Not sure what came over me, but I found a complete boxed set for a reasonable price (worn box, rest is very nice). First impression is that the layout is a bit rough, but I knew that. The art is charmingly "home made" but I really like some of these pieces. It's pretty nice how the rules are carefully laid out in each section, "the reasons why" the rules were established the way they are, is literally explained. All of this was expected as I have been looking at the pdfs before. Runequest always made a lot of sense to me.

......and then I noticed the "Fangs" booklet. Man, this is so useful that I can scarcely believe that not more RPGs do this. It's a long list of pre-rolled characters and monsters in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I wasn't even sure if I wanted this box mostly for the old nostalgia (had a friend who talked about Runequest well over 30 years ago), and maybe a bit inspiration, but now I think I actually feel like running this thing as is. I got "Apple Lane" too, which I have heard is a good starting point. Other adventure module suggestions are welcome (is Griffin Island any good?)

You ought to get Pavis, Big Rubble, and especially Borderlands.  The first two are elaborate settings with some adventures included; Borderlands is an entire multi-episode campaign and is great for starting characters. Second only to Masks of Nyarlathotep, I consider Borderlands to be the best published RPG campaign of all time.   Snakepipe Hollow is pretty much one big dungeon crawl - a set of caves infested by Chaos.  Chaosium has made pretty much all of the old RQ2 stuff available again, either in print or PDF.  Don't know about Griffin Island (that was the RQ3 re-title; it was originally Griffin Mountain for RQ2.  Some pretty good (Glorantha) modules were published for RQ3 and should be easy to convert, some of the best being Sun County (another big setting with adventures included) and Shadows on the Borderland.  It's actually pretty hard to go wrong on any supplements for RQ2 or RQ3.  All of it was good; just some were better than others, but none were a waste of money.

I think Apple Lane is the single-best introduction session module of any system I have seen.  (There are a lot of systems I've never seen.)  I'm not sure why that is, because on its face it is not particularly noteworthy.  All I know, is I've used it three different times, all with groups new to RQ, and by the time it was done, they all knew how to play, had a good feel for the vibe of the system, and they no longer thought ducks were all that funny.

Quote from: I on October 29, 2022, 01:16:56 AM
Don't know about Griffin Island (that was the RQ3 re-title; it was originally Griffin Mountain for RQ2.

Griffin Mountain was an overland hex crawl adventure, similar in format to B10 Night's Dark Terror (but much bigger). It doesn't really fit in with the regular Glorantha stuff and it still sticks to the idea that parts of Glorantha would not be developed but reserved for iindividual GMs to expand upon. Of course this was back before you needed a Masters in History to play in Glorantha.

Still my favourite game, though I rarely get it to play it these days.

I just noticed that RQ2 has more bonuses than some (most?) later editions. Including a defense bonus that you extract from attacks against you. This reminds me a bit of Rolemaster, and I wonder if RQ was the inspiration here. Do most of you keep this in play, are were there good reasons to get rid of it?

I think the idea of a negative modifier added to your opponent confused people so they removed it. I know one of my character had trouble with the idea, perhaps I explained it poorly. I think now a days few would have trouble with the idea.

OK thanks! I think I will try playing this as close to "as is" at first to see what it's like, so I'll keep it for now.
I also ordered Cults of Prax from Chaosium.

Quote from: Trond on October 30, 2022, 09:19:02 PM
OK thanks! I think I will try playing this as close to "as is" at first to see what it's like, so I'll keep it for now.
I also ordered Cults of Prax from Chaosium.

If you end up enjoying Cults of Prax, I'd highly recommend that you purchase Cults of Terror as well.  It's a very fun read if nothing else, but I think you'll find it a useful gaming aid.

OK maybe I'll check it out.

BTW has there ever been a published GM screen for RQ2?

If I remember right they replaced Defense with Dodge in RQ3. Could be they wanted it more active in that you roll for your dodge instead of applying it to anothers roll.

Quote from: Trond on October 31, 2022, 11:44:11 AM
OK maybe I'll check it out.

BTW has there ever been a published GM screen for RQ2?

Yes, Judges Guild did one called the "RuneQuest Judges Shield". In actual play it didn't provide much defense from players though...

Late to the party but still a party worth getting to.
RQ1 was what I used to pull people away from D&D when it came out.
Mostly easy to understand but not being basically low powered superheroes was a bit of an uphill climb.

What does 1 and 2 have that RQG doesnt? Not saying either is better genuinely curious if it's worth playing over their latest

Quote from: Ocule on November 01, 2022, 02:03:21 PM
What does 1 and 2 have that RQG doesnt? Not saying either is better genuinely curious if it's worth playing over their latest

Theres alsmost always something lost, dumbed down, or changed that just doesnt sit well with each go-round of the edition treadmill. And This was no different. Though of I recall right it is mostly an outgrowth of RQ 3e. Much the same as how each edition of CoC has little changes. Not all bad. Well till you get to the most recent.

Theres also a RQ quickstart PDF up on the Chaosium site.

Though the winner there was the AH RQ boxed set. Just enough to get a bare bones basic game going. But not enough to satisfy.