CLASSIC FANTASY

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Dungeoneering Rules for
Percentile Roleplaying

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By
Rodney Leary
e With

Pete Nash, Lawrence Whitaker

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& Carol Johnson
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Classic Fantasy © 2016 by The Design Mechanism

Mythras is a Trademark of The Design Mechanism.
RuneQuest and Basic Roleplaying are trademarks of Moon Design Publications LLC and Chaosium Inc.
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All rights reserved. This edition of Classic Fantasy is copyright © 2016.

ISBN 978-0-9947589-2-7

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without permission from The Design Mechanism, except
as quoted for purposes of illustration, discussion and game play. Reproduction of the material in this book for the purposes of
personal or corporate profit, by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval is strictly prohibited.
 Classic Fantasy

Credits
Created, Developed and Written By Playtesters
Rodney Leary Ed Arneson, Jody Arneson, John Arneson, Justin Arneson,

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Mario Artiga, Stuart Bailey, Mat Beasley, Lucas de Beer,
Additional Material By Laurie Bernier, Sam Bernier, Hendrik Beukes, Wickus
Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash Booyse, Christopher J E Brann, Rhus Diversiloba, Jeremy
Brooks, Justin Brooks, Jason Durall, Mario Gomez, John
Huber, Lindsay Johnson, Jeffery Keown, Sverre Larne,

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Editing Carmen Leary, Mark Leary, Stacy Leary, Vanessa Leary,
Carol Johnson Charles Leonard, Stephen MacGillivray, Johan van Mollen-
dorf, Sarah Newton, Arthur Reyes, Alan Rowell,
Proof Reading Alyssa Shifflet, Justin Shifflet, Matthew Skipper, Divan Stark,
Carol Johnson, Alexandra James, Pete Nash Reynaud Stark, James Wightwick, Jason Vasche, and Greg
Wood
Design and Layout
Alexandra James

Mythras and RuneQuest

Artists
Jacob E Blackmon, Simon Bray, Toby Gregory,
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Eric Lofgren, Dan MacKinnon, William McAusland, Aaron
Palsmeier, Lee Smith, Chris Yarborough
Classic Fantasy was developed for use with the RuneQuest
(RQ6) rules. The system has since been renamed Mythras,
although the game rules remain the same. Classic Fantasy is
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therefore fully compatible with both RQ6 and Mythras. For
Eric Lofgren, Aaron Palsmeier and Chris Yarborough appear courtesy simplicity we use Mythras throughout this book, but if you
of Outland Creative Entertainment own RQ6 and are using Classic Fantasy with that edition of
the core rules, you have everything you need to gain the most
Special Thanks from this supplement.
Anthony Lewis for providing editorial feedback for almost
every incarnation of these rules. He had to start over almost
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as many times as I did. Thanks for sticking with me.

Christopher J E Brann for running one of the most thor-
ough playtests I have ever had the fortune of benefiting Strike Rank & Initiative
from. Mythras has renamed Strike Rank, a RuneQuest term, to
Initiative. It still works in precisely the same way; it is sim-
Dedication ply the name that has changed to better reflect the mechanic.
I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Carmen Leary, Initiative is used throughout this book in place of Strike Rank.
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whose weekly mantra of… ‘is it done yet?’ kept me going for
the last 8 years. Thanks, dear.

I would also like to dedicate this book to my best friend Sam

Bernier, who is responsible for getting me involved in role
playing games almost 40 years ago. All his talk of killing orcs
and rescuing princesses finally prompted me to ask, ‘What
the hell are you talking about?’ and changed what I do with
my free-time forever.

