Essential Glorantha books?

[Utgardloki]

Last weekend I was in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where there is a store that actually stocks Runequest books!

So here I am, standing in front of a row of books on Glorantha, and I don't know which one to buy.

What would be considered the essential books for running a game set in Glorantha, what what would the priority be on other books?

I currently have the following:

Cults of Glorantha
Glorantha: The Second Age
Magic of Glorantha
Player's Guide to Glorantha

What should be next?

 

[Loz]

Glorantha: The Second Age is the most important. Its a great intro to the world and sets the scene for the two main empires.

Then

Players Guide to Glorantha gives all the fine detail for creating characters, so is pretty essential (and a good read).

Then

Cults 1&2 and Magic of Glorantha are of equal importance. Cults are the bedrock of the society, and Magic details the draconic magic of the EWF.

Following on from these, Blood of Orlanth and Dara Happa Stirs are complete campaigns set in different parts of Glorantha. Blood of Orlanth allows any character culture to get into the action, whereas Dara Happa focuses on just one culture.

Hope this helps!

 

[The King]

You didn't mention the core book.

In addition to Loz, I'd add Monsters II which contains almost only Glorantha creatures.

There are also books on races (Elfs, Trolls and Dragonnewts) which should be considered essential for Glorantha.

Jrustela is also a major book for 2nd Age Glorantha.

 

[Rurik]

I currently have the following:

Cults of Glorantha
Glorantha: The Second Age
Magic of Glorantha
Player's Guide to Glorantha

What should be next?

It seems you have the basics covered. What to get next depends what you want. I would venture the following:

Blood of Orlanth - an campaign playable as an Orlanthi, God Learner, or EWF. Though it is a campaign it think shows best 'how Glorantha works'. It is so much easier (and fun) to learn through play than through reading piles of books.

Jrustela - my personal favorite of the Location books, though I put it here because it basically completes the rules for heroquesting started in Magic of Glorantha.

Clanking City - Has the Zistorite mech-magic in it - if you want to explore that aspect of the world this is a necessity. It covers a very narrow part of the world, while Jrustela is useful for the whole of the Middle Sea Empire (the God Learners) even if not playing on Jrustela. But if you think mecha-magic is cool, and want to get into some of the worst the god learners have to offer the world, this is for you.

Darra Happa Stirs - I just picked this up this very day on my lunch, but it seems to be very similiar to Blood of Orlanth in that it is a campaign that will give a good feel for it's subject matter through play. It does have a good chunk of pure background material as well as thew campaign. The Campaign is for 'higher level' characters.

I'd probably go for one of the above books first. The others are the Race Books, which of course are useful if you plan on featuring those races, but I recommend some of the above list first.

 

[Utgardloki]

Hmmm,

I wonder how much I could get out of the Clanking City book for defining my Iron Kingdoms and Atomic Kingdoms ideas -- both of which feature magic and technology.

How much of Clanking City do you think I could use in Iron Kingdoms?

 

[IndicusSativas]

I would tell you to buy the Cults 2 book if you don't have it/. This book details a lot of spells and rounds out the whole cult experience for almost any character. Arms and equipment is cool too if you want to diversify battles.