Jump to content

Runequest Quickstart


Scout

Recommended Posts

It's called RQG (for RuneQuest Glorantha).

In a sort of Byzantine (or Lancastrian, depending on your preference) set of twists, while is it in fact the SEVENTH recognized descendant of the family line, MRQ, MRQ2, and RQ6 have all been declared ignoble bastards not eligible to inherit the throne, and thus the new Runequest has been baptised as "the Fourth," RQ4 or, due to a fair amount of grumbling about nomenclature and de jure rules of succession, settled on RQG.  

The rules you link to there for the quickstart will give you a taste, but were a rather quickly-cobbled presentation of the rules AS THEY EXISTED IN BETA FORM around Jan 2017.  They are supposed to be released Nov 2017 as pdf, Dec as book (we all fervently hope) in a likely significantly-polished form with some relatively substantial changes from the January version, I expect.  But it will give you a feel for where they're going, the role of passions and runes, and a taste of some of the truly outstanding artwork being deployed to make this RQ a solid reconnection with Glorantha the Setting.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Scout said:

Ah right. In that case I think I'll for for RQ Classic 

I dont think it's an either/or choice.

Note that "RQ7" (rather, "RQG" as annointed by Chaosium... who really are the only ones authoritative enough to stop the nomenclature-wars (the foul fiends!  *I* wanted the official acronym to be D&D2.718281828 and I am bitterly disappointed!) )  is largely based upon "RQ2" aka "RQClassic" rules (and a bit of RQ3 (and a few other sources (and a bit of all-new content))), with lots of extra Glorantha baked-in to the core rules.

However, the 1978 RQ2 rules (of which "RQC" is nearly a copy, differing only in some errata & a few bits&bobs of comments/clarifications from various columns over the years) is really, REALLY old-school, organized in some parts almost like a wargame.  This char-gen primer may save you a ton of grief or rage (or to use the new RQG terminology, prevent you from gaining a new Passion:  "Hates RuneQuest: 70%"):   http://2ndage.blogspot.com/2016/07/runequest-classic-edition-char-gen.html

Chaosium intends (I believe, peering avidly in from the outside and reading (possibly over-reading) hints dropped) that all those "Classic" modules & campaigns be run'able the moment RQG drops, and "graduates" of those "Classic" games to have new RQG content available as they finish the older stuff.  I expect the RQG core rules (or a download'able freebie doc) to have "how to RQG'ify your RQ2/RQ3/RQClassic content" guidelines.

I think a very-viable route would be to begin running a RQClassic campaign now, and upgrade it to RQG some time after those rules come available.  If I can get my local group off their collective tuchii, that is exactly what I plan to do, myself !

  • Like 1

C'es ne pas un .sig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 19/09/2017 at 1:32 AM, Scout said:

Is this the quickstart for the upcoming RQ7?

https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-quickstart/

Here's why we're calling the new edition RQG:

https://www.chaosium.com/blog/rqgnew-runequest-edition-to-be-known-as-runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha

The new edition of the iconic roleplaying game RuneQuest will be formally known as RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, or 'RQG' for short, Chaosium announced today.

First published by Chaosium in 1978, over the ensuing decades the RuneQuest game has gone through a number of editions with different publishers and licensees. The new edition returns to Chaosium where it started and where, in its heyday, was second only to Dungeons & Dragonsin terms of sales. 

RQG is built off the chassis of the acclaimed RuneQuest 2nd Edition (1980). This enables RQG to be compatible with RuneQuest Classic, the updated reprints of the RQ2 line which Chaosium recently kickstarted to great success.

"Fans had been referring to the new rules variously as 'RQ4' and 'RQ7'", said Chaosium creative director Jeff Richard, "But our new game is simply not a layer atop the Avalon Hill edition (RQ3) or the Mongoose variants that came after that. Nor is it built from the version Design Mechanism produced under license (RQ6). So, rather than try to give the new edition a number, calling it 'RQG' neatly avoids any confusion."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, MOB said:

"Fans had been referring to the new rules variously as 'RQ4' and 'RQ7'", said Chaosium creative director Jeff Richard, "But our new game is simply not a layer atop the Avalon Hill edition (RQ3) or the Mongoose variants that came after that. Nor is it built from the version Design Mechanism produced under license (RQ6). So, rather than try to give the new edition a number, calling it 'RQG' neatly avoids any confusion."

