Is it just me....

[Azgulor]

.... or does the speculation over on RPG.net regarding RuneQuest support for Conan/Hyboria piss you off? :evil:

Let me clarify - everyone's entitled to wish that licensed property X will be supported by their game system of choice. However, having embraced the Conan RPG not only for Hyboria campaigns but as my fantasy RPG rules of choice, it bugs me that support for the line could shrivel up in favor of pushing RQ. I'm not saying that will happen, but when Matt's replying to posts saying they've thought about a RQ treatment of Hyboria it certainly could happen. It's the constant revamping of systems, new editions, and flavors-of-the-month that led me to generic RPG systems years before.

Mongoose is a business and needs new products and lines to make money. I get it. I wish them undreamed-of-RPG-success. I just would rather see Conan OGL reworked to support other licensed properties if it couldn't do so out of the box. And for all the talk of d20 glut, there still seems to be a whole lot of d20 players and GMs out there buying the stuff. Nothing against RQ (which I'll check out for curiosity's sake if nothing else), but I need another RPG rules set like a hole in the head.

Doesn't it also make sense to drive awareness of your existing lines and expand those rather than reinvent the wheel every few years?

Yes, I know there's nothing stopping me from playing Conan from now 'til the day I die. But who doesn't want their favorite game to be actively supported?

Bah, sorry for the bitch-session. (The whole idea still bugs me though.)

Azgulor

 

[Strom]

I hear what you are saying Azgulor - game support is huge for me as well. I can't really complain about the support to date for the Conan RPG but I'm hoping the combination of SST and Runequest doesn't regulate Conan to Lone Wolf or JD status. I love the OGL version and would not want to change systems - why, do that if nothing is broken? Then again if Wizard of the Coast changes the landscape for D20 then I guess it's shi$ or get off the pot for us Conan RPG fans in regards to the Runequest system.

 

[Azgulor]

If Conan were a d20 license game, you'd be right. As I understand the OGL, however, Mongoose could publish material for Conan indefinitely.

Azgulor

 

[Strom]

Let's hope you are right about OGL's future - I don't believe it is as clear as you state. There could be court battles to rival Stygia and Shem! :lol:

 

[Taharqa]

Could someone enlighten me on the details here? I haven't been following that closely, but I gather that Wizards of the Coast is considering releasing a fourth edition which will not be Open Gaming License. Is that the issue?

 

[Azgulor]

No, the issue was about the speculation/requests expressed over at RPG.net that when Mongoose releases RuneQuest that Conan/Hyboria receive a RQ treatment. Since Mongoose has multiple game lines and finite resources, it stands to reason that resources devoted to Conan-RQ material could equate to dimished resources spent on Conan OGL. Since MongooseMatt conceeded that Mongoose had at least entertained the idea, it fueled my concern that Conan could receive diminishing support as a result. To be fair, Matt also said on those boards that Mongoose was carefully scrutinizing whether a RQ treatment of Conan or Hyboria made sense as Mongoose wants to avoid splitting its Conan customer base.

So do I think Conan is dying on the vine? Not at all. Do I appreciate a Mongoose representative being up front about how the company is planning to handle the line. Yes. Does the chance that my favorite RPG line will receive diminishing support in favor of the system-of-the-month (sorry, RQ) piss me off? Hell, yes.

Personally, I'd like to see Conan supported for years and if a new version of Conan is warranted years from now, I'd want it to be Conan OGL 2.0. Hopefully, mine isn't a minority opinion.

As to WotC and 4E, the d20 license can be pulled at any time. There is much speculation that 4E, when it comes, won't carry a d20 license. OGL, on the other hand, can't be pulled. Publishers can continue to publish OGL games regardless of what WotC does. This is a big reason why you're seeing more OGL products (such as Bablyon 5 2nd edition) instead of d20 products (such as Babylon 5 1st edition). You can find a metric ton of discussions pertaining to d20 license vs. OGL over at ENWorld. (But your time is probably better spent talking Conan over here! )

Hopefully, it's much ado about nothing and just a rant on my part. What can I say, I've got Crimson Mist as a class ability!

