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Runequest and nostalgia
Nov. 20th, 2010 02:27 pm
So with the recent release of the 2nd. edition of the Mongoose Runequest rules, the question arose about which was the best version of Runequest. I was amazed at how many people favored Runequest III (Mythic Earth- ick!) Or MRQ II (I guess I'll have to have a look at it). Things do change, I guess. As for me...
For me, the best version of Runequest is always going to be the version I started playing over 25 years ago: Runequest 2nd. It had chargen that was simple and straightforward without adding up fiddly percentages, and included enough examples of extended experience that player could create their own previous experience templates. Likewise the rules for combat, encumberance and magic were simple and straightforward, a quality later editions lost. The basic set gave one enough world to build on, without overly constraining the GM or players. And if one wanted more cultural info, the supplements were wonderful. Sure you could still see bits and pieces where Runequest was derived from D&D, but at the time it was the go-to game for people who wanted things like a skill system, flexible character advancement, gritty combat and hit locations, all that stuff.
Best of all, the modularity of BRP let us combine stuff from other Chaosium games as they came out to make a melange that would make game world purists cry: Superworld? Yay! Japanese schooolgirls with superpowers invade Glorantha! Ringworld? Yay! There's a colony of prehistoric Kzinti on Glorantha! Call of Cthulhu? Yay! My Kzinti schoolgirl Rune Priestess tries to bind Cthulhu!
Oh yeah, we were young and didn't know any better, we were the original "Plug and Play" generation, and we made Rifts look well thought out. What we lacked in professionalism or literary merit we made up with in enthusiasm. Good times, good times.
For me, the best version of Runequest is always going to be the version I started playing over 25 years ago: Runequest 2nd. It had chargen that was simple and straightforward without adding up fiddly percentages, and included enough examples of extended experience that player could create their own previous experience templates. Likewise the rules for combat, encumberance and magic were simple and straightforward, a quality later editions lost. The basic set gave one enough world to build on, without overly constraining the GM or players. And if one wanted more cultural info, the supplements were wonderful. Sure you could still see bits and pieces where Runequest was derived from D&D, but at the time it was the go-to game for people who wanted things like a skill system, flexible character advancement, gritty combat and hit locations, all that stuff.
Best of all, the modularity of BRP let us combine stuff from other Chaosium games as they came out to make a melange that would make game world purists cry: Superworld? Yay! Japanese schooolgirls with superpowers invade Glorantha! Ringworld? Yay! There's a colony of prehistoric Kzinti on Glorantha! Call of Cthulhu? Yay! My Kzinti schoolgirl Rune Priestess tries to bind Cthulhu!
Oh yeah, we were young and didn't know any better, we were the original "Plug and Play" generation, and we made Rifts look well thought out. What we lacked in professionalism or literary merit we made up with in enthusiasm. Good times, good times.