2
 Contents

Contents
Introduction 4

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1: Characters 6

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2: Race & Culture 16
3: Classes 32
4: Skills 69
5: Equipment
6: Game System
e 74
84
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7: Combat 99
8: Magic 114
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9: Arcane Spells 132

10: Divine Spells 163
11. Monsters! 187
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12: Treasure! 263

13: Cosmology 306
Appendix 319

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 Classic Fantasy

Introduction

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lassic Fantasy is a return to the golden age of roleplaying,
a period between the late 1970s through the 1980s. During
this time, the concept of roleplaying was relatively new and
it had an almost magical feel. There were only a handful of popu-
lar fantasy games on the market during this time, with Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons and RuneQuest being two of the biggest.
Classic Fantasy takes us back to a time when we would gather with
our friends and spend countless hours bashing down doors, slaying
hordes of orcs and goblins, and throwing another +1 Ring of Pro-
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to acknowledge The Design Mechanism and its fantastic game sys-
tem, particularly authors Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash, with-
out whose excellent work, this game would not be possible.
Without the aforementioned games and their creators, Classic Fan-
tasywould be but a shadow of the game I hope it will become.
Rip open the Cheetos and pass out the Mountain Dew. It’s
time to play some Classic Fantasy!
Rodney Leary, April 2016

days of Classic Fantasy. e

tection into our Bag of Holding. Those were the “classic” adven-
tures that my friends and I still talk about to this day. Those were the

This is not the first iteration of Classic Fantasy, which had its
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start as a Monograph for Chaosium’s versatile Basic Roleplaying
system. However, when playing Classic Fantasy using that system,
I found myself always choosing the options that best mimicked my
then favourite version of RuneQuest, third edition by Chaosium
and Avalon Hill published in 1984. Now with the release of Myth-
ras, something that did not exist when I wrote the original Classic
Fantasy, I have a set of rules that captures all the things that made
Which Rules?
This is not a standalone game. Games Masters and players will need
access to either the Mythras or RQ6 rules to play Classic Fantasy
(although other d100 rule systems may suffice). Aside from rules,
you need only this book, your imagination (and the imaginations of
some friends), some dice, and a desire to adventure in the exciting
high fantasy worlds of Classic Fantasy.

Using Classic Fantasy

RuneQuest great, while modernising and streamlining them.
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Back in the early 1980s, I spent many a night converting my “lev-

el-based” fantasy campaigns over to RuneQuest 3rd Edition. Now,
almost 40 years later, I have the opportunity and privilege to do
it again, but this time in a professional capacity and for what has
become my all-time favourite set of roleplaying rules. With this
in mind, my aim was to capture the feel of two completely differ-
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Not everything in Mythras is necessary nor appropriate for a Clas-
sic Fantasy campaign, and quite simply much of the core system
won’t be used; specifically the other magic. This includes Chapters
8-14.
To avoid incorporating elements of Mythras that are unnecessary

ent games and merge them into a workable whole. I do not claim
Classic Fantasy to be original; Classic Fantasy echoes many great
games and I walk humbly in the footsteps of their designers who are
the inspiration for all that follows. This is an homage to the classic
dungeon delve and earliest fantasy roleplaying games. The following
games were inspirational: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and
2nd Edition, The Fantasy Trip, and of course, the various editions
of RuneQuest. The following authors helped to define the way I
have spent my weekends for almost 40 years: Bob Bledsaw, Warren
James, Steve Jackson, Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Ray Turney,
and of course Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Finally, I would like
for Classic Fantasy, it is preferable to reference this book first, and
refer to Mythras when needed or directed. For this reason, many
elements of the core rules are duplicated here, sometimes with little
modification, to facilitate play.
Experienced Games Masters should feel free to add additional core
elements as they become more comfortable with Classic Fantasy
on a case-by-case basis.

4
 Introduction

Organisation
a Classic Fantasy campaign; create spell scrolls; and gain, manage,
and restore Magic Points.

Classic Fantasy is divided into 13 chapters and a set of appendices.

Chapter 9: Arcane Spells
Full descriptions of a myriad of Arcane spells.
Chapter 1: Character Creation

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Everything you need to create a player character, referring to chap-
ters 2 and 3 as needed for additional rules on races and classes. Chapter 10: Divine Spells
Full descriptions of a myriad of Divine spells.

Chapter 2: Race and Culture

Chapter 11: Monsters!

