RuneSlayers
RuneSlayers is a free role-playing game first published in 1998 by its authors, J.C. Connors and Christopher Lawrence. The game was originally called RuneQuest: Slayers, in order to be commercialized by Avalon Hill, the publishing house which had started it as a project in the middle 1990s. In 1997 Avalon Hill was bought by Hasbro and the publication procedure was aborted. The authors published then their game on Internet for free, by means of a PDF file and with the free title RuneSlayers (since RuneQuest was still a Hasbro property in 1998).
History
Well after publishing RuneQuest's third edition (1984-1993), Avalon Hill decided in 1994 to revive the name RuneQuest. Slated for a 1998 release, RuneQuest: Slayers, did not resemble the original RuneQuest in regards to rules or its original setting of Glorantha. Avalon Hill hired new designers on the project to start over with a fresh approach. This included shelving the original rules system (which Chaosium co-owned) and focusing on a low-magic setting inspired by pulp, sword and sorcery fiction.
RuneQuest: Slayers had literally been at the printers when Hasbro acquired Avalon Hill and killed the project.[1] Despite the game being finished and "at the printers", Hasbro decided to shelve the game in mid-1998. RuneQuest: Slayers was destined to never see the light of day.
The rights to RuneQuest: Slayers reverted to the authors who released the game for free on the internet as RuneSlayer.[1] The original creators, J.C. Connors and Christopher Lawrence put the game into PDF form on the web for free.
References
External links
- RuneSlayers RuneSlayers rpg in .pdf form, with some background information on the history of the game.