This series of videos talking about some of the best games in the RPG hobby is fantastically informative and interesting! I have played at RQ for decades, yet you have increased my understanding of aspects that befuddled me all along - like how it differs from D&D!

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Thank-you :)

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Thank-you :)

I just love his bookshelves

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Hah - and that's only one wall :D

@23bcx

3 жыл бұрын

would be better without the 5e and pop

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@23bcx Shhh.. Don't let Sonja hear you say that!

Never Played RuneQuest. But it's been around as long as I can remember. Thanks for the share!!

@WillyMuffinUK

Ай бұрын

Give it a go - great game!

Great depth, and quite parallel to my experience. I designed a fantasy world around the Vikings box for my first Glorantha setting, inheriting from Glorantha and other settings for the fringes of that world while playing out an Inland Sea Viking campaign with a byzantine culture of demon worshipers as projected antagonists. I discovered the depths of Glorantha only years later, starting with the Dragon Pass boardgame, then the not-quite novel King of Sartar. The Sourcebook is a nice summary of the obscurely available information at the time of RQ3, slightly updated. RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is (in my eyes) the first unshakable combination of RQ and the setting. My own explorations of Glorantha happened only after having used RQ in a non-Gloranthan context. RQ3 DeLuxe (or GW's Advanced RuneQuest) with its world-building advice in the GM Book was a great help in world-design, regardless of a game system.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Thank-you, and I agree with the RQ books being great worldbuilding tools. I'll also say that RQAiG is not inseperable from Glorantha, but it is the best RQ and Glorantha have had in their long relationship :)

@sartarite

3 жыл бұрын

​ @Willy Muffin I will agree to that when Pedro Zivani's "Mythic Iceland" shows up using an adapted version of the RQG engine, and possible follow-up projects for more historical settings like the early Holy Roman Empire. These have been discussed as little as three years ago... The Design Mechanism's RQ6 - nowadays Mythras - has successfully covered quite a bit of historical fantasy, and some fictional fantasy. I had the chance to play it with one of the authors, and it felt as much RuneQuest as did RQ3 or RQG (aka RQ:RiG).

@sartarite

3 жыл бұрын

RQAiG is a loaded term, really - it was the working title for two different attempts to produce a Gloranthan RQ by a non-Chaosium party which did not see completion and which failed to get full approval - each was playable, though. I managed to get into the playtest of the Avalon Hill-backed project in the early 90ies, and I have been in contact with playtesters of the TDM add-on to RQ6.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@sartarite RQ6/Mythras is.on my to do list - my intent there is to follow it through from Mongoose to TDM. But that's a fair way off. The "other" RQAiG I think is what was to have been AH's RQ4. I've read a draft copy that was (maybe still is) floating around the Internet, but never tried to use it in any way. I do feel sorry for RuneQuest. It's a fantastic game that has been pushed around like a ship in a storm, when it should be up there competing toe to toe with D&D. At least it looks to have found new stability now, back with Chaosium.

A wonderful overview, thanks for taking the time to share your views on this.

@WillyMuffinUK

10 ай бұрын

You're welcome, and thank-you 🙂

I have the 'Glorantha-less' Runequest books (3rd ed), by Avalon Hill/GW, 3rd Edition (missing the Vikings book tho) - as well as the newly released Roleplaying in Glorantha rulebook by Chaosium and am hoping to fill out my collection. Glorantha is an awesome setting/game universe. Thank you, for this detailed background video.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Glorantha is a true lesson in world building. Good luck with your collection :)

RQ2 is the one I grew up with from '78 to '84. Somewhat regrettably swapped my softback copy for a hardback AD&D 1e Fiend Folio but sponsored the Kickstarter for the reprint so I've got a copy again now!. Played a lot of AH RQ3 Deluxe (set in Glorantha, obviously, where else!) from the late 80s through into the early 2000s, when my sporadic RQ group permanently disbanded due to RL interventions. Glorantha is one of my very favourite fantasy settings and I still dust off my prized and (mostly) pristine copy of Dragon Pass on occasion.

@WillyMuffinUK

2 жыл бұрын

The newish Glorantha encyclopedias are great for the setting. System neutral, too. They are great illustrations of how coherent and comprehensive the setting is. A lot of RPG companies could learn much from Glorantha!

@FrostSpike

2 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK I splashed out for the two-volume Guide to Glorantha slipcase that Stafford published a few years ago and, although expensive, they are glorious!

