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What is the status of RQ6 Glorantha?


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47 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

I guess in regards to Chaosium the weird thing now is CoC 7E is still the odd one out. I would have thought if such an overhaul in game mechanics were happening then there would be a move to make the RQ and CoC lines more similar in some respects, but I'm still reasonably  happy things are turning out as they are.
 

Hopefully CoC 7e will remain a fluke and not backwash into other stuff... or any other 'storygame' elements for that matter. Just not my taste despite being trendy.

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smiorgan:

>Are BRP Essentials and Mythic Iceland 2 confirmed?

Yes and yes

>Is BRP Essentials to be based on RQ4 aka RQ7?

The other way round.

>Is the RQ6-based draft of BRP Essentials discarded? 

Many elements of RQ6 are part of the current draft.

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31 minutes ago, MOB said:

...

>Is BRP Essentials to be based on RQ4 aka RQ7?

The other way round.

Thanks a lot for the answers about BRP and Mythic Iceland. It's great that Mythic Iceland remains on the cards.

I was under the impression that RQ7 was bein developed starting from the RQ2 manuscript rather than on the BRP essentials draft, as per Jeff's post below.  

13 hours ago, Jeff said:

We are big believers in starting from first principles whenever we do a book, and in the case of RuneQuest, RQ2 is that foundational document. 

But I get the general vibe and I appreciate the updates.

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Ridiculous decision making.

If you want to expand the fans and users of the RQ system you make a generic set of base rules - a non-specific set based on the superior RQ6 chassis, and then release significant and weighty genre and campaign world expansions to suit everyone's tastes.

You don't recouple it to ONE campaign world and abandon all those who love the system but don't play in Glorantha.

This is backwards thinking at it's most myopic by fans of Glorantha, not clear sighted fans of the SYSTEM.

I have played every iteration of RQ and like to Homebrew. I enjoyed Glorantha at times, but most of the time like to go to other places with my games. BRP never did it for me as it was dated and clunky. RQ6 was a revelation and brilliantly executed.

What you should be doing is using the framework of that near flawless set of rules and building from that. Instead you've chopped the legs off Design Mechanism, who have to smile about it publically whilst you saw through the bone.

I am amazed - absolutely amazed. It is of course your licence, but having opened it up to other worlds and genres is it sensible or fair to close it all down again?

The RQ6 game system, paired down to a well thought our baseline could have been the launchpad for a thousand worlds. Now it's going to serve one master, and whilst it is of course it's original master, it is a retrograde step that won't see my money, or the money of a significant number of people.

You are hard-coupling the best simulationist tabletop roleplay system in the gaming world, bar none, to a single facet of the gem it could have been.

You could have had your Glorantha in all it's glory without doing that, and I for one and most unhappy you've chosen to freeze the many non-Gloranthans who love the system completely out.

Edited by Caliburn
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30 minutes ago, Caliburn said:

The RQ6 game system, paired down to a well thought our baseline could have been the launchpad for a thousand worlds.

It still can be... just not through Chaosium. The books that TDM have put out... particularly the Luther Arkwright setting, already open it up to a huge variety of play.

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I will continue to follow Design Mechanism as well as Choasium Moon Design, and hopefully get the best of both worlds.

I guess it is up to the Design Mechanism fan base to promote the fact that whatever the new game Design Mechanism come out with, it will be essientially a rebranded RQ6.

I am happy that Design Mechanism will be freed up to follow other pusuits, such as the Mythic series and Luther Arkwright, but I just hope they dont lose any commercial identity in the rebranding.

I can understand Chaosium Moon Design wanting a tight hold of RuneQuest, and if its along the lines that Jeff said then it sounds good to me.

My only concern is whether all these versions of BRP are going to strengthen or weaken the market. Only time will tell.

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57 minutes ago, Mankcam said:

My only concern is whether all these versions of BRP are going to strengthen or weaken the market. Only time will tell.

As i said in an earlier post, the core of this new RQ is mechanically very close to RQ6. It's certainly closer to RQ6 than Chaosium's previous products. While it may not be 100% compatible, TDM and Chaosium's products will be closer than they used to be. 

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7 hours ago, Akrasia said:

Well AiG was written for RQ6.  Do we have any reason to think that AiG "didn't work"?  I don't follow Glorantha myself, but my impression (from others) is quite the opposite. (I know that Loz ran a RQ6 campaign set in Glorantha. My understanding is that that campaign 'worked' just fine.)

So I'm sceptical of the notion that a new version of RQ (a fourth version in less than 10 years), a version with some kind of Glorantha special sauce, is absolutely essential.

Not that AiG works or not. Rather that trying to create a game that both best suits a specific world and yet is also an open toolbox for any world would probably not work.

The new Chaosium RuneQuest will be the first d100 game designed for Glorantha since RQ2 days. Pretty cool if you want a crunch game set in Glorantha, not so important if you don't (although still might be worth mining for new ideas).

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5 hours ago, smiorgan said:

I was under the impression that RQ7 was bein developed starting from the RQ2 manuscript rather than on the BRP essentials draft, as per Jeff's post below.  

Don't forget, RQ2 came before BRP...

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While not being in a position to answer that question, I can easily imagine a process leading to such a decision. Starting out with RQ6 and tweaking it both to fit Glorantha and the smallish size of BRP Essentials, I suppose one change led to another, leading up to some serious reconsiderations, starting over again with a fresh view, etcetera. It's a quite natural part of a creative process I would say. 

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4 hours ago, MOB said:

Don't forget, RQ2 came before BRP...

MOB, please, that is stating the obvious. 

My question was more on the specific way you are going about to build the game. One thing is starting from the RQ2 manuscript and updating it, another thing is starting from a draft that was based on RQ6 and revert stuff back to RQ2.

But, nevermind...  

Edited by smiorgan
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9 hours ago, Simlasa said:

It still can be... just not through Chaosium. The books that TDM have put out... particularly the Luther Arkwright setting, already open it up to a huge variety of play.

Of course, but DM is a two-man team and as the RQ6 system won't effectively replace the dated BRP, the proliferation of genres and campaign worlds I had hoped to see firmly coupled to this excellent system will now not happen. There will be a trickle from DM and a melange of not-quite compatible material old and new serving various needs without a common core.

It's a terrible shame, and a missed opportunity of significant proportions as I see it.

I have spoken to one of the lucky 100 who got AiG, and they think it's a very fine piece of work. There was no reason whatsoever not to rework RQ6 and continue with this model - great core rules and genre or campaign based supplements to suit everyone.

Such a shame...

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1 hour ago, clarence said:

While not being in a position to answer that question, I can easily imagine a process leading to such a decision. Starting out with RQ6 and tweaking it both to fit Glorantha and the smallish size of BRP Essentials, I suppose one change led to another, leading up to some serious reconsiderations, starting over again with a fresh view, etcetera. It's a quite natural part of a creative process I would say. 

There is nothing natural about it, excepting that those most invested and interested in Glorantha as THE home of RuneQuest have gone about having their cake by taking it away to some extent from everyone else.

There is no common sense reason to confine a system so brilliantly capable of running any type of game to just one game world. There was every reason to make the core of RQ6 the engine of the game and then add Glorantha in all it's glory to it in a way which didn't choke off development or conversion of other worlds etc.

Anyway, I think I've made my point. I am just so very disappointed by this turn of events.

Edited by Caliburn
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Guest Vile Traveller

I may be wrong, but Jeff's statement that the new RQ7 (my term and I'm sticking to it) will be a development of the under-development-BRP-Essentials via RQ2, RQ3, RQ6, Pendragon Pass, Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, and some other stuff I've not heard off sounds like it will be a bit like the not-RQ7 that was previously planned. It may sound odd coming from me, but "don't panic!" I'll await further developments, in particular with regards to Pendragon Pass, Ringworld, and that stuff I've not heard of - my main concern at this point is that I wouldn't want the apple to fall too far from the tree.

Edited by Vile
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1 hour ago, Caliburn said:

Of course, but DM is a two-man team and as the RQ6 system won't effectively replace the dated BRP, the proliferation of genres and campaign worlds I had hoped to see firmly coupled to this excellent system will now not happen. There will be a trickle from DM and a melange of not-quite compatible material old and new serving various needs without a common core.

I haven't really been following either company long enough to comment on its accuracy, but there are some people over on the DM forum who seem to be expecting that TDM will be cranking out new releases faster than Chaosium despite their small size.

26 minutes ago, Vile said:

I may be wrong, but Jeff's statement that the new RQ7 (my term and I'm sticking to it)

Just happy to be able to say "RQ7" without it annoying Loz?  :D

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This seems to be a strange decision, both from a creative perspective and a business perspective. Maybe Chaosium and Moon Design have a strategic plan mapped out for the Runequest brand, but communication has been handled badly. The sudden reversal of a previous decision is not the way to build consumer confidence that the brand is in good hands. Furthermore, the decision to break with Design Mechanism risks alienating fans who have invested time and energy into RQ 6 unless handled with care. From that perspective, the decision to brand the new iteration as RQ 4 rather than RQ 7 does seem a bit ham-fisted.

