MOB

Chaosium partners Éditions Sans-Détour, the French licensees for Call of Cthulhu, have recently launched a crowd-sourcing campaign to publish a French version of the classic supplement DREAMLANDS - Beyond the Wall of Sleep. It looks gorgeously wonderful and has already passed1000% funding in just a few days! You can check it out here: http://fr.ulule.com/contrees-du-reve

Just wondering if anyone has played (or read through) Greg Stafford's RQ Classic scenario The Sea Cave yet and what do you think - has it stood the test of time? (BTW, a short while ago Rick added four more pages to the file, which now includes Greg's pre-Griffin Mountain version of the Cacodemon Cult. These extra pages are in the print version that is in production now, and are also in the downloadable file available to backers who bought the Old School RuneQuest Pack.)

Dustin's email problem is now sorted

What's to say Morocanth chariots used for racing have to have a Morocanth driver? Maybe they breed "jockey-sized" herdmen (or more likely, use herd-children)? Or if herdmen aren't bright enough, captured slaves.

I like that a lot! That could fit well with the runic affinity aspect of the new RQ. I seem to remember reading somewhere specific body organs connected to certain runes. If there is an organ associated with Darkness, maybe that is what Morokanths consume by preference is it is the easiest to eat and keep down.

Yes, Morocanth as full participants in the Survival Covenant use Waha's Peaceful Cut. When they kill one of their herd men, they bury a hand instead of the tail. As long as they can be assured it really is herd man meat, I don't think Praxian humans give much pause to eating "mock pork". It is foreigners in Prax who find the practice unnerving and distasteful (even more so when they learn what a lot of the sausages in New Pavis are made out of). But native Praxians don't see it as "cannibalism" because they know the Covenant means herd men are absolutely not human. BTW, that's what makes the Cannibal Cult so reprehensible - they have no such compunctions. Morocanth butchers have ways of dressing and butchering herd man meat to demonstrate it is all above board. What frightens and causes mistrust among other Praxians is that they know Morocanth can and do use Waha/Eiritha (can't remember which cult it belongs to) rune spell Alter Creature to turn human captives into herd men and thus meat. This is why there is such a horror about being taken as a slave by the Morocanth or being sold to them, even though the actual instances of using Alter Creature are probably few; Morocanth also have need for sentient slaves.

The Covenant of Waha centers around the men and animals of Prax choosing lots to see "who would eat and who would be eaten". Of the animals, only the Morocanth managed to win the right to be one of the ones who eat. That's when the cheating went on, and that's why I believe the otherwise herbivorous Morocanth are actually obliged to eat their herd animals (herd men). But because they somehow "cheated" in the contest, Morocanth really aren't physiologically suited to eating meat and certainly don't enjoy it. Other than the bison steaks they are served up by grinning human Praxians at intertribal gatherings, in normal circumstances they probably only consume the barest minimum of flesh (perhaps during Waha rituals commemorating the Covenant). So they are herbivores after all (as Greg says), just ritually obliged to eat the occasional morsel of meat to maintain their mythic standing in Prax. YGMV, but I don't think meat is seen as a "burden" by Praxians: consuming their animals (flesh, bone, skin and sinew) is intrinsic to their whole way of life. Would Praxians actually care that their cookfires are visible?: from a distance their herds would be too. Raiding parties or outlaws might eschew lighting a fire but there are ways to dry or preserve meat without fire.

I posted this comment when the topic of Herd Men came up on the Glorantha G+ page, and I think it is worthwhile to repost here: I encourage anyone who can to have a look at the scholarly article "An Analysis of some Human Bones from Cam's Well" in Tales of Reaching Moon #15. Although this piece presupposes Morokanth eat meat, it is a chilling explanation of what exactly a herd of "herdmen" actually entails. This is the concluding paragraph: "The picture provided by this data is noteworthy because it challenges the more romanticized image of herdmen as adults, often male, whose tousled hair cannot conceal their innate human dignity. In their place one should now see herds of 'children', frequently close-cropped, driven across the chaparral of Prax and the Wastes and fortunate to see their tenth year, for such is the terrible price of the survival covenant." BTW, I think Greg has got it completely wrong here: the Survival Covenant dictates that Morocanth can, do and in fact must eat meat. Even if they don't particularly like meat (I'm sure it disagrees horribly with their essentially herbivorous digestions), I think are obliged to as part of showing which side of Waha's Covenant they are on. We know the other Tribes think they cheated, so whenever there are inter-tribal gatherings, chiefs of the other Animal Nomad nations love serving up their morocanth guests great big carnivorous platters of meat and animal bits. The morocanth are obliged to gamely wolf it all down with feigned enthusiasm and gusto to prove they are "People" like the rest of the tribes, not "Herd Animals".

The second part of our Organized Play campaign A Time to Harvest is now ready and available for download by Cult of Chaos members. Join the Cult of Chaos now if you'd like to participate!

