[RQ-Rules] Re: New Mongoose RQ

[rjmeints at aol.com]

Peter Maranci grows weary of the uncertainty...
--------------------------------------------------
>"I'm getting awfully tired of all this. Right now, 
>I'm sick of the entire SUBJECT.  
>All this uncertainty is very trying."
 
Sorry Peter, but uncertainty is a fact of life, although I can't be certain of that...
After all, the roleplaying industry is hardly the sole owner of rumor, ego, personality conflicts, poor business decisions, business competition, alternate agendas, massive creativity, wishful thinking or any other number of things that happen in good old everyday life. In this case Mongoose is finding their way through playtesting a rules system that will probably go through a number of revisions and changes in direction, content, and scope. Come to think of it, this sounds a lot like my day job in IT.
 
Considering that Runequest has been out of print since the 90's, and Chaosium has only stuck in a few toes to test the water with their BRP monographs, I would think all of the recent events related to the possibility of a Deluxe Basic Roleplaying book and a new Runequest game from Mongoose would be exciting, encouraging, and invigorating. If they aren't to your or anyone else's liking, you really won't be any worse off than were before either possibility came along. 
 
Peter then seeks information from Chaosium...
-----------------------------------------------
>"By the way, I've written to Chaosium asking for confirmation 
>that they're not involved with the Mongoose RQ project.
 
While anything is possible, I am quite certain that their involvement in the project will probably be 0.00%. They will be producing a competing product with their DBRP. Mongoose is a competitor of Chaosium. Issaries Inc. would almost certainly not want Chaosium involved. Being a small company, Chaosium probably has many much higher priorities. I wouldn't be surprised if Chaosium increases their efforts to get the DBRP book out several months before Mongoose releases their Runequest game. Getting to market first is a prudent strategy. 
 
Zomben (Ben) states:
------------------------------
>"I'm more interested in MRQ, simply because it sounds 
>like they'll be pumping out a bunch of material which 
>I can retrofit into RQIII."
 
I agree. The supporting material that Chaosium and Mongoose will potentially be producing is of much more interest to me than the rules systems either will be publishing. Chaosium hasn't really said much about what material they may release to go along with their DBRP book, at least not beyond the fact that it will support a large number of genres like supers, sci-fi, etc. Mongoose hasn't said much either, including even what era of Gloranthan history it may choose to produce supplements for, or which non-gloranthan supplements either. It's early days though and it will be exciting to see which directions both companies go with their products to support their systems. There is a high probability that the DBRP book will basically be a lot like RQIII, if the monographs are anything to go by. I'm sure they will tweak it, but probably not too much. The Mongoose RQ could very well end up looking a lot like an RQ2/RQ3 hybrid, with a focus on a little less number crunching and swifter moving play. I could easily be totally wrong in both predictions though.
 
Rick Meints
www.glorantha.info