming RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplaying rulebook. This would have been a parallel edition with streamlined rules so they are faster to learn and play. It was also focused on new players, and the setting would have been the Gloranthan city of Pavis in Prax. Its aim was to present new players with faster rules to get started playing in Glorantha the same way most RQ veterans started playing: by exploring the ruins of the Big Rubble next to the city of Pavis (but in 1625 after the Lunar Empire is out). This way new players would be able to get started with a more recognizable form of adventuring in Glorantha, and then learn more about the setting little by little as they play. Jeff Richard recruited Mike Mearls (co-designer of D&D's 4th and 5th editions) to help him streamline the RuneQuest rules, and organized a big open playtest at the start of 2025. In fact, the results of that playtest is what prompted Chaosium to create the Revised RuneQuest (see above) as some veteran fans expressed misgivings about some of the planned changes. In June that year, Mearls left Chaosium for Asmodee, but apparently he kept helping finish off the rulebook, and Jeff Richard and his team did extensive playtests with new players at conventions. The now cancelled rulebook was planned to be as thin as RQ2. Other tidbits Jeff Richard shared on the BRP Central forum:

• It would have been about half the size of RQG.
• Quicker character generation focused on Sartarites, Praxians, and Pavisites.
• Also duck, dark troll, dwarf, and elf options for player characters.
• 20 fewer skills, mostly due to skill consolidation, for a total of around 40.
• Easier to run combat.
• No Strike Ranks
• More robust social conflict system
• A small bestiary
• More relevant spirit combat
• No shamanism or sorcery rules (but shamanism was planned for a future supplement).

They had planned to publish it together with supplements, such as a 4-part campaign with extra material and cults, and a player-aid-pack with standees to make the game more visually appealing. Afterwards, more scenario books, and the GM Book (around 275 pages) with advice on how to make adventures and campaigns, dealing with downtime, threat ratings for adversaries, treasure, battle and heroquesting rules and how to run them, among other contents.

This parallel edition would have been compatible with RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha, and Chaosium had planned to release a conversion guide so you could use materials from one product line with the other (check out the FAQ). The rulebook was planned for release at some point in 2027, perhaps later.

Then on September 6th, Michael O'Brien published the following update:

A new update: Chaosium has made a company decision to solely focus on the revised RuneQuest rule book that we announced in September 2025.

As previously discussed, the revised RuneQuest will be fully compatible with everything released for the RQG line, both before and after the new core rule book comes out. These rules are pitched for newcomers to be able to pick up and play the game, and learn to love the setting through play.

After extensive playtesting the revised RQ core rule book is now in editorial review and layout. We're aiming for a release in the first half of 2027.

If you want to see what's coming for RuneQuest, we talked about the exciting release plans for the line at the panel at Chaosium Con UK earlier this year (watch here). If you'd like to read about the game in action, check out Mark Morrison's latest Table Tales article, "Tell Me About".

Michael O'Brien has also announced the scenarios for Pavis and the Big Rubble that were originally planned to accompany Jeff Richard's RuneQuest will now be published for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha instead, as well as the GM Book.

Some commentary

It is good news that Chaosium is focusing on making RuneQuest more accessible for new players. Apparently, there are not enough newbies playing the game, so for this RPG to have a future, Chaosium needs to attract more of them. At first there were two similar plans to address this: the Revised rulebook and RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplay. The revised edition is more conservative while the latter was a bit more daring. Both shared the design goal of making the first contact with the game and setting be much clearer, with less rules, and less lore. Now they have announced they are going to focus solely on the revised edition. Some fans commented they were expecting this, as working on two similar RuneQuest rulebooks would have perhaps been too confusing for the new players Chaosium is trying to attract.

This might be the right move, although other fans are going to miss at least some of the promised changes like the skill consolidation, the elimination of Strike Ranks, or the social skills system planned for the now cancelled RuneQuest Fantasy Roleplay. It may still be possible to add these rules in a future publication, though, in some sort of supplement with optional rules, but so far it is only my guess.

Part of the cover by Ossi Hiekkala for the upcoming encounters supplement for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha

Aside from the revised rules, Chaosium needs to walk a thin line and also offer exciting releases for experienced RQ players (like me!). New scenarios and campaigns are a good way to achieve that, as these books will be interesting for both audiences. New campaigns set in Sartar in Prax are nice and well. After all, not everyone has played the old Pavis scenarios, or the Sartar Rising! campaign, the Colymar campaign, or the The Coming Storm campaign that were published for the HeroWars and HeroQuest rulesets. There have been some mentions to a Great Argrath campaign for RuneQuest that could do for the game the same The Great Pendragon campaign did for Pendragon, taking inspiration from the epic saga outlined in the original wargame White Bear and Red Moon and the saga in King of Sartar. That would be really great. A campaign so epic and cool that draws players to the game just so they can play it through.

It would be even better if they published campaigns set outside Sartar and Pavis. For example, a campaign about Argrath's (and Harrek's!) circumnavigation of the ocean would show how diverse Glorantha is. Or setting books including a short campaign, like Sun County, but with more scenarios. For example, an Esrolia supplement with a 5-scenario-campaign in it would be great. The same goes for a Grazelands, Tarsh, or Heortland campaign book. There might be something along those lines in store, and it would be great because, since these lands are close to one another, you could even connect them all together to play a macro-campaign. That is also why some of the planned releases, like the Return to Snake Pipe Hollow are not that exciting for me, because that is already available in the old scenario to a degree. In short, as an experienced RQ player, I am mostly looking forward to the totally new campaigns, heroquesting rules, and the social conflict rules.

What about you? Do you think the Revised RQG will be enough to draw new players towards RuneQuest? 🤔 Please let me know in a comment below! Just type it on the "Escribe tu comentario" space, and then click on "PUBLICAR" 😀🙏👇