I actually already have a copy of a version of this -- the 1988 Avalon Hill RuneQuest Cities version -- but I've always wanted a copy of the earlier, non-RQ, version as well, and here one was. This store doesn't normally deal in used merchandise so I have no idea what this was doing there -- if it had actually been sitting in their storage room for 20+ years or what (I'm pretty sure it hadn't been in the display bins all these years or I'd surely have noticed it before -- I've been going there on average once or twice a year for the last decade). Anyway, I bought it, and couldn't help reflecting how much better a deal I was getting than all of the $20-30+ rpg books they had for sale (heck, I'd bet there's as much useful content in this book as in the entirety of Monte Cook's Ptolus with its $120 pricetag!). The punk-kid clerk was nonplussed that the book didn't have a discernable product code (for inventory/re-ordering purposes, I suppose) and I was tempted to tell him that the book has been out-of-print longer than he's been alive, but demurred.
Content-wise the book is mostly identical to RQ Cities (3 sections -- massive encounter table, table-based system for "stocking" towns and cities, character catch-up system) but the rulesy bits (which are few and far-between) are in D&D-ish rather than RQ-ish (prices in GP, references to classes/levels, XP, etc.), the text isn't professionally typeset and looks like it was done on a home typewriter (which probably makes it bit harder to use but gives it a wonderfully old-school amateur labor-of-love Judges Guild-y feel), and the illustrations are much better (not technically, of course -- like the text, they're completely amateurish, but they're much more flavorful). Plus there are occasional references to the world of Midkemia and The Midkemia Game (which was, from what I gather, MP's own house-ruled version of D&D) that were, unsurprisingly, stripped out of the RQ version, and help enhance the old-school/70s cottage-industry vibe when everybody had "their own game" but all of the games were about 90% D&D.
If you don't have a copy of this book it's very much worth picking up for its content in any version -- the RQ version has been one of my absolute rpg essentials for many years -- but if you want to feel the full old-school-immersive experience, try to get a copy of the actual Midkemia Press version. But don't bother trying to pick it up at Brookhurst Hobbies, because I've got their copy