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In Classic Fantasy, players have the option of creating characters
of several different races, and where humans are concerned, cul- Over 80 monsters and creatures native to the World of Greymoor
tures. This chapter details them in full. are the focus of this chapter.

Chapter 3: Character Classes Chapter 12: Treasure!

and Development You killed them, here’s their stuff.
Here are introduced the various classes of Classic Fantasy. Classes
differ from Careers as found in the game, in that they come with Chapter 13: Cosmology
several special abilities. Many of these abilities are acquired during

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character creation; others become available in play as characters
increase their rank. The available classes are Bard, Berserker, Cav-
alier, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Magic-User, Monk, Paladin, Ranger,
Thief, and Thief-Acrobat.
Cosmology details the universe and the deities and demigods of the
World of Greymoor.

Appendix
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This section contains Wandering Monster tables, Master Spell List,

Chapter 4: Skills a guide to weights and measures, and a character sheet.

This chapter details several new skills unique to Classic Fantasy or

pre-existing skills that are needed but are not included in the Myth-
ras rules.

Chapter 5: Economics and Equipment Imperial Weights & Measures

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For convenience, this chapter summarises much of the information In a departure from other Design Mechanism supplements,
detailed in the Mythras rules. Classic Fantasy attempts to facilitate the use of both impe-
rial and metric units. Where possible, both are provided; how-

Chapter 6: Game Mechanics

ever, exact conversions are ignored in favour of gameplay. For
example, 10 metres is converted to 30 feet, not 32.8 feet. This
The introduction of several new rules unique to Classic Fantasy as is an exception to the normal rounding methods previously set
per chapter 4.
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down in Mythras. Weights can be exact conversions, such as

Chapter 7: Combat
Chapter 7 looks at combat from a slightly different angle than either
the Mythras rules, that of the miniatures gamer. It includes a basic
miniatures combat system for playing out your engagements on the
table top.
the weight of a character, or approximate conversions, such as
the weight of a rock, as determined when needed.
Most miniatures combat assumes the use of 1.5 metre (5 foot)
squares. Simply divide all movement rates, weapon ranges,
etc., by 1.5 to determine the actual number of squares.

Chapter 8: Magic
This is the introductory chapter for Classic Fantasy’s magic sys-
tem. It explores the fundamentals of magic in its various forms. The
chapter offers suggestions and advice on how to structure magic in

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 Classic Fantasy
1: Characters
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lassic Fantasy characters follow a very similar creation
process to core Mythras characters. When creating a
character, just follow the steps laid out in the Character
Creation Summary detailed below, referring to other chapters as
well as Mythras, as needed. A Classic Fantasy character sheet is
included in the appendix of this book and can also be downloaded
from The Design Mechanism website.
Character
Creation Summary
1: Character Concept
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Decide generally on the kind of character to play. Keep it simple for
now. More will come.
2: Characteristics
Choose a method to determine characteristics and calculate your
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character’s STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT, POW, and CHA based on
the desired race.
3: Calculate Attributes
Use the characteristics to determine Action Points, Damage Mod-
ifier, Experience Modifier, Healing Rate, Hit Points, Luck Points,
Movement, and Initiative, as described on pages 8 to 11.
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4: Standard Skills
Calculate the Standard Skills by adding together the appropriate
characteristics.
5: Race and Culture
If human, decide on a cultural background: Barbarian, Civilised,
Nomadic, or Primitive. If demi-human, choose a race: dwarf, elf,
gnome, half-elf, half-orc, or halfling. Allocate 100 points amongst
the listed Standard Skills and selected Professional Skills for the cho-
sen culture. Skills must have a minimum of 5% and cannot receive
6
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more than 15%. Customs, Language (Common tongue) (a new skill
representing a common language spoken by humans and others),
and Native Tongue gain +40% each.
Decide on the race/cultural Passions: Typically one Morality (or
Alignment) Passion and one of Loyalty, Love, or Hate.
6: Background
Create a detailed backstory, if desired; this step as detailed in Myth-
7: Class
Choose a character class from those available to your character’s
culture or race.
Distribute 100 points amongst the class’s listed Standard Skills and
whatever Professional Skills were chosen. Not all of the available
skills need to be improved, but no individual skill can receive more
than 15%.
Identify if the class uses magic and consult the Magic chapter as well
as the appropriate spell chapter, Arcane or Divine, for the relevant
information.
8: Bonus Skill Points
The number of Skills Points depends on previous experience level,
but default characters have 100 points, with a limit of assigning no
more than 10 points per skill. Choose one additional Professional
Skill as a hobby speciality.
9: Money and Equipment
Determine starting money and equipment based on class.
Buy any additional equipment needed using starting money, refer-
ring to the Equipment chapter starting on page 74.
10: Finally...
Don’t forget to give your character a name. Also, look for ways to
establish connections with other characters.
 1: Characters

