Finding SPQR

[thomas5251212]

In the light of Steve's passing, I've had an urge to reread what he'd done for SPQR, but I suspect the version I have (which I would have got from him more than a decade ago now) is probably out of date even given that he'd pretty much abandoned work on it.  Anyone know if there's any place to find the last version of it anywhere?

[g33k]

+1
I'd like to give SPQR a look, too...

 

 

[thomas5251212]

The last version I have comes from 2008.  I'm not actually sure Steve did any work past that period on it, though I vaguely remember him saying he was doing some a few years ago.  I'm not sure the legality of offering up the stuff I have though I have trouble seeing Steve objecting to keeping it available to those interested; I know he was making some small amount of money on subscriptions to his updates at one time, but like I said, I think that's been many years ago at this point, and may have been to keep his powder dry if he ever got it to the point he wanted to publish it proper.

[g33k]

I would happily pay for the PDF (depending, I might even be interested in hardcopy).

 

[thomas5251212]

Unfortunately, I don't know any way to do that; the copies I got were given to me directly from Steve when he was running a short campaign for us a dozen years ago.  And the subscription thing appears likely to have fallen by the wayside a number of years ago, at least were I to guess from the fact his own website has been parked for some time now.

[Mugen]

I only own the free character creation chapter, which is surely obsolete now. It was an interesting read, but I never took the time to acquire other parts of the game.

[simonh]

The PDF I have has a mod date of 2002 in the metadata. I can't remember when or where I got it, in fact I'd forgotten I even had it, but the file creation date says 2010. I vaguely remember finding Steve's web site and being in touch with him at some point so that must have been it.

Edited September 1, 2021 by simonh

[thomas5251212]

Sounds like I probably have about as late a version as there is, then.

[Joerg]

Maybe a version could be made available as a fund raiser for Louise?

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Joerg said:

Maybe a version could be made available as a fund raiser for Louise?

I was thinking the same thing!

I don't think Steve had advanced it to the point of being a "manuscript" -- it was just playtest rules (afaik, that is:  I only played once with him, and AFAIK it was RQG-RAW (although he may have included some SPQRism's behind the GM screen, without anyone being the wiser)).

But I suspect more than one of the talented editors and layout folks over at the Jonstown Compendium would be willing to step out of that format and donate some time to Luise, and to Steve's memory.

For all I know, maybe Chaosium even has plans that way... although they have a *lot* on their plates already, so I put that as a long-shot.

[thomas5251212]

Someone who knows Luise better than I do would need to talk to her about that, I suspect; I'd be willing to do some of the work (I've done editing in the industry before), but am probably a bad person to try and put the project together.

[Al.]

The only public domain version I'm aware of is on talmeta.net

It's described as being 'RQ house rules' by Steve Perrin but I think that it's very similar (and actually in some areas superior) to the bits of SPQR I've seen.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Al.
to too two