I get the desire to refocus Runequest on Glorantha, even if I personally think it's a mistake - I would prefer a more generic rule system with Glorantha as the official campaign setting showing how the rules are applied in practice. Having said that, Moon Design produced some amazing work on the Gloranthan setting in the past and there's a good chance that Rick & co will continue to do so into the future. However, I'm saddened that we may never get to see Adventures in Glorantha for RQ 6.

I think RQ 2 is a solid rule system even today and am backing the kickstarter as a long-term fan of the game, but I'm not sure the decision to base the new iteration of RQ on that version is a smart one. The most obvious reason for doing this is to base the new edition on a version of the RQ where Chaosium unambiguously owned all of the rights to the rules themselves. My personal suspicion is that Chaosium have a desire to own not only the RQ trademark but also the intellectual property embodied in the rule system. From RQ 3 onwards, Chaosium and Issaries had relationships with other companies that published the game: Avalon Hill, Mongoose, Design Mechanism, etc. Each of these have a legitimate claim to some of the intellectual property embodied in subsequent versions of the rules: the rights to the RQ 3 system itself are presumably buried somewhere deep in the vaults of Hasbro, Mongoose released the rights to the MRQII game system under the OGL when they rebranded it as Legend, and Design Mechanism presumably own the rights to the additional refinements they made in RQ 6 (even if Chaosium own the RQ trademark itself). I suspect that Chaosium are using RQ 2 as a starting point to ensure nobody can contest their ownership of the new rule system or produce unlicensed spin-off products. This would make perfect sense if they were planning to unite the community under the a single unified d100 system that would render the competition obsolete. From a marketing perspective, they could push the idea that they will end further fragmentation of the d100 community. But having different systems for Call of Cthulhu vs Runequest undermines this goal, as does tying the next iteration of RQ so closely to Glorantha. It seems like they are either flying by the seat of their pants or that they haven't worked out yet how to pitch this to the community.

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3 hours ago, smiorgan said:

My question was more on the specific way you are going about to build the game. One thing is starting from the RQ2 manuscript and updating it, another thing is starting from a draft that was based on RQ6 and revert stuff back to RQ2.

As outlined here, we are building the new version up from RQ2, incorporating concepts learned from RQ3, RQ6, Pendragon Pass, Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, and the unpublished Epic System and RQ Dragon Pass campaign. We won't just be updating the RQ2 text if that's what you mean. It will be a new edition of the rules (RuneQuest), not RQ 2.1 or whatever.

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19 minutes ago, MOB said:

As outlined here, we are building the new version up from RQ2, incorporating concepts learned from RQ3, RQ6, Pendragon Pass, Call of Cthulhu, Ringworld, and the unpublished Epic System and RQ Dragon Pass campaign. We won't just be updating the RQ2 text if that's what you mean. It will be a new edition of the rules (RuneQuest), not RQ 2.1 or whatever.

No, this is not what I meant, but I stop bothering you. Probably, I can't explain myself in English. It's not that important: the important thing is that you create a fun game!

 

 

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1 hour ago, Prime Evil said:

 I suspect that Chaosium are using RQ 2 as a starting point to ensure nobody can contest their ownership of the new rule system or produce unlicensed spin-off products.

Chaosium have said (see the related blog article) that the new CRQ will incorporate concepts from RQ3, RQ6 and others. So it doesn't sound like the intellectual property of rules concepts is a problem.

 

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1 hour ago, Prime Evil said:

I suspect that Chaosium are using RQ 2 as a starting point to ensure nobody can contest their ownership of the new rule system or produce unlicensed spin-off products.

Can't copyright a rules system. That's how we got MRQ1 and RQ6 in the first place.

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6 hours ago, nDervish said:

I haven't really been following either company long enough to comment on its accuracy, but there are some people over on the DM forum who seem to be expecting that TDM will be cranking out new releases faster than Chaosium despite their small size.

Yes, Design Mechanism has had a much faster release rate than we have ever seen from Moon Design. Caliburn is also wrong in suggesting that TDM is purely a two man operation. The two Thennla books are by Jonathan Drake. Book of Quests had a total of nine authors. Luther Arkwright has two additional authors besides Pete and Loz,  and four more people credited with "additional material by".

The upcoming Classic Fantasy is by Rodney Leary. There is also an upcoming book of Luther Arkwright adventures which is said to be in the style of Book of Quests. That suggests it will have a wide range of authors. Mythic Britain: Logres is being written by Paul Mitchener. TDM has also been receptive to letting third parties make their own products for RQ6.

Pete and Loz are entirely capable of growing a game beyond what they can personally write. 

3 hours ago, Vile said:

Can't copyright a rules system. That's how we got MRQ1 and RQ6 in the first place.

And how RQ has residual bits of D&D in it, like 3d6 characteristics and hit points. 

Edited by Baulderstone
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