SDLeary

This seems to be slightly different than what was said by nClarke. Hmmm. SDLeary

Very true, but it does have its Blog section, that has been used as a place for announcements for some time. Many of us in the Chaosium world have become used to looking there. And thanks for shedding more light on whats going on. SDLeary

I think they are all d100, but not all BRP. BRP is a Chaosium system that has never been opened up. All the others are derived from mRQ, and the mRQ SRD, which was a re-write with... what was the quote "Similar system with different words"?? Nick, help me out here. In fact, mRQ was designed to be in direct competition with Chaosiums BRP derived games. A from the ground re-write to make sure the systems were similar, but didn't step on Chaosiums IP. Remember, BRP/RQ3 were in publication at the time as the 3 reprinted Basic Roleplaying books. So while certainly inspired by, there is no direct descent from BRP. SDLeary

But the suggestions on Narration have existed to some extent for a while, with varying degrees of chunkiness. There was going to be more of this kind of suggestion n the Chroniclers Companion IIRC. And while there was room for further example, suggestion, and streamlining of Sanity, it certainly wasn't "broken". I also fail to see how the style of presentation of the stat block, and changing the characteristics to x5 would help in this fixing. The bonus and penalty dice are different, but fine and really don't change the game much, though does make it difficult to integrate older material which might list flat bonus' or penalties. SDLeary

Honestly the compatibility is there, if somewhat hidden. The presentation is what will throw people off. Especially those new to the system. And yes, I agree. There seems to have been no compelling reason other than to simply change and or look different. SDLeary

They never took the risks because they never had the money, things were that tight. Then that turned into complacency, which they weren't able to shake despite the two successful Kickstarters, one of which is hindsight is a major contributor to their current situation. After the June Revolution, things were open, there was plain spoken communications about what was going on. We were still worried about the various lines, Greg, Sandy, and Ben were open about what they were looking at, with their intent to get HotOE shipping done, and CoC7 out the door and to save more if possible. Then we have the July Revolution, and it seems like the curtain has been drawn again, at least to a point. We still have communications, but they seem less open and sometimes cryptic, to the point that its really difficult to infer what is going on. Are the intents of the previous revolution, other than CoC7 at this point, still being pursued? SDLeary

It had the implied setting that you played in; that of a pseudo-western medieval/early-renaissance world with Tolkien influences. It had Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings. Later this was expanded with more races and beasties. This was thin enough that it could be ignored or altered. I played in several SciFi D&D games long before anything official came out. People could play it historically, without the other races. With something more tied to a single world, this would not be as easy to accomplish. The Wargaming style of play wasn't really encouraged as much as inherent. D&D as an RPG evolved out of the mini's gaming of the 60's, via Chainmail of the 70's (broad strokes here. Go read Shannons histories for more details), and it was much the same core of folks doing the gaming. Roleplaying was new. I'm not sure of actual percentages for token setting vs. no settings. I'm buddies with a FLGS owner though, and he has said on more than one occasion that games that provide a ready out of the box experience sell better than those that are generic or pure rules guides, at least at the beginning of their lives. SDLeary

They might not know, or only have a clue as to what their new BRP Essentials is going to be based on. Their opinions might be evolving as we are bitching and moaning. SDLeary

I chose MW. Not because I necessarily prefer it over the BGB, but because its core system is already pared down somewhat. Pull out the Monsters, and some of the GM advice, and other bits and you have a core of whats in the BGB. I would then expect though a "BRP Companion", which would contain all the other bits, bobs, and subsystems from the BGB. SDLeary

No, their approach is valid. They started by courting the disenfranchised D&D 3/3.5 crowd, and have largely been riding this since. And its not unusual for a company to only talk about its own product, at least in public demonstrations and marketing materials. In fact they are often required to only talk about their own product. If someone has a need that can't be met by a product, the marketing guys generally go back over what their product does offer, and if the person is still not convinced, then the last response is normally, "then perhaps out product is not for you", or if you get a good marketing guy, his card so that you can email him and he can provide you a response out of public earshot. SDLeary

