Quote from: Arminius;974168 has questions...

Off the top of my head (and I think rather accurate)...

• D20 for to-hit in combat (and for skills) is granular enough except for "critical/special" effects, which I can't remember how they're handled in PD.[/B]
  Crit = Double Damage/Double Effect
  
  
  • Combat also less whiffy--but I don't remember why exactly.[/B]
    Attack rolls are made simultaneously and compared at once. As long as both don't fail (which isn't common) one character WILL hit another and combat moves along. Combined with the Crit rules (and a Crit will come along sooner or later), combats generally runs like this: "Tink-Tink-Tink-Boom!" and the combat ends.
    
    
    • No hit locations IIRC simplifies things relative to RQ--but does the system "compensate" at all by using variable armor and/or detailed criticals like Elric?[/B]
      Shields affect how much damage is absorbed. Also, shields can shatter. And weapons can break. But no hit locations.
      
      
      • Only other dice needed are d6.[/B]
        Yes.
        
        
        • Passions are interesting but I don't fully grok the details, let alone how they differ from élan/alignment (as in some versions of Elric/Stormbringer).[/B]
          I can't compare them to Elric/Stormbringer (don't know the game) but the player can invoke a passion that might get a bonus on a skill for length of encounter that ranges from +10 to the stat to +20/Double the stat (whichever is higher), to -5 to the skill for a Failure to going Mad and... well, leaving the game for a while... on a Fumble.
          
          
          • PD has some generational rules and a more episodic structure that could help the campaign along, I think?[/B]
            Yes. Essentially one "adventure" per year per session which focuses and drives things along nicely. And then Winter phase which advances the PC in several ways -- or claws him back with a death in the family, raids, and so on -- all handled abstractly.
            
            
            • Also some ru[/B]les for renown/glory (not that other BRP-derivatives, don't have them). Anything else for systematizing social structure, relationships, and social advancement?
              In Winter phase one can get married, which can increase holdings, income, and so on. Have children which provides heir if PC dies. Gains Glory for spending and building. And so on.
              

I first discovered CoC and Pendragon so when I finally came to Runequest I was a bit disappointed in the fiddly hit locations and piercing rules. I understand they're intended to be more deadly and they can be fun with the Monty Pythonish loss of limbs but I think these days I'd just use the Pendragon combat system.

I think they were only intended to be more deadly than D&D, and then have been retained more or less out of tradition/brand identity. The various iterations of RQ, not to mention house rules and obvious variants such as Harnmaster, have modulated the amputation affects, but I currently prefer how things are done in Elric/Stormbringer 5e, where armor coverage is handled by variable absorption, and location effects are handled by rolling on a critical hit chart for especially hard hits.

I came to BRP via RQ2, then Pendragon, CoC and Stormbringer. Of the lot Stormbringer 1/2e is definitely my favourite incarnation of the BRP family. I have RQ3, and every edition of Stormbringer/Elric, Hawkmoon, and one of the MRQ editions.

Most of them have too many fiddly bits for my taste.

Quote from: Voros;974181I first discovered CoC and Pendragon so when I finally came to Runequest I was a bit disappointed in the fiddly hit locations and piercing rules. I understand they're intended to be more deadly and they can be fun with the Monty Pythonish loss of limbs but I think these days I'd just use the Pendragon combat system.

You might want to check out the free version of OpenQuest. It's a lighter version of RuneQuest without the fiddlier bits like hit location. Assuming you even want a version of RuneQuest...

Quote from: soltakss;974144I've always loved RuneQuest and never got on with Pendragon, for some reason. RQ wins hands down in my opinion.

Funny, I feel exactly the opposite. Well, not quite, I guess I just prefer Pendragon over Runequest.

Quote from: Baulderstone;974209You might want to check out the free version of OpenQuest. It's a lighter version of RuneQuest without the fiddlier bits like hit location. Assuming you even want a version of RuneQuest...

Cool thanks. I have always been interested in Runequest because of Glorantha and the King of Dragonpass.

Quote from: Raleel;974157The MRQ branch (Legend, Rq6, and most recently Mythras) have different fatigue rules. Make an endurance check after rounds equal to Con/6 round up. Fail and suffer effects. You can check it out in Mythras Imperative (free download). Elegant is a matter of taste I imagine, but I like them

Quote from: CRKrueger;974158Raleel handled talking about Fatigue in Mythras, but it also has Special Effects in combat, so a successful attack and successful parry isn't necessarily a "nothing else happens" result.

