Backwards Compatability

[1970]

How hard would it be to use the Avalon Hill books or modules with RuneQuest 2?  I've glanced at the RQ1&2 books, but have never laid eyes on RQ3.  Is it worth getting cheaper AV books or should I bite the bullet and look for the older Chaosium ones?

[Joerg]

Financially, the classic Chaosium books should be the cheaper variant since the RQ classic kickstarter, at least as pdf.

RQ2 doesn't have a notion of sorcery, so any mention of sorcery in the character and spell details would be without context. The main problem there would be Strangers in Prax, which has an extensive description of a sorcerer compatible with RQ3. The Renaissance products Sun County, River of Cradles, Dorastor: Land of Doom would be useable without any hard problems. Of the pre-Renaissance Gloranthan products, only two are of major interest - the Gods of Glorantha box which has a lot of short cult write-ups with divine spells not available elsewhere, and the Gloranthan Bestiary with a bundle of critters not presented anywhere else in RQ stats. Most of the RQ3 era scenario booklets are reprints of RQ2 ones. RQ2 Troll Pak ended up redistributed (and slightly expanded) over two boxes and two scenario booklets in RQ3. The Genertela Box was the basis for the Guide to Glorantha.

[jongjom]

10 hours ago, 1970 said:

How hard would it be to use the Avalon Hill books or modules with RuneQuest 2?  I've glanced at the RQ1&2 books, but have never laid eyes on RQ3.  Is it worth getting cheaper AV books or should I bite the bullet and look for the older Chaosium ones?

Go with what Joerg says.

Also RQ3 supplements reprints could well be Kickstarted (2016?) and maybe made RQ2 / RQ Chaosium compatible. Even if not converted they should be at least cheaper than you can currently get on eBay etc.

 

Edited April 20, 2016 by jongjom

[1970]

Thanks for your replies!

ETA: I know about some of the differences between editions, I just didn't know how pronounced they were.  Mostly I'm looking for old reprints of Chaosium material.  Thanks for the lead on the Gloranthan Bestiary!  I loves me some monsters!

Edited April 20, 2016 by 1970
ETA:

[TRose]

 I never have had any real problems  using source books and scenarios from one edition to another.

 Main thing to look at is armor  values change from different editions Plate I think goes from 6 pts to 8 points in value). and of course sorcery .

Edited April 20, 2016 by TRose

[styopa]

If you play RQ3, RQ2 materials are quite easy (almost effortless) to use.

If you play RQ2, some RQ3 are harder to use for all the reasons Joerg laid out.

As I understand it, the new RQ coming out will be largely based on the RQ2 system, but with more stuff (ie with Sorcery, for example).  So if you were running a game today, starting it with the RQ2 system would *probably* mean a smaller speed-bump to switch into the new game and materials when it comes out.

[Atgxtg]

Yeah, RQ3 is based on and similar enough to RQ2 that most things port over fairly easily. There are some differences: Hit Points are calculated differently; as are Skill Category Modifiers; armor values are a little different, encumbrance works different; SIZ and INT are on a 2D6+6 scale; skill scores are no longer in 5% increments; battle magic doesn't have the point cap anymore.   And that's off the top of my head. But... for the most part if you look at a RQ3 writeup, you can figure it all out on the fly. 

 

I probably wouldn't even bother with Gods of Glorantha and instead hunt for some version (hardcopy or PDF) of Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror. IMO the big thing about RQ was the nice cult writeups, and GoG ditched the "long form" cult descriptions. 

[MOB]

7 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

I probably wouldn't even bother with Gods of Glorantha and instead hunt for some version (hardcopy or PDF) of Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror. IMO the big thing about RQ was the nice cult writeups, and GoG ditched the "long form" cult descriptions. 

You can actually order Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror in PDF right now, at the RuneQuest Classic Backerkit page (along with just about everything else from the RQ Classic Kickstarter). But please note, we are closing off the Backerkit order page at 12 Noon EDT this Friday (April 22). 

https://runequest-classic-edition.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

We will be printing hard back versions of Cults of Terror and Cults of Prax later this year (along with the rest of the RQ2 product line). If you buy any PDFs now through Backerkit, we'll give you a credit on the book release.

