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Runequest vs. Glorantha

Started by The Butcher, December 06, 2015, 10:55:46 AM

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Phillip

#15
I voted to have both in a single book, a la Chaosium's first two editions -- which even with the two Cults books bound in would be pretty compact by today's standards.The core book alone was only 128 pages, and mostly you learned about Glorantha as you learned about the equipment, magic and monsters.

I think there's even less demand today than there was a quarter century ago for yet another "generic fantasy" rules set. D&D / Pathfinder seems to have that well sewn up. There may be a Big Purple segment that switches rules sets every few weeks, but they probably want a context along with that too. (I'd guess they're more into 'narrativist' things designed for short runs anyhow.)
And we are here as on a darkling plain  ~ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, ~ Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Doughdee222

I also chose the "Love RuneQuest, don't care about Glorantha." option. I'm new to the game, still reading RQ6 but have never read any Glorantha products. I like how instead of picking a class the player chooses a culture the PC comes from and builds the skills in layers. It seems a bit more realistic in terms of character development while allowing for a wide variety of character types. Seems easy to tweak and adjust to suit your tastes (want 50 points in a hobby? Go ahead! Want Nomads to have Sorcery? Go ahead! Want only the cultists of the Fire Lord to have Fireball spells? Go ahead!)

I'm getting itchy to run a campaign. Not sure if I have the time to do it though.

yosemitemike

I'm not sure what distinguished Runequest as a system from a hundred other fantasy systems other than the distinctive Glorantha setting.
"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."― Friedrich Hayek
Another former RPGnet member permanently banned for calling out the staff there on their abdication of their responsibilities as moderators and admins and their abject surrender to the whims of the shrillest and most self-righteous members of the community.

Bilharzia

Quote from: yosemitemike;867579I'm not sure what distinguished Runequest as a system from a hundred other fantasy systems other than the distinctive Glorantha setting.

Then why on earth are you even posting in this thread?

TrippyHippy

Quote from: yosemitemike;867579I'm not sure what distinguished Runequest as a system from a hundred other fantasy systems other than the distinctive Glorantha setting.

Yes, I think you'll find that the reason why so many systems are similar to RQ is that it was a seminal influence on them.
I pretended that a picture of a toddler was representative of the Muslim Migrant population to Europe and then lied about a Private Message I sent to Pundit when I was admonished for it.  (Edited by Admin)

yosemitemike

Quote from: Bilharzia;867580Then why on earth are you even posting in this thread?

Same reason anyone ever posts in any thread.
"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."― Friedrich Hayek
Another former RPGnet member permanently banned for calling out the staff there on their abdication of their responsibilities as moderators and admins and their abject surrender to the whims of the shrillest and most self-righteous members of the community.

Bren

Quote from: yosemitemike;867584Same reason anyone ever posts in any thread.
'Ignorant and bored' is actually not the reason most of us post.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

yosemitemike

#22
In order to have an opinion about whether I am interested in Runequest without Glorantha, I need some sense of what this means other than a generic fantasy system.  

Quote from: Bren;867606'Ignorant and bored' is actually not the reason most of us post.

Carrying butthurt from an unrelated thread isn't either.

Am I ignorant about Runequest?  Yeah, I am.  If I already knew about it. I wouldn't need to wonder.

So are you going to say anything relevant or just be pissy and childish?
"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."― Friedrich Hayek
Another former RPGnet member permanently banned for calling out the staff there on their abdication of their responsibilities as moderators and admins and their abject surrender to the whims of the shrillest and most self-righteous members of the community.

RandallS

I really like Glorantha and have since I first played White Bear and Red Moon -- well before Runequest was even thought of, let alone available. It's one of the few published settings I really like.
Randall
Rules Light RPGs: Home of Microlite20 and Other Rules-Lite Tabletop RPGs

The Butcher

Interesting to see the general +Runequest -Glorantha trend. Maybe it's a theRPGsite thing?

Quote from: RosenMcStern;867511What a can of worms did you open with this poll.

A Dune-sized one, I suspect.

To be honest, I expected far worse.

Quote from: Bilharzia;867514RQ3 was an attempt that never really worked,

How so?

Quote from: Bilharzia;867514I like Glorantha and have never had a problem with its supposedly goofy elements, D&D is chock to the brim with mountains of goof and no one bats an eyelid, but one or two elements in Glorantha seem odd and the same people who love D&D gonzo go into a paroxysm of consternation.

Too true! There's one in particular I expect to swing by and threadcrap, any time now...

Quote from: TrippyHippy;867581
Quote from: yosemitemike;867579I'm not sure what distinguished Runequest as a system from a hundred other fantasy systems other than the distinctive Glorantha setting.

Yes, I think you'll find that the reason why so many systems are similar to RQ is that it was a seminal influence on them.

I'm not 100% sure Runequest 1e was the first non-class-and-level, skill-based roleplaying game — I believe Traveller may hold that distinction — but RQ certainly played a huge role in divulging the concept, playing as it were a respectable, if distant, #2 to D&D's vastly dominant #1 in the 1970s.

