MOB

With just 24 hours left and surging past $250K, here's a quick look at everything on offer in the Call of Cthulhu Metal Dice Kickstarter:

Correct - as noted above, the BGB is currently in print (softcover), although we are looking at a POD hardcover option.

Maybe Halcyon had insinuated himself into the good graces of a wealthy Lunar nobleman. Bringing all his charm to bear, he was intent on making a play for the hand of the nobleman's only daughter, heiress to the dukedom. But political enemies made the nobleman and his family scapegoats of a failed revolt. Halcyon quickly turned coat and perjured himself in denouncing them, hoping to save his skin. Although the uprising was real enough, the case against the Duke as a ringleader was weak at best. Rather than execution, his lands were confiscated and he was exiled in disgrace to distant Prax with his wife and daughter. Halcyon thought it prudent to make haste away somewhere too, as the Duke's remaining allies hated him for his treachery and the Duke's enemies despised him for it. Halcyon had accumulated a sizeable stash of loot toadying up to the Duke, but had spent a good deal of it in bribes to quickly securing the first diplomatic post he could find. This job with Imperial status gave him a level of protection against repercussions from the Duke's downfall, but he was crestfallen to learn of barbarous, pig-infested poverty-stricken backwater that the job would actually take him to. Maybe exile to Prax in the company of the lovely Lady Jezra would have been better after all?

The captured elves might have brought their own seeds with them to the Oasis. That, and some aldryami magic, is all they'd need to transform the place to their liking. All the nasty strangler vines and such described in the Garden section of Big Rubble could be choking and swarming in profusion there too.

That will be something we can consider when the current stocks are depleted (the hardback edition of the BGB is out of print, but the softcover version is still readily available from our US warehouse). Another option we are looking at is making the BGB (as is) available via POD, which means it can come out in hardback again.

Especially if they are just expecting to ride out to the Oasis (which they may remember from earlier visits as a lush, pleasant haven with well-tended gardens and pliant Oasis folk*), pick up the elves, and head back. The PCs may think any danger they'll face will come when travelling across the plains, rather than at the Oasis itself. Big shock as they draw close get there and see that the vegetation has gone wild... (*BTW, these are some shots of the Al Ain Oasis, which is in the heart of a town about 100 miles inland from where I lived in Abu Dhabi. People go there in the summer to escape the punishing humidity on the coast - it was once a week's journey across the sand dunes by camel, but now of course there's a six lane freeway. People have lived at the Oasis since the Bronze Age, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's got a really cool fort too.)

Wherever it is, given the Bison folk have not been able to stick around and keep things under control due to their exile in the Wastes, under the Aldryami influence the oasis could now be a wild profusion of abundant growth, full tangled thickets and impenetrable vegetation. Could be an interesting (read: strange, terrifying, confronting) situation for a group of Bison Riders, sent out there to retrieve some of the elves in exchange for the tails. Were there Oasis folk living at the Oasis before the elves were deposited there? What happened to them?

With 56 hours to go, there are R'lyeh bad Mythos puns going on in the comments section of the Call of Cthulhu Metal Dice Kickstarter right now. Though I liked this one: "Azatoth-gap measure, I'd also suggest pledging".

That makes their secret Elf oasis in Prax all the more valuable, and an amazing prize if one of their enemies ever found out about it!

There is another angle to this story. The Bison Riders have "freed" elves from the Lunars, sure. But obviously not so free that the Elves are then able return to their home forest on their own accord. I think the Bison Riders have the elves they liberated stashed away at some oasis deep in the Praxian hinterland. The elves might be free to leave, but know they can't - they'd shrivel and die trying to cross the trackless arid plains. So they're stuck there. Meanwhile, the Bison Riders put them to work tending the gardens, which haven't looked this lush and productive since the Green Age.

And posted on our social media channels. I hope it brings some extra readers to your blog!

Fortunately, we are not shutting the taps off! The 'Big Gold Book' is still in print, and Jason Durall (author of the BGB) is now on board at Chaosium as RuneQuest and BRP line editor. BTW, if you put up a link to your blog we will happily share it as would be of wider interest.

With 3 days to go, the Call of Cthulhu Metal Dice Kickstarter campaign is fast closing on $200K. This unlocks the Bonus & Penalty Dice add-on.

A new RuneQuest Design Note from Jeff: http://www.chaosium.com/blog/designing-the-new-runequest-part-15 Icv2.com has noted we're "pulling in a lot of star power for the new edition". Indeed we are: members of the RQG design team include Steve Perrin (RuneQuest), Sandy Petersen (CoC, RQ), the 'rune czar' Ken Rolston (Elder Scrolls, RQ3), Chris Klug (DragonQuest), Jason Durall (BRP, Conan) and the 'grand shaman of gaming' himself, Greg Stafford.

Ah - The Reaching Moon Megacorp 11 Point Plan for Productivity and Prosperity. Tales #5, 1991.

We recently shared a sample layout page to backers of our other Glorantha project in the works - 13th Age in Glorantha. This project is currently in the final stages of art commissioning/early stages of layout. It's going to be a very nice looking book:

That is certainly what we are trying to foster here for everyone in the Chaosium 'tribe' (and the extended d100 family) And we should give special recognition and thanks to the admin @Trifletraxor, who - except when he is traversing the steppes of Mongolia - runs the site and enables this all to happen!

A feature of RuneQuest, not a bug!

BGB is still available in print (softcover): http://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-softcover/

As Jeff wrote in a recent Design Notes, "Rune magic isn't automatic - you do need to roll against the Rune of the spell, but usually your cult Runes are your best Runes (and if they aren't - what are you doing?)."

Yep, that is an excellent idea. We'll be doing all sorts of stuff like that between now and the release date at the end of year. Right now, we're working on making sure the Quickstart is ready and in place for Free RPG Day (June 17). People who miss getting a copy on Free RPG Day will be able to download the Quickstart for free on July 1st.

Our friends Q Workshop are running 'RPG University' for beginning RPGers at Pyrkon convention in Poznań, Poland on the last weekend of April. The subject: Call of Cthulhu.

it's just that, for whatever reason (probably more through accident than design), no brand new scenario material set in Glorantha appeared in those eight years (1984 - 1992). As mentioned, we're not going to do anything like that: plenty of scenario material is planned from the go-get, from stand-alone one shot adventures through to campaigns.