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Details About Your Mythos-Writing Masterclass For those three lucky backers who generously select the $850 pledge level, you’ll each receive your own exclusive one-hour Q&A with Belinda Cornish and Darren Ormandy—the creative minds behind both Bookshops of Arkham and Graveyards of Arkham. While the undeniable talent of our cast and Keeper is always on display, we wanted to take a moment to tell you a little bit more about the writers without whom neither Bookshops nor Graveyards would exist! Meet your Teachers! Darren is the Creative Writer at Weta Workshop, the studio that designed and created the buildings, props and costumes for The Lord of the Rings movies. He also makes indie horror films, and won the Best Short Film Award at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in 2014, and to ring the changes he spends the summers at Oxford University teaching literature. Darren has also worked as a prop maker, and made The Book of the Dead which featured The Mummy (1999) starring Brendan Fraser. Belinda is an award-winning actor, director, and playwright, with 25 years of professional experience in theater, film and television. She is also known for voicing a variety of characters in Bioware’s video game series Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Belinda is a passionate storyteller, with a yen for weaving deep lore and myth into everything she creates—she's a nice person who likes to make nasty things. Campaign concepts: Belinda and Darren can offer guidance on how to develop the spark of an idea into a detailed scenario. Folklore, myth, and history: Why to weave these elements into your scenarios, and how. Making sense of cosmic horror: The weird and baffling is always more terrifying when underpinned by twisted reason. The details make all the difference: Creating rich, memorable non-player characters. Writing collaboration: how to make it work! True (and safe!) torture: Personalizing games to your players. Belinda and Darren are also happy to talk you through how they developed Bookshops of Arkham and their other campaigns. Or perhaps you have an idea for a game or script and want to work with Darren and Belinda to develop it? Or maybe you want to create a great concept from scratch, working with the writers of Bookshops and Graveyards of Arkham! To take part in one of these strictly-limited sessions with Belinda and Darren, back Graveyards of Arkham at the $850 tier!

Two new books in our Cults of RuneQuest series releasing worldwide August 17th! The Lightbringers - USD$39.99 The Earth Goddesses - USD$37.99

Six more Call of Cthulhu sessions added to the slate for Gen Con Online! With the help of our wonderful Cult of Chaos GMs we're now offering 69 75 online TTRPG sessions over the four days, which you can take part in anywhere in the world! https://www.gencon.com/events?search=chaosium&c=online2023

Prepare to be whisked away to a historic fantasy of King Arthur's Britain with the Pendragon 6th Edition Starter Set on Roll20! What’s Inside? The Pendragon Starter Set contains everything a fledgling Gamemaster requires to run a band of freshly-knighted characters through several adventures in the historic fantasy of King Arthur’s Britain. The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone is a solo scenario that teaches you the basic rules as you play. The Fabled Realm outlines everything you need to know about the setting and core mechanics of the game. The Sword Campaign is a series of linked, beginner-friendly adventures that take the Player-knights through three in-game years of King Arthur’s reign! Lastly, the appendix sheets additional rules and setting details you’ll discover as you play through The Sword Campaign. Accessories, Tokens, & Knights! The Pendragon Starter Set module is bursting with content to help you transport your tabletop to the time of the Round Table. The set comes with 18 Battle Cards to aid the Gamemaster in generating encounters. The module also contains 8 pre-generated Player-knights, ready for adventure with full-color character art and backstory. All cards and tokens are fully integrated in the Roll20 virtual tabletop so you can draw them from your collection and flip between token borders to telegraph allegiances. Product Information Roll20 Enhancements: All maps, art, multi-sided tokens, and character sheets fully integrated and ready for the virtual tabletop. The Adventure of the Sword in the Stone SoloQuest (single player tutorial and adventure) The Sword Campaign (three part campaign for 2-5 Player Knights and Gamemaster) A comprehensive book of rules to support play. Decks of battle cards for encounters and opportunity in the fray. System: Pendragon 6th Edition Length: Campaign Installation: 1 Module $14.99 Pendragon Starter Set also available as boxed set from Chaosium.com and PDF from DriveThruRPG. Also see all our Call of Cthulhu Roll20 titles in the Roll20 Marketplace!

We are so excited that we have reached our stretch goal of $30,000 and the wondrous Becca Scott will be joining the Graveyards of Arkham cast as a guest NPC! Additionally, we've heard everyone’s feedback, and we’re happy to announce that the Old Arkham Cemetery Map—currently being exhumed by our friends at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society—is now available as an add-on.

