ACKS II vs. Runequest

Oh yeah, here we go. This is going to be a good one. We are putting the two best early-era fantasy games head-to-head today.

ACKS II and Runequest are both set in a period of time before what is commonly associated with D&D. As D&D has been published over the years, it has slowly crept forward in time, from the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and now we are seeing a Victorian era feeling in the 2024 edition of the rules. The 2024 books are filled with Steampunk, Victorian, and magi-punk sorts of art where everyone wears fancy outfits, nobody wears a helmet, and style is king over survival.

ACKS II is more of a Late Antiquity game (350 AD), happening in a temporal-framework set at the end of the Roman Empire as the world slips into the Dark Ages.

Runequest happens earlier, in the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BC), in a world a thousand or so years before the ACKS II world's general technology level and historical model.

D&D? Here is where it gets complicated. We need to go by the availability of plate mail, which is about 1200 AD, far later than even ACKS II. This is the High Middle Ages, or about 1000 to 1300 AD. This transitions into the Renaissance, and then the Modern Era. During the Reinsurance, that is the "Age of Discovery" and the beginning of colonialism.

If I were to peg D&D editions to eras? B/X would be Late Middle Ages. AD&D 2nd Edition would be Early Renaissance. D&D 3.5 would be Renaissance. D&D 4E and 5E would be Early Modern Era (with magic supplanting technology). The new "Steampunk Era" of 2024 D&D and Pathfinder 2E is more Victorian in look and feeling. You can push things an era forward or backward, but some of the concepts are firmly rooted in one era or another, especially the concept of universities outside of religious training.

Granted, all of the above is a highly simplified breakdown, and there are better experts than I on this, but this is a more simplified gamer-oriented view of the timeline. Where ACKS II is more "Fall of the Roman Empire" inspired, Runequest is more "Greek Myths and Legends" inspired.

In ACKS II, not every character has magic, and we begin to see the formation of the standard tropes of fantasy, like the fighter class, the rogue, and so on. Magic is beginning to become specialized and rare. This sort of reflects a world where the art of magic is beginning to become a lost art, only available to the few, and on a historical decline. This sort of mirrors the Tolkien themes of elves, dwarfs, and magic leaving the world. That isn't a strong theme in ACKS II, but magic is not everyday, and there aren't elves and dwarfs everywhere. We can also trace the downfall of traditional magic and sorcery to organized religion and the Crusades wiping it out.

Plus ACKS II is more Late Roman Empire than any other game. All that fun stuff you see in the movie Gladiator? Yeah, you get all that with ACKS II. This game is all that and more. These two games are not the same thing.

In Runequest, every character has minor magic, an era where magic is not as specialized and powerful (unless you specialize in it), and the use of it is more commonplace. It isn't "fireball and lightning bolt" level artillery, but starting fires and mending minor wounds is common. It would be like if Star Wars had an "Early Jedi Era" where everyone knew minor Force powers and it was a part of everyone's lives, and nobody felt it was strange.

You don't need to develop a lot of technology, like how to start fires, since there are people that can "just do that with their fingers." You are getting into a speculative world here, where you need technology for some things (writing, wheels, inclined planes, construction, food storage and preservation), but not for others (medicine, repair, spirit communication, item enhancement, the telescope).

Also, this mirrors the common themes of antiquity, where it is generally assumed that "magic was more common in the early ages" and "we lost the ability to call upon it" in our lives. Where every village had a grandma shaman who knew the old ways and taught them to the children. Everyone has a little magic in them, and this was a more wondrous and connected age of spirits, the afterlife, shamanism, nature, and the flows of magic upon the world.

Runequest's "end days" would be in the fall of the Greek and Egyptian civilizations, but that feels like a long ways off and we are in the golden age of the civilization. With ACKS II, we are in the fall of the empire, and things are already going sideways. There is a stronger "call to action" in ACKS II and much more political intrigue, along with the collapse of local authority with beast-men banging on the gates. You have the crumbling empire and a senate trying to backstab each other and survive. You have the characters forging their own future and taking land for themselves.

In Runequest, your stories are smaller, like heroic tales, haunted sites, warring tribes, preparing for a festival, and often survival stories. We have rampaging monster stories, mysteries, thieves, farmers with problems, rampaging trolls, and the Lunar Empire are easy bad guys to use as the heavies. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a great example of a Runequest story, sort of "the myth and tales" of a hero or small band of them, wandering the land and doing great deeds. The focus in Runequest is smaller and more personal, and a quest to smith a great weapon could be an entire adventure arc.

Runequest is a lot like Minecraft in a way, where you are building your own gear, finding things to buy what you can't craft, and exploring a wild and untamed land where civilization has not reached every place on the map, and many places are lost to time and forgotten. This is why some critique Runequest harshly as a "basket weaving game," but hey, if you had to go kill a dinosaur to get those rare colored reeds, bash some trolls to get the turquoise for the beads, and crafted baskets that were worth a lot of coins, it was all worth it in the end and you have a big sack of wealth to live nicely on. Bonus points if you enchant the baskets to slow food spoilage. I can see that story happening in some "deep crafting" Minecraft mods, too, and there are parallels there between the games that some get really into.

Also, you are not conquering land and building massive kingdoms in Runequest. You "can" in a story-sense, but if you like dominion building, ACKS II will be the better game for you.

Also, if I were to play a Roman or D&D-era game with the Chaosium rules, I would opt for the excellent Basic Roleplaying system, but you would have to do a little more work here to set that game up. This would remove the "everyone has magic" assumption of the earlier era, and allow you to simulate the "magic-less professions" a lot easier and keep that separation. With ACKS II, it is all done for you, and the system is d20 and easy to get into.

Both are amazing games! They are not the same thing, as some may think. Which one you prefer comes down to your preferences and what inspires you. If you like Gladiator and the Roman intrigue, go all-in on ACKS II. If you want the more personal stories of an earlier era where everyone has magic, Runequest will be your thing.

They are both fantastic games with unique focuses. Where D&D tends to try to be "everything for everyone" and do all things poorly, these two games do their focused areas perfectly.

I like the focused and themed games far better than the generalist. My stories here are far better and more meaningful to me.