Review: "RUNE" is not the "Dark Souls" of Tabletop Games, but does it need to be?
Frustrating combat overshadows great exploration and interesting storytelling
My reviews come from the perspective of how well does what I am reviewing succeed at enabling the players to tell the intended story. As such, the things mentioned in the review are those elements that are most important in the success or failure of that end. If something is not mentioned, it was not a strong part in swaying my thoughts one way or another.
I love the Soulslike genre of video games. Elden Ring is one of my favorite games of all time, and Dark Souls 2 has long been a staple of my gaming diet. Their unique approach to storytelling, focus on exploration and environmental design, and challenging-yet-rewarding combat scratches an itch like few other games can.
Which is why, back in August of 2022, when I saw the Kickstarter for RUNE by Spencer Campbell, I was intrigued. A combination of two things I love? What more could I ask for! I didn’t back the game at the time, but it stayed on my radar and in the back of my mind. I eventually picked up the PDF, and more recently purchased a copy of the physical book to use for this review.
Now, a year later, I have finally had a chance to play it, and… I have some complicated feelings towards it. Let’s get into it.
The World of Obron
RUNE is set in the world of Obron, shattered by a magical calamity some centuries ago into a series of disparate Realms. Each Realm is a lonely place, ruled by a Rune Lord, who absorbed enough of the old magic to hold their position. You play as an Engraved, a deathless being able to carve Runes into themselves and take the power of the Rune Lords. You explore the Realms, fight the Rune Lords, and seek greater power and a sense of purpose.
Overall, I found the setting to be quite fitting of the intended genre, very reminiscent of Dark Souls. Dying worlds, undying characters, repeating the stories of the past anew, all match the style and themes that come from these types of games. It also leaves a lot untold, with only vague allusions to the past and nothing concrete, another staple of the genre. It allows you, the player, to inject whatever interpretation you have of the world, and become part of it’s story.
Exploration
As mentioned above, RUNE consists of a series of Realms, where you are meant to explore and eventually come to a final boss to defeat (think Caelid from Elden Ring or Anor Londo from Dark Souls). Realms are divided into a number of Points, locations of note within the Realm, such as an abandoned village, a semi-sentient tree, a keep, etc. The exploration phase of the game is focused around traveling between these points in order to find equipment, items, and “Lore,” a mechanical measure of how much your character knows about this particular Realm.
More specifically, at each Point, there is a list of potential actions you can do: Fight, Search, Learn, and Delve. There can be any number of each action, you can do them all as long as you meet any prerequisites, the only limitation is that if a Point has a Fight, it must be done first. When you Search, you generally end up receiving some sort of item or consumable, such as a healing vial. When you Learn, you pick up a point or two of Lore, with flavor text explaining how it happens. When you Delve, you dive deeper into the location, looking for the more valuable items (Equipment, Weapons, more Lore, etc.); Delves usually have a prerequisite, such as a minimum Lore score or an item from somewhere else.
Overall, I found the exploration phase to be the most compelling aspect of play. It does an excellent job at capturing the essence of exploration within a Soulslike game, that being wandering within the ruins of what was left behind and just stumbling upon what remains. There are few if any NPCs, and the things of import are usually a larger challenge to get to. Finding things new and interesting and piecing together the story of the Realm I was in, as fragmented as it was, was a highly enjoyable experience that really enhanced my playthrough.
My only criticism of exploration is that the game actively disincentivizes you from leaving your current Realm and going to another one. While the game provides an out-of-game reason (bookkeeping could be challenging if hopping between Realms), it also has an in-game penalty of losing any consumables you are carrying, which are usually pretty important.1 When I found myself challenged by the combat, I thought that maybe I should go to another Realm and get stronger by doing a couple of things there. This is what I would do if I was playing Elden Ring or Dark Souls, but the game told me “no, don’t do that.” I consider this to be a pretty core aspect of these games, so I was disappointed to see this approach taken here.
Character Creation
The character creation in RUNE is sparse. Crucially, there are almost no stats: you have Health, Stamina, and Lore. Health determines how much Harm you can take, Stamina determines how many dice you roll in combat, and Lore, as mentioned above, is a measure of your knowledge of the Realm. These are preset values; you always start with 10 Health, 2 Stamina, and 0 Lore.
The uniqueness of your character comes from the equipment you choose. When you make a new Engraved, you choose two Weapons, one piece of Equipment, and one starting Rune. Your Weapons dictate what actions you are able to take in combat, while Equipment and Runes can help enhance those actions or allow alternatives. Your playthrough will largely be dictated by your decisions here, and can potentially dramatically change how a playthrough works.
