Value for money.

Yes, as a generic Western Aces and Eights has no licensing fees. And as a western likely has a broader apeal than any MRQ product.

400 pages of colour could be 399 pages of eye candy and 1 page of unplayable rules.

Or it could have the infamous 1980's GW Self-destructing binding.

Are you saying that MRQ books are not worth what you have paid for them? If so please take them to your nearest used book seller and get them to list them on ABEbooks, Alibris or Bookfinder (so I can buy them).

I whole heartedly agree with weasel-fierce. D&D books are full colour, but useless to me. Even though D&D is the only game in town, I simply will not play it. MRQ books i will buy for the background even if I never get to play the game.
 
Yes, as a generic Western Aces and Eights has no licensing fees. And as a western likely has a broader apeal than any MRQ product.

400 pages of colour could be 399 pages of eye candy and 1 page of unplayable rules.

Or it could have the infamous 1980's GW Self-destructing binding.

Are you saying that MRQ books are not worth what you have paid for them? If so please take them to your nearest used book seller and get them to list them on ABEbooks, Alibris or Bookfinder (so I can buy them).

I whole heartedly agree with weasel-fierce. D&D books are full colour, but useless to me. Even though D&D is the only game in town, I simply will not play it. MRQ books i will buy for the background even if I never get to play the game.
 
£25? I wonder if K&Co had it locally printed to avoid VAT... or shipped direct to distributors over there from the chinese warehouses.

It's $50 locally for me; £25 is below the current value of the pound in conversion.... (ok, by 20 pence as of today... dollar is weak right now vs the UK£), but that doesn't include the nasty import duties games are noted for in the UK. Hm...
 
They are a better value than a game you dont play, but still a bit thin for the price.

Take pirates. A good book, but with to many gaps. No way to play a privateer, or merchant. No prices for a number of basic things. And the thing is, almost all of these could have been fixed with just a few more pages.

I dont feel I got ripped off, but I certainly did not get a good deal either. Perhaps as the line goes on, it will bulk up a bit. I certainly hope so, thats why I am buying all I can afford, to keep it going until it gets better. But I really hope it gets better.
 
it depends on the book too. The glorantha 2nd age book and players guide were well worth every penny to me. The arms&equipment guide had tons of fun stuff I can use. Worth it.

The companion was thin and mostly updated old material, so felt less value.
 
I do agree that some of the books are a decent value. But so far it has been hit or miss. I hope they start hitting more often.
 
dave-the-lost said:
Yes, as a generic Western Aces and Eights has no licensing fees. And as a western likely has a broader apeal than any MRQ product.

Aces and Eights has no licence fee, but fantasy RPG's traditionally outsell western ones. and Aces and Eights does not have the "Runequest" name to pull in an old fanbase...

dave-the-lost said:
400 pages of colour could be 399 pages of eye candy and 1 page of unplayable rules.

or it could have pig-faced trolls and rules that disagree with the examples and the tables...

dave-the-lost said:
Or it could have the infamous 1980's GW Self-destructing binding.

or the infamous Mongoose 2007 curvey binding...

dave-the-lost said:
Are you saying that MRQ books are not worth what you have paid for them? If so please take them to your nearest used book seller and get them to list them on ABEbooks, Alibris or Bookfinder (so I can buy them).

The Mongoose core rulebooks were/are overpriced, largely as a result of the decision to make them as thin as possible then stick thick hardback covers on them. The poor standard of the editing doesn't help (ie allowing the core rulebook to go to press with the contradictory rules/tables/examples, or the butchering of Cults of Glorantha)

To reverse your challenge - if you consider that they *Are* worth the asking price, why are you trying to buy them as cheap second hand copies?

dave-the-lost said:
I whole heartedly agree with weasel-fierce. D&D books are full colour, but useless to me. Even though D&D is the only game in town, I simply will not play it. MRQ books i will buy for the background even if I never get to play the game.

Comparisons to D&D are always awkward as the volume of D&D books sold is assumed to allow WotC to cut overheads and gain discounts that allow them to reduce the per-copy price. This I think is more of a fair challenge - Aces & Eights is more likely to be in the "MRQ" sales bracket than the "D&D" one.

The big difference is that the philosophy behind A&8 appears to have been "What size book do we need to present the rules and background for or game" , while for MRQ to date it appears to have been "How much can we fit in a 96 page book". While this might make an individual volume look cheap (although stickin hard covers on this immediately makes these slim volumes look overpriced) it soon becomes apparent that this is a false economy - according to the leisure games website, Aces & Eights is 400 pages for £26.99, and MRQ, Companion and Monsters is 376 pages for £54.97...
 
Much though I like hard covers, they look so sharp and may last a bit longer if well bound, I would actually prefer the option of soft covers for MRQ.

Hard covers add expense and significant bulk to the books. A 96 page hard cover really should be a soft cover imho.

As for mismatched tables and text etc I don't notice that as much as some others do. I tend to play a loose narrative style game and as such often ignore great swaths of game mechanics and rules. Also I cut my teeth on late 70s and early 80s games, talk about QC issues...

I took a vacation from RPGs for about the last decade or so. Maybe I am judging MRQ by the standards of an earlier age.

I remember not buying games from a certain company because we knew the Second Edition would follow about a year after the first and would fix all the errors. No it was not D&D.


As for looking to get them as cheap second hand copies, hey I'm a gamer... And I did suggest to a Stormbringer 5th ed player that buying the Mongoose version would send a message to Mongoose that the line was worth continuing.
 
From what I have read and seen, it looks good and seems to be well written. The review I read on it is glowing, as are the many comments on said review.

As others here have said RQ has a much broader appeal.

In my inital comment I said "It makes you think".

It is up to you if you do or not (and actually take a look at A&8s to compare).
 
Chaosium is selling their remaining stock of Stormbringer supplements for $5 each.

No Bronze Grimoires but Unknown East, Atlas of the YK, and Rogue Mistress are there, plus others including the d20 rules.

Now that's value.
 
Rogue Mistress is an excellent adveture at any price if you want plane crossing epics for Moorcock style RPGing!

The d20 Dragon Lords of melnibone was a great dissapointment to me. I wanted to like it, I really did. I ran it successfully and as an implementation of Elric in d20 rules it works, but it didn't add anything to d20, much of the text seemed to but cut&pasted straight from Stormbringer/Elric rpg. At this price it might be worth it if you have no other Young Kingdoms roleplaying material and want a one stop shop for bacground information and character backgrounds.
 
Dear All,

Of course, one could buy 'Slaves of Fate' and simply use the official Chaosium conversion document to turn it into a 'Stormbringer' adventure.

Regards
 
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