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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.

(moved from other thread) From trystero p. 267, second column, lines 2 and 4: The Vigor spirit-magic spell's cost is listed as 2 points (fixed cost), but its description says, "Each point of this spell…" as though it were a Variable spell. (It's also listed as a 2-point spell in the Spirit Magic Spells table on p. 257.) p. 349, second column, third paragraph: Is this sentence ("The gods are as bound…") meant to be a fourth entry in the preceding bulleted list? It looks as though it should be. From hkokko All of the maps are quite dark on the screen - place names are hard to fathom. Can we get them a bit lighter or get text more visible. Looking at the maps on 27" Mac screen... Hi, this new edition is excellent and the layout and illustrations beautiful. I thinks there's a mistake however on page 148 in the example of a damage to the head in excess of double a location hit point : I understand that the rule that no damage may be taken to a location in excess of double the hit point location only apply to limbs. It's - I think wrongly- applied to the head in the example (while the following paragraph confirm that head can take in excess of thrice in hit loc. the example read : Example: Harmast has 4 hit points in the head and a total of 10 hit points. He takes 10 points of damage in a single blow. His armor protection (1 point) is subtracted, meaning he has suffered 9 points of damage in the head. He can only take 8 points total to the head (double the hit points for his head hit location), so 1 point of the damage does not affect him. However, 8 points are enough to knock him out. Harmast is now unconscious, with 2 total hit points remaining and will lose 1 hit points each melee round until First Aid or healing magic is applied. The bold part is wrong ; it should read "He takes all 9 points of damage to the head". once again, bravo and thanks for this beautiful book which, I hope, will breath new life into RuneQuest. Laurent From Arthur Severanc The book is awesome! I've been reading through character creation and really like how backgrounds are generated. However, I have found a few minor errors. Pages 57-60 lack rules for determining the modifiers for melee weapon, missile weapon, natural weapon, and shield skills (or a cross-reference to where they are found). The rules for this are probably somewhere else. I just haven't found them yet. Page 63 doesn't say whether a player gets to pick the character's occupation (though I assume the player does). The family history section of the Adventurer Background Worksheet contains a line for the year 1617, but there are no rules for determining whether anything happened in 1617. Hkokko is right, the maps are very, very difficult to read.

With the release of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha on PDF, this thread is to catch any typos or errors spotted. Please note them here, quoting the page number, the error, and the suggested correction. Many thanks.

There is a link to a 16 page excerpt from the Bestiary on the RuneQuest product page that might help tide you over...

The wait is over! Order RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha PDF at Chaosium.com REMEMBER: on purchasing the PDF from Chaosium.com you will receive a coupon for the full cost of the PDF off the price of the hardback version when it is released later this year. https://www.chaosium.com/runequest-roleplaying-in-glorantha-pdf/

"Never wear armour protection on your head" is one of the more nasty geases Humakti (or Yelmalio) blesses his followers with.

We've sent out our latest RQG Preview, featuring preliminary sketches of Andrey Fetisov's wonderful piece of the adventurers in Snakepipe Hollow. Plus the finished work. We've also reminded everyone that RuneQuest goes on sale tomorrow (June 1st)! The preview list is here, if you'd like to join it: http://eepurl.com/dtqE9T

As I did the art direction for both the RQ Quickstart cover and RQG (the original version that appears in 13th Age Glorantha; Jeff worked with Andrey on making it worthy of the RQG cover by adding in the pregens etc), I'll take that as a compliment. We paid homage to RQ2 with the Quickstart, with the iconic woman warrior fighting the burrito monster lizard, which meant we could move on to something new and striking for the RQG rules themselves. Though as Simon says, it does still have the homage within it...

MASKS OF NYARLATHOTEP is coming soon, and we have just sent out our first preview to everyone on the special pre-release list. If you'd like to join that list and get the inside scoop on what is widely described as one of "the greatest RPG campaigns of all time", sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dwlxJ9 Featured art: "The Black Pharaoh" by Loic Muzy.

Here's where you can watch the video of RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA actual play, which premiered on Twitch TV earlier today. And while you're there, enter the competition—the winner receives a hardback copy of the rules and PDF! https://www.twitch.tv/videos/266836490 Heroic work by Jeff too - the game kicked off at 2AM his time!

The Sun Domers were so spooked and terrified, despite the newtlings being their erstwhile allies, in fear they went slaughtered every living thing they could find at Five Eyes Temple.

Get ready for the premiere of RUNEQUEST: ROLEPLAYING IN GLORANTHA! Coming up today (May 28, 8pm EST) on Twitch TV. Gritty bronze age mythic RPG action with Encounter Roleplay and Chaosium. Watch here: https://www.twitch.tv/encounterroleplay

Chaosium is pleased to announce the Stars are Almost Right! The Masks of Nyarlathotep PDF will be released within the next few weeks, and if you sign up to our pre-release list you'll be the first people to know it's available. You'll be able to get the PDF immediately, so you can start playing what is "...widely considered one of the best RPG adventures ever made" (Gizmodo). And you will receive a coupon for the full cost of the PDF off the price of the print edition when it is released later this year. In the mean time, we are going share some exclusive previews, art and special surprises from the new Masks. Sign up to the list here: http://eepurl.com/dwlxJ9

