Enpeze,
I wasn't thinking of a rewrite so much as paragraph in the new/improved spot rules. Something like the SB5 brawling rules wouldn't be too bad.
I think we are pretty much onthe same page. The important thing is to get BRP out of the shelves where gamers can see it. Then worry about alterations and upgrades.
As for why MRQ came out the way it did,
Well, I had heard from some people from the playtest groups as well as some Mongoose employees that the rules were much more BRPish up until the last draft, when Matt Sprange rewrote everything. I also heard that pretty much all the complaints about the system were pointed out by the playtesters, too. If you can mug a playtester and look at some of the playtest drafts you will see a RPG that looks a lot more familar. MOngoose orginally advertised the game as the return of RQ, and played up the involvement of Stafford and Perrin in the desgin on the new edition. I don't know why Stafford doesn't write anything for MRQ, or why Perrin left the playtest. But neither had a hand in design of the game as originally advertised.
And yeah, you can tell what RPG system Matt is used to writing for. I think a LOT of the changes and problems weren't so much by design but fallout form removing all the checks and balances that the system had. Steve hid a lot of the plumbing for RQ away. Tweaking one part of he game almost always lead to unforeseen changes in how other aspects of the game played out.
I think there is a point about dated RPGs. Chess did change an evolve over centuries. Newer RPGs often have new options and such that the designers of eariler games would have used if they had thought of it I seriously doubt we have all those neat polyhedrons to roll if Gygax and friends had ever though of using mutiple D6 the way Hero, GURPS or WEG did. Or an AC system, and increasing HP for that matter.
BTW, Maybe the D&D thing should be spun off for it's own topic? There is certainly enough to say about it, especially with it's new RQ inspired skill system..
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