Which Roleplay Hmmm?

[Ariosto]

Another link:
Basic Role Playing System
(That's the "English" link from the front page.)

There is no indication of formal permission from Chaosium, but the site has been up for a decade.

It includes an HTML version of the basic mechanics (only) from the original Basic Role-Playing pamphlet that was included in the 2nd ed. RQ boxed set, and also in the Worlds of Wonder set.

From WoW, the PDFs of Future World and Super World are complete scans (the latter including errata and addenda from Different Worlds magazine). Magic World is reformatted and incomplete (mainly missing a lot of monsters and the scenario, iirc).

There's more cool stuff in French, including the expanded BRP edition from Multisim and Casus Belli that was really what the 2002 Chaosium release ought to have been.

Better yet, though, is the thoroughly comprehensive new edition ($39.95 MSRP) from Chaosium. Here's a link to the online catalog:
Chaosium Inc. - Chaosium Inc.

 

[kitsune9]

Abhorsen,

It really comes down to your own preference and taste. While we gamers can tell you, "Yeah! Get X the RPG, it's cool, because it does this, this, and this!", there's going to be another gamer who thinks that all those reasons we listed makes the game suck.

It doesn't really help you to make an informed decision.

If you can, join a gaming group and play the games that you're interested in buying. That's probably about the best way to make a decision that I would think of. If not, think about you own tastes for a game. Do you like High Magic? Low Magic? Wahoo? Realism? If you define out these criteria, then probably solicit opinions from gamers as to whether or not they think their X the RPG game meets your criteria.

Happy Gaming and good luck with your decision. Let us know what you decide!

 

[Ariosto]

Brief mechanical note: Somewhere along the line (either RQ3 or an earlier CoC, I think), the basic human range for Intelligence and Size changed from 3d6 to 2d6+6.

On Glorantha: RQ originally was somewhat tied to Greg Stafford's imagined world, previously explored in the board games White Bear & Red Moon (later Dragon Pass) and Nomad Gods. The rulebook gave only a broad sketch of the setting, but Cults of Prax and other supplements (including The Wyrms Footnotes magazine) filled in more.

Today, Mongoose RQ is set in the earlier Second Age, while Hero Quest (formerly Hero Wars) presents an evolving picture of the Third Age in which the original game was set.

It is to an extent more an "ancient" than a "medieval" setting, although there's a Dark Age feel to the tribes of Sartar and a more High Medieval one to the West. The common metal for arms and armor is called "bronze", while "iron" is a treasure for the equipment of rune lords. Those are just analogous names, though, for exotic Gloranthan minerals ("bronze" being mined from the bones of dead gods).

The world itself is not a globe but a squarish lozenge. The earth floats upon the Primal Ocean. Above it is the airy realm of storm gods, and above that an off-center celestial bowl rotating about the fixed Pole Star. Beneath earth and sea is the dark, silent Underworld.

The edges of two continents separated by ocean, and some islands in between, are the habitations of mortals. Beyond them lie realms of myth wherein dwell immensely powerful supernatural races.

Before Time, there was a War of the Gods that loosed Chaos upon the world and plunged it into Darkness when Death drove the Sun into the Underworld (where the dark-loving trolls had previously lived in peace).

Much more has happened since: the Dawn Ages, ended with the birth of the Chaos god Gbaji; the Empire of the Wyrms Friends and the Third Council; the rise of the dragonewts, their betrayal by humans, and the Dragonkill War (named for what the dragons did, not what they suffered).

The great conflict of the Third Age was brought on by the ascension of the Red Moon Goddess and the rapid expansion of her son's Lunar Empire. There is rebellion in occupied Dragon Pass, focal point of the Hero Wars.

The eastward Plains of Prax, and nearby Sun County, however, were the focus of RQ material. There are several human tribes, each with its own distinctive (non-horse) mount. There is also the tribe of tapir-like Morokanth, whose herds are manlike. Adventurers flock to the city of New Pavis, seeking their fortunes in the vast ruins of giant-built Old Pavis -- the Big Rubble.

Besides the trolls (of several types, the stunted trollkin most common due to an ancient curse, mighty foes of Chaos with mutual enmities toward other races), dragonewts and dragons already mentioned, there are also dwarfs, elves and anthropomorphic ducks. These all have their own characters; they are not mere re-hashings of Norse mythology or Tolkien's take. The variegated beast-man broos are notably terrible Chaotic marauders, and there are other distinctively Gloranthan creatures as well as those (such as centaurs) familiar from Earthly myth.

The rune cults are central features, anticipating the "factions" of various sorts that have since become common in fantasy RPGs (perhaps most notably those of White Wolf).