Treebore
First Post
Yeah, I remember reading words to that effect, like I said, I was reading for "feel", not retention.
I also found this whole concept of the "Hero Quests" rather interesting, so I will be reading up on that a bit more as well.
Runequest
- Thread starter Treebore
- Start date
Yeah, I remember reading words to that effect, like I said, I was reading for "feel", not retention.
I also found this whole concept of the "Hero Quests" rather interesting, so I will be reading up on that a bit more as well.
JeffB
Legend
More robust previous experience system.
Skills are fewer in number and in some cases more broad-for weapon skills it's now combat styles-like "spear & shield" or "sword & shield", etc.
There is the new Combat Maneuver system which I really like- you get to choose them based on type of weapon- a very basic example- if you make you to hit roll, and the defender misses his parry- you get to choose the maneuver- if that person fumbled when they parried (or you critted and they simply missed the parry), you get to choose two that take effect. There are of course defense maneuvers too, so fumbles on an attack can really mess you up. However if you keep using the same maneuver too often there are penalties.
If you are an oldschool (Chaosium/AH) fan, it's definitely worth picking up.
JeffB
Legend
I'm not sure I'd agree re: the Gloranthan RQ2 material, or even the "revival" of the early 1990s Gloranthan RQ3 material, at least the material I owned (which was the majority of it). I really cannot point to any real duds- now, gateway material, and the AH "fantasy earth/non gloranthan" stuff? Absolutely some of it was god awful- Lost City of Eldarad, or Daughters of Darkness for example.
Needless to say, it's just my tastes that I prefer the classic 3rd age, and I can see the appeal for some with the 2nd age- I just cannot warm up to it overall, though I have tried. That said, I'm am also not beholden to Greg or a canon nazi: my Gloranthan campaigns of the past have been all about the initial RQ2 boxes (Borderlands, Pavis/BR), and very little of the latter products that are far more detailed.
Crazy Jerome
First Post
Quality of Mongoose stuff is not only variable, it is often variable within a single book, within and across categories. Consider the MRQ II rulebook itself.
The rules content is pretty spiffy, and apparently they did a very nice job of revising MRQ I, while keeping the original intent. The things that needed a major overhaul got one. The things that needed tweaking got tweaked, but not overhauled. And some things got left alone. You don't always get that kind of discernment in a major revision. That is not to say it is perfect, but it is a major improvement on the first try, while keeping the same design intent.
Organization? All over the place. Sometimes it is very nice. Sometimes things you need are nowhere to be found where anyone would expect. You almost have to absorb the whole thing, like a half-amateur RPG from the late '70s, early '80s to know where to find things. It isn't awful, but half amateur/half professional isn't far off the mark.
Presentation? Pretty basic, both in layout and art choices. I usually don't even care, but there were several places where I would have preferred some time and budget spent on a few tables being easy to read over an uninspiring and poor piece of art.
Edit: That came out harsher than I meant it. Within the limits of the resources Mongoose had to bring to bear on MRQ II, it is clear that they had a bias towards having useful and good rules that met the design, not presentation and editing. I'm fine with that bias, especially since they did largely do work to match the design intent. So I say this to point out that the game is better than it might first appear to some.
The rules content is pretty spiffy, and apparently they did a very nice job of revising MRQ I, while keeping the original intent. The things that needed a major overhaul got one. The things that needed tweaking got tweaked, but not overhauled. And some things got left alone. You don't always get that kind of discernment in a major revision. That is not to say it is perfect, but it is a major improvement on the first try, while keeping the same design intent.
Organization? All over the place. Sometimes it is very nice. Sometimes things you need are nowhere to be found where anyone would expect. You almost have to absorb the whole thing, like a half-amateur RPG from the late '70s, early '80s to know where to find things. It isn't awful, but half amateur/half professional isn't far off the mark.
Presentation? Pretty basic, both in layout and art choices. I usually don't even care, but there were several places where I would have preferred some time and budget spent on a few tables being easy to read over an uninspiring and poor piece of art.
Edit: That came out harsher than I meant it. Within the limits of the resources Mongoose had to bring to bear on MRQ II, it is clear that they had a bias towards having useful and good rules that met the design, not presentation and editing. I'm fine with that bias, especially since they did largely do work to match the design intent. So I say this to point out that the game is better than it might first appear to some.
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Crazy Jerome
First Post
I was referring more to situations where there is no clear default from which to diverge, such as weapon styles. It isn't only that you have "permission" to tweak it how you want. It is that you must tweak it somehow, because that tweak is meant to be a dial to affect how your campaign works.
They could have done a little better job of calling these out, explicitly. But once you get it, it isn't difficult at all to aborb how the dial is supposed to work and make your decision. You can make weapon styles very narrow or very broad, and the game will work just fine.
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit
Adventurer
I'm a big fan of MRQ II - though I'm not getting to play it as much as I'd like at the mo. 
If anyone's looking into it, I would definitely endorse the suggestion upthread to get on to the Mongoose forum - it's a friendly and helpful community and the authors of the core rules are very active and willing to answer queries.
I also think it's huge improvement on MRQ I.
A couple of warnings do need to be made: the books "Necromantic Arts " and "Lankhmar Unleashed" while advertised as ebing for MRQ II were actually written while it was still in development so aren't 100% compatible. Conversion is pretty easy though.
There have also been a couple of error-strewn books. Notably "Arms and Equipment" - for which there is an errata on the Mongoose site - and, I understand, "Cults of Glorantha", although I don't own that book.
The magic systems aren't generally that hard to understand I think - with the possible exception of Spirit magic. (Old RQers might like to bear in mind that this is very different from the Spirit magic of RQ 3 - which is now basically "Common magic"). However, there are two very helpful articles in issues 89 and 90 of "Signs and Portents" the free e-zine available on the Mongoose site.
If anyone's looking into it, I would definitely endorse the suggestion upthread to get on to the Mongoose forum - it's a friendly and helpful community and the authors of the core rules are very active and willing to answer queries.
I also think it's huge improvement on MRQ I.
A couple of warnings do need to be made: the books "Necromantic Arts " and "Lankhmar Unleashed" while advertised as ebing for MRQ II were actually written while it was still in development so aren't 100% compatible. Conversion is pretty easy though.
There have also been a couple of error-strewn books. Notably "Arms and Equipment" - for which there is an errata on the Mongoose site - and, I understand, "Cults of Glorantha", although I don't own that book.
The magic systems aren't generally that hard to understand I think - with the possible exception of Spirit magic. (Old RQers might like to bear in mind that this is very different from the Spirit magic of RQ 3 - which is now basically "Common magic"). However, there are two very helpful articles in issues 89 and 90 of "Signs and Portents" the free e-zine available on the Mongoose site.
Treebore
First Post
I have been finding organizational/editing issues with pretty much every RPG publisher. Some definitely more than others, but they all could stand to put some more time and effort into this aspect of their products.
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