Gloranthan Classics

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

Hello,

is there any timeline if/when any of the paper copies of Gloranthan Classics are going to be made available again? I know 'never' is a strong word, but is this a possibility?

[g33k]

On 8/22/2020 at 8:11 AM, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Hello,

is there any timeline if/when any of the paper copies of Gloranthan Classics are going to be made available again? I know 'never' is a strong word, but is this a possibility?

Not the right thread for this but -- per Chaosium, the master files for those 4 books are simply incompatible with modern printing processes, and no translation process exists from the old to the new.

New print-runs aren't impossible, but there are major barriers, and I don't believe Chaosium has any specific plans or intention to put the (very subvstantial) work in -- their focus is on RQG.
 

Note that almost all of the Gloranthan Classics source material is available under the RuneQuest Classic line.  I believe Chaosium ARE looking at getting those PDFs into print...

Edited September 3, 2020 by g33k
someone edited the tangent into a new thread, so it IS right

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

5 hours ago, g33k said:

Not the right thread for this but -- per Chaosium, the master files for those 4 books are simply incompatible with modern printing processes, and no translation process exists from the old to the new.

New print-runs aren't impossible, but there are major barriers, and I don't believe Chaosium has any specific plans or intention to put the (very subvstantial) work in -- their focus is on RQG.
 

Note that almost all of the Gloranthan Classics source material is available under the RuneQuest Classic line.  I believe Chaosium ARE looking at getting those PDFs into print...

Sorry, where should I post for next time?   Thanks for the info, I know one of them is still available in print, but it was others I wanted.

 

[g33k]

5 hours ago, Orlanthatemyhamster said:

Sorry, where should I post for next time?   Thanks for the info, I know one of them is still available in print, but it was others I wanted.

Quoting from the top-post:
 

Quote

Note that to keep this thread focused on the product list, all but the latest posts will be deleted after they have been responded to.

In general, I would post "speculative" product queries in the subforum for the game-line; in this case, the RuneQuest subforum.

 

[g33k]

For example, Rick wrote this several years ago -- and I don't think the situation has changed substantially:

On 1/1/2017 at 2:18 PM, Rick Meints said:

Reprinting any version of Gloranthan Classic Volume 1: Pavis & Big Rubble is not currently on the production schedule. As I have consistently said a number of times, we do NOT have good electronic files to use for printing this book. It was done at the end of the era where printers still used film instead of PDFs to print books. Thus, the official status is "not in 2017".

That does not mean it will never get reprinted. After we have redone Pavis and Big Rubble as separate RuneQuest Classic books in early 2017, we at least will have recreated all the files and good art scans again. I don't like to say never, but I must be clear that reprinting the hardcover version of P&BR is an extremely low priority because we might only sell a few hundred of it. If you really want to buy it, I suggest following Ebay. It comes up for sale at least a few times per year. 

 

[Rick Meints]

The current status is that we have no plans to reprint the Glorantha Classics. We are going to have print versions of the RuneQuest Classics available before the end of 2020. Thus, you will be able to get Pavis, Big Rubble, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, and a number of other books soon.We are doing the final proofing on the POD process. 

[AndreJarosch]

Any chance to incorporate the additional texts from the Gloranthan Classics line in these supplements (most notable "RuneMasters" and "Griffin Mountain")?

[Rick Meints]

1 minute ago, AndreJarosch said:

Any chance to incorporate the additional texts from the Gloranthan Classics line in these supplements (most notable "RuneMasters" and "Griffin Mountain")?

You should look at the RQ Classic book descriptions on our website! In particular, we did include the RuneMasters character backgrounds, and the Designer's Notes and such in Griffin Mountain, and also the extra plunder items in Plunder.

[AndreJarosch]

1 minute ago, Rick Meints said:

You should look at the RQ Classic book descriptions on our website! In particular, we did include the RuneMasters character backgrounds, and the Designer's Notes and such in Griffin Mountain, and also the extra plunder items in Plunder.

Oh, i did know that, but had forgotten it... silly me. 

[Orlanthatemyhamster]

6 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

The current status is that we have no plans to reprint the Glorantha Classics. We are going to have print versions of the RuneQuest Classics available before the end of 2020. Thus, you will be able to get Pavis, Big Rubble, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, and a number of other books soon.We are doing the final proofing on the POD process. 

It does! Thank you.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Orlanthatemyhamster

[Austin]

13 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

We are going to have print versions of the RuneQuest Classics available before the end of 2020. Thus, you will be able to get Pavis, Big Rubble, Griffin Mountain, Borderlands, Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, and a number of other books soon.We are doing the final proofing on the POD process.

