[Rq-rules] Finally got my copy of MRQ

[Julian Lord]

I have been avoiding the MLs since the new edition of RQ was
released, and I've had to wait a long time for my copy ; but I've read it
now, and well. Interesting new addition to the bibliography...

First of all, I was pleasantly surprised with the overall production values,
disregarding the actual content that is, and turning a blind eye to the more
horribly Dobyski-like illos in the Creatures section ... The paper they used
is very pleasant to the touch, it's hardback, and most of all the copy
editing per se (although not necessarily the rules
editing) is surprisingly good : concise, simple, and elegant, the
writing can appeal to teenagers and young non-College-student
adults alike, yet with an elegance of expression that leaves the
intelligence of the hoariest postgraduate grognard uninsulted (unless he/she
studied mathematics or some other exact science of course, in which
case these rules will leave him/her screaming blue neuronic murder ... ).

Other things I like, and will use in my game if I do start a new one ; I
like the gist of the new combat rules. The rules editing in this area is
messy, occasionally appearing to be self-contradictory, and with the odd
useless paragraph, and the Precise Attack rules are clearly broken --- but
the basic system is a clear improvement IMO over the tedious attack/parry
attack/parry of RQ3. There are some D&Disms (as was expected, really) as
well as some PC game -like stuff that I'm still unsure about, but overall
this area alone can justify the publication of the new edition ; all in all,
I am also in balance happy with the efforts that have been made into
streamlining and simplifying the game system (versus RQ3), even though it is
clear from looking at the core rulebook and the online version of the RQC
that the starting ToC clearly mirrored the contents of RQ2 and RQ3 a little
too slavishly ; I am also glad to see no more Resistance table, even though
the rules to replace it do have some dodginess about them ; and to see that
Hero Points have been introduced leaving happy leg room for GMs also owning
HW/HQ ; and especially I think that whoever came up with the idea of no more
general Hit Points deserves some kind of award !

Character creation looks OK, but if I do start a new campaign I plan on
using the keywords and the List
method of HW/HQ instead, with some stuff thrown in from MRQ.

IMO though, all stats for humans should have been 3D6+6 and drop the lowest
die, to allow a wider range of subhuman stats for all characteristics, not
just SIZ and INT. I also believe that negative damage modifiers for low
STR+SIZ are a bad idea. I am also a proponent of the idea that all creatures
should have natural armour, equal to the HP of their weakest limb.

More House Rule stuff, then I'll get back to the rules as published <g> ;
the skill levels paradigm has not been fully analysed IMO. The natural
tendency of official RQ (and other FRP RQ-like) publications has been toward
greater integration of very high skills into the game system, and this new
edition is no exception. However, starting skill levels continue to be
defined as very low percentages, which is inconsistent with the observable
numbers inflation ; and what's more, and is new to this edition, the games
designer has provided rules systems whereby a failure can in fact be a
success, which sort of flies in the face of the core principles of Basic
roleplaying !! The last published edition of BRP, the French edition by
Casus Belli some years back, enshrined OTOH a more mature (IMO) principle
that some basic or professional skills, such
as the ability to speak your mother tongue or your basic job skill
should start in the region of 90%, and that the
more important secondary skills should be in the 50-85% zone. In my house
rules I will probably use the HW/HQ keyword character generation method, and
double the Bonus column results for any skills gained from a keyword, so
that a character with Riding from a keyword would have
2x(DEX+POW) (+ possible bonuses from other keywords, character generation
points, race, etc) whilst one without Riding in a keyword would start with
DEX+POW instead. Et cetera.

Skill test rules are OK mainly, except of course for the "whoever rolls
lowest wins" nonsense when both characters fail their test, and it is just
another artefact of too low basic skill levels having been retained for this
edition. Had higher initial skill levels been used instead, this messy spot
rule would have been totally unnecessary, and instead the normal
fumble/failure/success/critical success structure would have been perfect.