@WillyMuffinUK

2 жыл бұрын

@@FrostSpike Definitely a worthy work for him to leave behind before he signed out from this world.

yah my first experience in runequest was runeqest 2nd ed. I bought Runequest 3rd ed. Avalon Hill from Gambit games in San Francisco Market street. I found it excellent . Avalon hill was on a RPG binge at the time, with James Bond RPG, Powers and Perils RPG, Tales from the Floating vagabound RPG, and Lords of Creation RPG.

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

I've covered the James Bond RPG here kzread.info/dash/bejne/X32Dq9JxYq-Zhrg.html

The problem with Avalon Hill is that up till then the only rules they had published were wargame rules. These were 20- 30 page books with a simple staple and paper construction. Alas, they used the same publishing techniques for RQ3, which lead to poor quality rules books - just staples and paper. RPG's tend to have a lot more than 30 pages and many of their RQ publications really struggled from a structural point of view. The RPG crowd during this period (and even in the late seventies) was used to a much higher standard of rules book construction and presentation. Add to this that they removed Glorantha from the rules lead to an RPG that felt generic and looked poor quality simply because of the inferior construction techniques. I have all of the RQ3 boxed sets, but many of them got hammered because of said flimsy book construction. Only nearer the end - and much too late - did Avalon Hill up their game and publish books of a physical quality that befitted a premium RPG and started publishing quality Glorantha material. For me, coming from RQ2, I felt the partnership with Avalon Hill was a mis-step and really hurt the popularity of Runequest.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

I have to agree with you. RQ3 isn't a bad game by any standards, but it certainly doesn't look it next to the hardbacks of AD&D. Even the Call of Cthulhu edition that was around at the same time as RQ3 was better presented. It's a shame. Doubly so, when you consider that it's only been within the last few years that RuneQuest has really come back. The Mongoose period was a bit messy, too. But all that for another video.

Excellent thoughts on this edition. I bought the second edition in '81 (?), but sadly that one also ended up in a dumpster. I have heard good things about 3rd Edition, and Ben Monroe says he borrowed (what he considered) the best of this one and Stormbringer for Magic World (still available via DriveThruRPG) - I would love to see you do a review of that one, if your schedule permits. 🍻

@WillyMuffinUK

11 ай бұрын

Magic World? Sort of folded into BRP, although I wouldn't rule out a separate review of it.

Great Review! After seeing this I went out and bought a copy of the book for Runequest 3, since its seems easier to use than the box. My group has been using Warhammer Fantasy 2nd edition, but this seems a much better fit for what we want. Those books "Sun County" and "Cradle of Rivers" don't seem to be on sale anywhere and seem really hard to get hold of.

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

Unfortunately, all of the Avalon Hill RQ books aren't easy finds - which includes River of Cradles and Sun County. Closest I can recommend that are current are the Glorantha Classics series. Pavis & The Big Rubble covers locations to the north end of the River of Cradles (and Pavis was in that Avalon Hill work) - www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/83383?affiliate_id=51226 Additionally, any RQ game needs the Argan Argar Atlas (which is free) - www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/178723?affiliate_id=51226

Thank god! Just week ago I started looking for used 3 edition to upgrade my 1 edition rules. Found one Deluxe version and somehow decided to order it even though those games workshop ones were so much nearer and offcourse cheaper

@WillyMuffinUK

2 жыл бұрын

You did well. The GW ones turn loose-leaf pretty quick.

Great Review, especially that you go into the publisher side of things. Balanced and good thoughts. I share the view, that a less hack-and-slayish playstyle is worth exploring and I also favor games where real combat has real consequences. But that is not everyone's taste of course.

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

Of course. Different games suit different play styles and tastes, and make for different gaming experiences. Viva la difference! 🙂

My first roleplaying game was actually based on Runequest: the Scandinavian Drager & Demoner (sounds more like D&D but it isn't they had a license with Chaosium). Later I have used various versions of Chaosium games (Basic Roleplaying, Call of Cthulhu), but I have never played Runequest per se. I do have the third edition book though, and I really like it. Not sure if I ever want to use it for Glorantha, but we'll see. Dungeons and Dragons always felt a bit....odd and clunky to me, perhaps because of the different background philosophies you mention.

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

BRP can do virtually anything, 🙂

@trondsi

Жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK Very true. I once ran a game loosely inspired by Kull; the Shadow Kingdom (and a bit Conan). Just by letting players start with relatively high percentage chances, most opponents being considerably weaker, and using the BRP critical wound table (I forget the exact name) we turned it into an action filled Sword and Sorcery game.