Azgulor

 

[Rikki-Tikki-Tavi]

.... or does the speculation over on RPG.net regarding RuneQuest support for Conan/Hyboria piss you off? :evil:

If that happened I would quit Mongoose for good. Nuff said.

 

[Deathdealer]

Personally, I'd be happy if we got a pdf conversion guide and two sourcebooks. One covering character creation for a Hyborian Age setting and the second covering Hyborian Age magic. That's all I really want as far as Hyborian Runequest goes. If Mongoose doesn't make it I'll end up working it out for myself because ogl just doesn't do it for me.

The whole damned world doesn't need to be d20/ogl just because you like it. The fact is, I hate d20/ogl. Try as I might I just could not warm up to it. And you know what? I'm not the only one. What would be wrong with an appendix in back of your precious ogl books with Runequest stats?

 

[Vincent791]

This is new for me. Didn't knew anything about it.

 

[Mark Dunder]

The whole damned world doesn't need to be d20/ogl just because you like it. The fact is, I hate d20/ogl. Try as I might I just could not warm up to it. And you know what? I'm not the only one. What would be wrong with an appendix in back of your precious ogl books with Runequest stats?

I feel the same way as you. Mostly I only get the background books. I fortunately have the original Runequest, so I'm good to go.

 

[Azgulor]

Personally, I'd be happy if we got a pdf conversion guide and two sourcebooks. One covering character creation for a Hyborian Age setting and the second covering Hyborian Age magic. That's all I really want as far as Hyborian Runequest goes. If Mongoose doesn't make it I'll end up working it out for myself because ogl just doesn't do it for me.

The whole damned world doesn't need to be d20/ogl just because you like it. The fact is, I hate d20/ogl. Try as I might I just could not warm up to it. And you know what? I'm not the only one. What would be wrong with an appendix in back of your precious ogl books with Runequest stats?

Relax, pal. I'm not a d20 or D&D fanboy. It took Conan to get me to play a d20 game. My "precious OGL" consists solely of Conan, Spycraft, and Grim Tales. I also play GURPS, Rolemaster, and Traveller from time to time. I buy little, if anything that WotC produces. I am now a Conan OGL fanboy that has and continues to invest in the line. A RQ appendix would be fine. I don't recall stating a one-game mentality anywhere in my posts. What I did express was a desire to not see Conan OGL products & support sacrificed in favor of RQ.

Azgulor

 

[Mark Dunder]

It took Conan to get me to play a d20 game.

I bought the PE. After going over the game, I find it's nothing to get excited about. Just another modified d20 game, with some Conan references to get your blood up. The game seems mostly designed for miniature play. Can't abide by it.

I just want to check out Hyborian info. But I'm finding a lot of info is opinion based on a few sentences written by REH. Some of the info seems to be historically based. But it gives me something to start with. I find the info in my TSR Conan RPG sometimes is better, for me.

I don't know why they would slight Conan in favor of RQ, Must be a fad mentality. I suppose they think Conan is no longer the fad, and they think that RQ can be the next, I quess.

 

[Belkregos]

What’s so cool about Rune Quest anyway?
I’m not familiar with the system so if anyone could shed some light on the differences advantages and such would be appreciated

The one thing that would make me throw mongoose in the recycle bin is if they try to make us purchase a whole set of new books, I personally have purchased any and all the books of the ConanRPG series, some I was not too convinced about but, hey, I like to support my favorite game,
Personally I think if they switch systems entirely they would loose customer base, its happened with other systems, but I would think the marketing guys should know better about this (maybe :roll: )

 

[Aelric]

what is rune quest?

 

[Deathdealer]

I don't recall stating a one-game mentality anywhere in my posts. What I did express was a desire to not see Conan OGL products & support sacrificed in favor of RQ.

No? How about this

does the speculation over on RPG.net regarding RuneQuest support for Conan/Hyboria piss you off?

"Runequest support for Hyboria" would be exactly the kind of things I was talking about, and which you say you have no problem with.

 

[Mark Dunder]

Runequest is a different gaming system.

Here's the Wiki link that will tell you all about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runequest

 

[Taharqa]

Runequest was a BRP game right? Are they bringing it back as BRP or are they inventing a new system?

