To update this video a little, The Design Mechanism plan to release the rules text in Mythras Imperative in a re-licensed version according to the ORC License - an open gaming license from Paizo. Legend is a great rules framework to build from. Great video.
A good summary. As a long time fan of Runequest the past few years have been great. I love the Mythras rules, and the supplementary Mythic Earth is fantastic. Although I am going to try Classic Fantasy for the first time in my latest games. Runequest Glorantha has also been a great addition to the Runequest family. Glorantha is a fabulous setting and has been much under appreciated in recent years with Runequest's journey from pillar to post. Overall, I think the game is now in a good place and is only in need of coverage to get the system out to the general public, but of course, when it comes to getting views, it is much easier to just go with D&D and a tiny bit of Pathfinder.
I agree, I do think RQ is in a better state and place than it has been for many years. I want to do more RQ content, but right now I have a long "to do" list I'm working through, and a limited amount of time to be able to get through it at speed (the price I pay for choosing a long-form video path)!
Hi Ian, Great series of overviews, very informative for someone like me who had a 2 decades break! Mirrors my experience for games I know intimately or have read or played a little, and a real eye opener for others (ie D&D and family for me). The first game I owned and gamemastered was Chaosium's Worlds of Wonders, quickly followed by RQ 2, then by RQ3. Nice memories. Thinking of initiating my two 9 year olds these days. Anyway, thanks for your ramblings and insights.
Congratulations on 500+ subbed! Very well deserved and dare I say, it's only the beginning! Mythras is an awesome version of d100 imo, but really they all are darn good games in their own right.
This is a good overview of MOST of the Runequest follow ups. I wanted to point out that you forgot to discuss OpenQuest. It just received a 3rd edition recently.
@@SamothTheSorcerer OK, simply put, the OGL had been used to: 1. Publish supplements for existing games. 2. Publish new games with a different take over existing games (e. g., Mutants & Masterminds, Spycraft, etc.) 3. Recreate (to a greater or lesser degree) out of print editions of existing games (this includes games such as Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC, which were created under the OGL prior to WotC making every edition of D&D available). 4. Recreate (to a greater or lesser degree) in-print games. This includes Cepheus (Traveller clone with Traveller being in-print), and OpenQuest (BRP/RuneQueat clone with BRP and various editions of RuneQuest in-print). That last one I have a problem with. You could argue that Cepheus and OpenQuest differ, reflecting their author's interpretation of certain game aspects. But this does not take from the fact that they are, at heart, copies. That you refer to OpenQuest in the comments here does illustrate that's even how it is perceived. And this I have a problem with. These games set up competition to the games they are based on, while being largely based on those games. Now, in some quarters, this could be viewed as "sticking it to the corporate machine". But in the niche corners of a niche hobby, it has no Robin Hood glam going for it. The guys at FFE and Chaosium are good guys, and by and large support the creators of these original systems. I would far prefer to continue to support them than someone using the OGL to detract from their work. Your opinion and mileage may vary - I've seen a lot of the Traveller vs Cepheus arguments, not so much OpenQuest vs RuneQuest/BRP. But the above is my take on it. Recreating "lost" game to bring it back? All for that. In fact, WotC's reaction to OSR games was to bring back those old editions. Recreating a game that is not lost? Not a fan. You won't find me advocating for or reviewing such games here.
I played RQ2 back in the day, RQ3 also, had the pocket version of mongoose RQII but found it weird with the runestone thing, picked up RQ6 but never found players so it sits on a shelf, got out of gaming do to life stuff, got back in and ordered RQ2 reprint for nostalgia if nothing else and took my RQ6 off the shelf and rereading it thinking I really do like the game but can i find players? I really don't want to buy another rule set that is effectively the same thing repacked with a new cover...
I sympathise. The RPG world is too full of D&D and D&D clones that players can become blinkered to anything else. It's a shame. It's equivalent to board gamers playing nothing but Monopoly for 50 years straight.
However... it did provide it's greatest expansion in popularity. That's not to delegitimise your own preferences in edition, but just to note that the objective - using AH's larger distribution to spread RQ further - was successful for a while.
"Mongoose...the modern Judges' Guild" Honestly don't know which company should be more insulted there. JG's stuff was almost invariably ugly as hell, but they were slightly less prone to shoddy editing and loads of typos than Mongoose is. Both companies tended use cheap, shoddy printing that led to books that fell apart during use, although I'm told Mongoose has gotten better about that in the last decade or so. I guess Mongoose gets to feel a bit more slighted, mostly because Matt being a shameless liar is less objectionable than Bledsaw's racism. Really, really close though.
Well - I think you picked up on completely different reasons why! From my perspective, it's more about picking up any and every licence going. And yes, Mongoose books have improved in quality.
I’ve been looking for a good overview on this! Thank you-Mythras is a fantastic version of the RQ family.
You're welcome - I'm glad you found it useful. I like Mythras as a version, too.
To update this video a little, The Design Mechanism plan to release the rules text in Mythras Imperative in a re-licensed version according to the ORC License - an open gaming license from Paizo. Legend is a great rules framework to build from. Great video.
Thanks for the update!
A good summary.
As a long time fan of Runequest the past few years have been great.
I love the Mythras rules, and the supplementary Mythic Earth is fantastic. Although I am going to try Classic Fantasy for the first time in my latest games.
