Holy crap, we are having an AMAZING time with this system. The skill system is immensely easy, everyone loves doing XP rolls, and the characters all seem very different in play.

And combat? We've had:

-A champion's duel that went back and forth, with opponents disarming one another, taking one another's weapon, and both opponents just holding on at the end of the fight.

-A massive melee on the beach, as the group attempted to hold off waves of attackers (they did, but not without some great thinking and some nasty, nasty injuries).

-A lowly conscript holding off the group's best fighter for an increasingly amusing number of rounds. Sure, he died, but I think all of us (but one) sort of wanted him to live.  

-Multiple fights where numbers and ganging up really told. Even the best fighter can become sorely pressed when he is threatened by three spearmen.

The Combat Effects system has been a game-changer. Yeah, yeah can adjudicate to Compel Surrender or Disarm in any game, but there's something about getting that success, and the back-and-forth, unpredictability of it all. See your attack succeeded AND you get a combat effect when your opponent thinks he has you beaten is just phenomenal. Combat has been of the hold-your-breath sort, something we haven't really had since Rolemaster, and I think RQ6 is a bit easier for the players to handle in that regard. Players are thinking (usually) more about their actions in combat.

From a GM's standpoint, it's been very easy to run (especially since I grabbed the Combat Effects app). I'm still having a little trouble balancing some of the Miracles and theology-based magic, but if that's all I have to complain about, I'm pretty happy. I have this Norse Saga/Mythic Greece/Earthsea/Early Iron Age mashup going, and it's been one of our most successful campaigns in a while.

Why the heck didn't I play RuneQuest earlier? I can't wait for my new hardback, which should be here by month's end. In any case, I am still absolutely loving this system. Design Mechanism hit an absolute home run, as far as I'm concerned.

For those interested, our campaign website is here (the characters need updating; they are more advanced now than listed):

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-middle-isles

Yeah, RQ6 is pretty special. I've never had a game inspire so much creativity before.

Quote from: Zachary The First;709536A lowly conscript holding off the group's best fighter for an increasingly amusing number of rounds. Sure, he died, but I think all of us (but one) sort of wanted him to live.

There's been more than one occasion in my campaigns where the NPC Mook Spearman has survived for a crazy amount of time, and the reaction of the PCs has been to ask for his surrender (or to heal him up if they did take him out in the end) and offer him a job.

Quote from: Ravenswing;709644There's been more than one occasion in my campaigns where the NPC Mook Spearman has survived for a crazy amount of time, and the reaction of the PCs has been to ask for his surrender (or to heal him up if they did take him out in the end) and offer him a job.

I thought this guy might survive, too, but our main fighter's blood was up. Oh well.

How it stack up compared to Legends? Are we talking inches like between B/X vs AD&D or a bigger difference like with 3.X?

Quote from: Ravenswing;709644There's been more than one occasion in my campaigns where the NPC Mook Spearman has survived for a crazy amount of time, and the reaction of the PCs has been to ask for his surrender (or to heal him up if they did take him out in the end) and offer him a job.

I think it must happen to all of us. I remember the first campaign I ran with MRQ2 (now RQ6) rules and "log ninja." Log ninja was a peasant farm boy cultist with a big bit of wood. Facing the PC who had the 2H axe. While the rest of the team cleaned out the lair, log ninja faced down the axe man. In the end he was cut down but the axe man never forgot the almost immovable object who was log ninja.

Same campaign was the one which featured super spider. Same kind of deal. An "unremarkable" medium-sized giant spider that they couldn't kill no matter how they tried. They lived in dread of super spider.

Quote from: estar;709737How it stack up compared to Legends? Are we talking inches like between B/X vs AD&D or a bigger difference like with 3.X?

RQ6 vs. Mongoose Legend is like mixing TSR era D&D rule sets.

Thanks for this feedback, as I will most likely be running RQ6 sometime soon. The various iterations of D&D are a little too abstract for me - when I go sim, I go hard, hard sim. RQ6 is a great gameworld-as-physics engine.

Quote from: estar;709737How it stack up compared to Legends? Are we talking inches like between B/X vs AD&D or a bigger difference like with 3.X?

Inches. It's like this.
1) Loz and Pete write a new edition of RuneQuest (MRQ2) for Mongoose. Mongoose enforces a page count limit at the last minute meaning that several sections are removed or drastically shortened.
2) 6 months later, Loz and Pete compile some errata to patch the (relatively few) issues.
3) Mongoose gives up the licence to the name RuneQuest. Republishes the game as Legend with all references to the name removed and the errata included.
4) Loz and Pete get the licence for RuneQuest and go through every element of MRQ2 to make it the game they wanted to publish and tighten pretty much every section based on MRQ2 feedback. They also add in all the extra stuff they wanted to include originally.

End result. They're both the same game. RQ6 is the version that was a labour of love with no expense or effort spared. Legend is the version that was put on the shelf as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Nope. No bias there. Move along.

Very cool to hear Zachary. I'm currently trying to decide between RQ6 and Fantasy Dice for my next game.

Quote from: deleriad;709784They're both the same game. RQ6 is the version that was a labour of love with no expense or effort spared. Legend is the version that was put on the shelf as quickly and cheaply as possible.

OK, so how different is it from iterations of BRP like Stormbringer/Magic World and Runequest 2 and 3? Because those are what I've got and am familiar with.

QuoteOK, so how different is it from iterations of BRP like Stormbringer/Magic World and Runequest 2 and 3? Because those are what I've got and am familiar with.

Its crunchier. If you rate Stormbringer/MW as, say, 5-6 on the BRP crunch-scale (about the same as Cthulhu), then RQ6 is 8-9.

That said, the core mechanic is just about identical. Stormbringer/MW have slightly different 'special' thresholds, a more abstract combat system, and fewer magic systems, but essentially you could use RQ6 and most BRP products together quite interchangeably and happily with a little tweaking here and there.

The magic systems in Legend vs RQ6 are actually somewhat different, most notably with the Common Magic vs Folk Magic systems. But the earlier description is correct. They're far enough apart that chargen in one is not quite like the other.

Just came home to find the hardcover waiting for me. Pics soon.