Troll Lord Games

And, more importantly, how is it? There's a sale going on and I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on a couple of these but don't know much about the system. I know it's changing in a couple of months, but the current system will be 100% compatable...and I would prefer a standard, leather-bound version over a digest sized manual. I glanced over the system at Gen Con, but didn't get a good look at it.

Runequest is basically the; Baisic Role Playing system. With just some tweeks. If your familiar with BRP (Chaosium uses the system) then that gives you a very good idea of what Runequest is.

I personally love BRP and is one of my favourite systems.

My (limited) understanding is that Mongoose stayed "true" to the BRP system in RQII, but I am not super familiar with the system. History says that RQ (BRP in general) was a strong contender for top FRPG in the early 80s, but crashed and burned when Avalon Hill bought the game and drove it into the ground.

So, if Mongoose honored RQ's BRP roots in RQII, then its 30+ years of reliable game-play can't be underestimated.

redwullf wrote:So, if Mongoose honored RQ's BRP roots in RQII, then its 30+ years of reliable game-play can't be underestimated.

Not to start a system war.

But the Palladium system has been around just as long and still going strong. Most people (Including the owner) consider it a mess.

Sir Ironside wrote:Not to start a system war.

But the Palladium system has been around just as long and still going strong. Most people (Including the owner) consider it a mess.

I've actually only heard good things about Palladium, but have never played it myself. When it comes to fantasy RPG, I've only ever strayed from D&D variants by trying Hero System (Hero Fantasy). But, only for about 2 sessions, then it was back into E.G.G.'s brainchild.

redwullf wrote:I've actually only heard good things about Palladium, but have never played it myself. When it comes to fantasy RPG, I've only ever strayed from D&D variants by trying Hero System (Hero Fantasy). But, only for about 2 sessions, then it was back into E.G.G.'s brainchild.

Everyone has their own opinions, but in my experiences I've only heard bad things about Palladium. The system isn't for me after trying Heroes Unlimited. The other genres of the system I haven't tried, but heard about the issues with those as well. But I digress.

I own the Basic Role-Playing system. I like it alright. I've been in a system collecting mood lately, so I might pick up MRQII for the hell of it.

No experience with RQII myself, but played many sessions of BRP (via Call of Cthulhu).

Palladium Books Megaversal system is the SHAZBOT! 5 thumbs up. Palladium stuff is the only other system that I have been playing, other than D&D, for 20+ years. It just works.

~O

Have it and love it and play the heck out of it lately. Before I give a quick breakdown of it, you may want to hold out on buying it. The Glorantha/Runequest license is being dropped, and they are rereleasing the core system as LEGEND. They are also going the way of Savage Worlds Explorers Edition and doing digest sized books on the cheap, due out in October.

Anyway, now having collected BRP, Openquest, and RQII, I can make some comparisons. First off, it is of course a roll under d100 percentile skill based system like its parent BRP. The skills, though, are truncated and broad, which I like a lot. You don't have a jumping skill, running skill, etc....you have athletics, which covers a bunch of stuff.

The meat of the combat stuff varies a bit, and uses the BRP option of using hit points by location. This is fun for players, a chore for the GM who may be running a bunch of bad guys. Of course they give the rule option for minions, showing you how to make everything simple hit points and not by location.

Each character, based off of their dex and int scores, gets a certain amount of combat actions per turn, which can be thought of as number of attacks, but actually encompasses anything you want to do during your turn. The tactical side of things is the choice of Combat Manuevers. They are divided by offensive, defensive, and both (usable whether on offense or defense). Things like Choose Location (pick where the blow lands), Bleed (major artery is hit, and opponent begins to rapidly bleed out) or Impale (roll twice for damage, pick the best roll, then you have an option to leave the weapon in the opponent, causing a hampering effect based on its size, or you can wrench it out, causing additional damage). How many you get to use in one attack depends on the Level of Success. If you make an attack roll and the bad guy fails his defense roll, then you get to pick one. If you get a critical success and he fails his parry, that is two levels of success, so you pick two. If he critically fails his defense roll and you get a critical success, then you get to pick three manuevers. On a critical success, special maneuvers open up to you as well, such as Maximize Damage, Bypass Armor, Blind, etc.

It sounds complicated with me trying to explain it, but it plays faster than it reads. In the beginning, players do take a bit of time deciding what manuever they want to use, but by the end of the first session, the guys began cruising along. It is very gritty. The magic is cool too, and divided into divine magic, sorcery, spirit magic, common magic, and necromancy. Each one works a bit differently from the others, which is cool. I find this system works very well for Howardesque, Sword and Sorcery games, because it is so brutal. No matter how awesome your guy is, he will have a heck of time surviving against multiple opponents, even crappy ones. Of course, you get Hero Points to save your butt, but the catch is that there are special abilities you can buy with those points if you save them up....

Anyway, I am really happy with the system. Having come from Gurps, which is over the top complicated at times with a laundry list of skills and combat rules, I think RQII/Legend is a nice compromise between a complex skill based game and a simple rules light rpg. I never got into the Glorantha setting, but the core system is great for your own homebrewed fantasy games. I am buying the Legend books as soon as they come out. The only difference on the renamed, rereleased version is that they cleaned up the presentation of rules a bit, and may be adding a few more options in the sidebars. Other than that, it is exactly the same game, just renamed to get away from the Glorantha stuff.