Yes, but this IS what RQ2 and D&D had , or at least one of the things that they had in the early days. Something that had enough background to get things running, but could be ignored if desired. Thus they were loosely tied to their settings. Has the user base changed somewhat? Yes, today the audience is slightly more mainstream, and much less the geek, nerd, or grognard intelligentsia of those early days. Can this new audience see past the veneer? I think they can. They are still doing it, though to a lesser extent with D&D. But it will be much harder for them to strip out Glorantha from RQ:Glorantha if it is intertwined as much as Chaosium/MD is describing. What if someone wants to use RQ for Tekumel? Do they have to wait for someone to make a customized game using the RQ rules (assuming Chaosium/MD will license them anymore) or will they be able to use what they already bought and readily adapt it. As far as the other things you mentioned, I think we might actually be talking on slightly different tangents at this point, either that or I'm very tired, which is a possibility. SDLeary

This is a good one too, but a little slow. http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/ SDLeary

This in spades. Seneschal also metnioned FATE at the bottom of the post. Seriously guys, look at what Evil Hat has done in the last few years. I'm not sure about where you are, but all my FLGS have a FATE section. With the core books, the supplements, often with the other FATE powered games nearby. With the dice, the fiction and spin-off board and card games. Why are they successful? Why has FATE grown so much? Its a really fun game, but I don't think its a fundamentally better game than BRP. But they MARKET AND PROMOTE! SDLeary

You see, the issue was probably do to lack of trying, probably due to financial constraints (and if I've been reading right there was probably something other than lackluster sales to contribute). I think the core lineup was solid. The new Chaosium could have stuck with the games that the company had. If they wanted to recover the RQ trademark they could have even done that and slapped it on a customized version of MW, leaving Pete and Loz with their core game; call it Ancient Adventures or something.They could have pushed and promoted and marketed the new revisions, something that the old Chaosium had not done in quite some time. SDLeary

With MW, RQ2, and RQ6, the world that they ship with is really just a thin veneer in order to give examples to the rules. This can be stripped away so that someone who buys them can use them in virtually any realm that they want. Thus, good gateways to the systems. This is the same way Wizards and TSR treat the core books of D&D. RQ: Glorantha sounds like its going to be the exact opposite of this philosophy. A system tightly intertwined with the world represented. This will be a turn off to those looking for a good system to play their own world with, or to those who are still intimidated by Glorantha. SDLeary

I hope this will be the case, with a BRP Companion (all the additional bits from the BGB) to follow. However with their effort to not only recover the RuneQuest trademark, but the actual game as well, I'm not going to celebrate until I see a product. SDLeary

I think BRP Essentials is ok. If they chose Worlds of Wonder, it would have to be much larger or part of a set, in order to give examples of said worlds. SDLeary

To me, 2 is only viable if they continue to utilize the "normal" BRP rules. Otherwise you get a disconnect between the Essentials book, and the more advanced options. Now, they could revise the BGB also, tuning it with whatever core they decide on, but this would be a fairly large undertaking, probably on par with Jason's original effort. SDLeary

Thats a nice map. I might order it for my wall. For online use I prefer this one though... http://orbis.stanford.edu The Furd guys and gals really did a good job on this. SDLeary

They certainly need to get an entry level product out there so that people know it exists. At 32 pages, it could also form the core of another product, such as the proposed revision of WoW that has been suggested here and on other forums. They do need A BGB though, to integrate the options that have been out there. A two book set wouldn't be bad. Somehow I don't have the feeling that it will look like the BRP we now have, but probably more like an even further cut down version of RQ Essentials, or something like the CoC 7e Quickstarter. I could be totally wrong though and they clean up and rebadge the BRP intro that has been around for a while. SDLeary

I imagine this book could form the core of WoW. God knows we have been bandying around the suggestion long enough on these and other forums. My guess though is that it will either be based on RQ6 (the book is apparently being called BRP Essentials) or on the modified version of BRP in Cthulhu. I would be surprised if it were BGB based. SDLeary

Sadly, DnD is in a class by itself with regards to sales, so their per unit costs are way low. I'm not sure Chaosium could ever get to that level. I can see $50 boxes though. SDLeary

Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm clear. IF someone were to produce boxed sets or supplements though, the above is more what I'd be looking at. The only color that I might want in such a set would be any maps, or perhaps the odd full color plate. Sets that have everything under the sun, and then some are nice, but even more cost prohibitive. Perhaps companies that want to do special sets though might consider sleeves rather than full boxes. SDLeary

This. For boxed sets I want Trollpack, Big Rubble, Pavis, Borderlands, Thieves World type boxes. Enough information of good quality to get you going with some support materials. I love Horrors, but it is somewhat extreme.

It shouldn't be that hard. Pretty straight forward d100 game. I would say about halfway between Stormbringer/Magic World and BRP (I assume your talking BGB with RQ3 level options in place) in terms of crunch. SDLeary