MOB

Interview #3, Lynne Hardy interviews Australian Call of Cthulhu writer (and Martian explorer) Marion Anderson: https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-3-chaosium-interviews-marion-anderson/

There is the strong prospect of some licensed MW material coming out (from more than one licensee) in the foreseeable future. We will likely time a promotion of our MW core books to coincide with such a release.

Fenris Games:

Moderator Hat: This thread is for reviews of RQG. Please start a new thread to further discuss the merits of RQ Fantasy Earth.

The reviews are coming in over at DTRPG. As the last poster says, "LOL some people" The pig in question:

RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA is available as a PDF download from DriveThruRPG. Where it is currently the #1 selling item site-wide! Available from DTRPG here: http://bit.ly/2JbMIzW

For now, no, because we still have over a thousand copies of the MW core books left in stock.

From my Top Seven Drugs of Glorantha (1993): Lunar Tea Found: The Lunar Empire Moon Rock has many magical and medicinal properties, and despite its rarity on the earth below, is used for a variety of arcane and therapeutic purposes by the Red Emperor and his high nobles. The lower orders too can share in this somewhat, with the consumption of Lunar Tea. Lunar Tea is normal tea, imported from Porthomeka in the Holy Country or grown domestically in Holay, Aggar and Tarsh, mixed with a fine grey grit the sellers claim is crushed moon rock. Various medicinal properties are claimed for drinking Lunar Tea, but it is mainly drunk as a mild relaxant. Most Lunar Tea is, of course, a crock - the grey powder is usually just crushed local stone with no therapeutic value whatsoever. Only in the richest Lunar households would a drinker be assured of getting the real thing. Prices reflect the authenticity of the product - ranging from 15L a bushel to 175L. (and if I recall correctly, Princess Anderida in Strangers in Prax uses moon rock medicinally - hers would be the genuine article though)

On the Importance of Art in RPGs David Larkins looks at the art in RQG (and other recent Glorantha releases, e.g. the Glorantha Sourcebook, 13th Age Glorantha).

Our position is unchanged. While Chaosium won’t be publishing anything further for Magic World ourselves, we will continue to sell the Magic World core rulebooks for the foreseeable future. We are happy to see Magic World material (supplements, sourcebooks and accessories) coming out as licensed/fan-produced product.

Unnatural Selections #6 - "the Pepsi of RPG franchises" Call of Cthulhu - the definitive horror RPG "Call of Cthulhu is now the Pepsi of RPG franchises, alongside D&D’s Coke, and the game’s success is part of the revival of Lovecraft and Lovecraftian fiction." —Paul StJohn Mackintosh, The Legacy of Lovecraft in greydogtales. "The stars are right for the best edition of the best role-playing game in the world." —Antonios S. Review, RPGNet. "…one of the most iconic tabletop roleplaying games of all time." —Catholicsay.com "With its 7th edition, Call of Cthulhu further solidifies its position as one of the greatest role-playing games ever made." —GeekNative Call of Cthulhu Quickstart "Call of Cthulhu is, for me, the best RPG ever created irrespective of genre. Yet I do recognise that its approach to heroism is not for everyone. Buying an enormous rulebook without being certain of whether one likes it or not might not be as prudent, so here's the answer. Eleven pages of rules, which can be clearly understood in under an hour…" — Antonios S. Review, RPGNet. "Call of Cthulhu is one of the greatest of its kind… the Quickstart Guide is a great introduction to the game." —Geeks A Gogo Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Free PDF "Every journey begins with a single step. The Mythos step is free of charge... If you had the chance of trying the best RPG ever made free of charge, wouldn't you?" — Antonios S. Review, RPGNet. Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Scenario "The Haunting" "There's a reason why [Sandy Petersen’s scenario ‘The Haunting’, included in the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart] has been in print constantly for nearly 30 years and has been a rite of passage for nearly every Keeper in that time"—Seth Skorkowsky (video review):

Unnatural Selections #5 - RuneQuest "one of the Great Games, a defining thing for our hobby..." Ron Edwards, influential game design theorist, Diana Jones award winner, co-founder of The Forge (and recent emigrant to Sweden) is currently running an on line RuneQuest Classic game, posting the videos of the sessions and writing up his thoughts. Three sessions in, Ron describes RuneQuest as: And here's what Ron has to say about the RuneQuest Classic release Cults of Terror (reissued version now available in PDF😞 The new Chaosium edition of RuneQuest is coming soon! Sign up here to learn more!

