These RuneQuest Classic titles will soon be available POD...

[CharloixBrooKiller]

This was an amazing thread. I took the time to go through every one.   I'd say at some point in the early/mid 80's I owed a copy of every chaosium product.  Had all the original stuff (man, felt like some of it was run on a mimograph machine! lol). Sold or gave away most of the stuff in the 80s or 90s as I moved out of gaming.   I do still retain an AH Dragon Pass (I have played the game about once every two years over all this time).  For a player, the AH copy was the best.   I did keep the Nomad Gods original rulebook and my physical copies of Worms Footnotes.  Those two are probably the two 'coolest' products just to handle.  Read them countless times.   I was never one to 'sweat' over the value of stuff a collectables.  I think to have it, enjoy it, and then pass it on is much better.   I sold my original 3 book D&D (autographed!) and Dungeon Magazine #1 in the late 90s.

FWIIW, I really struggle with Glorantha.  Have loved it for years, haven't played RQ in over 25.   I wish I could 'go back' and play again but that's life.  I envy those that can still play RQ but somehow it just doesn't work for me.  I think playing in the time we were still constantly 'discovering' new stuff about Glorantha created a unique time and place.

Thanks for all the pictures of the 'good old stuff'.  Really felt good to see it.

Edited April 27, 2021 by CharloixBrooKiller

[Stephen L]

17 hours ago, CharloixBrooKiller said:

I envy those that can still play RQ but somehow it just doesn't work for me.  I think playing in the time we were still constantly 'discovering' new stuff about Glorantha created a unique time and place.

Though I too have great nostalgia for the early days of RQ classic, for me, RQinG wins.  The inspiration it provides for the GM is quite unbelievable, and the campaign I’m running at the moment is better than *anything* I have ever run before.

Last sacred time, the players summoned hippogriffs to ride to heaven’s vault to rescue a star maiden, battling fire daemons to unite her with her true love, Prince Illavarn. 

I’ve never had inspiration like that before.

For me RQinG is visceral, vivid, alive and immediate, whilst RQ classic is a glimpse of something wonderful, vaguely seen and half imagined from afar.

[GMKen]

I still have my fingers crossed for the three adventures noted in Sea Cave.

Otherwise I’ve pretty much filled out my collection with the PoD stuff, Jonstown Compendium and lulu, at least everything that I’m currently interested in.  Just waiting for my FLGS to give me a call about the Red Book of Magic pre-order, when I’ll put in my pre-order for the Starter Set.

I’m okay with the generally slow pace of releases, as I’m focused on the Neolithic potential of Balazar right now, and the newer stuff is only giving me bits and pieces to work with in that regard, so this is fine.

I do wish there were some of the old-style gaming magazines around, as they really did help fill in the gaps between major releases with adventures and background material to help sate the desire for content.

[Oracle]

14 hours ago, GMKen said:

...

I do wish there were some of the old-style gaming magazines around, as they really did help fill in the gaps between major releases with adventures and background material to help sate the desire for content.

I think the Jonstown Compendium does a lot in this direction ...

[DreadDomain]

On 9/17/2020 at 8:09 AM, Rick Meints said:

We don't need a license to do the Avalon Hill era RQ3 supplements. Chaosium retained the copyright, especially on all the Gloranthan supplements. Greg got all that as his part of the split of Chaosium's assets when he left the company in 1998, and Moon Design bought it all from him in 2013. Many of the RQ3 supplements that were RQ2 updates, like Apple Lane, Snake Pipe Hollow, the Gloranthan Bestiary, and TrollPak aren't worth reprinting (at least beyond the TrollPak map). They aren't different enough. The Monster Coliseum and Griffin Island boxed sets, RQ Cities are too generic. Daughters of Darkness and Eldarad are a hard pass. Not much point in reprinting Gods of Glorantha, Troll Gods, Elder Secrets, or the Genertela boxed sets as that range of info is already in print in a more comprehensive fashion, or soon will be. Reprinting Vikings and Land of Ninja are tempting, but they are not a priority. That just leaves Sun County, Strangers in Prax, Shadows on the Borderland, Dorastor, and Lords of Terror. We might reprint the first three, and maybe do the last two as a combo reprint, but I haven't spent any time thinking about that. I would like to get the Troubled Waters scenario from River of Cradles reprinted, but I wouldn't reprint the rest of the book since Pavis and Big Rubble are both available again.

