Sun County, RuneQuest Adventures in the Land of the Sun is not possible to buy anymore, right?

[Malin]

Just wanted to make sure I am not overlooking something. The old Sun County volume is not possible to buy outside used copies, right? I know some old modules are but I have been looking everywhere and not being able to find it.

I have had mine since the nineties, just wanted to check if there was a link in case others were interested in buying it too. Same with the River of Cradles one.

Edited August 21, 2023 by Malin

[Oracle]

Sun County as well as River of Cradles are RuneQuest 3 modules, which are not available except on ebay or similar platforms - which is the case for all RuneQuest 3 publications.

The old modules still (or better again) available are RuneQuest 2 modules, which have been made available again through a Kickstarter several years ago.

[Malin]

Thank you, thought that was the case, but I just wanted to double-check!

[Erol of Backford]

$65 on amazon for a used copy.

We had loads of fun in that book. Couple that with the River of Cradles as a prequel, (ouch its like $125) along with Borderlands & Beyond, the Big Rubble the Sand Heart series and you have a great campaign, loads of scenarios should run a few years. Don't forget Shadows on the Borderlands as its when things got really good!

I'd say it's worth picking it/them up... even if to just replay for the memories, good stuff.

Spoiler

In one campaign we ended up turning the subterranean cave complex below Rabbit Hat into a dwarven outpost/smithy for  some homeless dwarves similar to those in the Elder Secrets Dwarf Scenarios p.116. The Sun County orders for weapons and armor flooded into Rabbit Hat all the time not knowing the PC's were not the smiths. To be fair the PC's did engage the Dwarves to train them in all sorts of crafting endeavors... manned the billows and eventully did start generating weapons and armor. The PC's who had an Elmali Acolyte leading them (at least while in Sun County) ended up repopulating Rabbit Hat with Black Rock citizens who were not killed. They swore Humakti Oaths to the Emali PC (not anyone else in Sun County) that spared them and all turned out well long term. What was most funny was the Acolytes name: Obsidian.

 

[Joerg]

I have a spare shrink-wrapped copy in Germany that might be looking for a good home.

[Rick Meints]

All of the Avalon Hill RuneQuest 3 line of products, including Sun County, went out of print when AH was bought by Hasbro. Basically, it hasn't been for sale since 2000.

[Wheel Shield]

How useful are those Avalon Hill books for contemporary Runequest Glorantha? Specifically if you're adhering to canon (and I don't mean strictly adhering because YGMV, but let's say casually adhering to canon).

For example, I think Jeff has suggested not paying much mind to the Issaries Inc. era HQ/ Hero Wars books. Would the same apply to these 3rd edition Avalon Hill books, or are they worth some attention?

I kinda remember them (I lost all my old collection), and they seemed kinda OG Old School - I.e. cool.

* Not intended to strictly quote Jeff, just my general impression.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Wheel Shield
punctuation

[Malin]

Depends. The Sun County one is really useful if you play there. The River of Cradles one is a good overview of the entire Zola Fel river. Dorastor was cool as hell with a good hook for a campaign there, though I never played it. I think those three were the ones I found the most useful where stuff has not been used for new supplements and stuff yet.  A lot of the Prax and Borderlands have been popping up elsewhere I think.

[Nick Brooke]

Jeff considers Sun County part of the “canonical corpus” as a description of the Sun County in Prax: history, places, personnel, the whole nine yards. 24 October 2022, in a post to the RuneQuest Facebook group. Same goes for Dorastor. Search for it using the phrase in quotes.

[Wheel Shield]

Thanks guys!
 

@Nick Brooke if you say it’s a fact, I’ll take your word for it. 😉 (but thanks again)

[Nick Brooke]

9 minutes ago, Wheel Shield said:

@Nick Brooke if you say it’s a fact, I’ll take your word for it. 😉 (but thanks again)

No need, Scotty’s archived the post here: Jeff’s Canonical Corpus.

[Wheel Shield]

That list is longer than I remembered! I wondered about Strangers in Prax, but I see the issue. (I did a search and David Scott explained it)

Do we know anything about Shadows on the Borderlands? 

