Older runequest supplements and this version

[Lagavulin]

I have number of adventures/modules from the older version of the game: River of Cradles, Sun County, Strangers in Prax another couple cannot remember the name of, which I would like to reuse as I enjoyed GMing them years ago. However I am unsure how to best use them.

I could buy the new edition of Runequest and try to adapt a campaign out of them when we are finshed with the Conan campaign that I am just beginning.

Alternatively I could try to adapt them to the Conan setting for which I already have most published material. This would take a bit of work, but some of it would transfer well enough.

So my question is how easy will they be to adapt to the new runequest rules. Given them as my base material, what from the new product range would I need ?

 

[zozotroll]

RQ deluxe. I use the older stuff all the time. You need to add 3 things to each opponent in combat, combat actions, strike rank and resiliance. This takes 10 seconds once you learn whats up with the new system.

Some of the magic may need a bit of work, but I have had no trouble just winging it.

 

[Deleriad]

The minimum you would need is RQ Deluxe as that'll give you all the mechanics you need. You might want Cults of Glorantha Vol 1 for various Divine Magic cults and, possibly, COG 2 for sorcery and spirit cults.

Running older RQ material under MRQ by eye is not that difficult with the proviso that RQ3 weapons do more damage than MRQ weapons, RQ3 armour has 1 or 2 APs more than MRQ armour and Gloranthan NPCs are likely to have significantly more magic than MRQ PCs. So, you're either going to have to use RQ3 stats for weapons and armour for your PCs or ensure that you have MRQ armour and weapon tables to hand for NPCs. On the other hand, MRQ humanoids tend to have roughly 1 HP more per location than RQ3 equivalents so you could just say it all evens out and not worry too much.

You may also want to ensure that the PCs have magic at the same rate as Gloranthan PCs. For example, the baboon forage troupe in the first episode of Troubled Waters have 4 points of Rune Magic each with a cast chance of 73% and would need to have 3 integrated runes each. To run older Gloranthan scenarios I would have a single runecast skill for casting non-cult magic and lore (My Deity) for Divine and Rune Magic learned from a cult.

The biggest challenge would be Strangers in Prax as MRQ sorcery may look roughly the same as RQ3 but it plays a lot differently and you would have to rebuild Arlaten from the ground up.

It all comes down to whether you want to keep it simple or whether you really want to put a lot of work into converting NPCs.