This is a supplemental review to my piece on the Avalon Hill, RuneQuest III Deluxe Edition (US). It covers in brief the Hardback editions of RuneQuest III in the UK and supplements. Sometimes, these hardcovers turn up on ebay or some place, but some people are not aware of the NEARLY identical nature of their content to the Avalon Hill versions in the US. BEWARE. Another downside to these harbacks is that their bindings do not hold up well, though I have a copy of RuneQuest Monsters and it’s doing ok with very tender care. Of course, if I had been better informed (by information I found elsewhere online) as to the near identical nature of this book to its US counterpart, I would not have bothered. "Monsters" sure has some nice art though. More below.

While Avalon Hill released its early boxed sets of rules and some supplements in the US, Games Workshop in the UK had a different packaging approach. Instead of box sets, they published hardcover books with far better layout and artwork for less money. By doing so, sales were higher in the UK, and England became a new bastion for RuneQuest. Yet, a combination of factors resulted in the UK renaissance grinding to an early halt shortly into RQ3's debut. Games Workshop ended up pulling out of roleplaying for the most part and their hardcovers were sold off for cheap.

As for the rules in the UK hardback editions, they are SPLIT into two hardbacks instead of the cheap US pamphlet books. First is RuneQuest - Fantasy Roleplaying Adventure, 95 pgs, Perrin, GS, Willis, Petersen, James, Hendersen, 1987. From what I have been able to tell by searching online, this book gives a taste for the rules but not enough to do much with. It contains most of the Players and Creatures books from the Deluxe edition and about a thirds or so of the Magic book. Many tables that are of use are also absent.

Next is the other half of the rules that makes everything work well, which is Advanced RuneQuest, 159 pgs, Perrin, GS, Willis, Petersen, James, Hendersen, 1987. In here is the rest of the Deluxe set, the GM’s book, rest of the magic system, etc. The book that’s missing however is the Glorantha world book (book 5).

Then there is: Monsters, 112 pgs, Perrin, GS, Willis, Petersen, James, Hendersen, 1987. This monster manual is nearly identical to the Creatures Book (book 4) in RuneQuest III. The Human section is expanded somewhat and includes several NPC’s, including a trade caravan, some temple residents, some raiders, etc. There is also some additional stats for various monster NPC’s, and artwork by David Gallagher that ranges from fair to spectacular. But if you already own a US version of RuneQuest III, there is not much new here. It’s certainly nice and some of the artwork may be especially inspiring for some, but unless you’re a collector or are interested in those extra NPC stats and ideas, its not that much of an addition to what is already in the US versions.

Lastly there are two other hardback reprints of Avalon Hill products that I am aware of. Land of Ninja, 144 pgs, Bob Charette and Sandy Petersen, 1987, and Griffin Island, 144 pgs, Rudy Kraft, Paul Jaquays, GS, Petersen, 1987. As far as I can tell both are hardly distinguishable from the US versions. As far as I can tell from things I have read online, Land of Ninja hardly has any Ninja mentioned inside, and Griffin Island is basically the same as the US versopn with the addition of some redrawn maps, supplement NPC material, and some minor extra information.