jongjom

Orlanth's dead, rebirth and transformation to match his foe, isn't that very similar to what the Red Goddess did? In so doing so he become his enemy to defeat them (cough: Arkat; Brotherhood of the Swallow)?

Just as well that I'm not in control of responding here for Chaosium (my pre-morning coffee and end of grinding day comments might be..err, 'defensive'). Two thing I keep in mind: one they probably have been through a year of grief (to put it mildly: would probably knock some of the joie de vivre out of you) and two that we're talking to a lawyer about rules

It would be great to actually have a go with the new rules to see how they work out in practice. I like the idea of the big impact of the day/season/holy time etc. Maybe RQ should come with an evocative calendar with a counter of some kind to indicate which day / week / season it is and the bonus you can get. The new sorcerer being able to fire off powerful spells sounds a bit like the new guy with the arbalest: a lot of the time comical, occasionally kicks arse. But then if spell Fumbles exist firing off a 'nuke' that wipes out one of your own party would again quickly remind everyone of the value of skill.

A bit like a Magic Crystal from RQ2. I could live with that!

Another plea for no small bonuses. Nothing quite like slowing down a game for no discernible effect. If you roll +d10% a lot of the time you'll get a disappointing score which adds to the slow grind hassle.

That's good. It was to say that the more you are not connected to the people the less bias is involved. If they hardly know you or the game then that's good, as that should hopefully remove even sub-conscious bias. Out in the target gaming population will sorcery (and the game) be easy to understand and use, fun to play, and make intuitive sense? Does it pass the acid test of typical gamers playing it? I appreciate this is a challenging Holy Grail but I hope that's what will be achieved.

It would be great to have a go with the rules before the final manuscript is sent to the printers. Hopefully the Kickstarter will allow so kind of feedback on the game, and not just crowdsourcing errata. Failing that it would be good to know that the sorcery rules were tried out on groups more than an arms length from the design team.

What are grimoires ultimately? Manifestations of Runes? (quick burn that man at a stake!!)

On the corollary should then sorcerers start out kick-arse and immediately gain more power? Also without knowing the chargen process for sorcerers it's difficult to say at the moment how powerful a starting character is?

How many pages will the core book have? Good to have more pages of great stuff, but conversely less pages because not everyone has the time and inclination. And less pages because I want the author(s) to exercise the art of conveying more with less words.

What kind of design will the new scenarios have? RuneQuest of old (RQ Classic, RQIII) or more like Pendragon, or is it and now for something completely different? Are you guys going to put any link for the GenCon RuneQuest seminar? It would be great to hear what was said.

I agree with much of what you have to say. Including some of the great products (e.g. Vikings [which is awesome], LoN, Cities) that I should have shown more respect for by mentioning. I feel that the chagrin is much more for the company that "almost killed the game". Some of their issues affected the fans (e.g. lamentable art, production schedules, massive product price increase (esp. UK hit by a weak pound then too)). Some issues were what sounds like the 'communication' issues between Chaosium and AH which soured the relationship and didn't support the development of a vibrant product line. For me I cannot wait until Chaosium do a RQIII Kickstarter to get PDFs of the products and the missing few copies from that line like Cities (but not the abominations of DoD and Eldarad -- being a man of taste you surely cannot mean those too!?).

OK. RQ vibe on steroids!

My bet is that you by no means alone in that stand. I am Spartacus!

I agree what you say. Very much a drought that almost killed off the game and world. However in 1983 the Big Rubble and Pavis was published by Chaosium Inc. and the Golden Era was still going strong. RQIII was first published in 1984 and at the time AH supported the game world with Gods of Glorantha (1985). But it was too long a wait before Genertela (1988) was published along with reprints of RQII material (NB. give the dog/supporters a bone: SPH was republished in 1987). Only until Sun Country arrived (1992) did RQ have its first new Gloranthan scenario material, but the RQ Renaissance petered 2 years later out when Dorastor (1994) was published with what was to become the last AH scenario supplement. So yes, I'll like some new RuneQuest Gloranthan scenarios regularly published!! My main concern is that they will be dedicated RuneQuest - not HeroQuest mind set scenarios with RQ stats added as an afterthought. Oh, for the elusive RQ vibe.

Thanks for the info. When you say "More new material is being planned than ever before" where they talking about info for RQ, including scenarios? Cheers

Three days to go before God's War launches! Any idea what time (and which time zone) the Kickstarter commences?

Might to be two different things here. They're currently reprinting the GtG (with a couple of tweaks to the Credits). Historically they also talked about a different version altogether: whatever that will be.

Correct except the central figure is an Illuminated Ernalda priestess from the temple at Ezel (...of course!).

I do not know about the rest, but the slipcases are just the few 'spares' from the KS that they decided to sell rather than burn. Makes sense as 1) they should print extras for those lost in the post / damaged etc., and 2) just burning them just sounds wrong. As a KS I'm happy they can sell them: more cash to finish off the CoC KS!

In all the design of RuneQuest sounds very good. A concern is the large number of short cult write ups (17) and homelands (6) might create a wall of information for new players. Does it risk the RQ3 Gods Of Glorantha problem (e.g. the loss of depth that made CoP & CoT so much fun - each had fewer cults and each was set in one 'homeland')? Having a slimmer rule book might be less intimidating. Especially when you're asking the reader to take two very different concepts on board: a quantitative rule system and qualitative mythical bronze age world. It would be good to know what 'novice' players think of the completed book.

Has this ended up being a far bigger book than expected? Or is streamlining the book now Jason's remit?

Agreed. I was dividing people into groups without any preconceived prejudice and those with more extensive game experience (and inherent viewpoints / prejudice). Both views are valid, of course. If the two groups differ then it leaves an ambiguous answer / solution. In which case then it's the designers' judgement call, who also have to take into account other factors (e.g. big back catalogue, streamlining the game etc.).

Experience rolls are still d6-1, so increases are incremental

A few thoughts: We need to puts into perspective our pet Rulz peeves against the chance for CRQ4 being closer to the RQ2 back catalogue (and with the chance to easily adapt the RQ3 Glorantha back catalogue - future Kickstarter willing). Get all that out, and some promised new CRQ4 stuff, then you have the best ever supported Gloranthan game. As to the 'unprejudiced eye': so we should not then be deferring to the play testers?