Unnatural Selections: Recent Chaosium Reviews of Note #4 Something a bit different today: reviews of reviewers, on YouTube! The fantasy news and reviews website Fantasy-Faction has recently posted an excellent overview of RPG and board game reviewers on YouTube. Three great channels that regularly—if not almost exclusively—talk about Chaosium games (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest) are highlighted: GAME GEEKS RPG Game Geeks RPG is hosted by Kurt Wiegel, "a scientist and a grandmaster of gaming... Call of Cthulhu also gets plenty of love on this channel, with tons of adventure reviews." SETH SKORKOWSKY Seth Skorkowsky's speciality is "examining adventures published for Call of Cthulhu and its relatives... In addition to all the adventure reviews/advice sessions, Seth is currently doing a series of videos about the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game in general... If you’re new to running Cthulhu Mythos games, you need to watch this channel. If you’re an experienced Cthulhu GM and just want some new ideas, you need to watch this channel." BUD'S RPG REVIEW Bud's RPG Review: "If RuneQuest is your jam then Bud is your man."

In our second Women in Tabletop Gaming Month interview, Lynne Hardy talks to 13th Age Glorantha and RuneQuest artist Michelle Lockamy: https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-2-chaosium-interviews-michelle-lockamy/

Indie RPG blog Festive Ninja isn't a fan of the way character generation is handled in RQG but in an otherwise highly positive review says "if you care about Glorantha you should buy it now—this is greatly improved edition which integrates Glorantha into the game in a way that we haven’t seen since RQ2... The artwork is astonishing, it is both well executed and it is clear that a massive effort was invested in providing art direction to capture the unique aesthetic of a myth infused bronze age setting." https://festive.ninja/2018/06/03/runequest-adventures-in-glorantha-first-impressions

Works-in-progress. Seen at the Chaosium booth at UK Games Expo: NB not the final covers

Five days left in the Encounter Roleplay competition to win a hardback copy of the new RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA Rules. Prize includes international shipping! Enter here: https://gleam.io/7Ex4O/runequest-hardback-pdf-giveaway

This is the first video in a new series from Chaosium, in which Creative Director Jeff Richard, and RuneQuest Line Editor Jason Durall explore RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, the all-new edition of one of the world’s most influential and acclaimed fantasy roleplaying games:

First interview is up: artist Linda M Jones https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-1-chaosium-interviews-linda-m-jones

