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Some notable first impressions of the new RUNEQUEST Slipcase set from TV writer/producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, RPG and video game writer Mark Morrison, Newt Newport of D101 games, and others...https://www.chaosium.com/blogunnatural-selections-22-impressions-of-the-new-runequest-slipcase-set "Final first impression 10/10. Will play. Great presentation, tons of content, a wonderful relaunch of a terrific game."—TV writer/producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. "RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha subverts many of the tropes of both the fantasy and RPG genres. It makes you care about the world on a profoundly personal level. It makes you invest in your character's story so heavily that you don't want to risk their death. It evokes a sense of vulnerability that is reminiscent of Game of Thrones… It's absolutely one of the games you need to try."—Brian Holland, Good Games. "The new edition is so beautiful. The Chaosium team have brought Glorantha to life in living colour, beyond everything. I can't get over the vibrancy of the world... It's the best possible time to get interested in RuneQuest."—RPG and video game writer Mark Morrison (interviewed in the Good Games article above). "Cheaper than its constituent parts, easier to assimilate, faster to run... this is the best-researched setting that fantasy roleplaying has ever seen, topped by a robust system that meshes integrally with the fluff."—Antonios S. review, RPGnet. "Newcomer friendly, with all the Glorantha you need being hard-baked into the rules. In my opinion it’s the best out of the box representation of Glorantha ever."—D101 Games, publishers of the fanzine Hearts in Glorantha.

We're excited to announce that Chaosium Con Down Under is going to take place a year from now (2-3 May, 2020) at the evocative and historic Glebe Town Hall in inner Sydney, Australia. With our friends at Aetherworks, we're planning a boutique yet captivating program that's going to be in parts mythic, epic, heroic and horrific, with Chaosium's favourite games on offer including Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, 7th Sea, HeroQuest, and more. More details at the link: https://www.chaosium.com/blogannouncing-chaosium-con-down-under-23-may-2020-in-sydney-australia

Fantasy Grounds is a popular system for playing a host of different roleplaying games online. It is used by more than 130,000 gamers worldwide to connect and play popular games including Call of Cthulhu, as well as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and more. Fantasy Grounds Unity is the name of the upcoming version of this virtual tabletop software, having been completely rebuilt from the ground up. It has just been launched on Kickstarter, funding in 38 minutes, and rocketing through the Stretch Goals. What you get for backing this project is a license for Fantasy Grounds Unity (or FGU). This new game engine has all the great features of current version of Fantasy Grounds (soon to be called Fantasy Grounds Classic) along with new enhanced features. Unity includes a Call of Cthulhu Essentials Pack, available as an add-on: Chaosium Call of Cthulhu Essentials Pack – $50 Includes: Call of Cthluhu 7E (Ruleset), Investigator's Handbook, Doors to Darkness, Alone against the Dark, The Haunting Note: If you're already a Fantasy Grounds user, you can upgrade on the Kickstarter at a special discount, and anything you already own on your account at fantasygrounds.com will continue to work with FGU. The Kickstarter is live now, and runs until May 30th: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/smiteworks/fantasy-grounds-unity

Seth is a wonderful advocate for Call of Cthulhu. He puts heart and soul into his videos, and everything he reviews he and his group have played through first.

Seth takes an entertaining look at the sci-fi setting "Cthulhu Icarus", part of CTHULHU THROUGH THE AGES. Although in space, no one can hear you (fail your Sanity Roll and) scream, Seth says he and his players had "a ton of fun" with this setting.

Though some certainly retire to a tower voluntarily, these are the same reasons why you might get sent to one in Sun County. The retirement towers are a means to put someone inconvenient out of the way without killing them, in which everyone involved saves face.

Yes. But until recently (at the Sun Dome Temple in Prax), ordinary punishments were expeditious: beatings, whippings or fines for minor crimes; mutilations or death (by various means) for serious offences. Traditionally, prisoners were only held in custody until their trial and whatever punishment followed. "As of 1621, the Count's mines [at Pent Ridge] have only been open for seven years. Sun Dome justice is still adapting to the need for laborers to be sent out there to work them. By tradition, established during Sun County's long period of isolation during the Solitude of Testing, punishments and penalties are usually exacted expeditiously: beatings, whippings or fines for minor crimes; mutilations or death (by various means) for serious offences. Traditionally, prisoners were only held in custody until their trial and whatever punishment followed. However, since the reopening of Pent Ridge, Count Solanthos has enthusiastically embraced the concept of penal servitude, and many of those who come before him can expect to serve a spell in the mines. This includes foreigners who fall foul of the law, even those rounded up to play antagonist roles in Sun Dome rituals (if they lose, and live). "Beg the Count to pluck out your eyes rather than send you to Pent Ridge." - Sun Domer adage The Sun Domers in Prax do not keep (human) slaves. Until the mines reopened, Sun Domers in Prax would normally quickly ransom Praxians, using their Yelmalio counterparts in the tribes as brokers. They don't take trolls prisoners at all; they are immediately and summarily killed.

In our RQG game last week we fortuitously managed to temporarily knock out a giant who was about to go on a rampage, after freeing him from Red Cow clan thralldom. As giants are naturally contrary, having him swear an Oath not to take vengeance on the Red Cow didn't work. So to get him tractable again and then as far away from the Red Cow lands as possible, we got him stupefied on Hazia. *BTW, my character, Narses the Chalana Arroy Healer freed and healed the giant. He also freely joined the Oath, in order to convince the giant to take part. If the giant ever does come back to wreak vengeance, both he and Narses will cop a POW 77 Sever Spirit. (Not the first Sever Spirit Narses has faced down...)