@Rick MeintsNow that the Call of Cthulhu kickstarter is behind us (ok, not quite yet), is now the right time to talk about making RuneQuest 3 available again? Based on your post from last year, you were opened to a few good supplements and I thought I could suggest a few things.

• RuneQuest 3rd based on the Deluxe 1993 paperback - perhaps with the errata at the back incorporated in the text instead of added at the back.
• Sun County (probably no need to change much)
• Shadows on the Borderland (probably no need to change much)
• I think your suggestion of making Dorastor and Lords of Terror as a single "campaign book" is fantastic (well if, I understood "combo reprint" correctly)
• Troubled Waters from River of Cradles is quite extensive. Perhaps adding it to Strangers in Prax would make the most sense? Thematically it fits and it would make a better sized book. If you take that route, may I suggest you use the cover from River of Cradles? It would be a shame to waste such a fantastic cover.

I'd also like to see Gods of Glorantha and Genertela become available again, forming, with the rulebook, the backbone of RQ3. Having said that, I understand your point that most of the content of these two box sets is/will be available in the Guide to Glorantha and the upcoming Gods of Glorantha.

• If you decide against making them available again I'd like to see the Genertelan Character Creation (page 22 to 34 of the Genertelan's Player's Book) and add it to Book 5: Glorantha Book of RuneQuest 3. If space is needed, the Ernalda cult could be removed from that section.

Thank you for considering my suggestions.

[SDLeary]

2 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

@Rick MeintsNow that the Call of Cthulhu kickstarter is behind us (ok, not quite yet), is now the right time to talk about making RuneQuest 3 available again? ... <snip>

And, just for completeness as to having basic information, also the Gloranthan Bestiary, so that all the beasties are there for those of us that prefer our core rules to have a little vintage to them. 😉

SDLeary

[SDLeary]

Now, for an alternate take to Dread's...

RQ3, Vikings, and LoN.

Don't get me wrong, I love all those Gloranthan titles too, but I'd have those as the stretch goals.

SDLeary

Edited August 8, 2021 by SDLeary

[Joerg]

6 hours ago, SDLeary said:

Now, for an alternate take to Dread's...

RQ3, Vikings, and LoN.

Don't get me wrong, I love all those Gloranthan titles too, but I'd have those as the stretch goals.

SDLeary

Both these supplements use the same basic campaign, only slightly adjusted to the setting. The campaign also works as a rural Sartar or rural Tarsh campaign.

The Lunar Empire supplement missing gazetteer information and a campaign in the Lunar Empire would be nice in a completed package, too - Monster Colliseum. But nowadays, that supplement (and the character sheets) would be published on the Jonstown Compendium.

[AndreJarosch]

I am sorrow that some of the RQ3 publications are currently not avaiable. 
Some other supplements i would like to see back in print (or PDF) available to new RQ newbys. 
Some things were good enough to get them back into print, but are not sooo important to me. 


My idea on a RQ3 Classic Line: 

Should get pack into print IMHO: 

1. Sun County

2. Strangers in Prax + River of Cradles adventure (background reprint not nessessary, because of RQ2 P&BR) + Heroes magazine Ostrich Tribe

3. Shadows on the Borderlands

4. Trollpak 2 (everything from "Into the Troll Realms", "Hauted Ruins", "Trollpak" and "Troll Gods" that wasn´t covered in RQ2 Trollpak. 

