tedopon

I ran the session they played in. It was the first session I ran at the con. It was a great time, everyone was awesome!

Yikes. Awesome.

We have a spirit wrangler. Honestly would probably just continue using the RQ6 version if they're all that different, they work fine. We never use minis, so I honestly forgot that section was even in the book. Thanks

Before I ask the question, I promise I tried to find the answer multiple times before I asked. I have a game that is coming back after hiatus with more players. We have two copies of Runequest 6 at the table, but are going to buy at least one more copy to pass around. There is a copy of RQ6 at the local Half Price, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has Mythras chime in on how different the two books are. I've read a few statements by Loz stating basic differences, but I would rather get some more detailed analysis before I make a decision. Honestly, I'm leaning toward just buying Mythras given my recent experience with the RQ brand, but I know that it would end up being the GM Copy TM to allay confusion. So, besides the obvious effect of putting money in a friendly pocket vs supporting a reseller, what are the new shinys I would get with Mythras as opposed to another copy of RQ6? Also, is there a document that outlines the changes? I swear I have looked and not found one.

I'm on my phone... Tedopon said everything below here:

I'll state one more time here that it's my opinion that this will be a great game and I hope it's successful. Had this come around ten years ago, I would have foamed at the mouth. I (like probably most of the people on here) am not getting any younger. I moved to RQ6/Mythras a few years ago after playing some iteration of RQ/BRP for many years, and it works for me and I'm getting fatigued with changing systems every few years. DnD is the worst offender, seriously if I had a nickel for every time I rolled my eyes at someone waxing philosophically about the new shiny, I would have a few dollars at least. The truth is, IMO with any game system, that for probably 4 out of 5 groups the system is going to not make that big an impact on the experience (no matter how crunchy or fluffy a game is, the at table experience for most groups is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes anyway). If you have something that works, use it. I'd rather play games than argue their relative merits. "Edition War" is especially silly with d100 games since there is like 95% shared DNA between even the most radically different versions. Keep up the good work, and I am over the Red Moon that there will be a new Trollpak coming out at some point.

I agree, but the rune affinity and passions were already in some form or another in RQ6 and Heroquest, and we've used them in pretty much the form they took in the new rules for a few years now. The family history minigame is the only thing for which I don't see a preexisting direct analog in RQ. It reminds me of Traveler or FASA Star Trek. I really like it and will be designing my own, adds a neat little bit of backstory that isn't too detailed to make PCs feel restricted but still give some flavor. I'm not dissing the game, just feel content to keep using RQ6 and backport the bits I liked.

It's my opinion, as one of the people who has a GenCon copy of the new rules, that the new rules are basically a 34 year old rule set houseruled to this iteration. It's honestly pretty close to the OQ/BRP/RQ3 hack I ran prior to RQ6 dropping...and a lot of the things I did back then are common things a few dozen people mention in threads on this site. There are some cool things bolted on, and one of the magic systems got an overhaul from RQ3, but it's really just RQ2 & 3 blended with a new paintjob. I mentioned earlier (maybe in this thread?) that I had hoped to see something more along Mythras or CoC7's improvements on the legacy system, but that is not what is presented in the preview set. We were told that the preview system is pretty much what's going to print but in need of further editing.

I see you're just exploring options.

Replace with Cooper or keep Hobo, nothing else.

That's the real key.

Sounds good. I didn't get a lot of mileage out of the original since it just seemed to be a toolbox of information that was freely available to a fan of history/mythology/general research. An attempt at a full on game sounds more up my alley. To be clear, the first one was awesome, but more of a "throw it in the blender" work like a lot of the Alephtar books that came out around the same time (which I also love). This one sounds more like a Gamebook TM. Thanks, Pedro.

As much as the "Homebrew for Life" gene flows through my veins, I want to believe that anecdotal statement from WOTC. My own anecdotal survey of playing D&D with people outside my close friends seems to indicate the opposite, that the VAST majority of D&D games take place in an established campaign setting. Using someone else's world and jettisoning what doesn't work for you is different than Homebrew. I'm not making that statement as a One True Way-ist, just stating my opinion. Stealing whole cloth from everything you see and hear and throwing it in a blender is the very definition of Homebrew, IMO, so I have very weak standards regarding intellectual property...different strokes, I guess.

I honestly thought this logo was just a mock up and they hadn't settled on anything concrete. I admit I haven't read the whole thread, maybe this is done or close to done. I think it looks like the Mongoose Crapfest's (MRQ1: btw I really like MRQ2 and RQ6, they are not the same as the first Mongoose game...not that I need to state that to the Kool Aid drinkers in this thread...and have to admit that MRQ1 was cool for the SRD) logo redesigned by a big fan of the Lord of the Rings films about ten or fifteen years ago. Looks a lot like (someone already mentioned) the 3rd party d20 stuff from the 3.0/3.5 era of Dungeons and Dragons. It's not an abomination, but it's not much of anything more than the word "Runequest" in LOTR font with a couple Photoshop canned filters thrown over it.

Yeah, something like that!