[Nick Brooke]

We know that Gaumata’s Vision by Mike Dawson is probably the best RuneQuest scenario ever written: that should be enough reason to buy it.

The problem with these “canon” lists is that Jeff seems to take a very legalistic view (understandably, considering his background): only if everything in a book is 100% perfect and exactly what he’d publish today will he incorporate it in his list. So let’s say there’s some wording in (I dunno) the Ogre version of “What My Father Told Me” that isn’t precisely to his taste… well, now: Shadows on the Borderlands can hardly be considered canon if it contains that aberration, can it now?

Many folk take a broader view: if it’s basically OK, include it in the canon, and we can wrangle over oddities and edge cases later. Which is what the early Church did when defining scriptural canon (which is, of course, replete with inconsistencies, multiple overlapping contradictory versions of the same event, stylistic wrenches, characters portrayed in wildly different ways, etc.). But I’m a historian, not a lawyer, and see things differently.

[Wheel Shield]

I follow. I’m not a slave to canon, so “if it’s basically okay”, it suits me just fine. Thank you, as always, for the insights.

[Malin]

I am once again reminded how very grateful I am that the Your Glorantha May Vary is a base tenet of the game that keeps being repeated. Gives a wonderful freedom for someone like me.

[Ian A. Thomson]

Needs to be another official category:

Classic Close-Enough Canon

or something

Either/or distinctions are often a very flawed classification system to use

[SDLeary]

A bit late but it's available... for a price!

SDLeary

 

[Ian A. Thomson]

5 hours ago, SDLeary said:

A bit late but it's available... for a price!

Jaysus

Chaosium should definitely jump on reprinting this if they have the rights. A nice little earner as they say in Blighty

I'd be happy to helm another project to recover the text and images and put them in basic formatting if that's the only major drawback for them

Probably could even organise people to do the layout too

[Nick Brooke]

Here in the UK, retail prices have increased by about 160% since Sun County came out back in 1992. It was $18.95 back then, so it'd probably set you back $50 or so nowadays, and that's before any premium for scarcity value. Just putting things in context.

There is no need for anyone to "helm a project" or "organise people to do layout." The Chaosium moves at its own ineluctable speed.

Edited March 17 by Nick Brooke

[svensson]

1 hour ago, Nick Brooke said:

Here in the UK, retail prices have increased by about 160% since Sun County came out back in 1992. It was $18.95 back then, so it'd probably set you back $50 or so nowadays, and that's before any premium for scarcity value. Just putting things in context.

There is no need for anyone to "helm a project" or "organise people to do layout." The Chaosium moves at its own ineluctable speed.

Sadly, nostalgia jacks up the price by 150% of CURRENT retail value, not ORIGINAL.

And when you're an RQ or Traveller fan like myself, it's a rare thing indeed to find your treasures at the used book store.

[Ian A. Thomson]

There was a wonderful coincidence happened when I was playing in the Borderlands campaign that later went to Pavis, and which inspired me to start the first run of my own campaign.

I went into a small second-hand bookshop just on a whim that I happened to drive past on a big trip a couple of hours from home (living in Southampton UK at the time)

And they had the Borderlands, Pavis & Big Rubble boxed sets at next to no cost.

Clearly the owner had no idea of their worth, as all were out of print for some years at that time. Some other old timers might remember when the classics were as rare as hen's teeth

I only had enough money for one, but I had the opportunity to pass that way again a few days later and luckily the other two were still there (or maybe I'd asked the guy to put them aside for me)

Either way, the Old Pavis campaign I began then hinged on a random whim of taking a break on a long drive to drop in to an intriguing-looking second-hand bookshop somewhere on the outskirts of Portsmouth in the UK

Edited March 18 by Ian A. Thomson

[Nozbat]

Intersting @Ian A. Thomson.. I had been reading an article on Missed Connections and how much they can be regretted or what people subsequently do to try and put them right. The flip side of the coin is that sometimes those small things can change the direction of life. Taking that turn, staying somewhere an extra night, a chance smile in a busy café.. or stopping to look at a second hand bookshop.

Life can be full of those small decisions..