MOB

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.

FROM 'THE GREAT WINTER AND THE TIME OF TWO COUNTS' The Dragonrise ...the Dragonrise was an epic event seen across the world, causing mass panic, fear, wonder and awe. From his vantage point in the temple library, Hector the Wise surmised that something significant was about to happen when he observed the stars moving in unexpected ways that fateful night in Earth season, 1625. But even he was not prepared for the incredible sight of an immense True Dragon, obviously many miles long, rising out of the distant mountains the following day. Unknown to everyone in Prax, in a catastrophic blow for the Lunar Empire the great Brown Dragon had just destroyed the new temple of the Reaching Moon, devouring most of the Lunar army and many of the Emperor’s most important priests and officials. Great rumbling shock waves attested to the dragon’s stupendous power. As one rippled its way across the plains it toppled one of the retirement towers next to the great Sun Dome. Although the damage to the temple was slight, the unfortunate hermit inside the tower (the suspected Lunar collaborator Laertes Coatilon) was killed, and wild stories began to spread that the Sun Dome Temple itself had been destroyed. Safeguarding the County As the panic rose, the countess put her forces on high alert. Fortunately, new arrows for the spear-throwing machine at Harpoon were to hand, having been made from the many tree trunks washed down in the Great Flood. Vega ordered it to be loaded and the targeteers to be vigilant. Few remembered that the Great Ballista’s original purpose was to protect against dragons. It had been built in great fear after the Dragonkill War, when the people of the Sun Dome tore down their old temple, purged themselves of any vestiges of EWF-inspired solar draconism and returned to the unsullied, pure light of Yelmalio. The weapon originally protected the new Sun Dome Temple, but when draconic retribution never came, it was later moved to the high bluffs above the river near the village that now bears its name. Vega realized that no one now had the means or expertise to move the harpoon back to the Sun Dome. But she was able to revive another old custom – along with the Great Ballista, a network of Dragonward towers had been built across the county in the aftermath of the Dragonkill War. Like the Arm of Pavis in the Rubble, these watchtowers once provided aerial defense and also served as heliograph stations. As fear of the dragons waned, and the prosperity of Sun County declined, the expense of maintaining the Dragonwardens weighed heavily. The network of towers was slowly dismantled, and their garrisons were reassigned. The mirrors were placed in the temple treasury, and the internal timbers reused elsewhere. Some towers were demolished. Most were left as shells. Retiring priests took to using them as hermitages, and with their original purpose almost forgotten they became known only as ‘retirement towers’. To assure the people, the countess announced she was reinstating the Dragonwardens. New great mirrors would be fitted to the towers, or at least those in a fit enough condition (little heed was given to the peace and solitude of any hermits within). Sadly, long ago the Count known as Orogurri the Bison loved drink more than ceremony and had melted down all the great mirrors in the treasury to make gold cups for his warriors. To replace them, Vega organized a great requisition drive to collect gold and other metal items from across the county, gathering a huge quantity from the panicked people. Revived Energies The great dragon continued to fly in great spirals around Dragon Pass, circling Kero Fin and obscuring the Red Moon. As it did so, strange draconic energies revived that had been quiet since the days of the Empire of the Wyrms Friends. In Prax, the Old Sun Dome temple again became a true place of power, and its once-cracked dome now glistened as if covered in scales. In the Pavis Rubble, the Yelmalio garrison at Angle Fort (loyalists for Vega) were alarmed to see activity at the usually deserted Dragonewt Temple close by. Swarms of dragonewts were converging there, many more than anyone had ever anticipated living in the vicinity. It looked like the dragonewts were repairing damaged plinths and pylons, and dragging great blocks to the site to build new ones. When the dream dragon Krang was seen flying up the valley towards Pavis, far from its usual haunts around Five Eyes temple, in horror Vega Goldbreath surmised they must be preparing a ritual to summon the True Dragon to Prax! She righteously resolved to stop them. This led to the first time the two rival counts and their forces came into direct and bloody conflict with each other, Templar against Templar. Ritual in the Rubble Now back from Sartar to recruit another nomad army, Argrath White Bull himself participated in the ceremony in the Rubble, along with several of his Companions including Rurik. Clad in strange garments and headware, they joined the dragonewts in dancing around the dream dragon Krang to weird atonal music. Ringing the platform were Count Belvani and his Templars, who answered Argrath’s call to come to Pavis to defend them while they completed the ritual. Belvani first saw off an attack by the trolls, who had long resented the temple’s presence ever since their dominance of the Rubble had been broken by the Dragonewts’ Dream. Vega Goldbreath struck as soon as the trolls were driven away. Whereas the Templars of the rival counts had only weeks before striven against each other on the Shield Push field, now the fight was in deadly earnest. The forces of the countess were eventually repulsed, but not before many fell on both sides, including Count Belvani’s dragonewt servant, The Gamon. Belvani himself survived a stupendous Sunspear spell, cast by Vega, that left him blackened and smoking and her so stunned she had to be carried off the field. Meanwhile, because most of Belvani’s forces were in Pavis, the countess arranged a simultaneous surprise raid on the Old Sun Dome by her Golden Guard. This also failed: the Gold Wyrm still there saw to that. Massacre at Five Eyes The ceremony at the Dragonewt Temple continued, though at least the True Dragon never came to Prax. After a week, people were relieved to see it slowly settle below the mountains again. But following the ceremony in the Rubble, the dream dragon Krang flew back down the river valley, and was noticeably different: definitely bigger, and somehow more vital, magically resonant and threatening. Smarting from her earlier failure, the countess resolved to destroy this menace, sending a force to Five Eyes Temple. They failed to locate the dream dragon, but slaughtered every living thing they could find there, including the harmless old Trachodon priest Ruupar. The Fall of the Old Sun Dome Belvani’s prestige and power might have been weakened by the loss of Daystar in Sartar, but Vega feared moving directly against him again while the Golden Wyrm remained at large. Her chance finally came in Storm season, when Hector the Wise devised an ingenious plan to lure the wyrm to Harpoon, using the new mirrors of the Dragonward towers. When it came within range the Great Ballista shot it from the sky. With the Gold Wyrm dead, the Countess now took swift and decisive action. In a second great clash between the rival claimants, Belvani and his Sun Dragon followers were driven out of the Old Sun Dome in Sea season, 1626. Throughout the next year, Vega followed this up with a widespread and bloody purge of the Sun Dome lands, seeking to eliminate any remaining draconic influences among the people. Rescued by nomad allies, Belvani retreated to Suntown in New Pavis, where he continues to plot his return to power.

