New RuneQuest - Pros & Cons?

[Angel Tarragon]

I am considering buying the RuneQuest core book next month. I am curious to know more about it. Is it d20 or OGL? If it is d20, how close does it stick to the 'core' system?

Tell me about the skills. From what I hear it is convulted. Using a 1-100 point range? Somebody please expand on this.

I am curious to know, because of the upcoming Lankhmar book. I would love to use it in conjunction with my homebrew, but need some answers. Help!

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I can not speak to the new edition.

The older one was very good. A skill based system is a little harder to DM because you can't trust third-party modules to have decent challenges for your gaming group. On the other hand the characters are very customizeable.

http://www.glorantha.com/ ... will give you plenty of old school RuneQuest setting info. Though the old setting uses entirely new game rules called "Hero Wars".

 

[trancejeremy]

It's not d20, or d20 based. Supposedly it's been released under the OGL, though, thus the confusion.


Anyway, have you played Call of Cthulhu (not the d20 version)? Same basic system

 

[Melkor]

To be upfront about things, I have read through the book, but haven't had a chance to play yet.

That said, the only cons I have found with the system is some initial confusion over how the combat system worked (which has been cleared up by a free download PDF on the Mongoose website), and a continuing issue regarding mathematical anomolies with the 'halving' of skills over 100%. The latter is being worked on, and there are some great suggestions on how to fix the anomolies over on the Mongoose forums.

Pros: Combat is a give-and-take affair that looks to be very entertaining and fun to play through. The system is gritty, but looks to play fast. Character creation is fast (I created my first two characters in about 25 minutes). The system is OGL. Glorantha is being released for it and it is an excellent setting with lots of rich detail. Ducks.

Hope that helps.

 

[trancejeremy]

And thanks to this thread, I've been singing that #%@#! Ducktales theme all night.

 

[RichGreen]

To be upfront about things, I have read through the book, but haven't had a chance to play yet.

Does it use Chaosium's BRP rules like the older versions and Call of Cthulhu did?

Cheers


Richard

 

[Staffan]

Not exactly, but it's pretty close. A BRP fan should feel pretty much at home.