Tuesday, October 13, 2020

RuneQuest Classics

One of the unalloyed goods of recent years has been the technology of print-on-demand. Not only has it made it practical for individuals or small groups of people to publish their own RPG books, such as the excellent Planet Eris Gazetteer, but it's also enabled larger publishers to make their older titles available once more. Steve Jackson has done this with its GURPS library, for example, as has Game Designers' Workshop

Now, Chaosium has joined their ranks. Numerous RuneQuest books published in the 1970s and '80s are now available as POD books. These include not just the first and second editions of the RQ rulebook itself, but other classic volumes, like Big Rubble, Borderlands, Griffin Mountain, Pavis, and Trollpak. Making these again available is important for players discovering RuneQuest for the first time – the game, along with Chaosium itself, is currently undergoing a very welcome renaissance lately – as well as for roleplayers simply wishing to read some of the finest RPG materials ever written. Nearly all of the books now available through print-on-demand are justly called classics; several, though, continue to tower over the hobby decades after their original publications. 

Chaosium is to be applauded for releasing these RuneQuest classics. I hope they will one day do the same for their other superb games, like Call of Cthulhu and Pendragon, both of which also have vast libraries of wonderful books that have been out of print for far too long. 

8 comments:

  1. Honestly, since I’ve had some success doing DnD online, this gives me hope I can get a classic Glorantha campaign going.

    Griffin Mountain was a treasured possession as a teen. Not sure what happened to it but would love to have it again.

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    1. It's a great campaign framework. I'm so happy it's now available in print inexpensively.

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  2. I just got the new edition in the slipcase including the core book, bestiary, and accessory pack. It is gorgeous, snd everything I've read so far indicates the additions and modfications to the rules work nicely, though I have yet to do an in depth reading.

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  3. I've been looking at Runequest for a while, and I was thinking of getting either the 1st or 2nd edition . . . somehow. What's a better place to start of the two?

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    1. Definitely 2e, which is basically just 1e with errata and clarifications. 1e is useful primarily as a historical document. That said, I'm glad Chaosium is making it available for sale in both PDF and POD.

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  4. I'm not really sure that newcomers feel attracted to classic material without revision. The old stuff was cryptic most of the time and not to friendly to new gamers.

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  5. I'd be quite interested in a POD reprint of Pendragon 3rd ed and Knights Adventurous, as I think I prefer that version of the game to 4th and later editions.

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