Step 1: Character Valamir’s Tale

Concept
A good place to start is to have some idea of what sort of character
you want to play, a hardened fighter, for example, or a cunning thief.
Throughout Classic Fantasy, we will be following the adven-
tures of the human paladin Valamir Drake as an example
character along with his closest friends and companions. His
exploits will demonstrate how the Classic Fantasy rules work.
His adventures begin here, at character creation. Mark, the

Your character concept does not need to be elaborate at this stage;
it is simply an idea that will help guide certain choices such as race
(human or demi-human) and class (your profession). A few character
ideas are listed to provoke your imagination:
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player, is creating his first character and decides on the name
Valamir Drake. Mark’s Games Master, Gary, has informed
each player that his Classic Fantasy campaign will be set in
the World of Greymoor, a traditional high fantasy medieval
setting very reminiscent of medieval Europe, though overflow-

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҉҉ Fierce barbarian berserker ing with ruins, monsters, dungeons, and dragons. This gives
҉҉ Young, naïve magic-user Mark and his fellow players, Carmen, Sam, Laurie, Stacy, and
Greg, a better picture of the world.
҉҉ Bad-tempered half-orc fighter

҉҉ Chivalrous and honourable paladin

҉҉ Overconfident halfling thief

Step 2:
Characteristics
҉҉ Pious dwarf cleric

e and Attributes
҉҉ Stealthy elf ranger

Human vs. Non-Human Races
Humans are the easiest characters to play and are the most common
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choice in Classic Fantasy campaigns, but one need not be confined
to playing just humans. Chapter 2: Race and Culture includes
information on playing either humans or one of the other common
demi-human races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and
halflings). As the detailed write-ups in Chapter 2 show, it is possible
to play just about any sapient race in Classic Fantasy, because all
creatures, regardless of type, are defined in a consistent and compat-
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These follow the same steps described in Chapter 1: Characteris-
tics and Attributes of Mythras.
Calculating Characteristics
The following two methods for calculating characteristics are sug-
gested in place of those mentioned in Mythras rules. These meth-
ods have been chosen to aid the player in creating a more hero-
ic-level adventurer. Refer to the Racial Characteristics Table for the
average characteristics of each race.

ible way. As such, Chapter 11: Monsters! offers a number of other

possibilities for challenging character concepts. However, if this is
your first Classic Fantasy character, stick with the rules for human
and demi-human characters as given in Chapter 2 before branching
out into something more exotic.
For ease of reference, the Racial Characteristics are summarised in
the Racial Characteristics Table below.
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Dice Roll
Roll one extra die as indicated for STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT,
POW, and CHA as detailed in the Racial Characteristics Table. The
player may exchange values among characteristics with the same
dice range. For example, when rolling up a human, the player could
swap values amongst STR, CON, DEX, POW, and CHA, as they

share a 3d6 range, or between SIZ and INT, which share the 2d6+6

Racial Characteristics Table

Species STR CON SIZ DEX INT POW CHA
Dwarf 2d6+9 (16) 2d6+9 (16) 1d3+9 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)
Elf 2d6+3 (10) 3d6 (11) 1d6+6 (10) 2d6+9 (16) 2d6+7 (14) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)