Bren

Quote from: yosemitemike;867608Am I ignorant about Runequest?  Yeah, I am.  If I already knew about it. I wouldn't need to wonder.
Rather than popping into a poll thread where you know jack shit about the topic, why don't you start your own thread asking to be educated? That way people who want to take a break from teaching pigs to sing can pop in and try to teach you about Runequest.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Warthur

Quote from: The Butcher;867620Interesting to see the general +Runequest -Glorantha trend. Maybe it's a theRPGsite thing?
I think it's interesting that there's a lot of people who like Runequest but don't care for Glorantha, but also a healthy constituency of people who dig both.

If you like Runequest and aren't fussy about what a system calls itself - and really, who really gets themselves het up about that? - there's ample people willing to cater to you. You have Mongoose with Legend, you have Design Mechanism with The Game Formerly Known As RQ6, you have OpenQuest, you have this forthcoming Revolution D100, and so on and so forth. Thanks to Mongoose putting their first RQ out under an OGL, there will more or less always be someone willing to sell you a variation of Runequest. They'll all vary somewhat, of course, but that's fine - that just means there'll be some variants which work great for you and some that you don't get on with, that's how competition works in creative fields.

However, Glorantha isn't put out under an OGL. If you want Glorantha, you have to go to Chaosium and their licensees these days, because they're the ones with the rights.

On the face of it, the poll result seems to suggest that Chaosium is making an error by marrying Runequest to Glorantha, because they're going for a stack of (at the time of writing) some 10 people who like them both married up (and, arguably, 5 people who like both RQ and Glorantha but think strategically it's better for the two to be separate) and setting aside the pile of 19 people who like RQ but don't care for Glorantha.

However, if you look at it this way you miss the point that there's a whole swathe of different companies competing for the attention of those who like the system but don't care for the setting, but Chaosium are the only players in the game who are in a position to cater to those who like them both mixed in with each other. So Chaosium get to walk away with 10-15 customers in their pocket whilst a bunch of different publishers squabble over the audience who want a Runequest-like system but don't want Glorantha as a setting - with any particular publisher being lucky to walk away with 5-8 of the pile of 19.
I am no longer posting here or reading this forum because Pundit has regularly claimed credit for keeping this community active. I am sick of his bullshit for reasons I explain here and I don\'t want to contribute to anything he considers to be a personal success on his part.

I recommend The RPG Pub as a friendly place where RPGs can be discussed and where the guiding principles of moderation are "be kind to each other" and "no politics". It\'s pretty chill so far.

Bren

Quote from: RandallS;867615I really like Glorantha and have since I first played White Bear and Red Moon -- well before Runequest was even thought of, let alone available. It's one of the few published settings I really like.
I seldom hear WBRM or Nomand Gods mentioned. Those games were one of the initial selling points for Runequest for me. The fact that the rules were a remarkable example of clarity in explanation and design for that or really any time, easily confirmed the sale.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

Bren

Quote from: Warthur;867626However, Glorantha isn't put out under an OGL. If you want Glorantha, you have to go to Chaosium and their licensees these days, because they're the ones with the rights.
That's an interesting point.

For decades I was a dedicated Chaosium customer, but at this point I have all the CoC scenarios and background information I need for the rest of my lifespan (though I have a niggling desire to pick up Horror on the Orient Express, in part just because my wife really likes the historical Orient Express and likes CoC). I have most of the RQ1, 2, and 3 Glorantha information published and personally I didn't like HeroWars/HeroQuest system and have zero interest in buying material designed for it. Additionally, the move away from tying the setting into the system (and vice versa) is a trend I really dislike. Setting info tied to a useful rules system (which I assume something RQ2 based  would end up being) is probably the only way that Chaosium is likely to get any more of my money at this point in time.
Currently running: Runequest in Glorantha + Call of Cthulhu   Currently playing: D&D 5E + RQ
My Blog: For Honor...and Intrigue
I have a gold medal from Ravenswing and Gronan owes me bee

yosemitemike

Quote from: Bren;867625Rather than popping et cetera

So, cross thread drama it is then.  Well, if that's what floats your boat.  Maybe I can make a new thread so that you can go there and complain that I am making an entire new thread OMG just to ask something that has already been asked before.

or, you know, I could just participate in the thread that is already here and ignore what you want.  I will go with that.  You are pissy and looking for something to bitch about and you will find it no matter what I do so there's no point in giving a shit what you want.

So, more or less on topic, I have always thought of Runequest and Glorantha as being more or less synonomous with Runequest being a bespoke system for playing in Glorantha.  The voting here strongly suggests that this view was not correct.  This is the first time I have seen them strongly disconnected from each other.
"I am certain, however, that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."― Friedrich Hayek
Another former RPGnet member permanently banned for calling out the staff there on their abdication of their responsibilities as moderators and admins and their abject surrender to the whims of the shrillest and most self-righteous members of the community.