Rune Magus is a text-based multiplayer adventure game. There are no graphics. You type commands; the world responds in words.
The world is generated as players explore it. The further you walk from where you started, the stranger and more dangerous it becomes. Nobody has mapped it. Nobody knows what is out there.
Other players are in the same world at the same time. You will meet them.
Long before the world was mapped, twenty-four runes of power were scattered across it — the Futhorc, the old Anglo-Saxon alphabet, each character carrying a force older than language. Together they grant their bearer the title of Magus and a power over the world that no single person has ever held.
Some runes are common, waiting in safe places near the beginning. Others are rare, hidden in locations so dangerous that most players never reach them. The legendary rune ᛜ Ing has never been found.
A rune claimed by one player cannot be claimed by another in the same location — but new spawns appear as the world grows. Finding one is permanent. Losing one to another player in combat is possible, however. What you carry, you defend.
The setting is drawn from Old English myth — Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the world of wærlogan and wyrd. Dark fens, collapsed halls, salt marshes, burnt settlements. The further from the origin you travel, the worse it gets.
Danger is measured on a scale of one to ten. Starting areas sit at one or two. The edges of the known world reach ten. Nothing has been to ten and returned to describe it.
Events leave marks. If a monster was slain in a location, future visitors may find the bones. If a player left a message, it persists. The world accumulates history.
When another player is in the same location, you see them. You can speak to them with say. You can give them health with the Gyfu rune. You can challenge them to combat. You can ignore them entirely.
The game does not enforce alliances or enmity. Both are possible. Neither is required.
Everything is done by typing commands. There is no mouse interface in the game itself.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
go north / n / s / e / w | Move in a direction |
look / l | Describe your surroundings |
examine [thing] / x | Look closely at something — may reveal a hidden rune |
attack [target] / a | Attack a monster or player |
take [rune] | Claim a rune you can sense |
use [rune name] | Invoke a rune — e.g. use thorn, use wynn |
enter | Enter a settlement, inn, or building you are standing outside |
leave | Step back out to the overworld |
answer [solution] | Attempt to solve a puzzle in your location |
read [title] | Read a lore fragment you have found |
lore | List all lore fragments in your collection |
say [message] | Speak to everyone in your location |
inventory / i | List your runes |
stats / me | Your current health, mana, and level |
players / who | See who else is online |
help | Full command list in-game |
The world of Rune Magus rewards curiosity. Some of what it hides, it will not show without effort.
examine oak is what reveals them. The Feoh rune will reveal all hidden runes in your current location at once.look. Solve it with answer [your solution]. Correct answers grant experience, a rune, or open a hidden passage. Each puzzle can only be solved once, though others may follow.look. Use read [title] to read it — it will be added to your collection. Type lore at any time to review what you have found.enter to step inside. Inns take you straight into the interior — common room, sleeping quarters, cellar. Towns take you into the town itself — streets, a square, building fronts. Once inside a town, you can enter the inn, forge, temple, or other buildings to explore their interiors. Type leave to step back out one level at a time: building → town → world.You have two stats: Strength and Magical Power. Both start at five.
Strength determines how hard you hit in physical combat and how much health you carry. Magical Power determines the force of rune abilities and how much mana you have.
Mana is the energy that powers rune abilities. Every time you invoke a rune, it costs mana. When it runs out, runes go dark until you rest. Mana does not recover on its own — you must find a safe location and use the rest command to restore it fully. This is deliberate: runes are powerful, and using them should cost something.
As you defeat monsters and gain experience, you level up. Each level increases your maximum health and mana. As you grow stronger, runes that once emptied your reserves become easier to sustain.
If you die, you respawn at the last safe location you rested in — diminished, but not destroyed. The world does not reset. Your runes remain yours.
Each rune does something different when invoked. Here is what is known: