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That's only half of it. Ars Magica advocates that as many of the players who wish to GM, do so (the Ars Magica term for a game master is "Story Guide," SG). The conventional / suggested setup is an "Alpha" SG who runs the overall campaign (with "Beta" SG's (yes, the acronym there is "BSG") running recurring locations, foes, rivals, etc; they coordinate with the Alpha-SG, primarily to make sure nobody's stepping on anybody else's toes (i.e. BSG-1 wants to assign a particular NPC to be the Big Bad of their arc, with a vast network of influence & power, while BSG-2 wants the same NPC to be a powerless victim for the PCs to rescue; but the ASG knows that BSG-3 has already developed that NPC in a different way than either; the ASG may ask BSG-3 to coordinate with one of the others to make a compatible version, or just tell them "sorry, that NPC is already taken." But each BSG is usually taken to be a "virtual ASG" within their own specific domain.)). Sometimes the BSG will run an entire adventure, sometimes they'll take over for a scene or two, sometimes they'll run "their" NPC's as semi-PC's, or co-GM'ed NPC's, within the scope of other GM's stories, etc etc etc. Holding everything together is the conceit of a "Covenant," a headquarters/lair/etc treated as a sort of "meta-character" that PC's (new and old) gravitate to. The covenant has resources and obligations of its own, can grow and flourish, struggle, have victories, etc... independent of individual PC's. The "Covenant" is also used as the term for the contract/agreement that governs the operation of the physical covenant, and the behavior/rights/obligations/etc of the members. The covenant as a metacharacter (and sometimes, the explicit "contract") is designed by the Troupe as a whole (often reserving some elements to the SG's, to surprise the other players with). Every player is asked to make one wizard PC, and one "companion" PC -- not the companion of the wizard, but of the group as a whole, often of the Covenant. They are also asked to contribute at least one character to a pool of "Grog" characters: designated as cannon-fodder, comic relief, grunt men-at-arms, etc. A typical adventure usually runs 1-few wizards, some companions, and at least as many Grogs as the others put together (sometimes 2 or more Grog PCs to a single player, whereas most wizards & companions are typically 1-per-session as traditional). PC's are expected to die. Grogs especially, of course; but companions and even wizards (despite their longevity magics). The Covenant provides continuity for the campaign. (Edit: much of this is readily RQ'able / Glorantha'ble, with a Stead or family or etc as "Covenant," RuneLevels as wizards, Initiates as "companions," and the ordinary un-Initiated laity as "Grogs.")

That sounds very close to the Ars Magica "Troupe Play" model, actually. Not 100% identical, but very close.

I hate you so hard right now. Weekly RQ for 8+ years. So, so much hatred seething in my bitter, envious heart. (well , done, btw!)

There's the Ringworld RPG, occasionally available on the used market. BRP game by Chaosium from 35ish years ago. Noble Knight has it for sale... $85 Collectible pricing, but only "painful," not "crazy".

Thanks for the updates, @MOB and @Chris S ! I'm curious to know if "Kadimah" will be developed as a BRP-engine game (or some other known mechanic), or do you expect to create your own game-engine to power it?

I have a memory -- which may be erroneous -- that Greg found the "more detail / more crunch" elements of the draft rules to be exactly the wrong direction. If that was the ONLY issue he had, I'd have expected it to result in a new draft; not abandoning the project.

TYVM Jeff (and others of those playtesters & draft-owners) who have responded with their info!

TYVM, Rick! This is exactly the info I was asking for. Yes, it really does! Again -- TYVM!

I'm particularly interested in this question. Is anyone aware of any new-to-RQ elements/mechanics/etc in that old draft that seemed to inspire or be translated-forward into any other, later, editions of RQ?

<points upthread, to my original entry in-thread> Sometimes, a group wants to play, but nobody wants to GM... Enter the paid GM. I do agree with you that it's a different (and likely inferior) experience. But maybe sometimes... it's the only experience available. Also... Sometimes, having to make a living from something you love can suck they joy out if it. But sometimes, it can really rock to get paid for doing something you love!

No, they aren't the same! But they're similar-enough to permit easy interchange of subsystems between different branches of the family tree; some need a bit more effort, others a bit less (or even no effort at all, just yoink! and you've got a working new subsystem). This is a strength of the system. For me, they hit the sweet-spot... a trifecta of [ crunchy realism X fast at-the-table play X elegant simplicity & comprehensibility ] . I also like the skill-centric / classless character mechanics, and I really like the skill-check method of improvement (you get better at what you do). It's still my favorite basic mechanic, years and years later on... Almost nothing, overall. Which is not to say I think they're the "perfect" game in all circumstances... For example, I like the HP-per-location mechanics for combat (see above under "crunchy realism") ... except when we start looking at the modern era, which has a lot of disable-in-one-hit weapons &c. So for modern & sci-fi games, BRP isn't necessarily my go-to mechanic. I think it deserves better ways to handle skill-synergies and related-skill situations, both as-rolled (in use at the table), and as-learned (in character-generation). I know these games HAVE such ways... I just find them all a bit clunky (next to the brilliance of the core mechanic). Things can get kind of wonky at extraordinary/mastery skill-levels; different specific games introduce different specific ways to address this, but I'm not yet 100% convinced by any of them.

I presume, in this case, an authoritarian impulse from the top is setting policies to drive the street-level brutality; keep them oppressed, too afraid to rebel.

I'd make this something sci-fi-ish... There's probably some sort of easy-check ID in the clones, like an RFID chip (pet microchip) or some further-future variant; after all, the clone facilities will want to have ways to track their units before deploying them into service... why ever turn that off??? Think of how StarWars' storm troopers have ID-numbers instead of names (based on prior Clone-era storm troopers, even after they weren't clones any more). I envision law-enforcement patrols having HUD visors, which ID every Bulrathi; those with valid ID-chips (the overwhelming majority, except in elite neighborhoods) show one way, the elite "naturals" show another. Any Bulrathi who shows a glitch is most likely a criminal* who tried to hack their ID... Call for backup, lock&load, and take that perpetrator down hard ! * edit: probably it's actually just a technical glitch in the scan or the ID process, or a faulty chip, or other legit failure. But better safe than sorry when you're dealing with street scum!

New(ish) info! At the least, newly-sourced & up-to-date... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzUMFruRZkc&fbclid=IwAR1H8j4jT7Byc648Sf6ueVvO7j43cMrUFkc8vXjJYV92fYXmUJ6R9_tFXHY 25:50-30:55 has "future projects" for RQ (and then Pendragon after 30:55) Smoking Ruins is at the printer now, Pegasus Plateau next (Chaosium is intentionally loading up on adventures/scenarios). Then the RQ Starter Set box. Jonstown setting/citybook, (new?) pregen PCs, solo-adventure & a cluster of Jonstown-centric adventures; very much in the model of the CoC7e Starter box-set. I haven't previously seen mention of this, AFAIK, but a "Grazelander Campaignbook" is coming...? An "Arms&Equipment" book (dunno how this relates to Martin's book; I expect it's related somehow, though!). Cults book, with lots of work from a new artist (the guy doing much of CoC's Malleus Monstrorum). Red Book of Magic (spirit magic, rune magic, comprehensive spell compendium). "Campaignbook" for the Hero Wars -- like Pendragon's Boy King (I guess some have called it the "Argrathsaga"). Heroquesting rules... maybe in the campaign-book? Mechanical bits mostly worked out, but still working on narrative support for GM's and players who aren't deep-lore experts. Hoping for playtest'able / demo rules by approximately GenCon.

Fair enough! But HAVE you ever gone to a 'Con or a "game day" event (such as "Free RPG Day"), where GM's were running for whoever registered, whoever showed up, etc...? There's also regular "Organized Play" events like "Pathfinder Society" or "D&D Adventurer's League," and of course Chaosium's own "Cult of Chaos." Strangers GM'ing for you... It's definitely something that happens. And apparently, occasionally, the "professional GM" happens too. I think @Lloyd Dupont had an interesting (and valid) point: there have always been paid entertainers, this is just a new medium...