Wonderful, I'm happy to hear that. Need me a physical copy of Pavis/Big Rubble, at the minimum. Thank you.

Will these be available only on Lulu, or on DTRPG as well?

[Rick Meints]

We are going to be selling the POD books via our website mainly. We are testing the interface now.

[ffilz]

I'm curious about all the additions to the Gloranthan Classics books. I know Cult Compendium has cults compiled from Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, Pavis, Big Rubble, Troll Pak, and one or two from other sources that aren't part of the RQ Classics re-releases.

What other add on bits are in the other volumes?

[7Tigers]

Well, it is indicated on each sale page:

Pavis & BR:
Additional material on the Sun Dragon cult, plus 35 additional new pieces of art specifically commissioned for the book are also included. 

Griffin Mountain:
Several articles printed in magazines, over 35 new pieces of additional art, designer’s notes, and a never before published treatise on Running a Gloranthan Campaign by Greg Stafford. And what was useful from Griffin Island.

Borderlands & Beyond:
Additional Plunder items, expanded Runemasters character histories, and loads of background info from Nomad Gods and Wyrms Footnotes magazine. The interior is lavishly illustrated with dozens of new pictures from Simon Bray, Dario Corallo, plus loads of oldies but goodies from Lisa Free, Luise Perrinne, Gene Day and Rick Becker.

Cult Compendium:
Rick added in Gloranthan cults from White Wolf and Different Worlds magazines. Associated background articles from Wyrms Footnotes and similar sources give you a complete breakdown on how rune magic, spirit magic, elementals, and runes operate within the game world. To wrap up the book, Rick added all of the designer’s notes, some of which have never been published before. The topics are vividly detailed with the addition of over 50 new pieces of art, bringing the total over 110 snapshots into cult life (and death). Lastly, it’s also worth mentioning that Rick added genealogies for the various pantheons along with an updated cult compatibility chart surpassing even the one found in the RuneQuest Companion.

 

[Nick Brooke]

12 minutes ago, ffilz said:

I'm curious about all the additions to the Gloranthan Classics books. I know Cult Compendium has cults compiled from Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, Pavis, Big Rubble, Troll Pak, and one or two from other sources that aren't part of the RQ Classics re-releases.

What other add on bits are in the other volumes?

The descriptions on Chaosium's website are pretty comprehensive. Pavis & Big Rubble adds the Sun Dragon cult (just one page); Griffin Mountain adds some designers' notes from magazines and some reworked handouts from Griffin Island; Borderlands & Beyond has character histories for the Runemasters, and loads of marginalia copied across from Nomad Gods and Wyrms Footnotes. 

Heh. @7Tigers got there fustest with the mostest.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Nick Brooke

[ffilz]

41 minutes ago, 7Tigers said:

Well, it is indicated on each sale page:

Pavis & BR:
Additional material on the Sun Dragon cult, plus 35 additional new pieces of art specifically commissioned for the book are also included. 

Griffin Mountain:
Several articles printed in magazines, over 35 new pieces of additional art, designer’s notes, and a never before published treatise on Running a Gloranthan Campaign by Greg Stafford. And what was useful from Griffin Island.

Borderlands & Beyond:
Additional Plunder items, expanded Runemasters character histories, and loads of background info from Nomad Gods and Wyrms Footnotes magazine. The interior is lavishly illustrated with dozens of new pictures from Simon Bray, Dario Corallo, plus loads of oldies but goodies from Lisa Free, Luise Perrinne, Gene Day and Rick Becker.

Cult Compendium:
Rick added in Gloranthan cults from White Wolf and Different Worlds magazines. Associated background articles from Wyrms Footnotes and similar sources give you a complete breakdown on how rune magic, spirit magic, elementals, and runes operate within the game world. To wrap up the book, Rick added all of the designer’s notes, some of which have never been published before. The topics are vividly detailed with the addition of over 50 new pieces of art, bringing the total over 110 snapshots into cult life (and death). Lastly, it’s also worth mentioning that Rick added genealogies for the various pantheons along with an updated cult compatibility chart surpassing even the one found in the RuneQuest Companion.

 

Well, gee, I guess that would have been easy to look up... 🙂

Thanks for the shortcut...

Now sometime I need to sit down and read all that extra material (me being a luck soul who caught these in print even though I wasn't actively running RQ at the time).

And here's to hoping that someday that supplemental material could be pulled out to make it easily available to those who have the original RQ2 publications or the re-releases...

Frank

[Rick Meints]

On 8/26/2020 at 5:21 PM, ffilz said:

And here's to hoping that someday that supplemental material could be pulled out to make it easily available to those who have the original RQ2 publications or the re-releases...

