Chaosium's RuneQuest roleplaying game has been inducted into the ENNIE Awards Hall of Fame

RuneQuest, Chaosium's renowned fantasy roleplaying game set in the mythic world of Glorantha, has been inducted into the ENNIE Awards Hall of Fame. The announcement and presentation was made as part of the 2026 ENNIE Awards Ceremony at Gen Con yesterday.

On receiving the award on Chaosium's behalf, Jason Durall, co-author and former line editor of the current edition - RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha - said these words:

It is an age of bronze and magic, of swords, sandals, and sorcery. The gods made the very world, a square lozenge of earth floating upon an endless sea. In place of the laws of physics, mystic runes are the fundamental building blocks of everything that matters.

Everyone belongs to the cult of one or more gods. These cults shape culture, history, and politics, are an extended family, and naturally, provide plenty of reasons to go on adventures.

It is a world of whimsy and horror alike: elves that grow like plants, walking octopus monsters, factory-made dwarfs, half-human scorpion people, animal nomads, and even gloriously silly duck folk.

Rather than being a mishmash of Tolkien’s Middle-earth and medieval Europe, this was a mishmash of Greek mythology, the Upanishads, Fritz Leiber, Robert E Howard, and even Carl Barks.

This was Glorantha, the original and defining setting of RuneQuest.

In the earliest days of this industry, Greg Stafford’s took Glorantha, first seen in a board game called White Bear and Red Moon, and combined it with Steve Perrin’s intuitive, percentile-based system – later defined as Basic Roleplaying.

Together, they created something new, almost as a direct response to Dungeons & Dragons.

For many years, games were either influenced by D&D or by RuneQuest, and many designers here owe some degree of inspiration to RQ. Basic Roleplaying went on to provide the rules basis for Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, and many other fine games.

This is probably one of many references to The Odyssey you’ll hear tonight, but in RQ’s case it is perhaps the most deserved.

Over the course of its lifespan, RQ set sail from its home of Chaosium and roamed through many chaotic years and different editions before finally returning home to a very different Chaosium, one owned and run by some of its most faithful and dedicated fans, who continue to guide and support it today.

The list of contributors to RQ is a Who’s Who of game designers – Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, Louise Perrene, Sandy Petersen, Ken Rolston, Janelle Jacquays, Robin Laws, Jonathan Tweet, Rob Heinsoo, Chris Klug, Jeff Richard, Neil Robinson, Michael O'Brien, Rick Meints, myself, and many, many others, still writing and designing.

So, on behalf of the Chaosium family and our legions of faithful fans, we humbly accept this recognition.

It is only right to close with Greg Stafford’s words:

We are all us.

Thank you.

The ENNIE Awards (the “ENNIES”) are an annual fan-based celebration of excellence in tabletop roleplaying gaming with an awards ceremony taking place each year at Gen Con. The inaugural ENNIES Hall of Fame inductee was Dungeons & Dragons. This was followed by Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, named as the second Hall of Fame inductee.