No HQ/QW at Chaosium Con 2024

[Mark Mohrfield]

Sorry to report that my HeroQuest game at Glorantha Con had only one person show up, and so wasn’t run. Only one person actually bothered to officially cancel out of the four who didn’t show. So no representation of QW/HQ at Chaosium Con this year.🙁

[g33k]

On 4/22/2024 at 1:41 PM, Mark Mohrfield said:

Sorry to report that my HeroQuest game at Glorantha Con had only one person show up, and so wasn’t run. Only one person actually bothered to officially cancel out of the four who didn’t show. So no representation of QW/HQ at Chaosium Con this year.🙁

That's a shame!

But tends a bit to reinforce @Chaosium's scant resource-allocation to the QW project.  It's not like the Chaosium-Con attendees will be generally unaware of the product-line; so it's not a matter of "lack of advertising" or the like.  Attendees voted with their registrations, and their attendance.

I do not doubt that there is some way to elevate the QW product-line in the market, attract new blood & new attention, etc etc etc.

But in this "golden age" of rpg-productivity, it's increasingly hard (for which read "expensive") to stand out & gain  that attention.

[mfbrandi]

17 hours ago, g33k said:

But tends a bit to reinforce @Chaosium's scant resource-allocation to the QW project.

Possibly — only possibly — there is a bit of a vicious circle. One story (dismal): Chaosium thinks the people aren’t interested, so it is not interested, the PDF doesn’t come out when expected, and shiny new QW — as opposed to HQG — gets pulled as a JC target; the people think Chaosium isn’t interested, so in the unlikely event they were thinking of publishing for QW on the JC, they abandon the idea; USW. “[T]he fancy is overrun with wild dismal ideas, and terrified with a thousand hideous monsters of its own framing.” — JA

Another story (happier for some): QW is pulled as a JC target because the QW release is being held back to sync with an HQG retrofit genre pack; this makes sense of the HQG-only JC policy (as on the face of it limiting people to an OOP/unsupported version of the rules is perverse). “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” — J of N

In all likelihood, both stories are completely wrong, but we have to have something to keep us amused while we wait to see how things turn out.

Still, it is a shame people didn’t/couldn’t turn up when they said they would.

EDIT: And of course, it was all nonsense — see Nick Brooke’s comment below.

Edited April 25 by mfbrandi
footnote/link

[Squaredeal Sten]

I have been curious about Heroquest/ Questworld, but when I hit registration your session  was already filled up. so getting into it was not a choice for me. 

And there was only that one QW session.

But all I read into it is that

(1) QW is in pre publication limbo, so people didnt run more.  Which is too bad because a number of people seem to have liked HQ.  Perhaps Chaosium will publish QW before next con, so it doesn't slide into oblivion.

(2) Chaosiumcon is not immune from a tendency to have eyes bigger than stomach at registration time.  And although Tabletop.events has a mechanic for people to drop out and make their seats available, a lot of people don't actually do that.  Perhaps some incentive (positive or negative)  to play that game is appropriate.  We might usefully discuss how to do that.

[Nick Brooke]

FYI @mfbrandi, the QW SRD was "pulled as a JC target" because bad actors coached people in ways they could abuse the clear intent of the Jonstown Compendium's rules by creating retroclones of unsupported games. ("You can publish material for Hero Wars and 1e HeroQuest on the JC, even though Chaosium told you not to do that, if you reimplement those rulesets using the QW SRD" -- bad idea.)

QW community content sales are low, and there are hardly any QW products on the store, despite the lack of barriers to entry and the relative ease of writing statless scenarios. (I hate writing statblocks, but I publish for RuneQuest because that's where all the customers are.) Only one of them has made it to Electrum best-seller (the wonderful Valley of Plenty, once again available as a digital edition after a lengthy hiatus). This is how the market tells you that suppliers and customers aren't interested.

If I were you, I wouldn't expect a HQG retrofit genre pack any time soon.

[mfbrandi]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

I wouldn't expect a HQG retrofit genre pack any time soon.

That’s fine. Never is fine, too.

Thanks for the clarification.

[g33k]

6 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

... and there are hardly any QW products on the store, despite the lack of barriers to entry and the relative ease of writing statless scenarios. (I hate writing statblocks, but I publish for RuneQuest because that's where all the customers are.) Only one of them has made it to Electrum best-seller (the wonderful Valley of Plenty, once again available as a digital edition after a lengthy hiatus). This is how the market tells you that suppliers and customers aren't interested...

I think there's a bit of nuance missing from that last bit...  The whole "HQW" product line never really seemed to gain all that much traction, even when it was the only Gloranthan game in print.  Maybe that was "the market" telling us; but maybe it was (the perennial accusation) just not supported/marketed as it deserved.  Issaries was never but a very-tiny company, after all, though Greg licensed to Moon Design (and others) in an effort to get more resources for the line(s).

Maybe "the market" has spoken... but maybe the market was never adequately engaged...

I'd love to ask the question in relative terms:  what percent of all RQ titles on the JC go to Electrum or better?  And what percent of QW titles do so?
Perhaps the singular datum that is Valley of Plenty renders such a query statistically invalid.  But we're deep into the Black Arts of market-analysis here.

[g33k]

7 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

...

If I were you, I wouldn't expect a HQG retrofit genre pack any time soon.

Does that also apply to a QW clean-sheet genre-pack for Glorantha?
Or specifically to the idea of a "HQG retrofit"?

[Nick Brooke]

4 hours ago, g33k said:

Does that also apply to a QW clean-sheet genre-pack for Glorantha?

I would not expect one of those any time soon.

[Nick Brooke]

4 hours ago, g33k said:

I'd love to ask the question in relative terms:  what percent of all RQ titles on the JC go to Electrum or better?  And what percent of QW titles do so?