Sweet!—the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design has been in touch to let us know MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP is a 2019 Origins Award nominee (Best RPG Supplement). It's also eligible for the 'Fan Favorite' award. Congratulations to Mike Mason, Lynne Hardy, Paul Fricker, Scott Dorward, and everyone who worked on the new edition, and honouring the memory of the late Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis, the original creators of Masks.

Last year, on the release of the core rulebook of the new RUNEQUEST, we recorded a series of short videos talking about the game. Now the full slipcase set is out, we thought it was an opportune time for a reprise. Jason and Jeff are two of the key people in the RQG design team, and in this six part series they take you through: —1. What is RuneQuest?—2. What is Glorantha?—3. How the Game Works—4. Runes—5. Family History—6. Character Generation The full set of videos is available here: http://bit.ly/2PCGkBP

This is a wonderful article about what makes the RuneQuest RPG so special and unique. It features award-winning RPG writer Mark Morrison, who was first entranced by the game as a teenager, but says now is the best possible time to get interested in RuneQuest. Read and find out why... https://www.goodgames.com.au/au/news/406-runequest-launch.html Good Games says "It's absolutely one of the games you need to try" and are as a good as their word, running RQ demos in their stores in the month of May (details here: http://bit.ly/2GRTlET)

When running the convention scenario Last Tango in Pavis long, long ago at Necronomicon in Sydney (1993) we had to make up an extra PC on the fly, and so made him a disgraced 79 year old Light Priest busted back to the Sun Dome militia for farting in the temple, or some such. When Rich, the guy playing him asked me what Yelmalio magic does he have, I said "all of it" (incidentally, presaging how Rune magic is done in RQG). When he asked what Yelmalio geases his character had, I replied "all of them!" (and we read them all out!) This made for some very amusing roleplaying!

Though Yelmalio's justice burns pure and clear, fortunately for player characters "needlessly" is a great MGF get-out clause for that geas...😎

"TRIED AND TRUE - The Call of Cthulhu RPG has been in print from the same publisher since 1981. It is the horror RPG that all other horror games are judged by."—As recently seen in Powell's, the famous bookstore in Portland OR - said to be the biggest independent book store in the world (and definitely one of the coolest) http://bit.ly/2GP8vul.

We had lots of fun launching H.P. LOVECRAFT'S DAGON FOR BEGINNING READERS at our Call of Cthulhu Game Night tonight, with the creator R.J. Ivankovic on hand to sign copies*. Thanks to all the Cult of Chaos GMs who made the night a success and to Gamezilla for hosting! *we sold out at the venue, but the book is available from our website: https://www.chaosium.com/h-p-lovecrafts-dagon-for-beginning-readers-hardcover

Petersen's Abominations - Five Epic Tales of Modern Horror: https://www.chaosium.com/petersens-abominations-hardcover

The mighty Morokanth of Prax send greetings to their terrestrial counterparts for World Tapir Day today - wa-ha! http://www.tapirday.org #worldtapirday

We're going to be sharing more fiction, previews and articles of general interest on Chaosium.com. Starting off with RuneQuest Fiction by Greg Stafford, introduced by James Lowder. https://www.chaosium.com/blognear-the-end-of-the-world-runequest-fiction-by-greg-stafford

36,000 views in the past two weeks!

To celebrate the launch of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, our friends at Good Games in Australia are hosting game nights in May! Come along and play the new edition of RuneQuest, one of the world’s most influential and acclaimed fantasy roleplaying games. These events are open and ideal for both new RuneQuest players, and returning players alike! Everyone attending goes into a draw to win the RQG limited edition leatherette slipcase, featuring the RQG core rules, Gloranthan Bestiary and Gamemaster Screen Pack. Plus, at each participating store, everyone attending goes into the draw to win their choice of a copy of either RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha core rule book, or the RQ Glorantha Bestiary. The participating stores are: —New South Wales: Good Games Burwood, Good Games Newcastle. —Victoria: Good Games Melbourne (Lonsdale St). The Good Games Melbourne event is on May 6th at 6PM. Cost is FREE! ENnie Award-Winning RPG writer and famed Australian Game Master Mark Morrison will be hosting a table for this event! More details and sign-up for the Good Games Melbourne event at the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/271630487050647 Dates and details for the Good Games Burwood and Good Games Newcastle events will be announced shortly.

"The mythical roleplaying game from the co-creator of RuneQuest is a legend in its own right, and continues to define epic adventure decades after its release. Pendragon is a fantasy RPG like no other... it represents a master of roleplaying and worldbuilding at the height of his powers." Recognition of Greg Stafford's genius in this great review of KING ARTHUR PENDRAGON 5.2 in the latest issue of Tabletop Gaming Magazine (May 2019): http://bit.ly/2IVCmD2

Please also check out the post made by @Ellie Akers in the RuneQuest forum. A lot of what she said is applicable here too:

If you know someone Cthulhu-curious, World Fantasy Award-winning writer and editor Silvia Moreno-García gives a succinct (4:46) and excellent overview of H.P. Lovecraft's life and influence in fiction, popular culture and tabletop games in this TED-Ed presentation:

Here's five fab new Call of Cthulhu releases by community content creators in the Miskatonic Repository on DriveThruRPG: https://www.chaosium.com/blogmiskatonic-monday-five-new-call-of-cthulhu-titles-in-the-repository

"Cheaper than its constituent parts, easier to assimilate, faster to run... this is the best-researched setting that fantasy roleplaying has ever seen, topped by a robust system that meshes integrally with the fluff."—Antonios S. review of the RQ Slipcase Set, RPGnet. https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/18/18064.phtml