I remember picking up a copy of Runequest 2, Pavis, Big Rumble and one other damaged (name escapes me) but perfectly usable Chaosium Gloranthian product at a gaming con at Columbia University back in the late 80's. The amount of care that went into these products was amazing to me at the time (and I am way overdue to pull them ut of storage). I had hoped the Avalon Hill edition would build upon the the gems that I had found, but it was an unwieldy, unnecessarily complicated beast.
As time went by I found Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, Elfquest and the under appreciated (even by me) Worlds of Wonder. All using the same core gaming engine, nearly unchanged (the core - options galore as time has progessed) since Runequest's initial release back in 1978.
Why all this reminiscing? I've had the Basic Roleplaying release sitting on my shelf for a bit... truthfully not giving it much of a thought until I saw that Smiteworks had released a Basic Roleplaying ruleset for Fantasy Grounds 2. It brought back fond memories of Runequest and Call of Cthulhu. So I picked it up. Then I went to the Chaosium site and picked up an adventure book and the fantasy rules. (there is a perfectly usable and FREE quickstart pdf available)
Why, when I'm starting up a Labyrinth Lord game in the coming weeks? Because I've already had a player ask for a quick pick up game, and a RPG without levels, without undue complications, will make it easier to pull a short scenario that is balance for 1-4, then a D&D variant.
Hmm, if I put them through a CoC session, any sane survivors is a sort of victory for them. ;)
This is post 203. Seems I passed 200 without even paying attention... heh
I was just thumbing through that book recently myself. I didn't know FG2 had a ruleset for it, that's good to know. And congrats on surpassing post 200. Mine is coming up quick.
ReplyDeleteThe BR ruleset for FG2 is 28 bucks, but it seems it can handle just about anything from the book you throw at it. Might be able to run some Supers game with it.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how fast the posts fly by, isnt it? ;)