With the eschewing of traditional stats and focusing purely on equipment, I think this is an interesting interpretation of the Soulslike formula. In games like Elden Ring or Dark Souls, when you start a new game, you typically choose a starting class, which will come with weapons and stats assigned in a particular way. Indeed, your stats in these games can, in some respects, just be a means to the end of acquiring particular weapons; if you want this Large Holy Sword of Light, you better be leveling Strength and Faith. By eschewing the leveling component and focusing just on the thing that is the end result, it does seem to be saying “this is what is important to a class in these games,” which I don’t think is invalid.
My issue with this interpretation, though, is that it makes every character feel same-y. There is nothing stopping me from dropping one of my current weapons for something cool I find later; if I started RUNE sword-and-board, it’s conceivable that by my 3rd Realm I’ve switched over entirely to a full spellcaster. And while that is simple, it makes it feel like these decisions have little impact, which is a shame, as deciding on a build and working towards it is a fun aspect of Soulslikes.
Combat
Combat in RUNE is tactical, taking place on a 4x4 grid. Each encounter will tell you where enemies start, where you start, and any terrain limitations on the grid.
During each round of combat, first each enemy rolls a die to determine their actions for the round. Then you resolve any aspects of an action that do not involve harm; for example, if an enemy has a “Move 3, Harm 1” action for the turn, you move them now, but you don’t deal damage yet. From there, you roll a number of dice equal to your Stamina, and assign them to your equipped weapons however you want, resolving any non-damage elements of your actions.2 You then resolve all harm or blocks simultaneously, everything within range of each action dealing damage to each other.
While simplistic and easy to pick up, the fatal flaw of this combat is the Stamina system. Above, in character creation, you will notice that some of the options for your weapons include movement. If you do not assign a rolled Stamina die with one of those corresponding values to one of those actions with Move, you cannot move during that round of combat.3 This means you may be left to make a choice that minimizes how much damage you can do in order to ensure that you can try and move your character to safety. This is, ostensibly, where the strategy comes into play; damage, or movement?
Oftentimes, that is futile; many of the enemies, such as the Skeleton shown above, always have the ability to move, and some enemies have movement upwards of 3 or 4 spaces. You can very quickly be swarmed by enemies and have no way to get out of range. Sometimes your only option is to flee the entire combat, which causes you to risk Health as enemies take a final swing at you.
Another important thing to note is range and space occupancy. Up to two creatures can occupy a single space at any time; this means that enemies can occupy the same space as you, which is why, as you’ll see above, they have a range of “Same & Adjacent.” You may have noticed that, by comparison, the weapons you have only have a range of “Adjacent;” as written, this means you cannot attack an enemy in the same space as you. You need to move away in order to hit those enemies.
All this compiles into a combat system that, to me, feels as though fights were won or lost purely due to the whims of fate, and I felt like I had no control over the outcome. There were times where, no matter how much skill I may have possessed, the dice told me “no, you’re dead now.” I don’t know whether I was unlucky, had a bad build, misunderstood a rule, or all three, but I just never felt like I was in control of the situation.
This is doubly frustrating because that does not encompass the experience of Soulslike combat at all. This genre of game, while known for its difficulty of combat, rewards returning to the same combat over and over, utilizing your knowledge of the enemies and location in order to learn, grow, and overcome. If you stick with it, you will learn how to use your build most effectively and overcome any enemies thrown at you. That cannot happen in this system; there is always a chance you roll snake eyes, no matter how often you have fought these skeletons, and just stand there while you get mauled to death. The only similarity between RUNE and other Soulslikes combat is the difficulty, and in that way it falls into the same trap as many bad Dark Souls clones.
Conclusion
RUNE is an interesting game. I usually am not a fan of solo TTRPGs; I find them hard to stay focused on the task at hand, too loose in what they ask of you to pay attention to or handwave away for the sake of the experience. RUNE, however, kept me engaged every step of the way, for better or for worse. I absolutely adore this game’s use of exploration and found it to be a good thematic anchor into what the game was trying to accomplish. Combat destroyed the chain to that anchor, a frustrating experience subject to random chance. There are interesting ideas within this system, but I do not think I could recommend it to someone looking for a Dark Souls experience out of their solo TTRPG.
I am curious, however, about REAP, one of Campbell’s latest projects. It uses the RUNE system, but instead of an Engraved, you play a Reaper, with the ability to summon undead thralls and harness power from the dead. While using the same system, it seems to turn itself on it’s head, with the Reaper moving first and having a much more expanded advancement system. From what I have experienced from RUNE, I think that this shift in perspective, essentially taking on the role of enemies from this game, could actually really work, and I honestly am looking forward to trying out the full release.
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It’s important to note that items such as keys to specific locations are called “unique consumables,” and the rules don’t differentiate them out here. So, in theory, you could lose permanent access to locations you explore if you take the key with you to another Realm.
You can either add them together as a single value to assign to one weapon, or assign each die individually to each weapon.
There is a piece of starting equipment that lets you move 1 space if you don’t roll any movement options. If you choose any weapon combination that does not include the Longsword to start with, this is essentially required if you want any mobility.