From: Graeme A Lindsell (gal502@cscgpo.anu.edu.au)
Date: Thu 02 Sep 1993 - 02:15:04 EEST
> >
> The Lite rules are allowed to have a weak explanation of Divine magic, they
> will already have a pretty weak explanation of spirit magic, fairly weak
skills
> rules, fairly weak combat rules. The point is that they should have enough in
> the RQ Lite rules for you to pick up a module for RQ Normal (or should that
> be RQ Hevy?) and play it straight away. I think that knowing what Divine
magic
> is and the basics of how it works (if not every obscure spell) is essential.
Wasn't this the idea behind the RQ Basic set, which resulted in 4 pages
at the start of each package about how to use it with RQ Basic?
I don't think "less complex" = "weak" as you seem to. To me, the most
important things about RQ Lite rules are that the be a) short and b) produce
similar results to the full RQ4 rules. It's no good producing a system
that when used is much more lethal tha the full combat rules.
> To set up RQ Lite otherwise is a very bad publishing move - you now
> have two (very similar) games to support, one that only 'newbies' play, so
> no one wants to write for it. RQ Lite will only work if it is compatible with
> supplements. Otherwise it is only useful for demo games and introducing your
> kid sister to RQ, and becomes rather a white elephant.
Which means that the RQ Lite rules have to be slim enough that stats for
RQ Lite characters can be included in a module without taking up to
much space. The comment "no-one wants to write for" seemed to be what
happened to RQ Basic set: there was never a single publication that
only needed the rules in the basic set. I don't know why: a basic set
module would have been very easily adapted by a deluxe set GM, and a
good plot would work in both systems.
> RQ Lite might involve reprinting parts of GoG, and it might not. It
> certainly should involve divine magic, in a weak form if it must be.
What I think it has to contain is some cults. Cults show a new player
how people behave in the world, instead of acting like "generic fighter".
Whether you can include cults without divine magic is the question. If
you don't include priests I think you can, since initiates almost
never use divine magic anyway
> I still don't know what all the fuss is about, people have got so
> excited about the RQ Lite idea, I have no objection, but the RQ Lite rules
> seem like a fairly small part of the overall RQ4 effort. My only concern is
Well right now there is no RQ4 effort, since AH decided to cancel the
mid-94 publishing date. I think that's a stupid descision, but when
has AH ever done anything smart with RQ?
> that many of the RQ Lite proposals look strongly like recipes for publishing
> disaster to me, propelled by a sort of fervour about RQ Lite that the more
> we can remove from it and still have it playable the better. It has to not
only
> be playable, but recognisably RQ as well, and with sufficent rules to run a
> simple Glorantha based adventure. Otherwise what is the point?
>
The fervour is from fanatics who want to resurrect a dead RPG. That's
the point. It doesn't seem like the "RQ Renaissance" has done anything
except sell a few more products to converts. The other discussion
(which has been folded into the RQ Lite debate) concerns simpler combat
systems, which is mainly what I post about
Cheers
> Dave Cake
>
>
0,,
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