5. Dorastor + Lords of Terror


Would be nice to have back in print IMHO:  

6. RuneQuest Deluxe Book

7. Glorantha Boxed set + Missing Lands (but almost all of it is already covered in the Guide to Glorantha and other publications)

8. Gods of Glorantha (but almost all of it will already be covered in the upcoming Gods of Glorantha and other publications)

9. Glorantha Bestiary + Creature/Monsters part of Elder Secrets (but almost all of it is altready covered in the new Glorantha Bestiary and other publications)


Totally optional:

10. RuneQuest Cities

11. Monster Coliseum

12. Vikings

13. Land of Ninja

Edited August 8, 2021 by AndreJarosch

[Rick Meints]

As you have probably already guessed, doing these sorts of classic reprints mosts comes down to three factors:

1. Time/Resources that we have to balance against new/future projects.

2. How the older item lines up with current/forthcoming products.

3. How much in demand they are.

In general, that means that products like the RQ3 Gods of Glorantha and the Glorantha: Genertela boxed sets are very very unlikely to happen. The same goes for the RQ3 Glorantha Bestiary. They have been replaced with deeper, richer, and more up to date books that are currently in print or soon will be. We have pondered doing some of the RQ3 adventures published during the RQ Renaissance, though. Some of the lessons learned from the RQ Classics campaign is that the popularity of some of the older titles varied greatly. On hindsight, we would have skipped redoing some of the older titles because they didn't meet sales expectations. (i.e. redoing a book to sell a couple of hundred copies just isn't worth it)

[AndreJarosch]

5 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

As you have probably already guessed, doing these sorts of classic reprints mosts comes down to three factors:

1. Time/Resources that we have to balance against new/future projects.

2. How the older item lines up with current/forthcoming products.

3. How much in demand they are.

In general, that means that products like the RQ3 Gods of Glorantha and the Glorantha: Genertela boxed sets are very very unlikely to happen. The same goes for the RQ3 Glorantha Bestiary. They have been replaced with deeper, richer, and more up to date books that are currently in print or soon will be. We have pondered doing some of the RQ3 adventures published during the RQ Renaissance, though. Some of the lessons learned from the RQ Classics campaign is that the popularity of some of the older titles varied greatly. On hindsight, we would have skipped redoing some of the older titles because they didn't meet sales expectations. (i.e. redoing a book to sell a couple of hundred copies just isn't worth it)

Is my idea of the first 5 titles in line with what YOU think is worth being reprinted?

I am NOT asking to do it NOW (or at all). Just asking if you see the same books as worth reprinting as me. 

[jajagappa]

9 minutes ago, AndreJarosch said:

Is my idea of the first 5 titles in line with what YOU think is worth being reprinted?

Re: 4. Trollpak 2 (everything from "Into the Troll Realms", "Hauted Ruins", "Trollpak" and "Troll Gods" that wasn´t covered in RQ2 Trollpak. 
 

I think there's very little in this that won't have been covered by either the RQ Classic Trollpak or the forthcoming Cults of Glorantha.

 

[Nick Brooke]

My own RuneQuest Renaissance list would be:

• Sun County
• Shadows on the Borderlands
• Troubled Waters (the mini-campaign from the back of River of Cradles)
• Strangers in Prax
• Dorastor

I wouldn't bother with Lords of Terror (it's mostly Cults of Terror, which is available as a Classic with updates to come in Cults of Glorantha), or scrapings from the Trollpak reissues (for completist uber-nerds only, who'll want the original RQ3 versions), or anything from Heroes magazine. But that's just my opinion.

[AndreJarosch]

26 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

Re: 4. Trollpak 2 (everything from "Into the Troll Realms", "Hauted Ruins", "Trollpak" and "Troll Gods" that wasn´t covered in RQ2 Trollpak. 
 

I think there's very little in this that won't have been covered by either the RQ Classic Trollpak or the forthcoming Cults of Glorantha.

 

You are mostly right:
RQ2 Trollpak is mostly the same as RQ3 Trollpak backround text + Haunted Ruins and Into the Troll Realms. 
But RQ3 Trollpak had new adventures in it: and these new adventures could be reprinted as a Troll Adventure Booklet. 