I’ll crunch some numbers for you tomorrow, if I can find the time. For QuestWorlds-only titles, it’s easy: there are 5 releases for that system — one Electrum, three Silver, one Copper.

[Mark Mohrfield]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

I would not expect one of those any time soon.

That I must say is a big let down for me. I would really like to see this product. 

[AndreJarosch]

Once the QuestWorld main book is published the only Gloranthan QW book i would like to see is a "How to convert RQG into QW". 
If that book is called a "QW Glorantha genre pack", than this is what i would like to see. 

No further Gloranthan publications for QW needed besides that, at least that is how i feel. 

[Bahntah]

So what's the new vision for QW?

Open generic system with no "official" settings?

Many micro settings a la FATE?

[Mark Mohrfield]

9 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

Once the QuestWorld main book is published the only Gloranthan QW book i would like to see is a "How to convert RQG into QW". 
If that book is called a "QW Glorantha genre pack", than this is what i would like to see. 

No further Gloranthan publications for QW needed besides that, at least that is how i feel. 

While equaling RQ publications is a clear impossibility, I think Glorantha is sufficiently deep and complicated to require at least a couple of supplements to properly cover. Though how to separate the supplements I don’t know.

[Nick Brooke]

10 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

I’ll crunch some numbers for you tomorrow, if I can find the time. For QuestWorlds-only titles, it’s easy: there are 5 releases for that system — one Electrum, three Silver, one Copper.

Here you go: best-seller medals in each product category (as per my Catalogue), using current data. The two bumper-size December Monsters of the Month are counted as RuneQuest Scenarios. The chart on p.199 of the 2023 Catalogue has a more sophisticated presentation, but I'm not planning to update that for a while yet.

Edited April 26 by Nick Brooke

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

1 hour ago, AndreJarosch said:

Once the QuestWorld main book is published the only Gloranthan QW book i would like to see is a "How to convert RQG into QW". 
If that book is called a "QW Glorantha genre pack", than this is what i would like to see. 

No further Gloranthan publications for QW needed besides that, at least that is how i feel. 

Why would fans of Questworlds who aren't already playing RQ make stuff in RQ? There is little money in fan RQ stuff, if they are going to produce for money they might as well do D&D.

If you like the system that much to convert stuff over, surely you must want stuff for the system?

[Runeblogger]

Please, Chaosium, release the QuestWorlds book. 🙏🙏🙏

It can only do good. 
Please release as well a supplement to play in Glorantha with QuestWorlds. The more systems to play in Glorantha, the better!!! ✊😀

Please do not be afraid it will substract customers from your RQG line. It won’t. Both games cater to very different tastes in gaming. Also some gamers like me like to play both RQG and QuestWorlds! 😀

[Mondegreen]

I would love to see QuestWorlds, too. 

[albesias]

I was the happiest man on earth when you published the Basic Roleplaying's new edition (even if there is no gold leatherette edition).

The publication of Questworld, oh, if I told you ...

Just a pdf

(And a couple of illustrations by Hiekkala)

And if it works

You can include it in ORC

People love that shit

Come on, please!

[AndreasDavour]

On 4/24/2024 at 11:07 PM, mfbrandi said:

Possibly — only possibly — there is a bit of a vicious circle. One story (dismal): Chaosium thinks the people aren’t interested, so it is not interested, the PDF doesn’t come out when expected, and shiny new QW — as opposed to HQG — gets pulled as a JC target; the people think Chaosium isn’t interested, so in the unlikely event they were thinking of publishing for QW on the JC, they abandon the idea;

This is of course a factor.

I know I wouldn't commit to publishing something for QW if I didn't know there would be a QW rules set published soon.

[soltakss]

On 4/25/2024 at 10:07 PM, Nick Brooke said:

Here you go: best-seller medals in each product category (as per my Catalogue), using current data. The two bumper-size December Monsters of the Month are counted as RuneQuest Scenarios. The chart on p.199 of the 2023 Catalogue has a more sophisticated presentation, but I'm not planning to update that for a while yet.

Thanks Nick.

The Maps chart always surprises me, with only a few reaching Copper Sellers. Does nobody like maps any more? 

[Nick Brooke]

Maps have always sold badly. The best-sellers are regional maps for published campaigns:

• Anders Tönnberg's Balazar Maps are a Silver best-seller (101-150 sales), and his Elder Wilds, Dorastor and South Pelorian maps are all Copper (51-100).
• Dario Corallo's gorgeous Big Rubble and Dorastor Maps are Copper, and his Pamaltela Map is within 10 sales of Copper.
• Mikael Mansen's map of Dragon Pass is Copper, his Jonstown Area map is almost Copper, and none of his other maps has sold more than 35 copies (the ones that sell best are of published campaign settings: Elf Sea, Eastern Rockwoods and Upland Marsh).
• The hex map of the River of Cradles just made Copper.
• The dirt-cheap Rainbow Caves map is five from Copper.

Setting those 14 aside, the other 82 maps on the Jonstown Compendium have sold an average of 10 copies each.

[soltakss]

13 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Maps have always sold badly.

It really is a shame.

But, I am pleased to see that both sets of Dorastor maps are Copper Sellers.

[Nick Brooke]

12 minutes ago, soltakss said:

It really is a shame.

But, I am pleased to see that both sets of Dorastor maps are Copper Sellers.

Obviously lots of people want to go to Dorastor...

[jajagappa]

1 hour ago, soltakss said:

The Maps chart always surprises me, with only a few reaching Copper Sellers. Does nobody like maps any more? 

I think maps work best in context - i.e. as part of a sourcebook or scenario.