A few rare Call of Cthulhu Keepers possess a unique quality: flawless off-the-cuff descriptions of otherworldly beings, a way to read the table and understand what makes the players tick and the type of game they enjoy the most, or the ability to take on the role of an NPC and truly become someone else before your eyes, in just a few words. They fill your imagination with such wonders that the table and chairs and dice all fade away, if only for a few hours. Mark Meer is one of those Keepers. Anyone who has watched just five minutes of Bookshops of Arkham can attest to his immersive skills. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham/posts/3869555

Mark Meer is the amazing Keeper for the ENNIES-nominated Bookshops of Arkham and our forthcoming new series, Graveyards of Arkham (on Kickstarter now!). And he's in the chair for the All-Star Call of Cthulhu one-shot we're running at Gen Con, 8pm August 3rd. Mark's players are Josephine McAdam and Noura Ibrahim (both also to star in Graveyards of Arkham), and Luis Carazo and Harli Kane.With such a talented line-up it's no wonder this event is close to being sold out. There's a handful of tickets left, so if you're coming to Gen Con pre-book yours now to avoid disappointment!https://www.gencon.com/events/221742

Gen Con is just one week away - and so is Gen Con Online! With our Cult of Chaos GMs we're running a host of online gaming sessions for Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, and Rivers of London, and you can take part anywhere in the world! The sessions are filling fast, but there are still slots available on each of the four days. Book your Gen Con Online spot now at the link! https://www.gencon.com/events?search=chaosium&c=online2023

Horror on the Orient Express The Board Game - Design Diary #1: Where our journey begins Call of Cthulhu's Horror on the Orient Express has long been revered as one of the most iconic and acclaimed horror campaigns in tabletop roleplaying — so we're very excited that a new board game adaption is coming! In this design diary series, co-designer Adam Kwapiński shares insights on the development of the new game, which is to be launched on Kickstarter in 2024, and released in early 2025. Hello, fellow Call of Cthulhu fans! Last week we announced Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game to great excitement. It quickly shot to #1 on Board Game Geek's 'Hotness List', and is still there today! My colleague Michał Gołąb Gołębiowski and I are excited to have the opportunity to adapt one of the most iconic TTRPG campaigns into a board game. Now, we know there are plenty of games with Cthulhu themes on the market - you might have some of them already on your shelf. So we invite you to join our journey during which we will tell you more about our game - but, before I unveil more about the game itself, let me tell you how everything started. About two years ago my friend Kuba Polkowski asked if I would be interested in designing a game for Chaosium. You should know this about Kuba: he’s a bit like an old Nokia phone, great at connecting people. Chaosium, one of the most established TTRPG publishers in the world, was looking to create a new board game directly related to their champion product Call of Cthulhu. Kuba recommended me as a designer and suggested that Horror on the Orient Express (HotOE) could be interesting source material for the game. Initially I was very excited about the idea, but also a bit skeptical (those who know me better know that this is my normal attitude – I always have some doubts). The source of my excitement was very obvious: I love TTRPGs, and Call of Cthulhu is one of my favourite systems ever (along with Deadlands, Warhammer, and Kult). Call of Cthulhu was also one of the first TTRPGs I ever played as a 10 or 11 year old. And of course, Horror on the Orient Express is an absolute legend of a campaign among TTRPG fans. So why was I skeptical? Because I wondered if I could create a game that would bring anything new to the world. You know, there are many Cthulhu-themed games, and lots of them are really good. And I, for better or for worse, have this urge, this compulsion: If I am to create something, it has to be unique, bringing something new to players' tables. Also, this game is not only about Cthulhu, it is also connected to an existing tabletop RPG. And as a player and game master, I know that it's really hard to bring this kind of experience into a board game. So I told Kuba and his Chaosium colleagues about my doubts and asked them to give me one year. If after that time I had a prototype I thought was worth publishing and they were happy with it, we could sign a contract and proceed. But, if after one year of thinking and working on the game there was nothing on my side that I was happy with, they'd need to look for another designer. I like to work this way because it's the game itself that is the most important component in the whole process. And before I create an initial prototype I can't promise I'll be able to create a really good game. A mediocre one? Sure. But who needs those. So that year I worked on many different games and while doing so looked for some inspirations for HotOE as a board game. I also played a lot of Call of Cthulhu sessions – Kuba even ran HotOE for me and several others who are now involved in this project. I read the campaign sourcebooks, and dug into a plethora of different Call of Cthulhu and Mythos materials, feeding my brain with many nutrients to help find ideas. All the while making a LOT of notes. Yet, when you sink into the research phase so deep, another threat arises: you can simply forget about the deadline. So the year passed and it was suddenly it was time to meet with Chaosium again! I had a lot of interesting notes and ideas with great potential. But what I didn't have was a prototype… So I resigned myself to meet with the Chaosium team to say sorry, I failed. But sometimes fate puts the right people on your path, and at the very right time. Less than a week before my meeting I learnt that a designer friend of mine had stopped working for a company to go freelance, as I had been doing for many years. This was Michał Gołąb Gołębiowski. We had met a couple years before and since then I always wanted to create a game with him because I felt we shared similar ways of thinking about game design. So I called Michał, gathered together my notes, and got on a train to meet him in Warsaw. I was going to invite him to a project in which we had less than a week to create a prototype... Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the game: https://mailchi.mp/805d007763f2/horror-on-the-orient-express-board-game