Runequest Glorantha has also been a great addition to the Runequest family. Glorantha is a fabulous setting and has been much under appreciated in recent years with Runequest's journey from pillar to post.
Overall, I think the game is now in a good place and is only in need of coverage to get the system out to the general public, but of course, when it comes to getting views, it is much easier to just go with D&D and a tiny bit of Pathfinder.
I agree, I do think RQ is in a better state and place than it has been for many years. I want to do more RQ content, but right now I have a long "to do" list I'm working through, and a limited amount of time to be able to get through it at speed (the price I pay for choosing a long-form video path)!
Hi Ian, Great series of overviews, very informative for someone like me who had a 2 decades break! Mirrors my experience for games I know intimately or have read or played a little, and a real eye opener for others (ie D&D and family for me).
The first game I owned and gamemastered was Chaosium's Worlds of Wonders, quickly followed by RQ 2, then by RQ3. Nice memories.
Thinking of initiating my two 9 year olds these days.
Anyway, thanks for your ramblings and insights.
Thank-you! I'm glad to hear you're enjoying these :)
Congratulations on 500+ subbed! Very well deserved and dare I say, it's only the beginning!
Mythras is an awesome version of d100 imo, but really they all are darn good games in their own right.
Thank-you! And yes, they are all good games. You might've guessed that I'm a bit of a D100 advocate :)
Thanks for the share!!
Welcome!
Another brilliant overview of a much loved game, thank you
Thank-you - I'm glad you enjoyed :)
Excellent!
Thank-you
This is a good overview of MOST of the Runequest follow ups. I wanted to point out that you forgot to discuss OpenQuest. It just received a 3rd edition recently.
OpenQuest is in a similar boat to Cepheus, in my opinion.
@@WillyMuffinUK What do you mean?
@@SamothTheSorcerer OK, simply put, the OGL had been used to:
1. Publish supplements for existing games.
2. Publish new games with a different take over existing games (e. g., Mutants & Masterminds, Spycraft, etc.)
3. Recreate (to a greater or lesser degree) out of print editions of existing games (this includes games such as Swords & Wizardry and OSRIC, which were created under the OGL prior to WotC making every edition of D&D available).
4. Recreate (to a greater or lesser degree) in-print games. This includes Cepheus (Traveller clone with Traveller being in-print), and OpenQuest (BRP/RuneQueat clone with BRP and various editions of RuneQuest in-print).
That last one I have a problem with.
You could argue that Cepheus and OpenQuest differ, reflecting their author's interpretation of certain game aspects. But this does not take from the fact that they are, at heart, copies. That you refer to OpenQuest in the comments here does illustrate that's even how it is perceived.
And this I have a problem with. These games set up competition to the games they are based on, while being largely based on those games. Now, in some quarters, this could be viewed as "sticking it to the corporate machine". But in the niche corners of a niche hobby, it has no Robin Hood glam going for it.
The guys at FFE and Chaosium are good guys, and by and large support the creators of these original systems. I would far prefer to continue to support them than someone using the OGL to detract from their work.
Your opinion and mileage may vary - I've seen a lot of the Traveller vs Cepheus arguments, not so much OpenQuest vs RuneQuest/BRP. But the above is my take on it.
Recreating "lost" game to bring it back? All for that. In fact, WotC's reaction to OSR games was to bring back those old editions. Recreating a game that is not lost? Not a fan. You won't find me advocating for or reviewing such games here.
@@WillyMuffinUK Well put.
Very good stuff! Loved the video.
Thank-you 🙂
Thank you for this detailed history. Very well presented and informative.
Thank-you. I'm glad you found it useful!
@@WillyMuffinUK I recently got into d100 systems with Legend and then Mythras. I like the skill based system. I am designing low fantasy campaign.
The BRP family works very well for that. Good luck, and have fun!
I played RQ2 back in the day, RQ3 also, had the pocket version of mongoose RQII but found it weird with the runestone thing, picked up RQ6 but never found players so it sits on a shelf, got out of gaming do to life stuff, got back in and ordered RQ2 reprint for nostalgia if nothing else and took my RQ6 off the shelf and rereading it thinking I really do like the game but can i find players? I really don't want to buy another rule set that is effectively the same thing repacked with a new cover...
I sympathise. The RPG world is too full of D&D and D&D clones that players can become blinkered to anything else. It's a shame. It's equivalent to board gamers playing nothing but Monopoly for 50 years straight.
Very good stuff.
Thank-you!
I so wish Avalon Hill had never happened. That's when the whole game went South for me.
However... it did provide it's greatest expansion in popularity. That's not to delegitimise your own preferences in edition, but just to note that the objective - using AH's larger distribution to spread RQ further - was successful for a while.
AH was my favorite.
"Mongoose...the modern Judges' Guild"
Honestly don't know which company should be more insulted there. JG's stuff was almost invariably ugly as hell, but they were slightly less prone to shoddy editing and loads of typos than Mongoose is. Both companies tended use cheap, shoddy printing that led to books that fell apart during use, although I'm told Mongoose has gotten better about that in the last decade or so. I guess Mongoose gets to feel a bit more slighted, mostly because Matt being a shameless liar is less objectionable than Bledsaw's racism. Really, really close though.
Well - I think you picked up on completely different reasons why! From my perspective, it's more about picking up any and every licence going. And yes, Mongoose books have improved in quality.