These  contents are published in the Mongoose RuneQuest Main Book. The SRD can be downloaded from Mongoose Publishing.

Creating an Adventurer

This section is Open Content.

Character Creation Checklist

Follow this checklist when creating a new character.

1. Determine the character’s Characteristics.
2. Determine the character’s Attributes.
3. Determine the character’s Basic skill scores.
4. Determine the character’s Previous Experience.
5. Determine the character’s General Information.
6. Outfit the character with Starting Equipment.

Part One – Characteristics

All characters and creatures have seven Characteristics.

Strength (STR): A character’s brute force, Strength affects the amount of damage he deals, what weapons he can wield effectively, how much he can lift and so on.

Constitution (CON): A measure of the character’s health, Constitution affects how much damage he can sustain in combat, as well as his general resistance to disease and other illnesses.

Dexterity (DEX): A character’s agility, co-ordination and speed, Dexterity aids him in many physical actions, including combat.

Size (SIZ): This is an indication of the character’s mass and, like Strength and Constitution, can affect the amount of damage a character can deal and how well he can absorb damage. Unlike most other Characteristics, a high score in Size is not always an advantage. While a large character can take more damage, a small character will have a much easier time when sneaking around in the shadows.

Intelligence (INT): A character’s ability to think around problems, analyse information and memorise instructions. It is a very useful Characteristic for characters interested in becoming accomplished spellcasters.

Power (POW): Perhaps the most abstract Characteristic, Power is a measure of the character’s life force and his personal force of will.

Charisma (CHA): This quantifies a character’s attractiveness and leadership qualities.

Determining Characteristics

Players will need a number of six-sided dice to generate their characters’ Characteristics. Roll the following dice to determine an adventurer’s Characteristics:

Strength (STR): Roll 4D6, drop the lowest die and total the remaining dice.

Constitution (CON): Roll 4D6, drop the lowest die and total the remaining dice.

Dexterity (DEX): Roll 4D6, drop the lowest die and total the remaining dice.

Size (SIZ): Roll 2D6 and total the dice. Add 6 to the result.

Intelligence (INT): Roll 2D6 and total the dice. Add 6 to the result.

Power (POW): Roll 4D6, drop the lowest die and total the remaining dice.

Charisma (CHA): Roll 4D6, drop the lowest die and total the remaining dice.

The Games Master may also allow players to assign their rolls to specific Characteristics, so that a player who wants to play a burly warrior can move a rolled 15 from CHA to STR, for example. Players should not be allowed to move rolls from INT or SIZ to any of the other five Characteristics, however.

Part Two – Attributes

These are a set of secondary scores that define exactly what the character is capable of.

Combat Actions (CA): This is the number of actions a character can perform in each combat round.

Damage Modifier (DM): The Damage Modifier applies whenever the character uses a melee or thrown weapon.

Hit Points (PC): These determine how much damage the character can sustain before reaching unconsciousness or death. Hit points are located in certain areas of the character’s body, representing exactly how much damage he can sustain.

Magic Points (MP): These are used to activate any spells the character knows. The character’s starting Magic Points will be equal to the character’s POW.

Strike Rank (SR): This determines how quickly the character acts in combat. Strike Rank is determined by adding together the character’s INT and DEX, and halving the result.

Part Three – Basic Skills

Every character has a range of Basic skills that allows him to perform a variety of actions with varying degrees of expertise.

Each Basic skill is set by the total of one or more Characteristics.  Some skills will also suffer a penalty from other Characteristics.

The Starting Skills table lists all the Basic skills every character possesses and the Characteristics used to determine the skill’s base score.  If a Characteristic is listed as a penalty, deduct it from the skill’s base score.

Part Four – Previous Experience

There are three stages involved in determining the character’s previous experience. First the player must pick the character’s cultural background. This provides certain starting skill bonuses that reflect this upbringing. Second, the player must pick a profession and gain further associated skills with that profession. Thirdly, the player spends the character’s free skill points.

Cultural Background

The player is free to choose the background the character comes from (with Games Master approval), which determines skill bonuses, starting money and which Advanced skills are available. The backgrounds available are listed here::

The Cultural Background table shows all the various bonuses each background bestows on a character. Basic Skill Bonuses are added straight onto the character’s Basic skill scores.

Advanced skills start at their base Characteristic score, plus any indicated bonus.

Professions

The Professions table shows all the various bonuses each profession bestows on a character. Basic Skill Bonuses are added straight onto the character’s Basic skill scores. Advanced skills start at their base Characteristic score. If the character already possesses the indicated Advanced skill, they instead gain a +10% bonus to that skill.

If a Profession indicates that a character starts play with the Runecasting skill, that character knows one spell per Runecasting skill known. Spells known must be relevant to the runes the character has integrated.

Free Skill Points

Every character receives 100 additional skill points. The player can add these free skill points to his skills in the following ways:

• Add to a Basic or Weapon skill score.
• Add to an Advanced skill score, as long as the character already possesses the skill.
• urchase an Advanced skill. This costs 10 free skill points and the Advanced skill starts at its basic Characteristic-derived score.

No single skill can benefit from more than 30 free skill points. The Advanced skill of Runecasting may not be purchased. An Advanced skill purchased with free skill points cannot be increased by more than 20 points.

Part Five – General Information

Movement: Human characters have a Movement of 4 metres (4m).

Hero Points: Every character starts with two Hero Points.

Edad: The character may start out at any age between 18 and 30.

OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a