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

@@trondsi Sounds like good fun to me!

I probably still own the GW edition of Runequest, from like the mid 80's? MAn, those Broo monsters were creepy (not to mention random).

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Literally random! Still love the chaos features charts.

@SebastienlovesCookieswirlc

3 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK I kind of agree with your view on the GW edition, but I think some of the content in White Dwarf was really good for magazine-level adventures. Love your historical reconstruction of "Runequest Through The Ages" XD

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@SebastienlovesCookieswirlc Absolutely agree. White Dwarf, in that period, published some fantastic material - for RuneQuest and other games. I may get around to a "classic White Dwarf retrospective", but there are plenty of scenarios in there I still use to this day.

@SebastienlovesCookieswirlc

3 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK Please go for the retrospective!

Great review only missing how great Cormac’s adventure was

@WillyMuffinUK

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Cormac really made a saga out of it, didn't he 🙂

This was the version of RQ that I started with back in the day. I really liked it, except for one thing: I could never figure out how to recover POW points. If it was a case of travelling back to a city and going through all that rigmarole at a temple, it means that Divine Magic casters can cast one kick-ass spell, and then not only can they cast next to nothing, but they also have no power left, so they lose all contests. I always felt like I was getting something wrong. Anybody know what I was messing up?

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

With divine magic, a character undergoes the study and cost to learn the spell, and sacrifices POW to do so. After that, he knows that spell. If he is an initiate, once he casts the spell, he must go through all of the study, cost, and POW sacrifice again to be able to re-use it. If he is a priest, he does not need to re-learn it. He knows it, and can cast it as desired, over and over (hopefully rolling to successfully cast each time). This makes priests pretty powerful. Divine spells work like skills, and don't burn resources (such as magic points) to cast. This isn't true of all divine spells, though. For example, create ghost and resurrect both require re-study at a temple to regain. These are noted as "one use" rather than "reusable". Initiates and priests also dabble in spirit magic, which does require magic points and so on. A good practitioner of divine magic balances out the POW sacrificed with POW gains, and back up their divine magic capabilities with spirit magic. The way divine magic works also ushers characters that use it down the road to becoming priests, since that is where the true power of it unlocks. I hope all that makes more sense of it?

@dmforsyth

3 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK that's an amazing answer, Willy. Thank you so much. I'm no dummy, but despite reading through both Book 1 and the Magic book, I could never find that. I'm very impressed with your sleuthing abilities. By the way, today is the first time I've ever stumbled across your channel. For what it's worth, you have a new subscriber, sir. Thanks again!

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@dmforsyth Thank-you! For what it's worth, I have vague recollections of having the same kind of "huh?" moments with RQ3's magic back when. So, don't feel alone!

@dmforsyth

3 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK By the way, Ian, I want to offer a combination apology and confession. This was the first episode from your channel I had seen (thanks, youtube algorithm) and I foolishly assumed that your name was Willy. I am now a subscriber who knows that it's Ian. It won't happen again, sir.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@dmforsyth Heh - all good, and the confusion is entirely of my own making. I may put up a channel intro video that explains it someday 🙂

Avalon Hill also introduced it's own Roleplaying Game: Power & Perils in 1983 which put it in conflict with itself.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

True, and I never quite understood why. RQ already had an established base that they could build on, yet they still put out P&P. To this day, I have never seen a copy of that game in the UK, and very few magazine adverts. Mystifying, unless they had already commissioned the writing of P&P prior to the arrangement for RQ with Chaosium, so may have been contractually bound to publish it? Strange one.

@jimghee5437

3 жыл бұрын

I played P & P for several years. It is very math intensive but has some excellent elements and like Runequest has no Character levels but Skill levels / Combat levels and Magic levels. Here's a link to the rules if you're curious powersandperils.org/

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@jimghee5437 I'll give them a look!

@davidb736

2 жыл бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK I am in the UK, Northern Ireland which had 1 store that sold RPGS at the time, I bought Power & Perils in 1983 and it's few supplements that came out for it.

@WillyMuffinUK

2 жыл бұрын

@@davidb736 Perhaps all of the copies coming across the Atlantic only made it that far ;) I've no doubt they were sold somewhere. I've probably even seen them. I just can't remember seeing them.

