From: David Cake (davidc@cs.uwa.edu.au)
Date: Mon 30 Aug 1993 - 06:23:14 EEST
There does seem to be a bit of a reaction against the general RQ Lite
movement beginning, and I think that right now, with the status of RQ4 in
limbo, and the subject topical, is a good time to debate this properly.
I want to know wether RQ Lite is what people are really interested in,
before I work on inventing stylish complications to combat and sorcery.
SO, I'll continue throwing down the gauntlet to the RQ Lite supporters.
How would RQ Lite differ from the woeful 'Standard Edition' (I think that was
what it was called). This nearly useless boxed set was RQ without most of the
spells, special situation rules, enchanting rules, and a waste of time. I think
that it missed out many skills, as well. All I really know about it (very few
people I know were stupid enough to buy it) was that it caused several pages
at the beginning of every supplement to be filled with rubbish that I already
knew. The TOTRM crowd spoke out very heavily against it in 'Ruined-Quest' (also
on the digest). Something that should be adressed in the RQ Lite debate is
that it has been tried already, and it was a definite failure, so the onus is
on the RQ Lite supporters to show how an RQ4 Lite would avoid the problems it
caused. The RQ Lite idea in the sense of simplifying combat is not one that I
am opposed to - I just fail to see how it really would work.
In my experience most of the complexity of RQ combat as opposed to
a game like Pendragon is only partly due to complications like hit locations,
SRs, weapon APs. The things that cause combat to take a while are
1) Magic - without magic RQ combat is often very quick. I like the way magic
makes RQ combat more interesting, however. I have run 'no magic' combats
ocassionally, (duels, etc.) and they can be very quick. The effects of magic
are compunded by -
2) Armour and healing - The more armour, the longer the fight. I suspect that
this applies equally to any RQ Lite.
By magic I include chaos features, etc.
I suspect that if what is really desired is simply quick combat, that
a few simplifying rules can be added - replace SRs with CoC Dex initiative,
for example - its less 'realistic', but you get what you want. As any such
optiuonal rules would be really simple (thats the point!) it would be easy to
slip a couple of pages of optional rules into the RQ4 draft. It would be easy
to use the current character generation system as a basis for a very simple
one - everyone choose an appropriate template - maybe even two, using the
simple additive system Oliver posted recently - spend the few excess points
on skills from a small list. I probably wouldn't use these rules, but I have
no objection to them. Similarly for I system to ignore hit locations.
But I think that a lot of the complexity of RQ comes from its large
lists of skills, the large number of spells, and its magic system - which is
simple in essence, but becomes very complex if you are a skilled practitioner
(just the way I like it - the only magic system that I like as much is
Shadowrun - but I haven't tried Ars Magica).
A RQ Lite that removes skills or spells from the game system leads to
two competing flavours of game mechanics - and official supplements can
realistically support only one, as the Deluxe/Standard situation showed. It
might be possible to 'fold' multiple skills together for RQ Lite, to maintain
compatibility (Like Trap Set/Disarm, Lock Pick, etc. where folded into Devise),
but I don't think that there is much to be done for magic - either all spells
are in RQ Lite, and the complexity remains, or they are not, and we have
compatibility clashes.
If RQ Lite is just a simplification of combat and character generation,
with much the same skills, and the same spells, it is a couple of pages of
rules options, that can easily be made part of RQ4 or any rules supplements.
I would happily write a draft myself, and it would probably take only a day
or so (though basing it heavily on Elric! (not yet in Perth) would be simplest).
If it is intended to include a different spell list, or different abilities for
shamans/priests, then I would want a damn good explanation of how it would avoid
the problems of the misnamed 'Standard Edition' (the Deluxe set always was the
standard). And I definately want most of the rest of the stuff in the RQ draft
to be included in anything that appears.
Anyway, thats enough ranting on the topic. What precisely should be in
the long awaited RQ Lite? A simple set of optional rules is something that
would be very easy to create, certainly a lot easier to put together than the
large amount of work that has gone into the current RQ4 draft. If RQ Lite is
heavily based on Elric!, then it should be very easy. Why doesn't
someone just do it, and add it to the next draft? But people should think about
the sources of complexity in their games, and realise that only some of them
are amenable to an RQ Lite without creating compatibility problems.
Dave Cake
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