Thanks. I am a fan of L.Whitaker's work since the days of Elric!.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;974092If there is one game Warhammer FRP is a derivative of it's Maelstrom.

But it can be argued that Maelstrom was a product of its time and place, namely Great Britain in the 80s where RQ seemed to be at eye level with D&D, and White Dwarf having a regular RQ column ("Rune Rites") in addition to regular RQ modules.

OK, that makes sense. Because I always saw WFRP as derivative of Maelstrom, but it's certainly possible that RQ was big "in the scene" at the time and had an influence on all of it.

WFRP certainly doesn't feel that much like RQ in play. I think the only significant connection is that WFRP came into existence because GW temporarily lost the RQ license. GW had been pushing RQ hard up to that point, and they wanted an RPG based on their own IP that they could sell instead.

Both games have percentile skill systems, but the skill levels and advancement are so different that it has never felt derivative of RQ to me. I've never owned Maelstrom, so I can't weigh in on that one.

Quote from: Baulderstone;975404WFRP certainly doesn't feel that much like RQ in play. I think the only significant connection is that WFRP came into existence because GW temporarily lost the RQ license. GW had been pushing RQ hard up to that point, and they wanted an RPG based on their own IP that they could sell instead.

Both games have percentile skill systems, but the skill levels and advancement are so different that it has never felt derivative of RQ to me. I've never owned Maelstrom, so I can't weigh in on that one.

I own several versions of Runequest, both editions of Maelstrom, and used to own WFRP, and I just see them as being on the same d100 contiunuum.

Quote from: Baulderstone;975404WFRP certainly doesn't feel that much like RQ in play. I think the only significant connection is that WFRP came into existence because GW temporarily lost the RQ license. GW had been pushing RQ hard up to that point, and they wanted an RPG based on their own IP that they could sell instead.

Both games have percentile skill systems, but the skill levels and advancement are so different that it has never felt derivative of RQ to me. I've never owned Maelstrom, so I can't weigh in on that one.

Maelstrom is so close to Warhammer in it's presentation of percentile stats, and even it's 16th century-esque setting it hard to deny it's influence on Warhammer:
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I do feel that actually, things like combat (including hit locations, armour points, etc) is actually pretty similar between Warhammer and RuneQuest though, certainly more than it is comparable to Warhammer and AD&D. The character generation is curious, because RuneQuest originally had characters starting at very low levels of skill (5%) as raw 18 year olds, but then pushed the option of joining cults/guilds/etc in order to gain prior experience. My feeling is that WFRP essentially simplified and codified this process into a fully blown career system, with a bit of an influence from Traveller as well.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;975599I do feel that actually, things like combat (including hit locations, armour points, etc) is actually pretty similar between Warhammer and RuneQuest though, certainly more than it is comparable to Warhammer and AD&D. The character generation is curious, because RuneQuest originally had characters starting at very low levels of skill (5%) as raw 18 year olds, but then pushed the option of joining cults/guilds/etc in order to gain prior experience. My feeling is that WFRP essentially simplified and codified this process into a fully blown career system, with a bit of an influence from Traveller as well.

The career system in WFRP is a lot wonkier over long-term play than RQ. For character generation and the early stage of a campaign, it works great. You get to pick a general class, and get a random career in it. It's often not the exact career you want, so you work towards a career that suits you. That part is fun, but then you start to get issues.

For one thing, most careers don't take very long to max out. People frequently find a career that suits their role in the party and are soon done with it. After that, you tend to see a lot of random shuffling between careers that have little to with what it occurring in the campaign. This is aggravated by the way you need very specific bonuses. If you have already done one career that offers +10 to WS, you need to find a career with another number for a bonus, such as +5.

It does work, but it isn't pretty. I often get the impression that people that rave about the career system have never actually played a long-term campaign. It's clever on paper, but I really wonder how much long-term playtesting got done on it at GW before release.

Traveller neatly dodges a lot of these issues by having the career system used entirely in character generation.

RQ's system is so much cleaner than WFRP.

Any play experience with the QuickStart?

I ran it on FreeRPG day at a local game store. Went well enough but the players managed to mostly circumvent the plot and I had to wing it for about 2/3rds of the session but the end result was that the players liked the system (two had played RQ before, one had played d100 games before and the otehr only D&D or generic fantasy stuff previously.