Frankly, it would seem pointless to redo Conan as BRP because the basic underlying mechanic between BRP and D20 is extremely similar. (or maybe Mongoose wants to pull on all of those Call of Cthulhu players who won't play another system :wink: )

 

[Azgulor]

I don't recall stating a one-game mentality anywhere in my posts. What I did express was a desire to not see Conan OGL products & support sacrificed in favor of RQ.

No? How about this

does the speculation over on RPG.net regarding RuneQuest support for Conan/Hyboria piss you off?

"Runequest support for Hyboria" would be exactly the kind of things I was talking about, and which you say you have no problem with.

:shock: You're joking, right? Or did you not bother to read the following paragraph that started with "Let me clarify" where I clearly explained the source of my frustration? I also pointed out that it's speculation in the first sentence and also pointed out that that a Mongoose representative discussed how the issue would receive careful scrutiny so that the possibility of pissing off the Conan OGL fan base would be diminished. I then closed the post categorizing it as a "rant" - identifying it as the emotional reaction that it was. I suppose I could have parsed their words as you've done with mine but the intent of my post wasn't "crap on Mongoose".

Last clarification - the speculation was regarding full-blown RQ supplements covering Conan/Hyboria not RQ conversion-notes in an appendix of a Conan OGL book. I have no problem with the latter.

I also find it mildly amusing that you are annoyed that I had the audacity to post a pro-Conan OGL message on the Conan OGL message board. You don't like d20/OGL games? More power to you, it's your opinion. But I'm not entitled to my opinion b/c I do like Conan OGL and had the nerve to say so on the message board dedicated to the game? :roll:

What the hell was I thinking?


(Just so there's no further confusion, that last sentence was laced with sarcasm. )

Azgulor

 

[Turloigh]

Azgulor:
I'm not familiar with the details (this being the first I hear about it), but if it's really just "speculation", as you say, then I guess you might be a little bit overreacting. RuneQuest hasn't even come out yet, and there's no telling what support it will get aside from what's already been announced... and you can't even be sure with that.

Even if it happens, it doesn't say anything about Mongoose lessening their support for OGL Conan. A lot of things can happen before this becomes a problem.

That being said, I've been playing RuneQuest in the Conan setting for many years, and would actually look forward to the kind of support you speak of. For the record, my gaming group tried OGL Conan, but we decided we didn't like it, and switched back to RQ before long. (I keep buying the Conan RPG books for background info, however.)

Could you point me in the direction where that discussion (or speculation or whatever) is taking place on RPG.net? I'm really interested, but couldn't find it.

 

[Azgulor]

Here's the more recent one that prompted my post/rant.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=252452

There was an earlier one that discussed Mongoose's plan to carefully consider such a move as RQ-Hyboria so as to avoid splitting their Conan fan-base.

And while my self-proclaimed rant may be overreacting, it's founded in simple economics. When two product lines overlap/compete for the same consumer, one invariably wins at the expense of the other. Now, if you're talking two different companies, the smaller market share holder may be satisfied with their results. If it's the same company, the loser/less successful product usually gets axed.

Since I think Conan OGL is a great game and can hold it's own, I'll make the argument from a different perspective. Let's say Mongoose does RQ-Hyboria/Conan. If it fails (which I wouldn't consider likely since the world ain't d20/OGL), then resources were spent producing a product that could have been used to support the Conan OGL line which is already a success. If it's successful, the best that can be hoped for is that both lines would receive equal treatment - which is highly unlikely.

Aside from the RQ-conversion in an appendix approach, the only way I can see Conan OGL and a RQ treatment of Conan not be in competition with one another would be if two completely different development teams supported the lines. A scenario that is also economically unfeasable. The Conan OGL line developers and authors know the source material very well. Mongoose would be foolish to not leverage that knowledge. I don't think they're foolish.

As I said, the whole thing was an emotional, knee-jerk response. However, it's founded on past experience with other RPGs and gaming companies. So long as Conan OGL is actively supported for years to come with the quality that has permeated the line thus far, I really don't care about what they do with RQ. I'll be just fine if my fears are unfounded.

Azgulor