So from time to time I get asked what currently published Gloranthan material do I recommend buying (and what do I not). Here’s my thoughts:
Must Buy: RQ Starter Set, RQ Core Rules, GM Pack, Bestiary, Glorantha Sourcebook. Very soon we will announce a few more books to add to this category.
Core Canon: These are the core, canonical books. Buy them if you are interested, but this is what the game and setting is built off. Guide to Glorantha, Weapons and Equipment, Red Book of Magic, The Smoking Ruin, Pegasus Plateau, King of Sartar, Trollpak (RQ2 version available), Pavis (RQ2 version available), Big Rubble (RQ2 version available), Griffin Mountain (RQ2 version available), Borderlands(RQ2 version available), and RQ2 itself. All of this is available via Chaosium.com or elsewhere.
Jonstown Compendium: There’s a LOT of gold there. I’d start with Andrew Logan Montgomery and Nick Brooke’s material, but that’s because I am most familiar with it. Diana Probst and Bear with Teeth, Jonathan Webb, and Brian Duguid have done great stuff as well. As have many others. As I said lots of gold.
Hey What About the Hero Wars books? Well they don’t count because they are all out of publication. In any case, I’d avoid picking up the Hero Wars supplements. The good parts of them are already in the above-mentioned books, and they went a very different direction on the setting, cults, and game play than RQ takes. Buy them if you are curious, but they don’t provide canonical details unavailable elsewhere.
What About RQ3? Again, RQ3 is out of print. But there are loads of great RQ3 books that we plan to update to RQG, such as Sun County, Dorastor, and also some great non-Glorantha books like Vikings and Lands of the Ninja. But they get mighty pricey.
I am not including zines like Tales of the Reaching Moon, Different Worlds, Wyrms Footprints, or Codex because they are REALLY out of print. But they are definitely worth having.