Status of RQIV?

[Joseph Paul]

Do any of the grognards here know what the staus is of the RQIV/RQAIG project? Who actually holds the copyright for it?

Does anyone remember what the major sticking points with it were?

I just saved all of the digests I could so that I could go through them but getting a synopsis would be appreciated.

[Trifletraxor]

Do you have a copy? (Or do you want one? PM and I'll give you a handy link! )

SGL.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Do any of the grognards here know what the staus is of the RQIV/RQAIG project?

Status=Dead.

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Who actually holds the copyright for it?

Greg Stafford/Issaries owns the copywrite to RuneQuest. Of course if the game system got a facelift, new name, and a change in terminology, anyone could release it.

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

Does anyone remember what the major sticking points with it were?

The author got arrested for some sort of sexual misconduct. I believe the charge was statutory rape. Unfortunately, the media played this up as "the evils of RPGs" like they did with D&D years ago, and it draw a lot of negative publicity. Killing the project.

Mechanically the game was stillf is a rought draft/playtest version and not everything had been worked out. THere were a few changes and not all had been tested.

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

I just saved all of the digests I could so that I could go through them but getting a synopsis would be appreciated.

There is a playtest version of the rules kicking around. Sounds like our local beetle has one.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

The author got arrested for some sort of sexual misconduct. I believe the charge was statutory rape. Unfortunately, the media played this up as "the evils of RPGs" like they did with D&D years ago, and it draw a lot of negative publicity. Killing the project.

It's slightly more complicated than that, though I understand why you phrase it that way.

Oliver Jovanovic, the primary overseer of the rework and playtest got arrested for sexual battery and possibly enslavement; he essentially hooked up with a woman he'd met over the Net for a BDSM encounter that apparently went wrong. While no one but the participants know what really happened here, its to be noted that he was initially convicted but was freed on appeal sometime later, and the indications from the appeal court was that the original court screwed up big.

Avalon Hill sold quite a lot of product to a younger audience so they severed their connection like a machete when this happened.

Mechanically the game was stillf is a rought draft/playtest version and not everything had been worked out. THere were a few changes and not all had been tested.

The final version was considerably farther along than a rough draft; I'd characterize the completed version parts as pretty much in final draft format (note that there were numerous prior drafts, so its possible you hadn't seen the last draft). It wasn't, however, complete; to the best of my knowledge the rework of the monsters chapter wasn't complete. However, character generation, mechanics, and the magic chapters (the biggest part of the rules) were finished, and to the best of my knowledged, were playtested to the extent they were mostly going to be. There would likely have been some last minute adjustments while they finished up the creature chapters, but as I was there for most of the prior playtest, it was mostly done, far as I can tell.

There is a playtest version of the rules kicking around. Sounds like our local beetle has one.

I used it hybridized with RQ3 and some material from early drafts for the version of the game I use now when running RQ; I wasn't happy with everything in it, but it was a basically sound rework. In fact, one of my biggest objections wasn't so much about mechanics but that it had swung back to being Glorantha-centric.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

It's slightly more complicated than that, though I understand why you phrase it that way.

Oliver Jovanovic, the primary overseer of the rework and playtest got arrested for sexual battery and possibly enslavement; he essentially hooked up with a woman he'd met over the Net for a BDSM encounter that apparently went wrong. While no one but the participants know what really happened here, its to be noted that he was initially convicted but was freed on appeal sometime later, and the indications from the appeal court was that the original court screwed up big.

I didn't have the details. So I tried to just cover the bases without passing judgment. Ironically, the whole thing did give RQ some publicity, but of the sort that made AH kill the project. A shame really, since the game had nothing to do with the case, but got a bad rep as some sort of S&M thing. It would be like banning Harry Potter books and films after finding a picture of JK Rowling on page 3 of the Sun. Not quite through, since if RQ was bringing in that kind of money AH would have stuck with it.

Originally Posted by Nightshade

The final version was considerably farther along than a rough draft; I'd characterize the completed version parts as pretty much in final draft format (note that there were numerous prior drafts, so its possible you hadn't seen the last draft). It wasn't, however, complete; to the best of my knowledge the rework of the monsters chapter wasn't complete. However, character generation, mechanics, and the magic chapters (the biggest part of the rules) were finished, and to the best of my knowledge, were playtested to the extent they were mostly going to be. There would likely have been some last minute adjustments while they finished up the creature chapters, but as I was there for most of the prior playtest, it was mostly done, far as I can tell.

I've seen a few different versions in various states of completeness. I Probably haven't seen the final version. Not sure which one is which at this point. The last version I dl'd was less complete than the one that I dl'd a few year back.

I wonder if someone could work out just what version is the latest and a location for it. I know that there have been a few things said about it that were not in the rules I had.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by Trifletraxor

Do you have a copy? (Or do you want one? PM and I'll give you a handy link! )

SGL.

I have something but I don't know what. So yes a link would be handy just to compare.

Thank you.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

I've seen a few different versions in various states of completeness. I Probably haven't seen the final version. Not sure which one is which at this point. The last version I dl'd was less complete than the one that I dl'd a few year back.

I wonder if someone could work out just what version is the latest and a location for it. I know that there have been a few things said about it that were not in the rules I had.

I have a .pdf of what I believe was the last draft done; one of the giveaways was that the layout and other material were already being done in a relatively professional way. If its listed as Runequest: Adventures in Glorantha, its at least a pretty late draft, as that title wasn't settled on until the non-Gloranthan playtesters lost that particular war to the Gloranthanists.

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

I have a .pdf of what I believe was the last draft done; one of the giveaways was that the layout and other material were already being done in a relatively professional way. If its listed as Runequest: Adventures in Glorantha, its at least a pretty late draft, as that title wasn't settled on until the non-Gloranthan playtesters lost that particular war to the Gloranthanists.

Sounds like it is farther along that the rtf file that I downleaded a few years back.

[Nightshade]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Sounds like it is farther along that the rtf file that I downleaded a few years back.

Most likely. I had a hard copy of this draft for a long time, but it was only relatively recently that I found access to a data copy.

[drohem]

Originally Posted by Nightshade

I have a .pdf of what I believe was the last draft done; one of the giveaways was that the layout and other material were already being done in a relatively professional way. If its listed as Runequest: Adventures in Glorantha, its at least a pretty late draft, as that title wasn't settled on until the non-Gloranthan playtesters lost that particular war to the Gloranthanists.

Is it small enough to send via email? I would be interested in obtaining a copy of it. I've seen the web page version on the yahoo group, but it was a pain trying to copy and paste it all and I gave up. Now, it sounds like that might not have been the latest version anyway.