Moon Design Glorantha Classics (1999-2005)

As one of the founders of Moon Design Publications, I am happy to summarize our first 4 main projects, aka the Gloranthan Classics line of books:

Rick Meints 2019

Gloranthan Classics Volume I – Pavis & Big Rubble (1999)
is an updated and reformatted 316 page reprint of ALL of the information from the two original boxed sets organized together. Additional material on the Sun Dragon cult, plus 35 additional new pieces of art specifically commissioned for the book are also included. Rediscover the Puzzle Canal, Kakstan’s Art Museum, Balastor’s Barracks, the Devil’s Playground, and Ogre Island. Adventure once more in the greatest roleplaying city ever written. Journey along on the epic Cradle scenario! The hardcover has a color dust jacket.

Gloranthan Classics Volume II – Griffin Mountain (2001)
is 256 pages (plus 12 pages of player handouts on the citadels, inns, and the like) of the legendary land of Balazar, plus the dangerous Elder Wilds to the north. Some of the new stuff we’ve added include magazine articles about Balazaring clans written by Rudy and Paul, a large section on running Gloranthan campaigns by Greg Stafford, over 30 new pieces of art, and several pages of designer’s notes. We even added in a few of the new bits that were in Griffin Island, like Granny Keeneye and the maps of the major Inns in the three Citadels.

Gloranthan Classics Volume III – Cult Compendium  (2002)
is 352 pages which detail over 40 cults, including all of the cults found in Cults of Prax, Cults of Terror, and Trollpak, plus White Wolf and Different Worlds magazines. Associated background from Wyrms Footnotes and similar sources give you a complete breakdown on how rune magic, spirit magic, elementals, and runes operate. Also added are all of the designer’s notes, some never published before and a vastly improved index. The topics are vividly detailed with the addition of over 50 new pieces of art showing cult life (and death). 

Gloranthan Classics Volume IV – Borderlands & Beyond (2005)
is an updated and reformatted 300+ page reprint of ALL of the information from the original Borderlands boxed set, Plunder, and Runemasters, as written for the Runequest 2 rules. Also included 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.

Back in 2006 you could buy the full set of 4 softcovers for just $150… The Hardcovers were about $60 each. 

Colin Phillips and I did the first volume all by ourselves, with the great art additions by a number of volunteer artists. The last three volumes were just me working from home in my spare time, with the great art additions by a number of volunteer artists. We could not publish the RQ2 Rulebook at this time because Avalon Hill had the rights to it, along with the Trademark, and Chaosium had some of the copyright. Information about the RuneQuest Classics can easily be found on Chaosium.com. Each book is pretty much a straight reprint of the best version of the original, with extra bonus or cut material included as applicable. The only substantive difference between the Gloranthan and RuneQuest Classic lines are that the Gloranthan Classics have more art (drawn by volunteers) and that the Cult Compendium has some RQ3 cults in it that were originally in White Wolf and Different Worlds magazines. 

Are the Gloranthan Classics ever going to be printed again? Probably not, although I won’t go so far to say that it’s impossible. I still get asked by people about picking up Vol. 1 the most, especially in hardcover, of which we only did 300 in total. Alas, getting these reprinted is far far down our priorities list.

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