Not precisely true?

Nobody called it RQ4 afaik except Chaosium, and they did so until it was rightly called out as arbitrary and worse, confusing.  Hell, these forums contain a fair degree of denial from certain quarters that the rules needed to be called anything but "Runequest" in the first place.

RQG is a great compromise, illustrating that it's a new fork better than just calling it a rather dull RQ2.5 (which is probably the most claddistically accurate), and identifying it as a newer "more perfect union" between runequest the mechanics and Glorantha the setting.

Of course, historically, when we inevitably move on to the next iteration, it WILL likely be serialized with its cousins: "well, MRQ was really RQ4, MRQ2 was five, RQ6 was actually six, and RQG which was actually seven" but by then we'll be at RQ-infinity (get it, a stylized sideways 8?) and nobody will care about G/7 except hoary old grognards unable to move forward with the times.

Edited by styopa
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah I think many people here in this forum were initially calling it either RQ7 or just the new RQ. I think Chaosium introduced the working titles of RQ4 or RQ2.5. These made perfect sense from a designer perspective, but didnt feel right from a consumer/fan perspective.

Referring to it as RQG just solved everything, this was an excellent idea.

 

Edited by Mankcam
  • Like 1

" Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We don't see calling the new edition of the game "RQG" a compromise, because we didn't compromise. We called the game what we thought will best describe it to the general public. For those of you that participated in that discussion on BRP central, thank you for giving us food for thought. We mean no disrespect to any of the previous versions or editions of the game. They are what they are.

While some of the people here may call it RQ7, what does that really get you? RQG is not based on RQ6, or either Mongoose edition. Is calling it RQ7 going to advance the conversation any further than saying "do you like RuneQuest prior edition X more than RQG?"

We seriously doubt any of the people that have been playing RuneQuest for X number of years already (with X = 1 to 40 years) will be confused by the name. We at Chaosium are mostly concerned with not confusing a new buyer of the game who has never played RuneQuest before. We want it do what it says on the tin, so to speak.

Edited by Rick Meints
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Hope that Helps,
Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rick Meints said:

While some of the people here may call it RQ7, what does that really get you? RQG is not based on RQ6, or either Mongoose edition. Is calling it RQ7 going to advance the conversation any further than saying "do you like RuneQuest prior edition X more than RQG?"

Yeah; because it's explicitly NOT an iteration after or a progression from RQ6 (but is based instead upon the RQ2/RQ3 chassis), calling it RQ7 would seem... incorrect.

By the same token (that token being "6"), picking some number LESS than 6 would also seem... incorrect.

They have neatly sidestepped all sorts of wierd n00b/customer/press/FLGS/Distributor/Internet/etc misunderstandings!  Kudos to Chaosium.  Someone over there owes a beer to whoever originated the idea.

 

Now... let the next-edition Name Wars begin!!!   RQG2?   RQ2G?   D&D2.718281828?

C'es ne pas un .sig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Rick Meints said:

We don't see calling the new edition of the game "RQG" a compromise, nor did we call it that as a compromise. We called the game what we thought will best describe it to the general public.

Fwiw, your two statements quoted above aren't mutually exclusive although it feels like you meant them to be?

Not sure what you have against the term compromise?  Of course it's a compromise between all the varying needs the new game has in its title:

"Gloranthan role playing game rules" accurate, but pretty dry and doesn't connect at all to the runequest ancestry

"Runequest": well that would be the simplest, and as I understood from the earlier conversation, what will actually be printed on the book(s)?  But considering there are 6 other games with that title, that would be confusing to new buyers.

"Runequest 2.5" is probably the most precisely correct, but is pretty unwieldy and frankly a little grognardly-off-putting.  Not sure if that is even a term.

"Runequest 7" while it is technically the seventh version, for all the many good reasons mentioned here and previously, this wouldn't serve.

"Runequest Glorantha, abbreviated RQG" is a great name, marking this as a clear NEW edition, not simply an outgrowth of a much iterated series, it simultaneously emphasizes the intrinsic connection with Glorantha.

So yes, of COURSE it's a compromise between all the compelling needs a games name has to satisfy.  

