[RQ-Rules] Re: New RQ

[Simon Phipp]

Steve Perrin:

> Second, there is no good feeling between Greg and the Chaosium. He says he 
> was forced out of Chaosium by his partners. I've never heard their side of 
> the story, though Charlie has said he'll sit down with me and discuss it 
> sometime when we are both in the same place - a very rare occurrence since 
> he doesn't come to DunDraCon and that's the only time I'm in the Bay Area. 
> Maybe he'll come to GenConSoCal some time.

Which helps to give us an idea of possibly why certain things are happening.
Thanks.

> I'm hoping something comes out of all this that we'll all like, but I doubt
> that can happen.

Bearing in mind that I know people who will not touch RQ3 with a barge-pole,
twenty (sob!) years after it came out, I doubt whether any new version of RQ
will please everyone, even everyone on this list. However, if most of it
pleases most people, they will be doing well.

It strikes me that with the new RQ, BRP, Gloranthan Classics and Glorantha
from HeroQuest, it looks as though this might be the best-supported RQ ever. 

Gianni:

> I've received a copy of the Mongoose RQ playtest pack. I've just skimmed
> through the rules (I'm on holiday right now and forgot my copy of the rules
> in Paris) so what follows has to be read with the caveat that I've only
> read
> through chapters I and II.
> 
> My first impressions are:
> 1/ with regard to the Glorantha vs non-Glorantha debate, the Mongoose
> version
> seems to be driven by a "have your cake and eat it" philosophy: the game
> has
> both orcs and ducks, and hence caters for both publics.

Good.

> 2/ the rules look like re-worded RuneQuest III (there is fatigue and dodge,
> and there is no defence), with apparently a major upheaval of the actual
> combat mechanics. And I haven't read the chapter about Magic yet.

As long as it doesn't go down the RQ4-ish extreme tabletop path of manouvers,
hex movement and so many tactics it makes your head spin.

> 3/ the overall impression is that the rules were written by a true fan of
> RuneQuest, and not by someone trying to make an easy buck (or quid) out of
> the name "RuneQuest", which anyway isn't too familiar to today's rolegamers
> (alas).

Even better.

> So overall my impression is good. Apparently, I'll be able to play in both
> Glorantha and Bronze Age China using these rules.

Well, rules do not make background. You always could play in different
settings using RQ, that was its charm. If you have the concept of hitting
someone with something then RQ can be applied. What makes settings different
is how things like magic works and what beasties are there. 

> But then I ask myself: what of DBRP?

If Chaosium bring BRP out as planned, then they can bring other supplements
that we could use for RQ. For the players and fans it is a win-win situation.
For Chaoisum it probably isn't, but most of us don't work in the industry.

> cheers
> 
> Gianni
> (in sunny Italy)

Grrr, you get to go to sunny Italy, I get to see my in-laws. Where's the
justice there?

Peter Maranc:

> So Greg/Mongoose are using the copyright/trademark loophole (i.e. you can't
> copyright a game system, only the specific wording used to describe it) to 
> make their own copy of BRP, which they will market as "RuneQuest". This
> will 
> compete with Chaosium's new DBRP. And all of this is probably the 
> continuation of a feud between Greg and Chaosium.
> 
> Interesting.
> 
> It does seem kind of unfair! At the least both systems should credit Steve,
> and probably include a plug for SPQR as well.

Well, if you can't copyright a system then there's no need to credit the
system's designers.

> The implications are also kind of disturbing; if Greg can use the BRP
> system 
> without Chaosium's permission, then so can anyone else. *I* could. And the 
> same applies to any other RPG. Sounds, well, chaotic. In a way, it's like 
> forcing BRP to become open source, at least until someone with lawyers gets
> involved.

Well, in a way this has happened in the past. Other Suns was originally
designed as a BRP game, but changed itself slightly, but can still be used as
source material. Isn't Mythworld a RQ variant as well? BRP and RQ co-existed
since 1982, or perhaps earlier, although BRP was a pale shadow of RQ. 

Chaosium themselves have been using versions of BRP for many of their games
from the simplistic rules of Cthulhu to the more complex Eternal Champion
variants and the incredibly convoluited Ringworld rules. Admittedly, they are
all from the same company, but Ringworld used rules similar to RQ3 as opposed
to the RQ2-ish rules of Stormbringer, and this was during the Avalon Hill
stewardship of RQ.

So, having competing systems is not necessarily a bad idea. Most people who
support RQ will buy, or at least look at, the different variants that will be
out there and the companies might even briong out more supplements to show
that THEIR version of RQ/BRP is better than those other people's.

We are promised conversion notes from HeroQuest to RQ. I am sure that someone
will draw up similar conversions for RQ/BRP/Gloranthan Classics to allow
everything to be used with everything else. And won't that be nice?

> The whole thing bothers me. If the Mongoose RQ is being made against the 
> will of the creators and owners of BRP, then I don't know if I could
> support 
> it in good conscience - even if it IS a well-made version (which I don't 
> know, since I haven't seen it).

A lot of people turned their backs on RQ after the Avalon Hill period. Some
will turn their backs on it after this. Personally, I don't care who owns it,
makes it, stabs whom in the back. If RQ comes back and is a good version then
I will be happy.

I don't have any particular loyalty to Chaosium, except to recognise that
they've produced some very good work in the past. But for RQ that was 20
years ago. How loyal do you have to be to a company that has been out of RQ
for so long?

> Damn. Stupid political infighting. Why the hell do people always have to 
> screw everything up with their personality issues? 

Because that's life. Money is involved as well.

See Ya

Simon



	
	
		
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