Skill halving for very high skills rules : <roll-eyes>

Brute Force and Swimming should be separate skills ; I'm not sure that
Persistence and Resilience should be skills at all, and that some other more
elegant system should have been designed instead of these D&D Saving Roll
throws in disguise...

The Rune Magic rules are a walking disaster
though, and what I've seen of the magic rules in the RQC doesn't look
hopeful either... I have to switch somewhat
to a Glorantha-centric POV here, sorry about that for those of you who
have given up on Glorantha, but it is however stated that these rules
have been written with Glorantha in mind.

Rune Magic then would be roughly equivalent to the Common Magic of HeroQuest.

So far so good, but unfortunately the description on p. 62 belies
this, showing instead that the power of these spells comes via Runes
(basically, these are magic items) coming from the gods.
Looking at the RQC though, one can see that confusion exists regarding the
differences and similarities of gods and spirits. I'm not saying it was
necessary to reproduce all the complexities and intricacies of the HQ magic
system, in fact better not to do so ; but at least some lip service to that
system would have been appreciated... No shamanism rules on the horizon, and
ha! no Mysticism rules as usual, but not even a passing mention of
HeroQuesting in the core book, which I find to be flabbergasting!!

Anyways, arbitrarily attaching the various spells to the various Runes is
dubious at best ; it goes against the natural evolution that has been
observed in the various incarnations of the game away from the paraphernalia
of the 1st and 2nd Edition foci ; most astonishingly though, it seems almost
to have been inspired by the roughly similar approach to Runes of
RuneQuest:Slayers !!! In that game too, PCs had to go out the front door and
Quest for Runes, which were magical items from Beyond that granted magical
powers and were the basic source of magic. The mind boggles, I guess RQ
Slayers now has to be reclassified in the History of the game as a pro bono
unpublished core edition of RuneQuest...

>From the online edition of the RQC, Sorcery once again appears to be
completely unbalanced (perhaps less so than in RQ3), and Divine Magic to
have been seriously wimped down. Anyways, again the rules have been written
in apparent ignorance of basic Gloranthan cosmology, so that magicians of
all magic systems appear to be able to enter the "Spirit Plane" ---
shouldn't this be a shamanic specialist power ???

The Runic Powers lack imagination ; I'll non-randomly pick Water as the one
to comment upon -- there is no reason why the follower of the Rain God
should have any bonus when swimming, the power is probably inappropriate for
members of aquatic races, people living in deserts might instead need/want
some other benefit, as might the elves, Water Runes found in and connected
with mountain ranges or tropical rainforests might work completely
differently, and especially Water Runes associated with various different
Water gods might also act according to each god's nature, not just in
some such generic and boring manner.

It is annoying that not a single Gloranthan cult was presented in the core
rulebook.

Movement rules are a pet peeve of mine ; daily movement rates are just about
OK (although the time to move those distances can vary from 6-12 hours, they
are fairly accurate) ; OTOH the hourly movement rates are about 2/3rds to a
half of what ordinary 21st century people can actually acheive, and the
Minute rate is simply nonsensical. Combat Action movement though is derived
from the original SCA rules, and is most certainly accurate.

Legendary Abilities are not as bad as I thought they would be ; not that I
would ever use them in a game of mine. HeroQuesting abilities for me, thank
you very much ...

My final disappointment is that there was no new nonsensical creature
created for this book as a joke by Greg. Illustrations pages 114 and 122 ---
bwwwah hah hah hah hah !!!!

---

Having said all that, I still find it (as I may combine it with stuff from
HW/HQ, more subtle magic for starters) to be a better starting point for my
personal house
rules than either RQ2 or RQ3 ; for although MRQ fails to recapture the full
design elegance of RQ1 &
2 and also fails to match the mathematical precision of the RQ3 rules,
its design failures actually make it a more customizable version to
work from,
as they (unintentionally?) provide a more modular basic system to work with
than those of the previous, more integrated, versions of RuneQuest.

Julian Lord
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