Gnome 2d6+1 (8) 2d6+6 (13) 1d3+6 (8) 3d6+2 (13) 2d6+8 (15) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)
Half-Elf 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5 (12) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)
Half-Orc 2d6+7 (14) 2d6+6 (13) 2d6+7 (14) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5 (12) 3d6 (11) 2d6+1 (8)

Halfling 2d6 (7) 2d6+7 (14) 1d3+6 (8) 3d6+3 (14) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5 (12)

Human 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)

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 Classic Fantasy

range — but they must always be from the same dice range group;
you cannot switch rolls from one group to the other. The number in
parentheses after each dice score is the racial average and is used as
a gauge to rate your character’s results.
Valamir’s Tale
Mark prepares to create Valamir Drake, an honourable
human paladin. The Games Master has decided that charac-
ters in his campaign will use the points-build method. Mark

Points Build
must therefore note the averages for the seven characteristics
on a sheet of scrap paper and spend an additional 10 points to

Instead of rolling dice to determine characteristics, players can build
their character from a pre-set pool of points. Certain rules apply to
the points build option:
҉҉ Begin with the racial average for each of the seven charac-
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raise them, at the same time meeting the prerequisite charac-
teristics for a paladin.
As a human, Valamir starts with the following average char-
acteristics: STR 11, CON 11, SIZ 13, DEX 11, and INT 13,

teristics as noted in parentheses after each characteristic’s die
range. This information is noted on the Racial Characteris-
tics Table on the previous page.
҉҉ Spend 10 points to increase characteristics.
҉҉ You may also lower a characteristic to gain extra points. For
example, reduce STR 11 to 9 to gain 2 points you can then
apply to other characteristics.
҉҉ Characteristics cannot be lower than the minimum possible
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POW 11, CHA 11.
He checks the prerequisites for a paladin and records the
following: STR 11, CON 12, INT 13, POW 12, and CHA
14. He can safely ignore STR and INT, as his racial averages
already equal the minimums. So he need only concentrate on
the required CON 12, POW 12, and CHA 14 to meet the
prerequisite requirements.
To start, Mark adds 1 point each to CON and POW, and 3

determined by its potential dice roll.

Step 3: Calculate
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or greater than maximum possible for that characteristic, as
points to CHA to get the prerequisites out of the way. This
leaves him with 5 points to spend.
He adds 2 points to STR, 1 to CON, 1 to SIZ, and 1 to DEX,
as they are all very important to any combatant.
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Attributes
Valamir’s final characteristic scores are STR 13, CON 13, SIZ
14, DEX 12, INT 13, POW 12, and CHA 14.
Valamir possesses a slightly above average strength, and is both
Each character also has a set of attributes. These are particular
reasonably healthy and energetic. He is a little above average
capabilities derived from the characteristics, or determined by them,
in size, of average intelligence, and strong of spirit. Valamir
which are used to govern certain factors of game play. While most
shows a slightly above average agility and coordination. He
of this information is found in Mythras, some are reprinted here
is also especially personable; he is generally noticed when he
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to highlight the differences between Classic Fantasy and the core

walks into a room.
system. The following attributes contain new or additional infor-
mation; attributes such as Healing Rate, Hit Points, and Initiative
remain as per Mythras.
Experience Modifier
Age Humans gain 1 additional Experience Roll over and above any
acquired from CHA. Most campaigns are human centric, making it
Determine your character’s starting age according to race as follows:
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easier to find other humans to train with or be trained by.

Age Table
Race Age Height and Weight
Dwarf 40+5d6 The table on page 9 has been reproduced from Mythras to facil-
Elf 100+5d6 itate imperial weights and measures for those that prefer that sys-
tem. Demi-human characters typically have heights that differ from
Gnome 60+3d12
the basic human results outlined in Mythras. As such, apply the
Half-Elf 15+1d6
size modifications for demi-human characters found on the table
Half-Orc 14+1d4
opposite.
Halfling 20+3d4

Human 15+1d4