Check your email for a Chaosium message from Dustin with a download link to Installment Two of A Time to Harvest - we hope you and your players continue to enjoy Part Two!

Thanks for the heads-up, we'll follow this up...

Kim, welcome to BRP Central! You can get an idea of what's happening in the development of the new RuneQuest by checking out the design notes series posted at the Chaosium website. Gloranthan inhabitants have been knowingly painting the Runes they identify with on their armor, shields, bodies etc ever since the cover of RQ1, but your YGMV.

Send an email direct to rick@chaosium.com and he'll sort out the problem

Backerkit update: Wow, we are gratified and excited that so many people want to purchase (and play) Call of Cthulhu! However, the fantastic response has slowed down getting them all processed. Globally we are processing hundreds of orders per day, depending on the complexity and destination of the shipments. Here's where we are with shipping preorders: Pre-orders have already started shipping to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Due to extremely high levels of orders, European pre-orders will start shipping on Monday May 16th, and US and the rest of the world preorders will start shipping in the middle to end of next week. Due to the high US volume we have adjusted the delivery date for the latest and last of the current US pre-orders to June. Current preorders from Australia, UK and Canada should still arrive in May. We spent 150K of our money to print the core Kickstarter rewards (plus some extras for preorders and distribution), knowing we would have to then spend another 100K to ship them. Thanks to the phenomenal amount of pre-orders we are now able to fund and ship a second printing, which is underway. You could say we are blessed and cursed with running out of popular books and scrambling to get them reprinted! The second printing will be shipped from China to arrive at our fulfillment centers (USA, Canada, UK, Australia) by the end of June. Anyone who preorders after midday today (Friday May 13th EDT) will have to wait until the new shipments arrive to get their stuff, unless we still have what they want in stock from the first shipment. Preorder Call of Cthulhu here: https://call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Book discounts correspond to the PDFs already purchased

After sending all the backer shipments, the fantastic response we've had with pre-orders and distributor orders means that stocks of core items - the Investigator Handbook and Keeper Screen in particular - are now running low. However, to keep up with demand, we are already printing more of all 5 core items: Rulebook, Handbook, Screen Pack, Nameless Horrors, and Petersen Guide, and more slipcase sets. These will shipped from China to arrive at our fulfillment centers (USA, Canada, UK, Australia) by the end of June. We're closing off Backerkit orders soon (Friday 13th at 12 noon EDT). But we've decided to reopen up the Backerkit page again this weekend and continue with Call of Cthulhu preorders. The difference being anyone who preorders from then on will have to wait until the new shipments arrive to get their stuff (unless we still have what they want in stock from the first shipment). Thanks Call of Cthulhu fans for your enthusiastic support!

Yes, we'll announce when all deliveries are done. We'll then follow up on anything that has gone astray. If you're concerned about the status of your order, feel free to email customerservice@chaosium.com

Good news for Call of Cthulhu PDF purchasers! - people who bought Call of Cthulhu PDFs directly from Chaosium.com over the past year will soon have the opportunity to purchase the physical versions of those same books at a special discount price. This will be via Backerkit, and will be open for one week starting straight after the regular preorders are turned off at noon on Friday 13th. Note: in order to qualify for the purchase at the special discount price, you must specify the Chaosium order numbers for the PDFs you previously bought on Chaosium.com. This offer is not available for DriveThruRPG purchasers.

Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition preorders will close THIS FRIDAY 13th May, 12 noon US Eastern Daylight Time. Order while you can! A second printing is already underway and a new "Ships of Cthulhu" flotilla is assembling... https://call-of-cthulhu-7th-edition.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

Yep, "Institutionalised Play" would be very appropriate term for Call of Cthulhu, especially a long-running campaign! "Organized Play" is a familiar term, even if what we're doing in this first OP campaign for Chaosium doesn't necessarily have all the same elements as you would find in Pathfinder etc. Yes, that is a good description of what we're attempting here. These comments are all welcome, and we will factor in feedback as we develop Chaosium's OP program. I am not getting the sense anyone wants what we're going to offer to be as structured or competitive as some of the other OP, but there are some structural elements we might consider - e.g. making character generation a bit tighter, e.g. strongly recommending points build. At the moment, Cult of Chaos is really focussed on Keepers, but we do want broaden that to players as well Many thanks to all the Keepers participating in A Time to Harvest. We greatly value your feedback, and will take it all on board as we develop the OP program!

This was published on the Chaosium.com blog and Call of Cthulhu forum here last week, in case you missed it. The post has a sneak preview of one of the maps that will be featuring in Part Two:

Or email dustin@chaosium.com and he'll help you out!

Geek and Sundry says Call of Cthulhu is "unequivocally the greatest role-playing game ever written". High praise indeed! http://geekandsundry.com/the-best-rpg-of-all-time-is-call-of-cthulhu/

Hit Points though, are more like the way done in RQ2

The RQ3 approach is taken in all these cases! for SIZ and INT (2d6+6 added). Not using RQ2's "Defense" - it's Dodge.