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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Glyfair" data-source="post: 2429570" data-attributes="member: 53">That's alright, I think almost everyone not involved is confused, and even most of them.When Chaosium was getting ready for Runequest 3 they set up a relationship with Avalon Hill to publish it.  I'm not certain of the reasons, perhaps Chaosium didn't think they had enough resources to support the level of interest the game had.  So, from that point on, all new official material was published by Avalon Hill.Unfortunately, the diehard Runequest players tended to dislike the new version of Runequest.  Glorantha (the main attraction of the game) was moved to an optional setting, along with an "alternate Earth" option.  Many of the new rules were more complex and slowed the game down (particularly the fatigue rules that, while pretty realistic, were very cumbersome).For a while Runequest was up and down.  Non-Gloranthan supplements (except for Vikings) were widely panned.  A lot of otherwise good supplements had horrible art (particularly one artist who is still reviled by the Gloranthan community).  Eventually, a large fan group developed with some great fan publications (particularly, "Tales of the Reaching Moon").  Combined with Avalon Hil make Ken Rolston the "RQ Czar" we have the beginning of the "Runequest Renaissance."  Lots of great supplements came out during this time.  There were hiccups that hurt the continuity of the game (the great Elmal controversy).  However, overall products were well done.Eventually, an RQ4 was developed and was in playtesting.  I believe, if you search, you can find copies of it online.  It was generally considered, by playtesters,  to be superior to RQ3.  Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day.For some reason the relationship between Avalon Hill and Chaosium deteriated.  Ken Rolston was no longer at the company.  Chaosium (or Greg, who personally owns Glorantha, IIRC) wanted Glorantha back.They reached some sort of an agreement to split.  Avalon Hill retained the rights to the Runequest name and started developing Runequest Slayers (which can be found online, too).  Chaosium/Greg Stafford kept the rights to Glorantha.  The system got split at that point.  Chaosium still had the rights to publish games based on the "Basic Roleplaying System" that developed out of Runequest, since they were publishing games that used it (most notably, Call of Cthulhu).  Avalon Hill kept the rights to the parts of the system that weren't part of BRPS, particularly the magic system.Then Avalon Hill was purchased by Hasbro and all their roleplaying development seized.  They already had a successful RPG under their wing, and didn't believe in competing with itself, having learned those lessons from TSR.Eventually, Hero Wars was released.  This was supposed to be the system for epic roleplaying, Heroquest, that was promised in RQ publications since the late 70's.  Eventually, a later edition would be called Heroquest, once another companies rights to the name lapsed.You can see a slightly different, and more detailed, viewpoint at <a href="http://www.maranci.net/rqpastold.htm" target="_blank">http://www.maranci.net/rqpastold.htm</a>Long story short;  Greg/Issaries, Inc. owns the rights to Glorantha.  Hasbro owned the rights to the name Runequest (which seems to have either lapsed, been licensed, or been purchased).  The base system is availble to Chaosium.  The rest of the system seems to be owned by Hasbro.</blockquote>

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