Having spoken to Charlie K at Continuum this weekend I can report
that the monographs follows a reply from Hasbro stating that they
have no claim on the system/body text. The Gloranthan stuff was
then removed and the monographs put up as a legal placemarker,
protecting right through use.
Charlie has since commissioned the writing of the Deluxe BRP core
book. This will cover everything from axes to muskets to lasers, will
include most of the variants as options (hit locations, strike ranks,
etc.) and will form the core BRP book upon which new settings and
games can be based.
I do not know how much like RuneQuest 3 this will be, I suspect it's
too early to say. It is however, exciting news.
Charlie said that the next step is to bring back RuneQuest, but that
will involve discussions with the current trademark holder and
previous authors.