You've deftly described all sorts of horrible goings-on across Prax, here's what happened in Sun County when the Great Winter hit (from The Great Winter & Time of Two Counts document): Horrors of the Windstop With the Windstop came other terrors. Fertility blessings failed as animals and children began to die in the womb, gravely endangering their mothers as well. Out of the Great Bog came swarms of locusts, both normal-sized and giant. With them came gangs of ravenous wild trollkin, some even riding the huge flying insects. They swept through the farmlands, stripping all the vegetation in their path. In their wake came a plague of famished traskars and cliff toads, driven from their usual lairs by hunger. Even more disturbingly, chaos horrors emerged from a great eruption of sinkholes that appeared around the abandoned village of Rabbit Hat, formerly a center of the illicit hazia trade. As the fields dried up, more such holes began to appear all across Sun County. Investigating parties sent in by Vega Goldbreath found themselves in a dangerous and confusing network of excavated tubes, suggesting a widespread subterranean infiltration of the land by Krarsht, the Devouring Mother. Meanwhile, on the river a strange sea-monster, its breath like a poisonous cold mist, wreaked havoc. To the Count’s vexation, the Great Ballista at Harpoon was useless, lacking arrows to slay it. Even Sor Eel’s soldiers couldn’t kill the monster and eventually it made its way upriver to the Rubble, where it is said to have disappeared into the Puzzle Canal. The leaders of Sun County were sorely pressed dealing with these calamities, but the real crisis lay in the dwindling supply of food. As even harsher measures were enacted against hoarding, people began to accuse their neighbours of being in league with Krarsht. Terrors at Sacred Time Worse was to come. During Sacred Time, the customary rituals to renew the world utterly failed. Perimides the Chaste, the aged high priest, collapsed at the High Altar, spilling the sacred libation. He was carried away, raving about a red-clad seductress. As the shocked celebrants went to symbolically awaken the high earth priestess, Penta Goldbreath, they found she could not be roused. Meanwhile, a creeping rot spread from the spilled libations to the sacrificial food offerings (and was later found to have spread to the granaries). Evil spirits began to assail the assembled worshippers, and in horror they realized some in the crowd were actually the undead of Nontraya, those who had already died of hunger. In the confusion, the sleeping Penta vanished; some said she was carried off in the jaws of a great horned wolf. (and it only gets worse for everyone from here...)

Updated statement about Punktown Kickstarter (May 26, 2018) Last year, we reported that the Chaosium license for Miskatonic River Press's much delayed Punktown Kickstarter would remain in place. Backers had recently received a PDF of the first 50% of the book, and Angus Abranson of Chronicle City was overseeing completion of the second half. We are pleased to update we have recently received the finished, laid-out book for final review (except for the "Thank You" list of backers' names which is being completed now). Angus has advised backers that printing and shipping is slated to start in mid-June. As this Kickstarter project was launched in November 2012 we are pleased that the end is finally in sight.

Over in another thread, I posted an excerpt from the Great Winter and Time of Two Counts document that indicates the people of the Praxian Sun Dome eventually largely forgot the cataclysmic events of the Dragonkill War, probably because over the intervening centuries they had many other Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome existential crisies to deal with closer to home, during The Solitude of Testing. In returning to the Unsulled Pure Light of Yelmalio after the Dragonkill, they even destroyed their old temple with its draconic associations. The damnatio memoriae was so effective, that by the time period covered in the RQ3 release Sun County, most people don't really remember what the Old Sun Dome is all about and thought the place was haunted. Their leaders did not encourage them to be curious about it, lest the Draconic heresy ever arise again. People also didn't remember that the "retirement towers" dotting the County were actually once part of a defense system, in case the Dragons came seeking retribution, and that the Harpoon now at the river was once stationed at the Sun Dome Temple for the same purpose. Described further in the excerpt.

There's this one, from the Chaosium Redbubble merch site:

In out latest RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha preview we've updated the RQG character sheet we shared earlier. Formatting problems and typos from the earlier preview have now been corrected. Many thanks for your feedback! Permission is granted copy or share the RQG Character Sheets for personal (non-commercial) use. Note: the RQG Character sheet is now split into four files: RQG Preview - Character Sheet Page 1 RQG Preview - Character Sheet Page 2 RQG Preview - Family Background Sheet RQG Preview - Adventurer Worksheet Available in the RQG Preview Folder (on Dropbox). If you want to join the list to get sneak peeks at RQG sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dtqE9T.

Reports of the death of the Big Gold Book are greatly exaggerated: Softcover: https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-softcover/ BRP Quickstart: https://www.chaosium.com/brp-quick-start-edition/ Free PDF: https://www.chaosium.com/content/FreePDFs/BRP/CHA2021 - Basic RolePlaying Quick-Start.pdf (BGB is not currently available in hardback) Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and most of our other RPG lines use BRP as the basis of their rules. Our view is once you’ve learned to play one of these, you've learned to play the others.

Updated statement about Horrors of War Kickstarter (May 21, 2018) Adam Scott Glancy has recently been in touch with Chaosium about his Horrors of War Kickstarter. As we previously updated (Aug 31, 2017), when we met last year he gave Gen Con 2018 as the date for completion, but has now informed us he will miss that deadline. However, he says he will offer backers a subsidiary product at that time. Chaosium has advised Mr Glancy his Call of Cthulhu license for Horrors of War will expire on December 31st, 2018. By that date it will have been more than four years since the Kickstarter funded (Sept 30, 2014). Permission to use our trademark, logos and all related intellectual property will be withdrawn if the Kickstarter is not fulfilled by that date. We have reiterated to Mr Glancy that he needs to keep backers informed through regular updates, even if no significant progress has been made.