RuneQuest over the years

[Brisco]

Hi all,

I last played RuneQuest in 1993 when it was published by Avalon Hill. Has the game changed much since then?

Mongoose worked wonders with Conan, so I wondering if RuneQuest had been refined or completely rewritten.

Thanks in advance,
Brisco.

 

[calle]

Hi all,

I last played RuneQuest in 1993 when it was published by Avalon Hill. Has the game changed much since then?

Mongoose worked wonders with Conan, so I wondering if RuneQuest had been refined or completely rewritten.

Thanks in advance,
Brisco.

Nowdays its like Runequest 2, the version before the Avalon hill version. The basic mechanichs is streamlined and made to keep the old feel but still being simple.

The background material is wonderful. It concentrates on the second age of the history of Glorantha when 2 big empires struggled for power. In between them you have the theists and other cultures/races, wich make a wonderful coctail of roleplaying opportunities.

If you decide to start, start with the rules and the "Glorantha - second age" book. Excellent book.

My english is bad but i hope you get the message...

/Calle

 

[weasel_fierce]

Characters are a lot more survivable.
There's some mechanics that are a bit quirky or lacking testing

But generally the game is streamlined very nicely. Things flow well, the magic systems has been overhauled to make them much more usable. MANY many options to customize the game. Fantastic Glorantha books. Character creation is a breeze.

 

[Brisco]

Thanks guys, you've sold me.

Brisco.

 

[raymond_turney]

Hi,

As one of the co-desigers of RQ I&II,let me note that the Mongoose version is clearly superior to RQ III. If you liked RQ III and want to get back into RQ, you will be pleasantly surprised by the Mongoose version. Though a little expensive on a per page basis, there is plenty of support material of good quality available, and the current Mongoose version is a very workable RQ-Lite system. By the way, I had nothing to do with creating the current Mongoose version.

The enthusiasm for Mongoose RQ among players of older versions is not universal. Some prefer Chaosium's BRP:

http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=246

and I have my own system, which is available on BRP Central at:

http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=12

A promo post describing what Fire and Sword can be found on the blog for maintaining the rules at:

http://fireandsword-therules.blogspot.com/2007/06/history-of-fire-and-sword.html

My personal view is that you should get all three systems, start with the one that seems closest to what you want, and adapt rules from the other two when they can enhance your game. Al three systems are close enough to each other{Fire and Sword probably being more distant from the other two, but all three are based on old RQ} so that it is worth looking at merging them into a whole which may be better for your group than any individual system.

But them, I'm a designer by nature, and I think creating one's own rules set can be interesting and fun. You may be different.

Ray.