RuneQuest II Spells

In building Cults, Grimoires, or lists of available Common Magic, I have found it helpful to know which Rune or Runes are associated with a spell. In the Rulebook, there is only a general guideline stating that a spell cannot be governed by an opposing Rune, for example: Sever Soul would not be in a healing cult. Keeping the rules general and the spell-Runes unspecified gives GMs and campaign builders a lot of freedom in developing Cults or building Grimoires to suit their cultures and worlds.

This tool filters which spells are associated with which Runes. All the spells from the Core rulebook and Necromantic Arts have been included. The Runes themselves have been modified somewhat to fit my campaign universe. The changed definitions of the Runes are listed further down the page.

Select a Rune or Runes form the drop-down menus above. If the Cult or Grimoire in question is associated with only one Rune, leave the Rune 2 and Rune 3 boxes set to None. If you want to see all the spells in the list (regardless of Rune), select All from the Rune 1 box.

The Magic Type box further filters the list of spells by the type of magic.

The raw data which makes up this list can be accessed by choosing All from both the Rune 1 box and the Magic Type box. Alternately, you can see the underlying spreadsheet which may become increasingly out of date as I update the web tool.

Modified Rune System

Runes are in a two-step hierarchy: Manifestion Runes (lower level) and Archetype Runes (higher, abstract level). In the list below, the first Rune in a set is the Archetype followed by its two Manifestations – except for Magic and Chaos which are Archetype Runes in direct opposition with each other. In parentheses are additional aspects of the Rune.

Air (wind, sonic)

• Heat (electricity)
• Cold

Earth (metal)

• Water (poison, taste)
• Fire

Communication (telepathy)

• Illusion (dreaming)
• Truth

Moon (cyclical change, physical transformation, SIZ)

• Light (Sight)
• Darkness (Darksight)

Harmony (protection)

• Disorder (insanity)
• Law (mental stability)

Infinity (time, energetic transformation)

• Stasis (armour)
• Movement (travel, missile weapons, DEX)

Spirit (POW)

• Life (healing, CON, equivalent to the Man Rune)
• Death (undeath)

Mastery (skills)

• Fate (bonuses)
• Luck (rerolls)

Fertility (natural creation, CHA)

• Beast (animals, touch)
• Plant (wood, odour)

Magic (magical creation)

Chaos (destruction)