Kudos To Mongoose...

iamtim

Mongoose
I ran my first MRQ session last night. Not that I had doubts, being one of the most "pro MRQ" guys around, but it went really well.

We played until 1:00 A.M. and I wake up at 4:30 A.M., so you won't see an actual play thread today unless I pound so much soda and other caffienated beverages that I have to have a blood transfusion to get some blood in my caffiene system. But here's a couple of notes:

Character Creation: As often mentioned elsewhere, character creation was fairly simple and quick. I lead 4 people through complete character creation (one of whom was an Initiate and uses Divine Magic) in about an hour or so. It was a "Ok, what's your DEX? You get 3 Combat Actions. Your DEX? You get 2 Combat Actions." thing, where we went around the table in turn.

Magic: We used neither Rune Magic (inappropriate for the world) nor Sorcery (inappropriate for the culture), but found Divine Magic to be a perfect fit. I'll leave it at that but state that I can't wait for a formal release of the Companion or Companion SRD for the Divine Magic section alone.

Combat: Combat went pretty much how I remember RQ combat. I was surprised; we didn't have Flurry or Precise Shot taken advantage of as much as I thought, but we did have a Knockback which was highly impressive. Quite a few Charges, too. I even kinda like the Parry/Dodge tables the way they are, and I like that some damage seeps through on all but the most successful Parries. I do not, however, like the "defense is declared after a successful hit"; I'm going to have defense declared at the point of attack declaration. That actually makes the Parry/Dodge tables more sensical, too.

All in all, it was a great session. Even the players liked it, although our flow was slower than normal as we cross-referenced, double-checked, and otherwise got ourselves familiar with the rules.

I'm more than pleased. I can't see any point where any d20 variation will again grace my gaming table -- even the leaner and smoother True20 and C&C implementations.
 
iamtim said:
Magic: We used neither Rune Magic (inappropriate for the world) nor Sorcery (inappropriate for the culture), but found Divine Magic to be a perfect fit. I'll leave it at that but state that I can't wait for a formal release of the Companion or Companion SRD for the Divine Magic section alone.

Sounds great! I just can't wait until I got Companion and we can start actual campaign... We have only played some test fights and things.

I do not, however, like the "defense is declared after a successful hit"; I'm going to have defense declared at the point of attack declaration. That actually makes the Parry/Dodge tables more sensical, too.

That would be one thing I start using in our games too. It sounds reasonable.
 
Tim,


How about some details? What sort of adventure/setting did you run? What was the oppostion in the fights?
 
Yes! Yes! More details! I am waiting for the new Glorantha book before I kick off anything so I'm dying to here how others' sessions are going.
 
iamtim said:
Not to be a tease, but more detail after... :)

"After". After what? After money? after dinner? after go to the bathroom? after a trunestone? After Math? (wrong rpg!)

tease. :wink:
 
I recently ran my first two RQ games and I'm happy to say that I had a similarly pleasant experience as well. I had three players, two who are novices and have only played D&D 3.5 and a little Star Wars d20, and one an old pro who goes back 'to the good old days'. The novices are really into it, enjoying the freedom of character definition and the flow of a rather realistic yet simple combat system. The old pro was also totally into it, but he had cut his teeth on CoC and Stormbringer (following the ubiquitous AD&D 2nd Edition, of course). More importantly, nobody died or lost a limb! And I didn't go easy on them, either!

The bottom line is yes, there are a few wrinkles here and there, but nothing that kills the game or even comes close to that. It's a simple, stream-lined system that encourages house rules and GM interpretation. It leaves some room for filling in your own blanks which I actually enjoy. I'll take that kind of freedom over an over-written system that breeds rules lawyers any day of the week.
 
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