Chaosium and Slitherine announced RuneQuest: Warlords, an upcoming turn-based strategy game based on its fantasy tabletop RPG, in two blog posts from December 10. First published in 1978, RuneQuest and its setting of Glorantha are old enough to rival Dungeons and Dragons in prestige. However, this is the first time the TTRPG has been translated into a videogame.
“We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with Volmi – a Virtuos Studio, on an exciting new project: a tactical turn-based game that marks the first official video game adaptation of the iconic RPG, RuneQuest”, says Slitherine on Tuesday. “First created over 40 years ago and cherished by millions worldwide, the glorious fantasy RPG setting of Glorantha provides a perfect backdrop for the turn-based tactical battles in RuneQuest: Warlords.”
Slitherine promises a single-player campaign that spans 18 missions, and you’ll apparently take control of Glorantha’s Talastar tribes. “They will fight for survival against the relentless Chaos hordes, encountering iconic characters from the RuneQuest universe such as Ketill White Eye, Hakon the Swimmer, Wovandor, and Ralzakark”, the publisher adds.
Slitherine also mentions that Warlords features three factions – the Talastar, the Chaos Hordes, and the Lunar Empire – so we’re assuming there will be a chance to take control of each in the game’s Skirmish and multiplayer modes. The Slitherine blog post says that “each offer unique strengths and distinct playstyles, with specialized and highly thematic units”.
RuneQuest: Warlords apparently riffs off the core mechanics of Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector, a Warhammer 40k game published by Slitherine in 2021. The publisher doesn’t explain exactly what it’ll lift from this existing title, but we can make a few educated guesses.
At its core, Warlords is likely to be a crunchy wargame on a grid-based map where you must budget to maintain and upgrade your army as you progress. Maybe we’ll even see the return of Battlesector’s momentum mechanic, which buffs units that stay in motion.
So far, no release date has been confirmed for Warlords. However, it already has a trailer (see above) and a Steam page, which confirms to us that it’s very real and in development.
That’s more than can seemingly be said for the RuneQuest RPG that was announced back in 2019. Chaosium revealed at the time that it had partnered with Black Shamrock to create an RPG adventure based on the tabletop RPG. However, it’s been a long time since we’ve heard any news on that front. The game that was meant to be RuneQuest’s debut digital title has now been beaten to the post by Warlords, it seems.
For more games in this vein, here are the best turn-based games on PC we’d recommend. Or, for some RPG tools, here’s everything you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.
Source: Wargamer
