Well after publishing Runequest III, Avalon Hill decided to revive the name Runequest. Slated for a 1998 release, RuneQuest: Slayers, did not resemble the original Runequest in regards to rules or its original setting of Glorantha. Avalon Hill hired new designers on the project to start over with a fresh approach. This included shelving the original rules system (which Chaosium co-owned) and focusing on a low-magic setting inspired by pulp, sword and sorcery fiction.
Despite the game being finished and "at the printers", Hasbro, who had recently bought Avalon Hill, decided to shelve the game in mid-1998. RuneQuest: Slayers was destined to never see the light of day.
The rights to RuneQuest: Slayers, however, reverted back to the original creators, J.C. Connors and Christopher Lawrence. It was renamed Runeslayers and put into PDF form on the web for free.