Runequest New Edition? Delay?

There were a few rumblings about a new edition of Runequest, and now there seems to be another delay for another year? There was talk about a simplified edition of the game that got rid of strike ranks and the bloat, and now there is another delay in the new edition? Of possibly two years?

In two years, the D&D 6E hype will start. You will not be able to compete with that. You will get buried.

Even if a new simplified core book comes out for this edition, I get the feeling D&D will pull the trigger early on the next edition and we have two years of peace and quiet to enjoy some really great games before the YouTube bandwagon jumps on, hypes D&D 6E to the moon, and tries to relive the glory days of pandemic monetization.

I would love a simplified edition of the game that makes it more accessible, but apparently now this is a long way off. The game is a tough one to get into, and grasping a lot of the complexities of the system are a high barrier to entry, and frankly I prefer the Basic Roleplaying book over any of the systems, even for fantasy. BRP does almost everything better with the same rules, easier.

 

And there is always the RQ6 engine, Mythras. This is a solid engine that many prefer over Runequest, well-regarded and loved still by the hardcore. Many in the community love Mythras better, the license is great, and this just works amazingly well. This is also well-supported by the community. Mythras has a few issues, like the core book's font size, but it is still a solid system and well-supported. The combat system is far better than any other d100 game, and it is a setting-neutral game.

And we have Open Quest as a community edition, which is also a great edition of the d100-style rules, along with Simple Quest, an even more simplified version. Both of these games are amazing and very playable, a beer-and-pretzels version of the d100 rules more oriented towards dungeon crawling and classic adventure.

And if we are talking heroic Bronze Age fantasy, ACKS II will enter the room. It is not a d100 game, but it covers the same ground and is much more compelling and rooted in dungeon-crawling than Runequest.

Well, I suppose we have to trust the people who make Runequest. I would be interested in a simpler core book. But, given this delay, other games will easily fill my time. Especially in the same genre, and using similar d100 dicing systems.