Too expensive?

[Vadrus]

Having seen the updated releases for Aug and Sep now things seem to be getting a little out of hand, 8 books/supplements and an outlay of £135.00 !!

I can feel my interest waining already at this when some books are labelled part 1 (i.e. the cults book), how much exactly are we supposed to pod out to get a complete system?

Sorry but piecemeal releases like this really do annoy me.


Vadrus

 

[Chardros The Reaper]

I can see your point, but you certainly don't have to buy all the books. Even if you're interested in running in Glorantha, you probably don't have to get all the cult books...too soon to tell, really. Personally, I'm glad that the corebook is slim as I don't like lugging around thick, heavy tomes that take several minutes to flip through to find the obscure rule you need. Also, a cheap corebook means players who aren't interested in GMing can afford to buy what they need. Few things suck more than having to pass around a gargantuan book everyone is sharing.

I'll have to wait and see what supplements are good enough (and vital enough) to plunk down hard earned money for. If they're not up to snuff, I won't purchase them and if they blow me away I'll be happy to spend thirty to forty dollars for a near 200 page book. For me, that's the problem with D&D. I got the three core books, about $100, okay. Pretty steep but I played ball. However, all subsequent releases I've been less than impressed by and will only buy something if it's used...and cheap.

Not much longer to wait and see if these books are worth all this fuss!

 

[mthomason]

I can feel my interest waining already at this when some books are labelled part 1 (i.e. the cults book), how much exactly are we supposed to pod out to get a complete system?

I understand what you're saying, but whatever happens is bound to upset somebody. If it were just the core rules, a Glorantha book, and the companion then somebody else would be posting "why just these three books, where is the ongoing RuneQuest support?". Strangely enough, both perspectives bring up the argument of how to get a complete system - surely it's even more difficult to get the complete system if half of it is never written?

Personally I think too many releases are better than too few - you can choose not to buy a book thats been published, but you can't do the opposite

 

[JonGeere]

Having seen the updated releases for Aug and Sep now things seem to be getting a little out of hand, 8 books/supplements and an outlay of £135.00 !!

I can feel my interest waining already at this when some books are labelled part 1 (i.e. the cults book), how much exactly are we supposed to pod out to get a complete system?

Sorry but piecemeal releases like this really do annoy me.


Vadrus

There are a few things that I consider about how annoyed I might get. Firstly Gloranthan fans were asked to stump up $50,000 on a promise to bring HQ alive. The expense of rare Gloranthan manuscripts or Works in Progress. And the year+ wait for the latest HQ product. Then when it does come out I'm not too sure what the author is on about.

Overall I'ld say that what I have seen of it I prefer Mongoose's approach.

No doubt Amazon will sell RQ products at a reduced price and picking the products a fan wants means the final figure is most likely to be much less.

 

[Vadrus]

I understand what you're saying, but whatever happens is bound to upset somebody. If it were just the core rules, a Glorantha book, and the companion then somebody else would be posting "why just these three books, where is the ongoing RuneQuest support?". Strangely enough, both perspectives bring up the argument of how to get a complete system - surely it's even more difficult to get the complete system if half of it is never written?

Personally I think too many releases are better than too few - you can choose not to buy a book thats been published, but you can't do the opposite

Sorry my first post wasn't very well written I'm afraid, my point should have been why can't we have a 'complete' rulebook at the start and then supplements as we go along.

What I mean by complete is, all the mechanics needed to run the game and at least a brief description of all the sections needed for a campaign. There is nothing worse than starting a campaign then 3 months down the line expansion X comes out and adds a complete new raft of rules that fundamentally change the way the world works. How do you explain to your players that suddenly a new type of magic has appeared or whole new races and gods? These items should be in the initial release at least in skeleton form. I guess this is one of the main pitfalls of going down the generic/openlicense rules route.

Unfortunately I can see MRQ going down this second route so that the best thing for me to do is wait 6 months to a year before trying to run the game. Bizzarely this is what happened with RQ3 and Herowars/Quest, both of which didn't become complete games in terms of releasing core material until a long time after their initial releases.

I realise this is just my personal take on things though and others will see it differently.


Vadrus

 

[Vadrus]

There are a few things that I consider about how annoyed I might get. Firstly Gloranthan fans were asked to stump up $50,000 on a promise to bring HQ alive.

Aye I remember that, I couldn't believe Greg's cheek and that anyone actually went for it considering his marketing track record. Guess the old saying 'there's one born every minute' holds true in the RPG world still.


Vadrus

 

[mthomason]

Sorry my first post wasn't very well written I'm afraid, my point should have been why can't we have a 'complete' rulebook at the start and then supplements as we go along.

Ahh, okay. That I can certainly empathize with

I would imagine the biggest reason in this case is to keep a lot of the Glorantha-specific rules out of the main rulebook, for those who want it for one of the alternative settings. However I do take your point now - you could pick up a new Glorantha-based addon months after starting your game and find a whole new set of magic rules to "introduce" into the campaign.

How well that works is going to come down to how well put-together the books are I guess - fingers crossed that there's not too much "retrofitting" work involved to use the various supplements.

 

[Rurik]

First off I am here for Glorantha. I am glad to see RQ back in print, but what has me really pumped is the big G. Honestly the Gloranthan previews have excited me more than the core previews.

I don't necessarily mind the number of releases, It actually looks like there will be a lot of material released within the first to months, which is good.w

My problem is that a great amount of the core material I am paying for WILL NEVER BE USED. The generic cult stuff, city stuff, etc will never be used because I will be using the Gloranthan source material. When Lankhmar comes out people will have bought the Core rules, and Companion, etc will have how many pages of Magic rules and spells they will never use.

RQ3 suffered from the same problem. Runes and rune magic are Goranthan, no two ways about it. I have seen RQ3 be used in other settings, but I have never seen anyone use the Gloranthan runes outside of Glorantha.

The Runequest Monsters covering both Gloranthan and generic creatures bothers me in the same way. Orcs and halflings should be in one of the core 'generic' books. I don't want kobolds in my Gloranthan campaign, and most fantasy settings don't want Ducks, Baboons, or Gorps.

 

[atgxtg]

Several of us have adressed this issue before. Basically most of us seemed to have preferred it if the core rules (main bokk &companion) had been combined into one book, or split up differently (Player's Book, GM's book).

Personally, I don't mind the modular approach if the sections are broken up well, and it doesn't get too expensive. For example, I could see a soourcebook for a new magic system being sold as a stand alone product. Asuming that the price is reasonable.

MRQ does seem to be quite expensive to get into, and I suspect that the high price is going to discourage those players who are not already RQ fans.

 

[andakitty]

About the organization of the books, I am purring.

 

[atgxtg]

About the organization of the books, I am purring.

Books have thier own organization now? Is it free to join or is there a cover charge?

 

[homerjsinnott]

There are a few things that I consider about how annoyed I might get. Firstly Gloranthan fans were asked to stump up $50,000 on a promise to bring HQ alive.

Aye I remember that, I couldn't believe Greg's cheek and that anyone actually went for it considering his marketing track record. Guess the old saying 'there's one born every minute' holds true in the RPG world still.


Vadrus

What are you two on about?

 

[Claymore Driftwood Pub]

What are you two on about?

To form Issaries inc gregg asked for donations (I think it was $50 a share?) to raise funds for the new rules set containing Glorantha. I think people that donated got a copy of the Hero Wars book when it was released. It was a long time though...I am sure someone else can fill in all the details....

 

[atgxtg]

The story goes that when Chasoium split into several comapines, Greg formed Issaries to handle the Glorantha stuff. Orginally, the Issares webpage has a message asking for contributions. Depending upon how much one contributed determined a membership level and also entited the donator to certain perks, including copies of products released.

I think they ran into some legal difficulties with the arragment and either hand to modify it or discontinue it.

 

[Mark Mohrfield]

The story goes that when Chasoium split into several comapines, Greg formed Issaries to handle the Glorantha stuff. Orginally, the Issares webpage has a message asking for contributions. Depending upon how much one contributed determined a membership level and also entited the donator to certain perks, including copies of products released.

I think they ran into some legal difficulties with the arragment and either hand to modify it or discontinue it.

What you've just described is the final arrangement. The original plan was for a company with the members holding stock, but IIRC this would have required legal permissions in every separate state, which was just too expensive.

Guess the old saying 'there's one born every minute' holds true in the RPG world still.

Note that the plan DID succeed despite some bumps, so I'd hardly call members (of whom i am one) "suckers".

 

[atgxtg]

What you've just described is the final arrangement. The original plan was for a company with the members holding stock, but IIRC this would have required legal permissions in every separate state, which was just too expensive.

Sorry, I guess I did kind of jump to the end.