Review of RQG by author, historian, and creator of Chaosium's CREDO, Chris Gidlow (originally posted in the RuneQuest Facebook Group): Getting Bronze Age on your ass! To say the new RPG Runequest: Role-playing in Glorantha is a delight is an understatement. The beautiful book, inspiring art and text and harmonious design whisk you into another world, a world I simply couldn't bear to be parted from, couldn't wait to adventure in. The overall feel is of an aspirational self help course, drawing lessons and inspiration from Jung and Ayurveda. In a good way. Although in a sense a very old-school fantasy role-playing game, at the same time the book is clearly aware of the 21st Century context in which it will be played, and is responsible and inspiring in its messaging As an old Runequest player, I found the game recognizably and reassuringly Runequest 2. Some particularly rousing pieces of art from the old game are retained. A small text box explains how the new game differs from the old, and a handy page at the end explains how you can easily convert resources from the old system to the new. This update of RQ2 is spliced with recognisable elements from Pendragon like background cultures, an extensive character family background creation system, passions, runic affinities in opposing pairs, renown and an annual cycle of book keeping and advancement. Think situations where your love of Sartar clashes with your affinity to the death Rune. Like Pendragon knights, default characters have prior experience (in RQ2 this was optional. RQG offers the option of a 16 year old ‘zero to hero’ start as in RQ2). Comparing RQG to the old system misses the point, though. As a new game for new players, RQG carves its niche as a firmly bronze age experience. You are in a world where you might ride around in a chariot and where the first thing you learn about potentially lethal combat is it probably starts and ends with a challenge between your champion and theirs. The bronze age atmosphere is all pervasive from equipment lists to illustrations of strike ranks using mycenaean weapons or a climber scaling walls that look like they might surround Troy. Pirates don't look like Captain Jack Sparrow, they look like the Sea Peoples from Egyptian temple walls. The History of the Lunar conquest of Dragon Pass features a series of bas reliefs which could have been quarried from the palace of King Sargon of Assyria. Even the list of jewellery reads like the catalogue from an archaeological museum. This is a bronze age, however as its inhabitants envisaged it to be: pervaded by spirits (the section on Shamanism alone could be the focus of an entire campaign) and dominated by the actions and desires of superhuman deities. Even sorcery, which in previous editions offended me as a quasi medieval intrusion from other fantasy RPGs, comes across as the sort of sinister amoral cabbalism you might find in Ptolemaic Egypt. It's illustration owes nothing to Gandalf or Merlyn. I can well imagine early hacks to these rules relocating the action to Homeric Greece, the Indus Valley or Biblical Canaan or other real world milieux. That is not to say, though, that the Glorantha setting is completely alien. FRPG players will find the image of a party of assorted player characters confronting a baddie monster in a cave reassuringly familiar. These pregenerated characters pop up throughout the book like the standard PCs in 3rd Edition D&D. A lot of the illustrations exude the Wild West feel which has always pervaded Runequest, helped by the fact that many characters wear the fully authentic bronze age wide brimmed hats while mounted on their nomadic steeds. Knitting it all together is the saga of Vasana, combining the progress and rules examples of Rurik the Restless with the evocative travels of Biturian Varosh in RQ2. Presented as a sort of Conan, known from fragmentary adventures in the Hero Wars, she begins as a paper player character produced mechanically by the actions of a roleplayer at a table, and emerges as a totally real hero, ready to take on that lizard monster on the front of the quick start rules. And that transformative experience ought, surely, to be the goal of any successful role-playing game.

Chaosium is contributing to Women in Tabletop Gaming Month. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting interviews with women creators who have worked with Chaosium in the past, continue to work with us now, and those who are just joining the Chaosium family. We’ve managed to gather together a fascinating group of women from all facets of the gaming industry (from writers and artists to publishers and graphic designers), all of whom have helped build Chaosium’s various gaming worlds over the years. Lynne Hardy, our assistant Call of Cthulhu line editor who compiled the interviews says, "I hope you’ll enjoy reading their stories as much as I have while editing them!" The list of the interviewees is in the link. More information about Women in Tabletop Gaming Month: http://womenintabletopgaming.com (Art credit: "Eaglebrown Warlock" by Michelle Lockamy, from The Glorantha Sourcebook.)

Another comprehensive review of the just-released RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha - Games vs Play says "one of the most stunning RPG books ever made". Full review here: http://gamesvsplay.com/exclusive-review-runequest-role-playing-in-glorantha/

Andrew Logan Montgomery says RQG is the “heroquest” version of RQ2; like Kallyr or Harrek it vanished for awhile and came back with new, mythic powers. Check out his comprehensive 7000 word review of the new edition! https://andrewloganmontgomery.blogspot.com/2018/05/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha.html

"RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a landmark, and was even before it was written... it marks the return of one of the most influential and storied games in our hobby back to the house that built it... No other RuneQuest—and this is coming from a guy from whom you’d have to pry his Cults of Prax or Cults of Terror from his cold, dead hands—does Glorantha as well as RQG."—Andrew Logan Montgomery, Exploring the Otherworlds of Fiction, Magic, and Gaming. Andrew Logan Montgomery has written a deeply insightful 7000 word review of the new RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA (helpfully split up into sections, e.g. "Game System, Combat, Magic, Glorantha etc). Whether you're an old time RuneQuester, or someone whose new to it all and curious, this review is well worth your time!

If you buy Masks of Nyarlathotep from a FLGS that participates in Bits and Mortar you will get the PDF included in the price. But you'll have to wait until the book goes into retail distribution.