The Battle of Dangerford (Chaosium, 2021)

Happy New Year, fantasy gamers! If you’re like me, all your resolutions this year involve trying new games. At least two dozen. And maybe a truckload of snack foods.

Yeah, but which games? There’s a ton to choose from. Fortunately Chaosium has made it a little bit easier — by publishing their newest RuneQuest solo adventure online completely free. And also structuring it so that you can learn the rules as you play! The title is The Battle of Dangerford, and it really is a simple as it sounds:

Learn to play RuneQuest in the best way possible — by playing! The Battle of Dangerford is a single-player scenario designed to teach you the rules of the game as you play. Take on the role of Vasana as she joins her Sartarite brothers and sisters in an epic clash against the invading Lunar Empire.

Get all the details below — or jump right in here!

If you’re old school (like me) and prefer to have pen and paper in hand when facing RPG dangers solo, you can get The Battle of Dangerford as part of the newly newly released RuneQuest Starter Set, published in 2021.

The extremely impressive RuneQuest Starter Set (Chaosium, 2021)

The RuneQuest Starter Set contains a whole lot of stuff, for the criminally low price of $29.99. Order it here.

The Battle of Dangerford walks you through everything you need to play, and keeps track of everything (character stats, dice rolls, hit points, and more) for you. Here’s the opening text:

Welcome to the Battle of Dangerford digital soloquest. This online tool lets you play through the Battle of Dangerford solo adventure digitally. There’s no no need for dice, paper, or pencils, although, you can follow along using physical acessories if you wish.

The Battle of Dangerford is a solo adventure for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. It is a story of mythic adventure in Glorantha, Greg Stafford’s epic fantasy setting. It is designed to lead you through the basic rules of the game in a gradual and entertaining way. While RuneQuest adventures will most commonly be run with friends, this one is just for you.

To navigate this scenario, readers follow a thread of linking text passages. Their path depends on their choices, and their successes in skill checks or combat. This online web tool will provide you with all of the information you need to run the game in the links below this box. If you have a copy of the RuneQuest Starter Set, you may wish to follow along with that as you play.

In this scenario, you take on the role of Vasana, Daughter of Farnan. You can find her character sheet amongst the links below. This formidable hero is a capable warrior, trusted leader, and dedicated initiate of the Orlanth Adventurous cult. In this adventure, she has sided with Kallyr Starbrow, leader of the Sartarite rebellion against the Lunar Empire. It is God Day, Movement Week, Earth Season. Kallyr is about to lead her troops against the Lunar Empire’s war leader, Fazzur Wideread, at a critical ford across the strategically important passage of water known simply as “The Creek.” The sides are evenly matched, and even a single stone could shift the scales. Depending on how Vasana carries herself, she could sway the battle, and change the fate of Dragon Pass.

If you’ve been curious about RuneQuest, Glorantha, or the fabulous Dragon Pass (which I discussed just recently), The Battle of Dangerford is a great introduction. Leap into the action here.

We’ve looked at a lot of great RuneQuest releases recently. They include:

Step Into A World Of RuneQuest Adventure with The Smoking Ruin and The Pegasus Plateau (2021)
Ten RPG Moments Of Awesome by James Davis Nicoll (2020)
Ten WTF Moments From Classic RPGs by James Davis Nicoll (2020)
Stormbringer, Stargates, And Fighting Sail: Ten Classic Unplayed RPGs by James Davis Nicoll (2020)
A Rough Guide to Glamour Goes Gold by Nick Brooke (2020)
Return to Dragon Pass with The Red Cow Campaign by Ian Cooper, Jeff Richard, and Greg Stafford by James Davis Nicoll (2020)
Numenera, Nyarlathotep, and RuneQuest Glorantha: Some Recent Slipcase Sets (2019)
Cults of Prax: Then and Now by Michael OBrien (2019)
The Complete Borderlands Campaign now Available in PDF from Chaosium (2019)
Resurrecting RuneQuest: An Investigation by the Tales of the Reaching Moon Editorial Staff by Michael OBrien (2017)
Chaosium Announces New Version of RuneQuest (2017)
Chaosium’s Borderlands: Can Playing RPGs Really Make You a Billionaire? (2016)
RuneQuest: Korantia and Mythic Britain by Howard Andrew Jones (2015)
RuneQuest 6 by Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker (2014)

See all our recent coverage of the best new solitaire games here.