[1970]

4 hours ago, styopa said:

As I understand it, the new RQ coming out will be largely based on the RQ2 system, but with more stuff (ie with Sorcery, for example).  So if you were running a game today, starting it with the RQ2 system would *probably* mean a smaller speed-bump to switch into the new game and materials when it comes out.

I thought that the new RuneQuest was RQ2.  Yeah, I preordered the Classic RuneQuest coming out this year.

35 minutes ago, MOB said:

We will be printing hard back versions of Cults of Terror and Cults of Prax later this year (along with the rest of the RQ2 product line). If you buy any PDFs now through Backerkit, we'll give you a credit on the book release.

That would be great, but after preordering the new RuneQuest and the 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu I'm tapped.  I'll just have to take the hit later when they release to the general public.

Thanks again!

[MOB]

1 hour ago, 1970 said:

I thought that the new RuneQuest was RQ2.  Yeah, I preordered the Classic RuneQuest coming out this year.

That would be great, but after preordering the new RuneQuest and the 7th Edition Call of Cthulhu I'm tapped.  I'll just have to take the hit later when they release to the general public.

Thanks again!

The new edition of RQ coming out later this year is backwards compatible with R2/Classic, but it is a new edition with new rules. In particular, a lot more emphasis on the Glorantha runes. Check out Jeff's Designer Notes for more about what's going to be in it.

[g33k]

To be clear:  the Kickstarter'ed product, "RQ Classic" *IS* RQ2, plus a small amount of supplementary material.  It is already printed, and only waiting for the kickstarter'ed shipments to go out, before the "preorder" (non-KS orders, placed with Backerkit after the KS closed) themselves ship.

Then there is "RQ Next" -- no official name announced, that I know of, but called variously "RQ:Glorantha" and "RQ4" on these boards, that I have noticed -- which will be based on an evolution of the "RQ2/RQClassic" ruleset, but with extra Gloranthan & Runic goodness baked-in.  I believe the intent is that the re-release of the KS'ed stretch-goal supplements be 90%-or-more compatible with this "next" product.

As for CoPrax & CoTerror -- you might want to just get the "Cult Compendium" product, available now, which includes both of those & a bit more besides...

... my 2 bolg's worth...

 

Edited April 21, 2016 by g33k
fixed a trivial typo which totally-changed intended meaning!

[1970]

MOB and g33k thanks for clearing that all up.  It really helps.  I may be saving my pennies...

[Guest Vile Traveller]

7 hours ago, g33k said:

Then there is "RQ Next" [...] called variously "RQ:Glorantha" and "RQ4" on these boards

It's RQ7.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Vile

[g33k]

3 hours ago, Vile said:

It's RQ7.

Howsabout they just pull a Microsoft, skip forward, and go for "RQX"?

Then they can get all coy about whether they meant "ten" or "eXtended edition" or ...?

[Jeff]

11 minutes ago, g33k said:

Howsabout they just pull a Microsoft, skip forward, and go for "RQX"?

Then they can get all coy about whether they meant "ten" or "eXtended edition" or ...?

It is RuneQuest. The 4th Chaosium edition.

[g33k]

Has an official title been decided yet?

From the phrase above, the internet'ism might be... RQ4C?  I'd be a bit worried about line-n00b's (presuming that 4<6) think it's a very-old edition...

I'm still hoping for RQG...  

[styopa]

9 hours ago, Vile said:

It's RQ7.

It's indeed the 7th version of RQ out there.

As Jeff already mentioned, it's the 4th edition that had direct Chaosium involvement (3rd actual Chaosium-only edition, but RQ3 while AH published, I believe had heavy Chaosium input).

But AFAIK *every* published version of RQ is simply titled "RUNEQUEST" (ie not actually "Runequest 2" or somesuch), so this one too will likely be titled only "RUNEQUEST".

