Terahard Studios has announced Runesmith, a dwarven tactical RPG that fuses “rune-forging, tavern brawls, and catastrophic status-effect combinations.” It will be available for PC via Steam. A release date was not announced.
“Runesmith is a dream come true as it’s the company’s first true RPG, something that I’ve wanted to build in all the 13 years of Terahard’s existence,” said Terahard Studios CEO Aris Tsevrenis in a press release. “Fantasy dwarves are loved for a lot of different reasons and their deep lore makes them extra interesting. Being a D&D player for many years, it was something that I always wanted to try. Runesmith is a mixture of our humor, crafting and how both can affect combat in interesting ways.”
Here is an overview of the game, via Terahard Studios:
About
Live your life as a fantasy dwarf! Hammer runes into mythril, drink enough ale to frighten a priest, and solve your problems the traditional dwarven way: excessive violence in both dungeons and taverns.
Gather a band of equally questionable adventurers and hunt down the all-powerful villain threatening the world. Not to save it, mind you, but because the bastard still owes you coin. No one cheats a dwarf and lives long enough to tell the tale.
Key Features
- Rune-Smithing Crafting System – Forge weapons, armor, trinkets, and deeply irresponsible magical combinations through an extensive rune engraving system. Experiment with rune interactions that can chain or accidentally create problems significantly larger than the original problem.
- Live Like a Proper Dwarf – Drink at taverns, brawl with strangers, accept questionable jobs, improve your forge, and wake up every morning fueled by spite, greed and industrial-grade ale.
- A Story Driven by Petty Revenge – The world may be ending, but priorities matter. Chase down an all-powerful summoner not because he threatens existence, but because he skipped out on paying a dwarf.
- You’ve Played Turn-Based RPGs Before and Triggered Status Effects, But Not Like This – Every fight is a sandbox of unstable rune interactions where simple decisions can chain into devastating combos, catastrophic accidents, or spiral into complete tavern-grade stupidity. Add poison to a harmless fog, and suddenly the battlefield violates several dwarven safety regulations. Drink while drunk, and become hammered before ending up unconscious on the floor, questioning your ancestors. The combat system rewards creativity, recklessness, and the occasional alcoholism.
- A Fantasy World Full of Idiots and Monsters – Explore towns, mines, ruins, taverns, dungeons, and ancient horrors while dealing with merchants, priests, nobles, and adventurers who somehow make the monsters seem reasonable.
Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.