Related system: Mongoose RuneQuest

[Trifletraxor]

Have anyone tried out MRQ2? If so, what do you think about it? Do you play it RAW or do you houserule? What's the ups and downs of the system?

I'm planning on getting it when "Pavis Rises" is out, and then give it a final try.

SGL.

[Daxos232]

I got it back around march or april and I have read through the book thoroughly. It looks a lot better than the MRQ1 Players Handbook. It explains things a lot better and the editing is very good.

My group started playing MRQ1, and they didn't like its combat system. They had only played D&D before, and did not like going around the table multiple times for actions. I explained the old RQ strike ranks system to them and they didn't want to touch it with a 10ft pole.

MRQ2's combat system looks cool, and from the tests I've run with a friend, its fast and deadly. My group prefers a house ruled system that's altered to be like D&D though.

They streamlined Common, Divine, and Sorcery Magic. Spirit Magic is somewhat confusing and I personally don't like it very much. It still seems paltry compared to the other magic systems, and I'm just going to have my shamanic cultures use Divine magic with rules for summoning spirits and such.

Lots of other things like skills, armor penalties, encumbrance, travel, and character creation are revised well, and I have used the rules for them unaltered. The character sheet they provide is functional, but my group and I use a custom one I made myself.

For it's price I think its a good purchase and I'm glad I bought it because its a big step up from MRQ1.

[lawrence.whitaker]

Thanks for the feedback.

Interesting though: the strike rank system between MRQ1 and RQII is unchanged...

[RosenMcStern]

I explained the old RQ strike ranks system to them and they didn't want to touch it with a 10ft pole.

I think he meant the Chaosium version of Strike Rank.

Here is my experience with MRQ2. I will not report my personal comment, only the results of the two last playtests/demos I ran. Both groups know the base mechanics of CoC rather well but have never played RuneQuest consistently.

Playtest 1 (Aug 31): I ran "The Beast of Gren Dahl Mor" from Tradetalk 1 (1996, and still fun) in a non-Glorantha setting. The players had the creature fall into a pit trap with a successful Disguise vs. Perception opposed test, then two of them jumped into the hole and administered several criticals to the beast before realizing that their weapons were ineffective. Then the magicians hit it with Wrack from outside the pit while the others kept it still.

Result: even a player who has an entry named "I hate RuneQuest" on his blog admitted that the combat options and the manipulative magic were cool.

Playtest 2 (Sep 12): I ran my "Kidnapping in al-Halisa". The player broke into a magician's house by dismantling the lock with Form Iron, and engaged the guy's spirit and undead servants with (True)sword, bow and sorcery. We experimented "over the top" combat when the paladin almost beheaded a spellcasting bad guy, only to suffer a Palsy spell when his opponent made both his Resilience and Persistence roll to continue casting, and the magician Neutralized the control spell on a spirit, only to see the enemy magician recast it with Manipulation Magnitude in order to make it undispellable. After a while they settled the dispute with the magician (once they realized that the tough guy that they had had a hard time downing was in fact the familiar and not the boss) and proceeded to the real target. There they had another exchange of blows with some bandits, using both melee and missile weapons and defeating them. Lastly, they uncovered the bandits' employer and broke into his house, neutralizing a 2m tall guard in unarmed combat.

Result: again, the players liked the Combat Options very much.

[Redcrow]

I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I have read through the main rules and really like what I've seen so far. The combat maneuvers really appeal to me and give a sense of dynamic combat without all the bloat of some other games that can slow things down to a crawl.

I'm really looking forward to trying this game.

[Daxos232]

RosenMcstern was right there, by "old RQ" I meant RQ from chaosium. Don't get me wrong though Loz, I think you did an awesome job on MRQ2, its easy to understand and use. I don't like spirit magic much, but that's just my personal opinion. I'm going to try MRQ2's combat system RAW when I can convince my group to play without miniatures and a board.

[Rungard]

Playtest 2 (Sep 12): I ran my "Kidnapping in al-Halisa".

Where can I find this scenario?

[RosenMcStern]

Why without a board? MRQII works well with miniatures, too. You know how far you can move, and you have several manoeuvers that push oppponents back, so a combat grid is a help, not a hindrance, if you want to use it.

[RosenMcStern]

Where can I find this scenario?

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59276&filters=0_0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2555

The electronic edition includes also the maps and cardboard figures to play it.

For the sourcebook: http://www.alephtargames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=39%3Ahistorical&id=52%3Astupor-mundi&Itemid=59

P.S: it is for MRQ 1, but the differences are not so great.

Edited September 16, 2010 by RosenMcStern

[dstack1776]

I'm currently running a Vinland Saga MRQII game, featuring Vikings, Lenape Indians, dragons, and dinosaurs....

The players like the system. I find it a bit tricky keeping track of number of combat actions - I think I like the OpenQuest method of you have an attack and defense and one more if you have two weapons or a shield...

The maneuvers are neat and the players like them, but it does get very deadly if you don't have a reaction to use against a foe. This makes me as GM need to be a bit more careful when dealing with beasts designed to take on the whole party.

[Daxos232]

The reason I want to try playing without a board is because I have heard many people on this forum say they find miniatures, "too restricting". My group has always played with a board, and I wanted to try it without to see if it encourages more roleplay and creativity from players.

Dstack1776 has a point with the deadliness of MRQ2. But I don't think its anymore so than BRP, its just easier to do "cinematic" action.

[RosenMcStern]

The players like the system. I find it a bit tricky keeping track of number of combat actions - I think I like the OpenQuest method of you have an attack and defense and one more if you have two weapons or a shield...

I often play with a fixed number of actions (three is the best) plus shield. The best way to keep track of actions is to use beads: have three dark beads for every player, and one light one for two-weapon users, and that's it.