To add further clarity: Here are the "content gaps" between the Glorantha Classics and the RQ Classics:

Glorantha Classic V1 (Pavis & Big Rubble) vs. RQ Classic Pavis, and RQ Classic Big Rubble: One page on the Sun Dragon Cult.
Glorantha Classic V2 (Griffin Mountain) vs RQ Classic Griffin Mountain: nothing
Glorantha Classic V3 (Cult Compendium) vs RQ Classic Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror: The cults of Bagog*, Caladra & Aurelion, Donandar, Geo, Lodril, Mostal, Sun Dragon, and Yelm.
Glorantha Classic V4 (Borderlands & Beyond) vs RQ Classic Borderlands, Plunder, and Rune Masters: nothing

Thus, it all boils down to 7* cults. All of them are in the Cult Compendium. That PDF is still for sale. The book is for sale in the UK. We have no plans to stop selling the Glorantha Classics PDFs, so the info is "easily available". Lastly, when the massive new Cults books are published for RQG that "7 cult gap" will largely get filled.

* Nick has correctly pointed out that Bagog was published in Cults of Terror as well. I used the slightly updated version published in White Wolf magazine. The two versions are basically the same, with just a few small bits added to the latter version.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Rick Meints
Nick and Bagog made me do it

[ffilz]

40 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

To add further clarity: Here are the "content gaps" between the Glorantha Classics and the RQ Classics:

Glorantha Classic V1 (Pavis & Big Rubble) vs. RQ Classic Pavis, and RQ Classic Big Rubble: One page on the Sun Dragon Cult.
Glorantha Classic V2 (Griffin Mountain) vs RQ Classic Griffin Mountain: nothing
Glorantha Classic V3 (Cult Compendium) vs RQ Classic Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror: The cults of Bagog, Caladra & Aurelion, Donandar, Geo, Lodril, Mostal, Sun Dragon, and Yelm.
Glorantha Classic V4 (Borderlands & Beyond) vs RQ Classic Borderlands, Plunder, and Rune Masters: nothing

Thus, it all boils down to 8 cults. All of them are in the Cult Compendium. That PDF is still for sale. The book is for sale in the UK. We have no plans to stop selling the Glorantha Classics PDFs, so the info is "easily available". Lastly, when the massive new Cults books are published for RQG that "8 cult gap" will largely get filled.

Obviously I missed that the extras had been added to the RQ Classics reprints, so if it's really just the cults, I think it's actually worth getting the Cult Compendium even if you have Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror just to get ALL the cults in one volume (plus you won't have to look for where the additional material that was collated into the Compendium is located among your other stuff). I really should get the Gloranthan Classics PDFs to supplement my print books (and just so folks know how worthwhile the Cults Compendium is, note that I have it in both soft and hard cover...).

On the other hand, a part of me would love to see a PDF with just the 8 cults... But the value of that as a product compared to the resources to pull it together aren't worth it...

And I look forward to hearing more about the new Cults book. If it's got cults that weren't published for RQ2, I look forward to seeing if it's a good source for back porting cults to RQ2.

Frank

[Nick Brooke]

1 hour ago, Rick Meints said:

To add further clarity: Here are the "content gaps" between the Glorantha Classics and the RQ Classics:

Glorantha Classic V3 (Cult Compendium) vs RQ Classic Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror: The cults of Bagog, Caladra & Aurelion, Donandar, Geo, Lodril, Mostal, Sun Dragon, and Yelm.

Thus, it all boils down to 8 cults. All of them are in the Cult Compendium. That PDF is still for sale. The book is for sale in the UK. We have no plans to stop selling the Glorantha Classics PDFs, so the info is "easily available". Lastly, when the massive new Cults books are published for RQG that "8 cult gap" will largely get filled.

Seven cults - Bagog's in "Cults of Terror."

[Rick Meints]

12 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

Seven cults - Bagog's in "Cults of Terror."

While you are always welcome to split hairs, the Bagog cult published in the Cult Compendium was based on the version from White Wolf magazine #22, which is a slightly updated and expanded version of what was originally published in Cults of Terror.

[Westnovote]

18 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

The book is for sale in the UK

So it is.  I had completely missed that.  I saw the Borderlands & Beyond was in the US so probably just assumed the Cults book was as well.  Thanks very much - copy purchased.

[PhilHibbs]

On 8/26/2020 at 8:36 PM, Rick Meints said:

We are going to be selling the POD books via our website mainly. We are testing the interface now.

If you want someone to test the interface, order a complete set, and check the fulfilment works, just let me know... 😏