Sage advice from the "Grand Shaman of Games" Greg Stafford, way back in 1978... https://www.chaosium.com/blogdont-forget-in-runequest-when-adventurers-are-slaughtered-or-run-screaming-the-monsters-get-experience-rolls-too

Exciting news - Encounter Roleplay will be streaming the Premiere Twitch Event of RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha—May 28th at 8pm EST! Featuring the roleplaying talents of @bluejay_712, @therealjimdavis, @JPruInc, @EncounterRP and Chaosium's own @richaje! Watch here: https://www.twitch.tv/encounterroleplay

A new RQG preview is going out! This features the official RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha character sheet. Plus exciting news from our friends Encounter Roleplay. Sign up here if you'd like to get the inside scoop on the new Chaosium edition of RuneQuest: http://eepurl.com/dtqE9T

Those on our RUNEQUEST special pre-release list just got sent their second preview post, with a whole chapter from the book! If you want to join the list to get sneak peeks at RQG sign up here: http://eepurl.com/dtqE9T

Free RPG Day is coming up in just over one month (Saturday, June 16). There are 500+ stores participating world-wide! Find the one nearest to you with the #FRPGDay retailer locator: http://www.freerpgday.com/retailers.htm?v=2018c Chaosium's offering is Scritch Scratch, by our assistant Call of Cthulhu line editor Lynne Hardy.

