2018 RuneQuest, some thoughts on skimming the new book

[2D8HP]

Last night I picked up the 2018 "RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha" rule book and just gave it a quick skim.

First off, this is a big heavy book unlike the 1978 version that I last played in the 1980's, and monsters and non-human PC's aren't included, you'll want the seperate Beastiary, which for some reason is spelled "Bestiary".

What is included is greatly expanded rules, religion and the Bronze-Age-ness of the setting is explored in depth, also it cribs the "Family History" and "Passions" as well as annual events from Pendragon, which it incorporates well.

Mythic setting, good system, recommended except for how heavy the book is (it weighs like a damn Pathfinder or 7th Sea hardback).

[caden_varn]

Interesting. I was thinking of getting a new Runequest - am thinking about whether to get that or Mythras (which was Runequest until Chaosium took it back in-house). I sort of preferred the Mythras tester to the free RQG adventure, but that is probably because they given more of the rules.

But fumble rules. Gah! I don't want my trained warrior throwing his weapon away every 20 attacks! It is silly!
If they want something like that, I wish they'd take a leaf out of FFG's Star Wars games and make them threats - not necessarily any mistake made by the hero, but the situation changing against them.

[Bilharzia]

The new RQ is essentially based on RQ2 with the addition of passions and rune skills. Chaosium are clearly going for a range of very focused books instead of an all-in-one approach, the core book itself is limited to generating characters from the Dragon Pass region only. Personally I also prefer Mythras/RQ6 as it's a lot more flexible and the system is quite well refined now. Chaosium decided to make RQG compatible with the older RQ2 supplements which I do find limiting.

Bestiary is spelled bestiary btw.

[Slipperychicken]

But fumble rules. Gah! I don't want my trained warrior throwing his weapon away every 20 attacks! It is silly!

Dunno about Glorantha roleplaying, but mythras fumbles seem to be a 2% chance and in combat are about giving enemies an opening for more special effects, rather than three-stooges antics.

[Khedrac]

But fumble rules. Gah! I don't want my trained warrior throwing his weapon away every 20 attacks!

He shouldn't be doing so. Don't think in terms of people's attempts to put fumble rules into D&D - systems like RQ (and e.g. Rollemaster) have had fumble ruels since day one - so they system has them designed in - so they work a lot better.

I picked up a copy of RQG yesterday, so, looking at it to see how fumbles work now:

First up - on an attack the chance of a fumble if 5% of your miss chance (minimum 1%) - so a warrior with a 60% skill in sword has a 40% chnce of missing so only a 2% chance of fumbling.
Next - fumbles range from "lose next attack" and "lose next parry" to "hit self, do critical hit" so a fumble does not mean dropping your weapon.

Next up, if you are thinking why does my "trained warrior" fumble more often than a mage, well RQ does not work like that - you are both likely to be in melee as much as each other - as everyone tends to be a generalist warrior/priest. (OK sorcerers tend to be very specialist, not read the new rules for them yet so may be completely different - they also used to fall over if you sneezed on them.)

[caden_varn]

I am getting the fumble rule from the RQ:G quickstart adventure, which obviously is a very simplified version of the rules.

It has:
Fumble: The attacker botched the attack, accidentally throwing their weapon 1D3 meters away.

Now I would expect the main rules to have more nuanced fumble rules, but as a taster, I'd still expect it to show the general flavour of the full rules.

However, it does show that the fumble chance is lower for higher skill rating, so I was wrong about that part, I admit.
I don't having some kind of negative effect, but the standard 'throw your sword away' is still silly to me.
I liked the idea of the Mythras fumble opening you up to your opponent.

I generally prefer the FFG games (Star Wars Edge of the Empire etc.) version, where you get threats, which can be something you did, or can jest be something external that makes your life more difficult - you make noise that alerts nearby guards, or something similar. These are extra results on top of success and failure (and get balanced by advantages), so you can succeed with a threat, or fail with advantage. It does take a bit more time & creativity to administer, but I find it adds something extra.