 

I would say that sorting through RQ's provenance is a Knowledge Skill, base 00%.

Rick Meints and Jeff are probably the only ones that have 100% skill.  I doubt even Greg has that.

Edited April 21, 2016 by styopa

[Jeff]

9 hours ago, styopa said:

It's indeed the 7th version of RQ out there.

As Jeff already mentioned, it's the 4th edition that had direct Chaosium involvement (3rd actual Chaosium-only edition, but RQ3 while AH published, I believe had heavy Chaosium input).

But AFAIK *every* published version of RQ is simply titled "RUNEQUEST" (ie not actually "Runequest 2" or somesuch), so this one too will likely be titled only "RUNEQUEST".

 

There have been three versions of RuneQuest produced by Chaosium (RQ3 was published by Avalon Hill but copyright of Chaosium). Mongoose did its two versions of RuneQuest - Mongoose RuneQuest (called just "RuneQuest"), and Mongoose RuneQuest 2 (called on its cover "RuneQuest 2"). The Design Mechanism did a version as well but (called on its cover "RuneQuest 6"). The fourth Chaosium edition will simply be called "RuneQuest." Given that it builds off 2 (with a few elements from 3), it makes sense that we at Chaosium think of it as RQ4.

[Zit]

Right. "RuneQuest" should simply refer to the very last version. No digit, no additional letter... just "RuneQuest". There is no Porsche Cayenne 1, 2 or 3. There is only the last one.

[Jeff]

1 hour ago, Zit said:

Right. "RuneQuest" should simply refer to the very last version. No digit, no additional letter... just "RuneQuest". There is no Porsche Cayenne 1, 2 or 3. There is only the last one.

Correct! Only MRQ2 and TDM's RuneQuest 6 deviated from that tradition - and that meant that there was a version titled RQ2 followed immediately by a version titled RQ6. 

[Pete Nash]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

There have been three versions of RuneQuest produced by Chaosium (RQ3 was published by Avalon Hill but copyright of Chaosium). Mongoose did its two versions of RuneQuest - Mongoose RuneQuest (called just "RuneQuest"), and Mongoose RuneQuest 2 (called on its cover "RuneQuest 2"). The Design Mechanism did a version as well but (called on its cover "RuneQuest 6"). The fourth Chaosium edition will simply be called "RuneQuest." Given that it builds off 2 (with a few elements from 3), it makes sense that we at Chaosium think of it as RQ4.

Sorry to interject Jeff, but our version followed the Chaosium tradition and only said 'RuneQuest' on the front cover. The words '6th Edition' were placed at the bottom of the spine, unlike the Games Workshop versions which placed 'Third Edition' on the front cover, or even the AH box set which placed 'Delux Edition' on the front.

I know everyone simply calls it RQ6 and understandably so, yet the cover title of our version was always RuneQuest, not RuneQuest 6.

 

Edited April 22, 2016 by Pete Nash

[Jeff]

Pete, turn the book on the side and look at the spine.

[jongjom]

15 minutes ago, Jeff said:

Pete, turn the book on the side and look at the spine.

Well I guess it really it broke tradition because it managed to do both at the same time!

Maybe it's illuminated or maybe a weird kind of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal (it's RuneQuest / it's part of RuneQuest line). Oh, do I qualify as an Outer Atomic Explorer?

Edited April 22, 2016 by jongjom

[Pete Nash]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Pete, turn the book on the side and look at the spine.

Um, I did actually point that out in my post, and included two other examples concerning RQ3 which contradicted your original observation. 

[soltakss]

From an outsider's point of view, asserting that the new RuneQuest is RuneQuest4 as it is the fourth Chaosium RuneQuest is pretty insulting to those non-Chaosium versions of RuneQuest as it effectively writes them out of the history of RuneQuest.

I think that this is a bad move.

Referring to the new version of RuneQuest as just RuneQuest is fine, as long as there does not follow an even newer version of RuneQuest in a few years.