One might even be so bold as to call it... a Great Compromise.....eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 9/26/2017 at 4:42 PM, GamingGlen said:

Well, now that you mentioned it.    Let's see... hmm...   one free copy of the printed rulebook will do. 

You forgot to specify:  autographed (in gold leaf) by Rick, Jason, & whoever else gets authorial credit.  :P

 

  • Like 1

C'es ne pas un .sig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, g33k said:

Now... let the next-edition Name Wars begin!!!   RQG2?   RQ2G?   D&D2.718281828?

Lets see some existing RuneQuest : RuneQuest 1, RuneQuest 2, RuneQuest 3, RuneQuest 4/MRQ, RuneQuest 6 with the fork(s) : RQ slayers, Legend, Mythras and the mods Vikings, Land of Ninja, Lhankar...

We also have others Glorantha rpg systems : Herowars and Heroquest which helped a lot to inject some runes into it and also Runequest brother aka Pendragon (I...V) where S-GREG (super Greg) create the passions systems and all the actual skills used in the Quick start.

Technically, The New RuneQuest is the successor of RQ2 (with the motto "simplicity first") for the combat system but the skill system is much more like Pendragon (passion and skills), the magical concept come from Herowars/Heroquest (Runes, grimoires). Some could see it as just a aggregation of systems.

As a Glorantha fan, I'll approve a simple name : RuneQuest - Glorantha
Some Chaotic ones could named in marvellous way : The All New RuneQuest
But as a fan of the Gregging techniques I should propose : RQ-G : RuneQuest - GREG *

 

* Obvioulsy with Greg written in Runes (Rune of Strength - Rune of Magic - Rune of Mastery - Rune of Strength).

RuneQuest - GREG.jpg

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, MJ Sadique said:

Lets see some existing RuneQuest : RuneQuest 1, RuneQuest 2, RuneQuest 3, RuneQuest 4/MRQ, RuneQuest 6 with the fork(s) : RQ slayers, Legend, Mythras and the mods Vikings, Land of Ninja, Lhankar...

 

Well, I (and a few other) grognards always think of the mid-1990's Jovanovic draft as "RQ4".

MRQ was the fork/branch that led to MRQ2 ---> Legend ----> RQ6 ----> Mythras (pretty linearly like this, too); this branch had its own sub-branches because Mongoose OGL'ed a version, leading to several other publishers producing new members of the family.

"RQ Slayers" is essentially unrelated; if you grafted it on, it would perforce branch from RQ3 & AvalonHill; it came from AH having rights to the "RQ" name but not to Glorantha or to the BRP system (see https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9554.phtml ) , and creating a new warrior-centric d6-pool RPG.  It's actually more akin to original D&D in showing clear AH "wargame" roots.  They wanted an entry in the "RPG" space, and had lost all the content of "Runequest" but still held the name, and so we (sort of) got this one.

 </AnalRetentiveNitPicker>

C'es ne pas un .sig

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, g33k said:

1/ Well, I (and a few other) grognards always think of the mid-1990's Jovanovic draft as "RQ4".

2/ MRQ was the fork/branch that led to MRQ2 ---> Legend ----> RQ6 ----> Mythras (pretty linearly like this, too);

3/ "RQ Slayers" is essentially unrelated;

1/ Me too... (So I'm a grognard ^^; ) I should said a bit Obsessive and sometimes compulsive as any RQ master.

2/ Yes, this is why RuneQuest 6, Legend and Mythras are written with same code color. This also why they are in fork category as it's not glorantha related.

3/ Yes, I still have the pdf but it was so horrible (in term of color and paging) that I close the pdf as soon as I've download it (I never really know the content :p). But it was one of the rare amateur publication so it deserve some regards despite being not glorantha related.

PS : why not use grumbler instead of grognard which is a french name ?

On 23/09/2017 at 11:44 AM, MOB said:

The new edition of the iconic roleplaying game RuneQuest will be formally known as RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, or 'RQG' for short, Chaosium announced today.

First published by Chaosium in 1978...

I may be paranoiac but 2018 will be an anniversary of RQ so will Chaosium stall RQ-G publication for the pleasure launch the The All New RuneQuest to celebrate this 40th Anniversary ?

If so, we could also named it RuneQuest - Special 40th Anniversary Edition...

rqglogo - 40th Anniversary Edition (RED).png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...