Apple Lane using RQ2 is definitely in my top 5 of adventures run.  That session was as perfect as an RPG session gets.  After seeing how damage worked, one character slid off a roof hoping for a controlled fall--to avoid the crossbow shot headed his way.  The character died from the fall, thus strangely somehow establishing the respect for weapons in that system in the minds of the players.  It just got crazier from there.

We didn't mind ducks. Ducks were zany and fun.  That was the part of RQ we liked.

There is something about Glorantha that just rubs me the wrong way. I keep thinking that I'll run a RQ game with my own setting but never quite seem to get there.  I think the preparation is a mental block--or maybe the system isn't really designed for the kind of settings I want to run.

I love RuneQuest!  I have played it many times since my teens and I have fond memories of the campaigns I have played or run: Griffin Island, Eldarad, The Pavis & Big Rubble... I have played RQ campaigns in Glorantha, which I love, but also in other worlds, such as ancient Greece and Japan during the Sengoku period.

I have also played D&D and I enjoyed playing it a lot. My early experiences with D&D were bad due to bad GMs, but fortunately, later I also played with good GMs and they made everything fun as it should be. I have fond memories of the time I played the Lost Mine of Phandelver, for example. I wish I can play Curse of Strahd someday.

There's really no need to hate any game. And snobbish people should be ignored.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on November 24, 2020, 02:47:15 PMI think the preparation is a mental block--or maybe the system isn't really designed for the kind of settings I want to run.

That's where I wound up at the end of the day. There's a lot of prep for D100 fantasy and while OpenQuest is great because it's a blank slate, I found that I didn't enjoy the kind of prep necessary, nor was my brain in the place for settings that fit D100 as a system. That said, I'd be very happy to play a D100 fantasy game with someone else shouldering the workload.

Oddly, I don't think its a greater workload than what I put into my games, but its the kind of effort that my brain isn't finding fun anymore. Much why I've stepped away from Hero as well.

Anyone know if there's Free Retro of Stormbringer's version of BRP running around?

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on November 23, 2020, 08:58:10 PM
...
Also, there is another reason why I am no fan of Runequest. That was when Mongoose Publishing abandoned OGL Conan and was trying to force all of their customers to change to Runquest. Changing the basis of that game to Runequest.

I just had no interest. And I was firmly on the side of Conan Properties Inc. when they took the license away from Mongoose.

Had they shown a beta version using a trimmed down BRP, modded for the Conan S&S genre,  they might have had a chance.

But flipping straight over to RQ mechanics? Madness...

Quote from: Spinachcat on November 23, 2020, 09:58:17 PM
...
AKA, imagine Star Wars campaigns between 1977 and whenever your table all saw Empire Strikes Back. You'd be doing all sorts of crazy non-canon stuff. ...

100%

Set your Star Wars game at the beginning of the original trilogy and let cannon go hang itself.

Fun will ensue.

Quote from: Spinachcat on November 23, 2020, 09:58:17 PM
...
D&D's success was that there was no core setting. As a thought experiment, imagine how D&D would have done if Empire of the Petal Throne was the default setting in the core book?
...

Minor Quibble, As presented, D&D did have an implied euro-fantasy tolkienesque setting. Which was in line with the fantasy and sword and sorcery books people read at the time.

Settings like Greyhawk which arrived as early as 1980, and forgotten realms did not hinder D&D's popularity one whit. And In fact were introduced due to fan demand.

No one ever asked for Tekumkel. But I will never belittle anyone for liking strange RPG shit.

Unless it is Gorlantha, or the panty explosion & maid RPG's. That shit is just fair game.

Quote from: Jaeger on November 24, 2020, 05:24:19 PM
Had they shown a beta version using a trimmed down BRP, modded for the Conan S&S genre,  they might have had a chance.

But flipping straight over to RQ mechanics? Madness...

It was a bait and switch on the customers who already sunk a ton of money into the D20 version. Really scummy.

No matter what sort of promises Mongoose made. It didn't change the fact that they were absolutely abandoning their fanbase.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley on November 23, 2020, 01:50:20 AM
So I met a new kid from the neighborhood. Told him I was into D&D. Just bought it. And was looking for a group to play with. And I asked if he knew of anyone from the school who did. Well he never answered my question. But instead launched into a rant about how much D&D sucked and how Runequest was oh so much better.

Riot!

I love those encounters (ca. 1980).

