A bit lost with all these new amazing setting books..

[Nicochan]

Mythology

Prosopaedia

Lightbringers

Earth Goddesses

 

I'm guessing the last 2 are a "zoom in" on the respective cults, but what about the first 2? 

It would require a fair amount of money in order to get them all, so I'm trying to choose only a couple of them..

[Richard S.]

Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses are just long form cult writeups, yeah. In a campaign I'd say that Earth Goddesses is the most valuable of the two by just a smidge, since it has more useable stuff that's not in the core book, but both are very good. The Prosopaedia is basically an encyclopedia of nearly every god, hero, spirit, etc. - not any gameplay material, but it shows a lot of interesting connections for lore nerds. Mythology is a bit of a mishmash of stuff - it's got essays on what myth is and how it's important to Glorantha, writeups of several specific myths and the monomyth, lots of family trees of the gods, the new universal cult format, cult distribution charts for central Genertela, and tons of amazing art. I think it's more useful than the Prosopaedia but less useful than Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses, so if you're strapped for cash I'd say go Earth -> Light -> Myth -> Pros. All of them are quality books though.

[Wheel Shield]

I would agree with @Richard S. order of priority. (In my opinion maybe swap Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses, but I'm not sure...)

[Nicochan]

Thanks a lot!

[g33k]

Also, to be aware:  there's a BUNCH more of these Cults of Runequest titles coming out.

Lunars and then Solars are (I think) the next two of them, with Darkness, Water, Chaos & a couple more down the line.
I believe there are 10 of them already written (and even mostly done with art & layout!).  They'll be interleaved with other projects throughout 2024 and maybe even later.
Book 11 has been mentioned, but AFAIK is still being written and has not begun -- or has only barely begun -- getting art commissioned.

There's also a Sartar book, and a broader Dragon Pass book (not in the Cults series) alternating with the next 2 Cults books.

Brace yourself.
Brace your bank account.

[Richard S.]

50 minutes ago, Wheel Shield said:

I would agree with @Richard S. order of priority. (In my opinion maybe swap Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses, but I'm not sure...)

I think if you have a largely Lightbringer party that wants to get invested in their cult lore and heroquesting, then go for Lightbringers first. If you just want a broader range of cults and details to flesh out the world, go Earth Goddesses first.

[Enthar]

Any word on the various sorcerous cults?  Malkioni, Aeolianism, or even just a broader set of sorcerer rules?

 

[Richard S.]

3 minutes ago, Enthar said:

Any word on the various sorcerous cults?  Malkioni, Aeolianism, or even just a broader set of sorcerer rules?

The Invisible God is going to have a book of its own at the end of the line. I'm guessing it will be mainly focused on caste restrictions and Rightness benefits for the various sects, though hopefully it'll also give some description of how proper western sorcery differs from what Lhankor Mhy uses. Personally I'm hoping that it'll also detail some Malkioni hero cults like Talor and Gerlant, since their special spells are in the RBoM.

[Nicochan]

Bonus question about the red book magic: does it contain any new spells compared to the core book?

[Techpriest]

5 minutes ago, Nicochan said:

Bonus question about the red book magic: does it contain any new spells compared to the core book?

Yes, it contains a bunch of new Rune Magic spells and compiles all the spirit magic ones. Honestly releasing it so early in the run was at least in my opinion, a bit of a mistake, but that's just me. There's likely to be a separate sorcery book later on too. 

[Richard S.]

12 minutes ago, Nicochan said:

Bonus question about the red book magic: does it contain any new spells compared to the core book?

A lot. The RBoM has 64 spirit magic spells and 449 Rune magic spells. The core book has 53 spirit and 176 rune. The new spirit magic spells are mostly cult exclusives, and there's a list of who teaches them. The new Rune magic is mostly for currently unpublished cults and doesn't say where it comes from, though you can figure out a lot from older material.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Richard S.

[AndreJarosch]

32 minutes ago, Nicochan said:

Bonus question about the red book magic: does it contain any new spells compared to the core book?

The Red Book of Magic contains ALL Rune Magic and Spirit Magic spells that are contained in the Cults of RuneQuest series collected in one volume. 

[Nick Brooke]

9 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

The Red Book of Magic contains ALL Rune Magic and Spirit Magic spells that are contained in the Cults of RuneQuest series collected in one volume. 

Not quite all, but plenty.

[Richard S.]

11 minutes ago, Nick Brooke said:

Not quite all, but plenty.

What doesn't it have?

[Jens]

11 minutes ago, Richard S. said:

What doesn't it have?

Anything added to the Cults books after it was published. 

[Richard S.]

Just now, Jens said:

Anything added to the Cults books after it was published. 

Fair enough lol. I don't think we've seen any examples of that yet though.

[Nick Brooke]

So far we've had these cult special Rune spells:

• Avalanche
• Summon Son of Votank
• Summon Tribesman

plus these specialist illusion spells from Eurmal:

• Change a Cow’s Color
• Create Feast
• Create Wine
• Gold into Hay
• Make Fine Clothes

[Rick Meints]

On 11/9/2023 at 12:05 PM, Nicochan said:

Mythology, Prosopaedia, Lightbringers, Earth Goddesses

I'm guessing the last 2 are a "zoom in" on the respective cults, but what about the first 2? 

It really depends on what your needs and interests are. If you are playing RuneQuest, especially as the Gamemaster, you would probably want to get Lightbringers and Earth Goddesses so you have full cult write-ups to use in play and for character creation. That might be less true if you are not playing in Dragon Pass or Prax (central Genertela).

If you are newer to Glorantha and mainly just reading the books for enjoyment, the Mythology book provides a great overview of how religions/cults/magic all works in Glorantha. The Prosopaedia is a collection of brief summaries of all of the main deities/spirits/etc. in Glorantha. It could help point you to specific cults books you might want to read in further depth in the future. These two books aren't technically needed for use during play at the table, although the info can certainly help new players understand things.

[French Desperate WindChild]

On 11/14/2023 at 10:50 PM, AndreJarosch said:

The Red Book of Magic contains ALL Rune Magic and Spirit Magic spells that are contained in the Cults of RuneQuest series collected in one volume. 

That was what I understood too when it was announced. But now... seems not 100% of all

[AndreJarosch]

37 minutes ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

That was what I understood too when it was announced. But now... seems not 100% of all

You a few "special" spells are missuing (at least until now). 

[Jens]

The page count (and number of cults) has significantly increased from the Cults preview volumes at the time the Red Book was published until now; it’s no surprise there are new spells to match. The only question is whether there will be a second edition of The Red Book once the Cults volumes are done that contains all the new spells- and whether those of us who bought the PDF will be able to download the updated version for free, or have buy a new one like for the updated Sourcebook. 

[Rick Meints]

On 11/17/2023 at 8:41 PM, Jens said:

The page count (and number of cults) has significantly increased from the Cults preview volumes at the time the Red Book was published until now; it’s no surprise there are new spells to match. The only question is whether there will be a second edition of The Red Book once the Cults volumes are done that contains all the new spells- and whether those of us who bought the PDF will be able to download the updated version for free, or have buy a new one like for the updated Sourcebook. 

We haven't decided on creating an "updated Red Book" yet. One big precursor to doing that would be having the first printing sell out so we would need to print more. A likely first step would be for us to create a 1-2 page PDF "addendum" for the RBoM and make that PDF available for free on our website.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Rick Meints