[RQ-Rules] Re: New RQ

[Jason Durall]

This is my first post to this list, I think, and sadly I must delurk then 
go back into hiding (I'm leaving town for a couple of weeks tomorrow and 
will be away from the internet for most of the time), but the announcement 
of a Mongoose RQ seems to have stirred a lot of confusion and 
consternation, so I'd pitch in with a voice of reason.

I don't know what the situation is between Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin, 
Charlie Krank, Mongoose, Chaosium, and Issaries, and I'd caution about 
ascribing motives or malice to anything any of these folks is doing without 
statements from the parties concerned.

However, it seems clear that:

a) Chaosium is doing a generic. deluxe version of the BRP system (which I 
am co-writing, taking time out for this post). They have no further 
interest in Glorantha material. They are publishing a new BRP specifically 
to serve as a nice core book for further game expansions and as a 
entry-level game product.

b) Issaries has published HeroQuest, which, though being very cool, was/is 
NOT RuneQuest. Different system entirely. It was designed for a 
dramatically different style of play, with radically different goals and a 
distinct view of the game world of Glorantha.

c) Issaries has licensed Mongoose to do a new RPG set in Glorantha that 
harkens back to the pre-HeroQuest Glorantha. Many people feel that charm of 
RQ 2 (and even 3) was the system. The Mongoose system will be similar to 
BRP, but how much so is undetermined at this time.

So, there are three different products, with three different audiences: the 
BRP corebook, HeroQuest, and the new RuneQuest. There does not seem to be 
much overlap there. If anything, the real conflict should be between 
HeroQuest players and the new RuneQuest audience, but Messrs. Perrin and 
Stafford seem to be quite fine with that.

My thought is that the new BRP and the new Mongoose RQ will probably 
cross-fertilize each other after release, with fans taking bits and pieces 
from each to synthesize their ideal system.

The real question that no one seems to be asking is what this means for 
HeroQuest.