Quote from: JeffB on November 24, 2020, 12:28:48 PM
Back in the day we just made up our own Glorantha, just as we did our own D&D settings - pulling in elements from Fiction, Other games/settings (Arduin, Wilderlands, etc). 

Today, I really only utilize the RQ2 era Glorantha materials, and I'm very  picky and choosey outside the original 2 page "intro history" in the RQ2 book. I still don't think there have been better setting and adventure compilations than the RQ2 boxed sets (Borderlands, Griffin Mountain, Big Rubble, Pavis), and Cults of Prax/Terror.  I gave up on "canon" for any setting decades ago-I've got no use for "following the rules" of  a land of make believe.  Glorantha in particular has become so unwieldy as a GAMING setting, has changed immensely from it's roots, and the fanbase is largely made up of Glorantha Scholars who are focused on gaming in a very different way than those "good old days" . Fine and dandy, I'm not a believer in "badwrongfun", but I'll stick to the original game and setting materials.

It's like you're in my head. Be careful in there. I cannot guarantee your safety.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on November 24, 2020, 07:17:13 AM
I always hated the ducks, however. I thought it was one of the most preposterous gaming concepts.

Blasphemy! It's one of the cooler things about RQ! Besides whenever anyone thinks of FRPGs, that picture is the LAST thing they'd consider. (A little humor and fuckery can go a long way - I would consider it a Metamorphosis Alpha type approach! The BEST thing about OD&D and pre-1985 stuff was the lack of boundaries! It's still FANTASY. Just not the type people expect!) 

I really dont have any firm opinions on Runequest supporters and on the other hand Ducks instead of Elves?

Quote from: Shasarak on November 24, 2020, 09:40:18 PM
I really dont have any firm opinions on Runequest supporters and on the other hand Ducks instead of Elves?

What is this "instead" that you speak of?  

Glorantha has ducks and elves! It doesn't do the Talislanta "no elves" thing.

We tried to play RQ3 when we were about 12 and it went nowhere, or rather it went into the garden to kick a ball around. We were into our BECMI.

However RQ3 is now probably my favourite RPG.

RQ3 is less popular than 2nd in RQ-fandom, I think, mainly because it wasn't set in Glorantha by default so was perceived to have lost the flavour, but that is a feature not a bug as far as I'm concerned; Glorantha never clicked for me. I never played RQ2 or paid it much attention but the summaries I've read of the mechanical differences with RQ3 come down in favour of RQ3 for me.

I have several Mythras books and enjoyed reading them. I never got to try the game but the combat manoeuvres look like they would bog down in decision paralysis unless GM'd aggressively. That's the main reason why I still have a marginal preference for RQ3. But the BRP games are generally so similar that I wouldn't get all het up about differences between them.

RQ 3 is very good but RQ keeps the math simple by using even fives in character creation which makes calculating 20% for a special success easier.  Sadly for many people that's a big deal as apparently, rounding to the nearest even multiple of five before dividing is scary hard.

Personally, Glorantha never really impressed me.  And yet, I liked the Ducks.  Cursing prideful people and their descendants with a ridiculous form seems very in keeping with godly spite.

Quote from: Marchand on November 25, 2020, 05:08:23 AMHowever RQ3 is now probably my favourite RPG.

RQ3 is less popular than 2nd in RQ-fandom, I think, mainly because it wasn't set in Glorantha by default so was perceived to have lost the flavour, but that is a feature not a bug as far as I'm concerned; Glorantha never clicked for me. I never played RQ2 or paid it much attention but the summaries I've read of the mechanical differences with RQ3 come down in favour of RQ3 for me.

I'm curious. Do you use RQ3 Fatigue as written?

While conceptually a fatigue system seems eminently reasonable and completely makes sense to me, in practice tracking fatigue was on the borderline of what seemed too fiddly to track for me and was far too burdensome to track for my players.

Quote from: David Johansen on November 25, 2020, 08:20:56 AM
RQ 3 is very good but RQ keeps the math simple by using even fives in character creation which makes calculating 20% for a special success easier.  Sadly for many people that's a big deal as apparently, rounding to the nearest even multiple of five before dividing is scary hard.

The number of times where a 72% or 73% chance will be different from a 70% or a 75% chance are few in number. I think it's reasonable to ask whether the added granularity/accuracy is worth the additional difficulty in calculating special, critical, and fumble results.

RQ:Glorantha created a table for tracking chances for criticals, specials, and fumbles. I dumped it in favor of the formula (sans complicating rounding) because that is way easier for me to keep track of in my head.