I don't think the rules changed very much between v2 and v3. They added sorcery and shifted from skills being factors of 5% to 1% which is not a big change. You could still play the v2 adventures using v3 with no real change. My memory might be shaky but that's how I remember it.

@WillyMuffinUK

9 ай бұрын

V2 to V3 is quite a big change. Gone is training by guilds, prior experience is replaced by percentiles by age. Culture and profession determine starting skills in RQ3. Battle magic -> spirit magic, rune magic -> divine magic, sorcery introduced. Glorantha-specific elements of character generation, religion, magic, etc. removed in favour of a more generic base. Changes to many parts of the core system... There is still a lot of compatibility between RQ1, 2, 3, and RQG - but they all have their differences that mark them out. It's one of the reasons I'm sticking with RQ2 for my SoloQuest video efforts, rather than go for RQ3 or RQG - RQ2 is the system SoloQuest was released under, so rather than run into potential pitfalls and ad hoc conversion I'd likely need if using RQ3 or RQG (even though I'm more familiar with those), I thought I'd keep things native.

@ruprecht8520

9 ай бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK Those are all differences but the core, the mechanics, the way it plays is the same. That is all fluff. Improvements yes, but not anything that changed the core.

@ruprecht8520

9 ай бұрын

The Defence to dodge was a change to the core mechanics. One I didn't care for that changed the feel of combat but that's a pretty minor thing.

@WillyMuffinUK

9 ай бұрын

@@ruprecht8520 Well, sort of... Characters ended up with more skills, so it's more than fluff. But sure, the base nature of the game hasn't changed much at all over the decades. There are quite a few changes to core - this thread lists a fair chunk: basicroleplaying.org/topic/4982-chaosiums-runequest-2-vs-runequest-3-avalon-hill/ But, generally, yes - any version of RuneQuest still feels pretty much like RuneQuest.

@ruprecht8520

9 ай бұрын

@@WillyMuffinUK Thanks for the link. I think we more or less agree. There were so many little things it 'felt' a bit different even if the core was almost the same. I just wished they'd kept it more like CoC and had almost no changes between versions because v2 just felt very right. None of the offspring (legend, Mongoose RQ, Mythris) have recaptured the feel.

If I wanted a Runequest adventure module to introduce myself and players to Glorantha, what would you suggest?

@WillyMuffinUK

Жыл бұрын

The Broken Tower quickstart isn't bad: www.chaosium.com/runequest-quickstart-1/ Pegasus Plateau gives a compilation of adventures: www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/312986?affiliate_id=51226 And then, there's always the traditional Apple Lane: www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/178134?affiliate_id=51226

I firmly believe Runequest 3 was always the best, and will be the greatest rol game for centuries.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

Have you tried the most recent version of RQ?

@pepebotijo8

3 жыл бұрын

Nope, but I have read the pdf. I like what I´ve seen. I´m used to play RQ3 with a few house rules to fix a few black holes (mainly fatigue points and sorcery).

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@pepebotijo8 Ah, sorcery... the one RQ3 element that's on everyone's houserule list :)

@pepebotijo8

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely! IMO the cost for a sorcery spell should be 1 MP per sorcery skill (not for adding points to skills) used. In this way you cast spells faster and the cost in MP is minimum. However, you are limited by free intelligence. I also add magical components to sorcery, they improve the spells once by 20% (cost 20p) and even sacrifices: in holy places improves ritual magic. With some changes it works like a charm because the basic game mechanics are amazing.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

@@pepebotijo8 My preferred game (which is a bastard son of a hybrid of several) takes away the requirement for free INT (which, in my opinion, is a half-arsed way of trying to model the D&D Vancian memorisation in RQ), boils it down to skills representing magical knowledge, and has flexible MP expenditure (bonus/penalties for success/failure and effect). Instead of components, I use archaic languages - casting spells using a language closer to the language in which the spell was originally formulated (a spellcaster may have learned a spell from a work that is of a later period, or a translated work) carries bonus. All that for the form of magic most closely aligned to RQ sorcery. Received magic (that is, magical effects provided to a spell user from another entity/demon/deity) is very different - language doesn't mean anything to it, and it's all about the caster's familiarity with the effect and standing with the entity. Unskilled practitioners run the risk of losing control of the power transmitted to them - which can... hurt. There, rituals and use of relevant holy sites helps. Anyway... All that and your own notes just shows how flexible RQ and BRP are compared to most other games out there :)

Separated at birth, and by an ocean.

@WillyMuffinUK

3 жыл бұрын

So it seems! :)