It is -- apparently -- a free PDF, released by the authors (who DO own the (c)). I don't know that they ever put a CreativeCommons, OGL, or other explicitly "free" license on it, but I also don't know that they didn't, or what it means if they "said" it was free but never put a license onto it. I appreciate your professionalism, Jeff, in not wanting to step on anyone's toes here! https://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=5136 May be a place to start, although the "official" website (linked at end of article) seems dead. Looks like there's other links there to follow, if one wanted to keep hunting it down...

Well... yes. For example, I can't point the OP to any actual furries here. Nor them to... uh... them (lack of a singular nongendered pronoun strikes again! )

I'd have to rule in favor of "the spirit of the spells" here, and Nope this one. YGMV.

Wlecome to BRP Central! I'm sure there are some other furries here (and/or otherkin of various sorts). I don't know that these are very visible or organized subcommunity here, however. You may want to look into the "Other Suns" RPG, which is BRP-ish I believe... Hard to get -- a bit of a collector's item -- but there are rumors of a possible new edition coming (maybe... eventually...) .

Hasbro bought them out & cancelled the project. Rights reverted to the authors, who released it for free. RuneSlayers Connors & Lawrence (I think) Don't have the link, but should be findable!

I think the Lunars have dogs "natively" -- not "adopted" from Balazar or anywhere else... q.v. "Saird," and other sources. They had dogs from the beginning. That said... they may well have broadened their use of dogs, seeing uses they hadn't seen previously, in some of their new territories.

Yes but (as noted in the snippet) that was FOUR YEARS AGO. And the details were notably lacking and "TBA" back then. No complaints on that front, it was clearly the only sensible approach! They didn't know how many Stretch Goals they'd be addressing, hadn't begun many of the needed processes, etc. "State of the Art" in printing and PoD'ing were (maybe still are) in flux. The didn't/couldn't know what they'd be producing, nor the production technology, market, etc, that would apply when they actually got to producing. Over-promising on indeterminate Stretch Goals is one of the notable ways to have KS-failure, or even having a company get "KickStarted to death." (Chaosium almost "KS'ed to death," from what I can tell, before The Return of the Great Old Ones and the inclusion of the MoonDesign team). BUT ... It's now 4 years later, and evidently(?) Rick is looking into this last element mentioned in the KS: availability of Stretch Goals as print / hardcopy versions. Hence, my hoping to get some insight as to what Chaosium now expects things to look like... Trollpak, for example, was several booklets & handouts and a map, as a boxed set. I think that I recall Rick clarifying (during the KS campaign) that there would be no box-sets; that each of smaller books/booklets from the RQ2 box-set era would be collected into one larger volume, per product, for the RQ Classic editions. I am presuming that handouts would go into those single volumes, too... But maybe I am wrong, because the RQ Classic core did include a separate suite of hand-outs. But maybe Chaosium wants to go the Slipcover route instead, and do them as the original (3?) booklets. Or maybe I misremember (or Chaosium sees things differently now than 4y ago), and the box-sets will be box-sets Or something different from any of these...?

There are groups where nobody feels "up to" GM'ing. They cannot muster the GM prep-time... or they take a look at the 5e DMG and nope on out from GM'ing... or whatever. There are groups where everyone wants to be a player, to have that player-experience, and/or none of them want to be in the quasi-isolated / quasi-adversarial GM's role. etc ... And, as noted, gaming conventions are VERY popular, and those GM's are in exactly that "stranger" role, and often get paid something; often no more than Comp-Con (attend the Con for free), but sometimes other stuff too. Paid GMs are, I think, mostly for the well-to-do crowd of players. It isn't necessarily all that different from having a "traditional family meal" event (such as Thanksgiving is in the USA) catered; or for hikers hiring a guide (vs "just going hiking") for a couple of similar-ish examples.

It can be incredibly difficult to tell the difference sometimes. West-Coast USA has had a spate of deaths recently from one of the asian-immigrant communities. One of their reliable staple mushrooms (that's safe to gather & eat) turns out to look identical to one of the varieties here that is horribly dangerous.

I have some memory of the name "Charg" as an artist. My google-fu is failing me at the moment, however. Or maybe it's the brain failing me, mistaken in that memory...