DOWN DARKER TRAILS was released on November 16, 2017, which was one day after the cut-off for the 2018 Awards. It will be up for consideration next year though.

Four new titles on the Miskatonic Repository: an adventure, an update, a sequel, and an all new genre for Call of Cthulhu: Anime Punk - A New Genre for Call of Cthulhu by Carl Matthews ($10.00, 32 page PDF)"Whether you like your anime with demons and supernatural elements or just straight up modern dystopia in your Cyberpunk games, it’s likely that Call of Cthulhu can help you hit that sweet spot." Hocus Pocus by Adam Gauntlet ($4.00, 22 page PDF)"pits the investigators against minions of an Outer God, and all of New York may be forfeit if they fail." (nb a sequel to The Man Downstairs, but players do not have to have played that scenario to enjoy this one.) The Scarecrow by Michael LaBossiere (pay what you want - suggested price $0.99, 14 page PDF)"...a time for mysterious murders and scarecrow legends" Down New England Town by Michael LaBossiere (pay what you want - suggested price $0.99, 7 page PDF)"Resembling a plot line from one of his classic horror movies, the body of director Roger Colwin has been stolen from a church in New England..." (nb complete rewrite and update of the 1992 original adventure)

We are delighted three Chaosium products are nominees in the 2018 Origins Awards! The Grand Grimoire (nominated for Best RPG Supplement) The Two-Headed Serpent (nominated for Best RPG Supplement) Call of Cthulhu The Coloring Book (nominated for Best Game Accessory) The Origins Awards are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design to reward excellence in game design. The 2018 Awards will be announced at the Origins Game Fair in Columbus OH on Saturday June 16, 2018. Congratulations & good luck to all the nominees!

The Stars are Almost Right.

We're still building the list, but next week we'll start sharing some of the early access stuff. A couple of new images to go with the recruiting posts, (you may have seen them elsewhere): "Hill Country" by Andrey Fetisov "The Vale of Flowers" by Andrey Fetisov

The RuneQuest RPG is "one of the Great Games, a defining thing for our hobby..." says influential game design theorist Ron Edwards in Unnatural Selections: Recent Chaosium Reviews of Note #5 #RuneQuest #RQ #Ronadept #CultsOfTerror #CultsOfPrax

Our Miskatonic University: the Restricted Collection Kickstarter has come to a successful end: 3697 backers, USD$106,994 raised (of a $25K goal), and 20/20 Stretch Goals achieved. All our backers have graduated Summa Cum Laude—with the highest praise! Now we must put our efforts into the next phase of this Kickstarter - delivering all of the rewards as quickly and efficiently as we can. In the most recent update, we've outlined to our backers what those steps are. We will stay in regular communication with our backers. We delivered our previous board game Kickstarter on time and intend to do the same here. The Chaosium team would like to thank our backers for their support over the past 21 days. We're delighted to be back making Lovecraftian board games again!

Back our MU Kickstarter—even as a $1 "Student"— and get a 10% discount next time you visit Chaosium.com (on all product lines including RuneQuest). Or 15% if we make 4000 backers! But hurry, ends in FIVE HOURS... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/448333182/miskatonic-university-the-restricted-collection-bo

We made to 100K, if we make to 4000 backers we'll up the "Field Trip" discount to 15% We passed $100K earlier today, so all 20 Stretch Goals have been achieved - top marks! With just over five hours remaining, can we get to 4000 backers? If we do, we'll make the Field Trip Reward treat even better: instead of 10%, it will be a 15% discount for all backers on your next visit to Chaosium.com! Tell your friends it's still not too late to enrol at MU and graduate with honors - but they have to hurry: the Kickstarter ends at 2.05PM Eastern US time TODAY! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/448333182/miskatonic-university-the-restricted-collection-bo/posts/2181975