Runebound meets Midnight Volume 4: Foes and Covenant Items

High Magic, Low Magic, and Rare Magic
Ask a gamer what kind of fantasy setting he likes, and as he lists off the published gaming settings or the worlds fleshed out by fantasy novelists, odds are good that they’ll fall into one of three categories. The two more common categories are high magic and low magic. High-magic settings have average heroes wandering around with enchanted swords and armor, spellcasting and wizardry as a common tool, and strange and bizarre creatures from myth and legend. This is without a doubt the world of Runebound (and most D&D game settings, as well). Low-magic settings, on the other hand, tend to be more brutal and basic. The heroes are the powerful warriors who battle evil warlords, savage monsters, other human races, and the occasional weak but cunning conjurer. This is somewhat like the world of Runebound: Midnight, but more accurately describes books like the Conan or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series.

Rare-magic settings are, aptly, rarer than the other two. Magic in these worlds is quite powerful, and those who know how to use it can accomplish more than just the summoning of dangerous demons or the manipulation of men’s minds. They can create and destroy life itself, can shatter mountains and command flame. Men, creatures, and items of such power were once prevalent in these settings, but their time has passed, and now they are but few. At least, the good guys’ power has passed . . . there are likely to be holdovers or, worse, conquerors, dark forces who retain their power and magic while the common races like humans or elves have become complacent or perhaps weakened. The best-known example of this sort of setting is the Lord of the Rings, and it is into this category that Runebound: Midnight also falls. So how to take a game with great mechanics and cool components (dice, miniatures, counters, etc.), and completely swap the setting flavor?

Enemies and Assets
A quick look at the Monsters and Items of the base Runebound game shows that they fit firmly in a high-magic setting. You’ve got Soul Biters, Runes, magical wings that you can strap to your back, and so on; likewise, you’re facing off against necromancers, dragon lords, and strange creatures like razorwings and ferrox.

Runebound: Midnight challenges can be supernatural or completely human.

So first of all, we decided to replace the foes you would face. In Runebound: Midnight, you’ll fight many more creatures like your Hero: flesh-and-blood, walking, talking people, who just happen to serve an evil overlord. These might be orcs (which are most definitely not a “good guy” race in this setting), or human collaborators, or perhaps goblinoids or monstrosities bred specifically for hunting down rebels.

Then there are the Items. We explained how the old Runebound market deck is used in Runebound: Midnight in the last article: they are used as barter goods, and nothing more. Ah, but hidden in that pile of refuse and rags, do you see that glint of ancient steel? Beneath the blood and dirt coating that shield, do you notice its proud heraldry? These might be some of those rare-but-powerful magic items we mentioned in the last article. They tend to be a Hero’s most prized possession, and they are called Covenant Items. Whereas other settings have the protagonists upgrading their weapons and armor when they get the chance, trading in old toys for new and more powerful items, rare-magic settings focus on the connection between a Hero and his ancestral armor, or his tried-and-true weapon. The Midnight setting is no different: when a Hero is lucky enough (or perhaps fated) to find a Covenant Item, he finds that it grows in power as he does. The more powerful he becomes, the more new power radiates from his weapon, armor, or other Item of choice.

Covenant Items
Mechanically, we handle this (and work in the old Runebound cards) by allowing Heroes to “upgrade” their Items each time they gain an experience counter. In roleplaying terms, each time they “level up,” their chosen Item increases in power. The player does this by turning his pile of barter goods face-up (Remember those? They’re the face-down pile of cards that until now has represented your spending cash) and seeing if there is anything there that is A) cheap enough and B) useful enough to attach to one of his existing Items as an additional power. Once you attach it as an upgrade, the base Item gains the game text of the new Item.

So for instance, you might have a Throwing Hammer, one of the Midnight: Runebound Items, when you level up. Searching through your goods pile, you find that you have a Dragontooth Hammer, Rune Seeker, and Staff of Light from the base Runebound game. The Dragontooth Hammer fulfills requirement A, because your first upgrade must a gold cost of 3 or less (your second can cost up 6 gold, the third 9, and so on). It is also very useful in terms of requirement B, in that it can be activated to inflict additional damage . . . a nice combo with the Throwing Hammer’s bonus to melee combat rolls.

However, all of the game text from the added Item remains in play, meaning that your character would now have two Weapons. As useful as the Dragontooth Hammer is, is it worth it to fill up both of your Weapon slots in a single Item?

Alternatively, the Hero could consider the Rune Seeker and Staff of Light in his goods pile; neither of these can be used as normal upgrades (the first because it is an Ally, the second because it is too expensive at 10 gold), but there is an option for these: they could be left face-down and added as a special upgrade. The player would ignore the card text itself on the face-down cards, and instead they would become an additional activation. So in this case, the Throwing Hammer could be activated twice in one combat during to give the Hero a +3 bonus to his ranged combat rolls. Choose wisely, for once a Covenant Item has been accepted by a Hero, the two are bound to one another. And you’ll need all the power you can get to face Night Kings like Jahzir and his many minions.