Overnight we received a message from one Klaus Mehler—Caretaker of the Old Arkham Graveyard. We thought we'd share it with you all. Read it here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham/posts/3867948

Last week we announced Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game is in development. It quickly shot up to first place on BoardGameGeek's 'Hotness' top trending games list – and is still #1! Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the game: https://mailchi.mp/805d007763f2/horror-on-the-orient-express-board-game

It's your last chance to vote in this year's ENNIES Awards — please support us! : BEST PODCAST Bookshops of Arkham BEST ELECTRONIC BOOK Host and Hostility: Three Regency Call of Cthulhu Scenarios BEST RULES and PRODUCT OF THE YEAR Rivers of London: the RPG Voting closes at on Sunday, July 23 at midnight ET. Vote here: https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023

We are excited to announce our first stretch goal for Graveyards of Arkham! At $30,000 the one-and-only Becca Scott will be joining the Graveyards of Arkham cast as a guest NPC! Back today and enjoy your Call of Cthulhu rewards: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

And if you'd like a printed copy of our new Arkham Map, that's available as an add-on in the Kickstarter at any backer level, with free worldwide postage.

From our wickedly inventive friends at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society: The Arkham Investigator's Wallet. Already two-time ENNIES Product of the Year winners for their amazing Call of Cthulhu gaming props, the HPLHS continue to raise the bar, taking a real vintage-style leather wallet and packing it full of more than 40 things that an investigator in 1920s Arkham might have on them. And to help crank up the fun, they include in an all-new Call of Cthulhu scenario written to feature the wallet and its contents! Open now for preorders at a special introductory price and scheduled to start shipping on August 7th (once it begins shipping, the price will have to go up!). P.S. Our friends the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society are also helping us by creating more props for our current Graveyards of Arkham Kickstarter. A reward for all backers $19 and above is a digital copy of our new Town of Arkham Street Map. It features wryly authentic advertisements of local Arkham businesses, created by our our wickedly inventive friends at the HPLHS. And if you'd like a printed copy of our new Arkham Map that the HPLHS contributed to, it's available as an add-on in the Graveyards of Arkham Kickstarter. The physical poster is 23.4" x 30.4" / 59.5 x 77.3cm and printed on semi-gloss paper. It comes shipped in a rolled tube - perfect for the tabletop! And the add-on price includes worldwide free postage! So nothing to pay later. The HPLHS are also helping us create the Old Arkham Graveyard Map and Plot Certificates. Specific backer levels allow you to reserve a graveyard plot of your own, pick out a headstone from our selection of master masonry, and write your epitaph. Please check out the Kickstarter here and help us make this new series! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

Call of Cthulhu's Horror on the Orient Express has long been revered as one of the most iconic and acclaimed horror campaigns in tabletop roleplaying — so we're very excited to announce a new board game adaption is coming!Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game brings the award-winning Call of Cthulhu horror and mystery TTRPG into the world of board gaming. Special rules, ongoing character development, and awesome play pieces all providing a challenging and exciting gaming experience.Designed by Adam Kwapiński (Nemesis, Frostpunk) and Michał Gołąb Gołębiowski (Destinies), Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game is a cooperative game in which you and other investigators have to survive on the doomed train. To win, you must discover and hunt out the cultists to stop them performing a hideous ritual, as well as make sure that the train reaches its destination. With all manner of dangers facing you, the challenge is to survive, stop the horrors of the Dreamlands, and prevent calamity.We'll be launching a Kickstarter for the game next year, with a planned release date in 2025. And at Gen Con this year we'll be demoing a prototype: come see the train on its journey at the Chaosium booth #509. Learn more about Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game Sign up to the Horror on the Orient Express: The Board Game Newsletter. Entry at Board Game Geek

