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]

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

Status=Dead.

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.

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.

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[p_clapham]

Zounds! :shocked:

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.

[RMS]

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.

It's a court case of interest to a lot of people, becides just RQers: People v. Jovanovic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do a google search on Oliver Jovanovic and there's a lot of information and it's really a pretty scary scenario.

[Atgxtg]

It's a court case of interest to a lot of people, becides just RQers: People v. Jovanovic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do a google search on Oliver Jovanovic and there's a lot of information and it's really a pretty scary scenario.

Adds a whole differernt meaning to the term "dungeon crawl."

[Triff]

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

Thank you.

I'll fix that when I'm home after work.

SGL.

[Kloster]

I'll fix that when I'm home after work.

SGL.

I'm also interested.

Runequestement votre,

Kloster

[soltakss]

The version I have is very mechanical, lots of combat actions, movement is an action, hex-based combat, lots of strategic options. Not my cup of tea, really. Spirit combat was interesting and I adapted it for my own version of spirit combat. Sorcery was a bit better than RQ3.

So, I wouldn't say it was far better than RQ3, although it is different.

It's worth having, though, just to see what could have been the next version of RQ and comparing it to RQM and BRP.

[Sven Norén]

I'll fix that when I'm home after work.

Maybe putting it in the Links section? Please?

[Trifletraxor]

Maybe putting it in the Links section? Please?

It's copywrited work, so I'm not going to do that, even if no-one would probably care. I've sent an email to those who expressed interest though. Anyone else who wants it, send me a pm.

SGL.

[Nightshade]

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.

Its about 36 MB, so email is typically out at my end, though I could send it out from my Yousendit account if there's enough interest; it just takes a while for me to upload it to them since I'm on dialup, but it won't choke out the way my email would.

[Trifletraxor]

Its about 36 MB, so email is typically out at my end, though I could send it out from my Yousendit account if there's enough interest; it just takes a while for me to upload it to them since I'm on dialup, but it won't choke out the way my email would.

The pdf I have is 5 mb, and it's the same as the 36 mb one.

SGL

[Nightshade]

The version I have is very mechanical, lots of combat actions, movement is an action, hex-based combat, lots of strategic options. Not my cup of tea, really. Spirit combat was interesting and I adapted it for my own version of spirit combat. Sorcery was a bit better than RQ3.

So, I wouldn't say it was far better than RQ3, although it is different.

It's worth having, though, just to see what could have been the next version of RQ and comparing it to RQM and BRP.

Well, the mechanistic bits were all to the good to me, so I considered that a virtue. The things I liked about it were:

1. Disconnecting movement from direct involvement with strike ranks; not a virtue in any of the RQ versions, and the RQ3 version could make managing a large number of opponents a nightmare unless you mostly just ignored the strike rank implications of their movement.

2. A, to me, much better fatigue system;

3. A much less random character generation method;

4. Some small changes that buffered the deadliness of the system a bit;

5. Addressing the sorcery issues;

6. What looked like a better, and more interesting handling of the shaman.

There were other details I was less thrilled with, which is why what I use is a hybrid between this and RQ3, but its still worth a look.

[Nightshade]

The pdf I have is 5 mb, and it's the same as the 36 mb one.

SGL

It's probably a formatting/layering issue; I'm told there's a lot of ways for .pdfs to bulk up in ways that aren't immediately obvious from just looking at them. I was just glad to get a version that had been OCRed, so I didn't look the gift horse in the mouth...

[Atgxtg]

It's probably a formatting/layering issue; I'm told there's a lot of ways for .pdfs to bulk up in ways that aren't immediately obvious from just looking at them.

Yeah. Things like if it is saved as text or image can make a difference too. The same thing pops up with other digital media, like video files. You can often cut the size of a video file by 75% with little to no drop in quality by making multiple passes when you compress/convert it.

[Trifletraxor]

A RQ4 character sheet have been uploaded to the download section.

SGL.

[Lev Lafayette]

I didn't have the details. So I tried to just cover the bases without passing judgment.

The details are well documented.

People v. Jovanovic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia