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Right now you are asking; “why is this fool reviewing a 7 page PDF update?” Let me explain.
Last December (2006) I wrote a less-than-glowing review of 4th edition (Mongoose) RuneQuest. While my primary complaint was the splitting of the contents of the 3rd edition Deluxe Book into three hardcovers (without actually adding any measurable amount of content to the game), my secondary issue was with some extremely clumsy rules in the area of opposed skill use and the application of “dodge” and “parry.”
Last week, when I downloaded the Player Update PDF file from the Mongoose website, and took a good look at it, I realized I had to publicly amend my opinions a little. Hence this mini-review.
SHORT AND SWEET
The RuneQuest Player Update is a free PDF document downloadable from the Mongoose website. Just look at the downloads under the heading of the RuneQuest Core Rulebook and you will find it. It is free, full color, and laid out with the runic border design of their “Glorantha” line. Like everything they’ve done, it’s a slick piece of work.
Seven pages long, it addresses and corrects a few design flaws, making the corrections the new “official” RuneQuest rules. The first thing it does is replace the curious Opposed Skill tests described in the Core Rulebook, explaining not only why they wrote the original rules the way they did, but also why they’ve now revised them. Next, they move on to “Persistence” and “Resilience,” putting caps on how high these skills can go.
Finally, they have completely repaired the (in my opinion “broken”) Reaction rules. In the previous system, you declared a Parry (for example) only after a successful attack. This led to a second dice contest which superseded the first. For example, if a player scored a critical hit, his target could attempt to parry, causing both attack and defender to roll again. If the attacked scored a failure this time, his critical was lost and he had to abide by the new roll. It was unfair, it was clumsy, and it didn’t make a lot of sense. Now, a Parry and Attack occur simultaneously, and the results are compared on a new table included in the PDF. The same treatment was given to the use of Dodge
The PDF also includes new Fumble tables, and a few Questions & Answers.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Roleplaying is a fairly closed industry. By that, I mean you don’t see it advertised in mainstream media; people are introduced to it, and taught how to play, by other gamers. In effect, the consumer is also the next salesman in line. Because of this, gaming companies need to be extremely sensitive to their base. Losing a player doesn’t mean just losing a single consumer, it means losing all the other possible consumers he or she could have turned on to your game. Word of mouth is a company’s lifeline.
Mongoose probably didn’t need to waste time or money on releasing this little PDF. They could have waited for a second edition, or just let the problem slide. After all, the books were still selling. But what they have done here, ladies and gentlemen, is demonstrated that they do listen to their players, value their opinions, and act on them.
In the short run, they’ve just sold me a lot more books. In the long run, they’ve guaranteed that I am going to run this game and introduce new players to it. And I doubt that I am alone in this.
So hats off to you, Mongoose. And to those players as disgruntled as I was, my advice is stay vocal. Clearly, someone is listening.
