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Where We're At


lawrence.whitaker

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Thought I'd share with you a little of where RQ6 is at.

First, several chapters are now in layout. Some artwork is still to come in, but the design and structure of the book is taking shape. Others chapters are still being edited, and the final chapters are in the hands of the playtest crews, but we're nearing the home straight.

What this means, in terms of publication, is clearly not the 'Early 2012' we'd promised. Real Life intervened for both Pete and I which slowed some things down. What we're now looking at is 'Early Summer' - and the vague goal I've set is for RQ6 to be available, in print, for GenCon (which I'll be attending), if not a little before. So we're still shying away from specifying a particular release date, because a whole mountain of things could happen to cause it to slip: but I am hoping that June/July is reasonable. It should be. A great deal of work is being done and we want to make the best book possible, which will mean detailed proofing and final error-trapping before I send finals off to the printers.

We will open pre-ordering before publication. Once the book is fully laid-out we'll know its complete size, and can therefore price it accurately. How pre-ordering will work is dependent on a few background factors, one of which is how well the e-commerce facilities from our Site Provider work. They have new tools that I've yet to test, and it could be that we plug into Moon Design's e-commerce facilities instead. But rest assured you'll be able to order RQ6 from us, in advance, using a variety of payment methods.

So we're chugging along nicely. I know its frustrating waiting for is to say 'Guys, it'll be out on X of N, send us yer money...' but it will be worth the wait. We said from the start that we wanted to deliver the most complete and best edition of RQ that we can, and we're sticking to that goal.

But we do appreciate your patience and are looking forward to rewarding it. We will post some layout previews soon.

The Design Mechanism: Publishers of Mythras

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Thanks for the update.

(Gotta squeeze in Ducks somehow, despite the mixed fan reaction. RuneQuest without Ducks is like McDonald's without Big Macs. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're part of what makes the game different from Brand X.)

Edited by seneschal
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Thanks for the update.

(Gotta squeeze in Ducks somehow, despite the mixed fan reaction. RuneQuest without Ducks is like McDonald's without Big Macs. Love 'em or hate 'em, they're part of what makes the game different from Brand X.)

We'll leave the Ducks for the Glorantha supplement. They really are divisive little bastards and I don't want to start alienating a section of the customer-base if I can avoid it. :-)

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Guest Vile Traveller

We'll leave the Ducks for the Glorantha supplement. They really are divisive little bastards and I don't want to start alienating a section of the customer-base if I can avoid it. :-)

Abso-ducking-lutely! >:>

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I must say I am also enthusiastic about a new edition of RuneQuest - considering the job you did on the last edition, which was terrific.

I'm not sure if the play testing is all done and dusted, but some questions:

1) would it be possible to have cheat sheets made up for combat maneuvers, and a character design sheet to allow you to add up the skill scores stage by stage?

2) Is Mysticism going to be similar to that used by the Dragon Cults in Glorantha, or will it be broader to encounter things like Zen, Sufi-ism etc?

3) Somebody asked in your forum about Chargen being based upon 3d6 for all Characteristics. Personally, I thought this was a good idea (with the stipulation of re-rolls for any score 6 or less). What do you think?

4) What about a sidebar suggesting throwing attack, hit location and damage dice all at once? Also, in the interests of it being a book that beginners can pick up, might you include a brief line or two describing the dice that are used? Fundamentally, the game uses % dice, plus d20 for hit location and polyhedrals for damage.

5) Will the PDF come out first?

6) How about making some reference to the Hero's Journey (Joseph Campbell) in the inevitable GMs advice section?

7) I notice you're name in the credits for the BRP Advanced Sorcery book. How compatible with RuneQuest 6 would it be?

8) How soon is now with regards to Pete Nash's Ancient Greece book?! Any thoughts of also encouraging him to do Ancient Aztecs, Ancient Polynesia and Ancient Egypt too? :)

That's me done for the time being..... :7

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I must say I am also enthusiastic about a new edition of RuneQuest - considering the job you did on the last edition, which was terrific.

Thank you!

I'm not sure if the play testing is all done and dusted, but some questions:

1) would it be possible to have cheat sheets made up for combat maneuvers, and a character design sheet to allow you to add up the skill scores stage by stage?

The appendix will contain all the most useful charts in one place, and CMs (now renamed Special Effects) will have their own section. A character design sheet is an idea we're considering; much depends on structure, but it would be a good appendix addition and website download.

2) Is Mysticism going to be similar to that used by the Dragon Cults in Glorantha, or will it be broader to encounter things like Zen, Sufi-ism etc?

The latter, most definitely.

3) Somebody asked in your forum about Chargen being based upon 3d6 for all Characteristics. Personally, I thought this was a good idea (with the stipulation of re-rolls for any score 6 or less). What do you think?

We've opted to stick with 3d6 and 2d6+6 for INT and SIZ.

