maybe it's just an issue of economics? I have X amount to spoend on gaming. Gloranthan gaming takes up a large percentage of that spend. For years I had no new products to buy, or infrequent ones, so Ibout everything HQ as it came out. My group prefer RuneQuest, even MRQ - I prefer HeroQuest, but am happy to buy any Gloranthan material.
So MRQ products now come out regularly, and i buy them. Ihave less money left, and have to make choices. In order I buy UW, then HQ, then MRQ - but others may have other priorities. Many people who found the HQ system problematic - and I happen to love it, at least in the Mythic Russia improved version - may have reverted to RQ or MRQ as more support became available for those lines?
I will continue to support HQ as a consumer, and buy everything as it becomes available, but if one looks at the number of recent MRQ releases, their commercial visibility and ease of buying from local games shops, the advertising etc, and the fact the system is perhaps easier fr many people to grasp if they are from a "D&D" style simulatuionist background - hell it's unsurprising if MRQ is outselling HQ. There is simply not as much HQ product to buy after all! :)
I want to see HQ do really well, and I suspect the new edition will make a huge difference. I try to actively promote all gloranthan products by posting about them on rpg.net, posting reviews etc, etc. HQ has a reputation, unfairly, as a difficult and elitist game. I have sene more interest in recent years from gamers who have played a Serenity scenario some inspired English gamer wrote and runs at conventions (which is apparently excellent) using the HQ system than I have from other promotional activites. I don't know who this chap is, but Moon Designs owe him a pint, as does Greg, as after he ran a game with it at a con in Dorset a few weeks back he finally managed to get some of my friends enthusiastic about the system which tehy previously knew nothing about. In fact they were confused by the similarity of the name with a previous Games Workshop or MB effort, and said "HeroQuest" sounded a bit adolescent - because they did not understand what the name meant, and it could be percieved as just a generic fantasy heartbreaker.
Sorry, just my vague thoughts!
cj x
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