You can´t have enough of gloranthan uz, don´t you?

Edited August 10, 2021 by AndreJarosch

[craigm]

2 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

On hindsight, we would have skipped redoing some of the older titles because they didn't meet sales expectations. (i.e. redoing a book to sell a couple of hundred copies just isn't worth it)

I'm grateful that as many of them did make it out there so folks like myself that were just re-introduced to Glorantha could get a taste of what it was like. Thank you.

[davey68uk]

Sorry I'm new to RQ Roleplaying in Glorantha (just purchased all the currently available books including the starter set) and would like to know what new books are planned? I hear mention of a cults book and saw one of the Chaosium team mention Pavis and some Jonstown based scenarios. Would someone kindly let me know which books/adventures are planned? Appreciate details and exact release dates may not be available but any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Godlearner]

3 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

On hindsight, we would have skipped redoing some of the older titles because they didn't meet sales expectations. (i.e. redoing a book to sell a couple of hundred copies just isn't worth it)

I would suggest redoing those as JC products. Couple of hindered copies there would be worth it. I am sure there would be people willing to work on that. If you can't find one, message me.

[Oracle]

52 minutes ago, davey68uk said:

Sorry I'm new to RQ Roleplaying in Glorantha (just purchased all the currently available books including the starter set) and would like to know what new books are planned? I hear mention of a cults book and saw one of the Chaosium team mention Pavis and some Jonstown based scenarios. Would someone kindly let me know which books/adventures are planned? Appreciate details and exact release dates may not be available but any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

To my knowledge the next planned books/adventures are

• The Starter Set.
  In fact this is a box containing several booklets, and one of them contains several Jonstown based adventures. For more details see the Starter Set Design Diary in the Chaosium blog.
  This one is not only planned, it's already done and on its way to the warehouses ...
• God and Goddesses of Glorantha (not sure, if this is still the official title ...)
  This book contains many, many cult descriptions for all the important Gods and Goddesses of Glorantha.
• The Sartar Homeland Box
  A detailed description of Sartar and its denizens.

Regarding the latter two it is not quite clear, which will be released first. Depends on the usual production criteria like layout done, illustrations complete, etc. The original plan was, that both will be available until end of this year (at least in PDF format). But as always, plans may change ...

Beyond this everything is pure speculation. An updated Pavis/Big Rubble book is in the works. Several homeland boxes have been mentioned (Grazlands, Tarsh, Esrolia). Many other things. But the state of these works is not clear, so no given release time frames are available. They will be done, when their done ...

[DreadDomain]

1 hour ago, davey68uk said:

Sorry I'm new to RQ Roleplaying in Glorantha (just purchased all the currently available books including the starter set) and would like to know what new books are planned? I hear mention of a cults book and saw one of the Chaosium team mention Pavis and some Jonstown based scenarios. Would someone kindly let me know which books/adventures are planned? Appreciate details and exact release dates may not be available but any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

In addition to what Oracle said, this thread tries to compile products in the work, mentionned or hinted by Chaosium. It's not official in any way but it gives a flavour of what might be coming.

 

[Rick Meints]

2 hours ago, Godlearner said:

I would suggest redoing those as JC products. Couple of hindered copies there would be worth it. I am sure there would be people willing to work on that. If you can't find one, message me.

If someone has an interest in working on RuneQuest Classics and similar, please feel free to message me. The main skill needed is use of InDesign. As for putting any RQ3 titles through the JC as fan projects, that isn't going to happen. Please note that we are willing to pay for people to do layout.

[davey68uk]

Thank you Oracle and DreadDomain your posts were really helpful. I'm really excited about the number of books and supplements in the works. I had no idea there were so many! Really looking forward to the two volume cults book, weapons and equipment book and Sartar/Dragon Pass campaign. Cults have interested me since the early days of RQ (Cults of Prax/Terror) so can't wait. I guess I'll keep checking in on these forums for updates. I have the starter set and red book of magic on order. Do we think there will be any more new release before the end of 2021? Thanks again.