[soltakss]

I'm currently running a Vinland Saga MRQII game, featuring Vikings, Lenape Indians, dragons, and dinosaurs....

Would you like to post any of the details on the Alternate Earth RQ Yahoo Group (See signature for links)? We'd love to hear about it, especially setting information, magic and scenarios.

[DamonJynx]

Hi! I'm kinda new to BRP and was wondering how compatible MRQ2 is with BRP? I was asking some friends if they had Stormbringer 5th Ed and all I could borrow was Elric, the MRQ2 version. At a quick glance it seems very similar.

[Verderer]

I recently bought RQII rulebook, and I am well chuffed about it. It seems to handle combat very elegantly, and solves some of problems that BRP has. Mean strike ranks & weapons sr mainly, but also some other minor things. I don't mean to say BRP is hopeless in this regard, but it does seem a bit vague at points. And the combat maneuvres of RQII seem pretty handy. They should make combat fast, colourful and lethal I expect?

You see, I haven't yet tried either system in practice. But I am inclined to replace BRP with RQII for the more melee oriented games (fantasy & pre-modern), and reserve BRP for scifi and modern games, where melee combat is not the main focus. Especially as many of the sourcebooks I have are already in RQ format (Stupor Mundi, RQ pirates, Merrie England and Clockwork & Chivalry). The systems are very similar on the surface, but different enought that you need to be pretty experienced GM to quickly convert material between systems, I think? So I don't think I will bother, especially as RQII seems better suited for these games anyways.

I haven't really thought about the differences between their magic systems, as that's not really that important to me. But I would guess magic rules would be the easiest parts to shift between these systems?

[General Panic]

While my group of AHRQ3 grognards took a bit of time to get used to the combat system in MRQ2, we didn't find it more deadly - it played a nice balance between realism and cinematic fun. Character stats tended towards average, so only one character had a damage bonus, and weapons were mostly on the damage range of 1D6-1D8. Hence with no general hit points to erode,

even with limited armour it takes some effort to put people down unless you make good use of CMs.

The two key fights in the last session both ended well before anyone was actually dead - but there were participants helpless or hors de combat, or weakened by, for example, two impaled arrows that thanks to armour were not going to kill (yet) but rendered the victim extremely vulnerable. Skills were low, hence a -20% penalty to their use from these arrows was fight-finishing for that particular character. It was clear already who was going to win this fight, that for the losers hanging around was now likely to result in death, and it was time to run away, or at least to try and parlay.

In fact it seems the big question arising is the roleplaying challenge of helpless or badly wounded characters or npcs who are not at death's door but are now at the mercy of the winners. Not as neat as having lopped off a couple of legs and arms and watching them bleed out. The Adventurers are now faced with whether they kill in cold blood, burden themselves with prisoners or simply loot and let them go. That's where things get interesting, but also fiddly - the GM needs to think thru what consequences each path might lead to.

[RosenMcStern]

You see, I haven't yet tried either system in practice. But I am inclined to replace BRP with RQII for the more melee oriented games (fantasy & pre-modern), and reserve BRP for scifi and modern games, where melee combat is not the main focus.

Definitely. Each variant of the basic systems shines in a different area.

[Mugen]

I haven't really thought about the differences between their magic systems, as that's not really that important to me. But I would guess magic rules would be the easiest parts to shift between these systems?

Definitely, yes.

In my opinion, the differences between recent editions of BRP and MRQ shows that the best thing with BRP-related systems is the ease with which you can pick a sub-system from any game and "plug" it in you game.

I mean, you can do it with any system, but it will be a tiresome work.

[RosenMcStern]

Be careful with this assumption. The MRQ magic system relies heavily on opposed rolls and on Combat Reactions (MRQ Countermagic would simply not work in a plaing BRP game). Conversely, BRP magic relies heavily on the Resistance Table, which does not exist in MRQ. There is some work needed to convert between the two approaches.

[seneschal]

Be careful with this assumption. The MRQ magic system relies heavily on opposed rolls and on Combat Reactions (MRQ Countermagic would simply not work in a plaing BRP game). Conversely, BRP magic relies heavily on the Resistance Table, which does not exist in MRQ. There is some work needed to convert between the two approaches.

Could you use this as a feature in a crossover game, where PCs (or the villains they're battling) get transferred to another world and suddenly their powers (magical or otherwise) don't work the way they used to? In addition to comic books, we've seen this trope in The Magician's Nephew and Elfquest #1.

[dragonewt]

Could you use this as a feature in a crossover game, where PCs (or the villains they're battling) get transferred to another world and suddenly their powers (magical or otherwise) don't work the way they used to? In addition to comic books, we've seen this trope in The Magician's Nephew and Elfquest #1.

Imagine the fun in a game where characters move from a "Roll Under" game systems universe to a "Roll Over" game system universe (where the requirements from a character's original system mechanics are maintained rather than converted).

Otherwise, I would not use "Game Mechanics" to represent "Universe/World Mechanics (Physics/Laws)". I would most likely simulate the change of universe via roll-play and special effect within the rules mechanics of the new system.

[sdavies2720]

Imagine the fun in a game where characters move from a "Roll Under" game systems universe to a "Roll Over" game system universe (where the requirements from a character's original system mechanics are maintained rather than converted).

Otherwise, I would not use "Game Mechanics" to represent "Universe/World Mechanics (Physics/Laws)". I would most likely simulate the change of universe via roll-play and special effect within the rules mechanics of the new system.

For reference, see the comic Order of the Stick http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html, where the characters are aware of (and regularly discuss) rule changes, leveling, etc. The first episode has them converting to D&D3.5