I got a copy. I was less than impressed with the Quickstart because it seemed like there was too much mechanical stuff for a 'quickstart,' but seeing the whole thing I like it. I didn't really start reading until last night, was totally exhausted from gencon back to back with the eclipse back to back with work. It's very backward compatible with 1/2/3. At a glance, I just prefer the way some things work in Mythras better and would have preferred something closer to that game than this. It is an obvious labor of love, so don't think I'm dissing...just think that Mythras or even CoC7 may have been a better base engine than what we've all tinkered to death for years. It's nice that I can do Resistance Table calculations in my head, but that doesn't mean I think it is all that great a system. Spirit Combat is better on the page. In the scenarios I ran at the con, we just kludged something together because I hadn't seen the rules until about twenty minutes before session one. Sorcery reads better than 3 read or played. I like that the Bestiary has quick spot rules for non-humans. My home game is mostly trolls, so I like to see support for that type of game. More to come I'm sure as I read and eventually integrate what I like into our RQ6 game.

Well done, Sir.

Well, after viewing the new scenario I can say that the Broken Tower appears to be the template. They're easier to read in the new one because there aren't layers of images underneath the text, but they're still really busy.

I wanted to start a thread specifically to ask if we can get actual character sheets for the quickstart characters in the two Runequest scenarios at GenCon. I have run Broken Tower twice now, and the biggest gripe I have is that the sheets in the back of the QS booklet are walls of text that are difficult to parse, especially for new players. I'm hoping to get a good mix of new players for my sessions. That may just be idealistic wishful thinking, but I'd like to see some people who are new or relatively unfamiliar with the game and setting sit down and have a good time. We need new perspectives and expectations being brought into the fold...it's a two way street that makes the game and setting better for everyone. Those sheets are daunting even to players familiar with the game. After two sessions and being pretty familiar with each character, I even have difficulty helping the players manage the data. Managing data is not what I would consider to be an attractive, essential element of the rpg experience for most people. Throwing dice, laughing and telling good stories are what most people want out of a session. Those goals are hindered when the people at the table are managing data. I would like to stress that this is constructive criticism and not a value judgement. I would just appreciate a cleaner representation of the characters with which people can hit the ground running. The first session I ran, we had two extra people show and I had some pregens for them on RQ2 sheets. They had a much easier time understanding their characters' abilities.

My home campaign is basically a Trollball team touring, getting into mayhem and killing Lunars. EDIT: ...and actual Trollball is still a work in progress, mostly based on d20 era WOTC miniatures games. It's not perfect, but it works pretty well.

Overall, it was really fun. I understand that one of the goals was to give a pretty well rounded demo to set expectations for how mechanics worked, but I thought that the scenario and characters were a little too advanced for a "Quickstart". The character sheets were way too busy. I had them highlight different headers on the sheet to make it a little easier to parse the wall of text, but it was still too much. I had two extra characters who just used RQ2 sheets, and they had far less trouble navigating their abilities than the packaged characters. If we could get actual character sheets before GenCon, I think that would help a ton. The characters were too advanced for a pick up game. I had seven players. Three play in my home game, which right now is RQ6, but also has been OQ and RQ3 at other times. One other player has been at the home game a half dozen times as well. Over half of them are very familiar with the RQ family. Everyone, including me, had moments of scanning sheets or rules that went a little too long. It would have been nice to have a more streamlined set of abilities for each character. In a campaign, each character will organically gain these abilities, passions and interpersonal connections incrementally. Having a bunch of backstory and a large suite of powers thrust on you at square one is a lot to process. This product seemed written for the existing fanbase. This is a fanbase that has been going strong for three or four decades and is very insular. Glorantha sourcebooks are like academic scholarship journals...and while I love it, it's not for everyone. The quickstart seemed more of this approach. Even though it is "scaled back" compared to the Full Monty like the Guide, Reaching Moons, Classics etc., it's still a lot of info to parse, even for casual veterans of the system/setting. I could feel some of the fun being missed as I had to explain something related to Glorantha as baked into their character in a pickup game. Those gripes aside, everyone had a good time, and they were engaged and excited. They were really aggressive, which probably shouldn't have surprised me in a con game type setting, but they basically blew through the Carfalo encounter and ignored him. They destroyed the Rock Lizards. Honestly, the only encounter that gave them any trouble was the Earth goddess, and it didn't even get that hairy due to the Ernalda priestess being a diplomat due to her vested interest in Earth. I want to be clear that I want this to succeed, and I'm not trying to be a Doomsayer. I just would like to see something with a little less steep barrier of entry to get fresh minds into this game/setting. I hope to play in someone else's session prior to mine at GenCon to compare notes, and I'll definitely run it at least once more before then to figure out how to make it a better experience for new people.

Are we discussing the experience after the event has been run in this thread or another one? I didn't want to start a new thread as it seems the CoC stuff all seems somewhat self contained by topic. I will say that I had concerns ahead of time that this was not a good starting point to get new players interested in the game and the setting. It was definitely a product aimed at existing fans. All my players had fun, but they all complained that it was far too much infodump for an introductory scenario. Four of my players have played multiple iterations of RQ. Once it's clear where we discuss this, I would like to expand further on things they said and my own observations.

Thanks.

Is Vasana's insane Lance damage modifier supposed to represent a mounted charge attack? +3d6 is really high.

I have more than five people, but due to time constraints it would make more sense to run one session that goes long than two four hour sessions back to back. Is there an official party line on whether I can add in more material?