[DreadDomain]

10 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

As you have probably already guessed, doing these sorts of classic reprints mosts comes down to three factors:

1. Time/Resources that we have to balance against new/future projects.

2. ...

In general, that means that products like the RQ3 Gods of Glorantha and the Glorantha: Genertela boxed sets are very very unlikely to happen. The same goes for the RQ3 Glorantha Bestiary. 

Understood. Even if I still have them on by bookshelves, I would buy RQ3 GoG and Genertela again but I understand it might not make business sense for you to do so. Hopefully you will consider including the Genertelan Character Creation (page 22 to 34 of the Genertelan's Player's Book) and add it to Book 5: Glorantha Book of RuneQuest 3 (since RQ1 and RQ2 are already available, I assume you would also make the RQ3 ruleboook available so all can enjoy any of the 4 Chaosium RuneQuest editions).

9 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

My own RuneQuest Renaissance list would be:

• Sun County
• Shadows on the Borderlands
• Troubled Waters (the mini-campaign from the back of River of Cradles)
• Strangers in Prax
• Dorastor

I wouldn't bother with Lords of Terror (it's mostly Cults of Terror, which is available as a Classic with updates to come in Cults of Glorantha), or scrapings from the Trollpak reissues (for completist uber-nerds only, who'll want the original RQ3 versions), or anything from Heroes magazine. But that's just my opinion.

Pretty much agree. I would add LoT to Dorastor (it's actually Rick's idea, not mine) because it does have extra content compare to CoT but it might be a case of too much effort for little gain.

Edited to ask: I thought the Chaos gods would not feature in Cults of Glorantha. Has that changed?

Edited August 11, 2021 by DreadDomain

[DreadDomain]

24 minutes ago, davey68uk said:

Thank you Oracle and DreadDomain your posts were really helpful. I'm really excited about the number of books and supplements in the works. I had no idea there were so many! Really looking forward to the two volume cults book, weapons and equipment book and Sartar/Dragon Pass campaign. Cults have interested me since the early days of RQ (Cults of Prax/Terror) so can't wait. I guess I'll keep checking in on these forums for updates. I have the starter set and red book of magic on order. Do we think there will be any more new release before the end of 2021? Thanks again.

No worries. I assume that by "I have the starter set... on order", you actually mean the Quickstart? Just to manage expectations, the QS is a 48 pages introductory booklet. It's not the Starter boxset.

I'm with you, my most awaited release (for any games, not just RQ) is the Cults of Glorantha book(s) (or whatever the name will be)! 

Edited August 10, 2021 by DreadDomain

[davey68uk]

Hi, I'm in the UK and have the starter set on pre-order. I think it's due for release towards the end of September here. I also have the red book of magic on pre-order (similar release date). Yep I'm very excited about the new releases but especially the cults book. Hope it includes some of the more unusual cults like Thed and Vivamort. 

[Rick Meints]

4 hours ago, davey68uk said:

Hi, I'm in the UK and have the starter set on pre-order. I think it's due for release towards the end of September here. I also have the red book of magic on pre-order (similar release date). Yep I'm very excited about the new releases but especially the cults book. Hope it includes some of the more unusual cults like Thed and Vivamort. 

That pre-order date for the Starter set is probably optimistic. We'll have the books in our US warehouse by then, and they will be available to distributors some time in late September. Unfortunately, your UK game shop has to get the books from a distributor that has to order those books from our US warehouse and have them shipped to the UK. That makes me think maybe November at the earliest for an appearance in UK game shops. We'll be selling the Starter set on our website for probably 2 months prior to that UK game shop debut, and offering shipping from our UK warehouse.

Please note that our UK warehouse is very expensive when it comes to storing product. Thus, we can't have stock it with enough books to support distributor and game shop orders. We mainly have it for our UK fans who want to buy direct from us, and as soon as the product is available.