4) What about a sidebar suggesting throwing attack, hit location and damage dice all at once? Also, in the interests of it being a book that beginners can pick up, might you include a brief line or two describing the dice that are used? Fundamentally, the game uses % dice, plus d20 for hit location and polyhedrals for damage.

Nice idea. Better in the GMs' Chapter though.

5) Will the PDF come out first?

No. Print first, then PDF.

6) How about making some reference to the Hero's Journey (Joseph Campbell) in the inevitable GMs advice section?

Funnily enough, I've been watching a 4-hr PBS documentary/interview with Campbell which goes, in-depth, into his many works on mythology and I was musing on how incorporate his themes and ideas. We'll see.

7) I notice you're name in the credits for the BRP Advanced Sorcery book. How compatible with RuneQuest 6 would it be?

News to me! I suspect my name's in there because I gave Zomben permission to use the Unknown East magic system. In terms of compatibility though, all the BRP family of games are highly compatible, although there's no overt attempt to make RQ6 and Magic World 100% so. Both have been developed independently.

8) How soon is now with regards to Pete Nash's Ancient Greece book?! Any thoughts of also encouraging him to do Ancient Aztecs, Ancient Polynesia and Ancient Egypt too?

Its a little way off. Pete's keen to do the Ancient Greece book, but we have other projects before attempting Aztecs, Polynesian, and so on.

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Is there any chance RQ6 will be available at Continuum? Will there be any demonstration games for Continuum?

We're hoping so. At the very least Pete will be there in person (I can't be, sadly, although I intend to attend the RQ panel virtually) and we hope the book will be ready by then. If not, we'll be armed with previews.

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Thank you for informing us about the delay, unfortunately such things happen. I don't care how long I have to wait, if you need more time to finish the game, so be it. I hope RQ6 will be at least as good as, or even better than MRQ2.

Grając zaś w grę komputerową, być może zdarzyło się wam zapragnąć zejść z wyznaczonej przez autorów ścieżki i, miast zabić smoka i ożenić się z księżniczką, zabić księżniczkę i ożenić się ze smokiem.

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7) I notice you're name in the credits for the BRP Advanced Sorcery book. How compatible with RuneQuest 6 would it be?

News to me! I suspect my name's in there because I gave Zomben permission to use the Unknown East magic system. In terms of compatibility though, all the BRP family of games are highly compatible, although there's no overt attempt to make RQ6 and Magic World 100% so. Both have been developed independently.

Yup!

Loz's excellent Unknown Eastern magic is now "Deep Magic" in Advanced Sorcery. I'm really excited to get it back in print again.

Please don't contact me with Chaosium questions. I'm no longer associated with the company, and have no idea what the new management is doing.

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I take it the enormous royalty cheque is in the post?

I hope they did not subtract the cost of the envelope and the

postage for the cheque, otherwise you might end up having to

pay cash on delivery ... ;)

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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We're hoping so. At the very least Pete will be there in person (I can't be, sadly, although I intend to attend the RQ panel virtually) and we hope the book will be ready by then. If not, we'll be armed with previews.

Good to know, I look forward to seeing it and meeting Pete. Shame you can only be there virtually, but them's the breaks.

Clearly, "what I like" is awesome, and a well-considered, educated opinion. While "what other people like" is stupid, and just a bunch of made up gobbledygoook. - zomben

Victor of the "I Bought, We Won"

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Darn, my first disappointement about RQ6. I was so much hoping RQ6 would streamline this useless distinction. Oh well, it doesn't make or break the game.

No it doesn't, but it would have been nice to see the change. In my view, the presence of fixed Intelligence scores for animal level intelligence, and a points-buy option in character generation does indeed make the distinction redundant. All these scores, on one level at least, are abstract measurements - so I can't actually see the simulationary or technical advantage of using 2d6+6 for SIZ and INT respectively. Wasn't it the case, anyway, that the original RuneQuest utilized a uniform 3d6 for all scores?

In my view, they should make it uniform 3d6 with the simple caveat that scores 6 and below for any characteristic can be rerolled at the player's prerogative. And of course, a player could also simply distribute 80 points instead of rolling.

Just my view of course, and I'm happy to hear counter arguments. It's just I'm not aware what the counterarguments really are.

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I'm not sure where all the hate for 2d6+6 comes from - it's a distinction without a difference, but it's not exactly the end of the world, and I'm sure it won't break anything if your world has humans who roll 3d6 for everything.

Wasn't it the case, anyway, that the original RuneQuest utilized a uniform 3d6 for all scores?

The old red book was 3d6 for each. My books tell me that 2d6+6 was first added in the AH version, but it may also have been used in one of the other non-Runequest d100 games as well.

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I'm not sure where all the hate for 2d6+6 comes from - it's a distinction without a difference, but it's not exactly the end of the world, and I'm sure it won't break anything if your world has humans who roll 3d6 for everything.

The old red book was 3d6 for each. My books tell me that 2d6+6 was first added in the AH version, but it may also have been used in one of the other non-Runequest d100 games as well.

It's not hate, it's just a really redundant distinction. What is the argument for keeping it?
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