And if you'd like a printed copy of our new Arkham Map, that's available as an add-on in the Kickstarter. Our Graveyards of Arkham actual play series is set in the legend-haunted city of Arkham. When the show debuts you'll be able to follow where the players are going on the map! And use it yourself for your own Call of Cthulhu investigations and explorations. The physical poster is 23.4" x 30.4" / 59.5 x 77.3cm and printed on semi-gloss paper. It comes shipped in a rolled tube - perfect for the tabletop! And the add-on price includes postage (worldwide!) - you won't be asked to pay anything more for shipping when the rewards are ready to be sent. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

Back Graveyards of Arkham on Kickstarter at any level $19 and above and receive an advance copy of our huge new Arkham Map! Matt Ryan's lovingly detailed 1922 Town of Arkham Street Plan map is a massive 7000 x 5400 pixels, great for exploring every part of the legend-haunted city. The map even includes wryly authentic advertisements for local Arkham businesses, created by our master prop-maker friends at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. All backers $19+ receive a digital copy. Backers at Professor Pledge ($129) get a physical copy included in their rewards, with free worldwide shipping. This 23.4" x 30.4" / 59.5 x 77.3cm poster is printed on semi-gloss paper and will be shipped in a rolled tube - perfect for the tabletop! Graveyards of Arkham is a new blockbuster Call of Cthulhu actual play series — back our Kickstarter here!: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

We have funded! Thank you to all our wonderful backers! There are still 21 days (and some exciting announcements) to come! Back here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

Live on Kickstarter! — Graveyards of Arkham is our blockbuster sequel to the 2023 ENNIES-nominated Bookshops of Arkham Call of Cthulhu actual play series. Graveyards of Arkham is going to continue to break new ground in actual play, with amazing set designs, stellar performances, walk-on NPCs, and of course horror storytelling that only the Call of Cthulhu tabletop roleplaying game can produce. As an anthology, viewers won't have to have watched Bookshops (though if you haven't you should - many, many viewers have told us it's the best actual play series they've ever seen!) But we're returning with several of the main cast including Mark Meer as Keeper, along with the same incredibly talented writing team. --Mark Meer-- And, for supporting us in this Kickstarter campaign, we've put together a whole lot of eldritch surprises as backer rewards! Town of Arkham Street Plan Map For a start, ALL backers at $19 and above will receive a digital copy of our brand new Arkham Map. This highly detailed, lovingly authentic 1922 Town of Arkham Street Plan map is a massive 7000 x 5400 pixels, so backers will easily be able to explore in and around the legend-haunted town on the dark and muttering banks of the Miskatonic River. Perfect for Call of Cthulhu campaign play, worldbuilding, or just firing your imagination as you wander around the city streets and landmarks. Higher backer levels also offer a physical copy of the map, with free worldwide postage. Many, many more eldritch delights for backers There are many, many more eldritch delights for backers, including a Graveyards of Arkham movie poster by renowned Finnish artist Ossi Hiekkala, Old Arkham Graveyard grave plots and certificates by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and fantastic bundles of Call of Cthulhu releases — please check out the Kickstarter here and help us make this new series: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chaosium/graveyards-of-arkham

ENNIES voting is now live, please vote for our Call of Cthulhu nominees! BEST PODCAST — Call of Cthulhu: Bookshops of Arkhamhttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=15 BEST ELECTRONIC BOOK — Host and Hostility: Three Regency Call of Cthulhu Scenarioshttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=7 And please vote for our other nominees too!

ENNIES voting is now live, please vote for our Call of Cthulhu nominees! BEST ELECTRONIC BOOK — Host and Hostility: Three Regency Call of Cthulhu Scenarioshttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=7 BEST PODCAST — Call of Cthulhu: Bookshops of Arkhamhttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=15 And please vote for our other nominees too!

ENNIES voting is now live! BEST RULES — Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Gamehttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=18PRODUCT OF THE YEAR — Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Gamehttps://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=23 And please vote for our other nominees too!

The ENNIES are one of the best known tabletop roleplaying game awards. The nominees are selected by a panel of industry experts and voted on by fans – and voting is now live! All the creative people who made these brilliant releases would love your vote in the following categories: BEST PODCAST — Call of Cthulhu: Bookshops of Arkham https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=15 BEST ELECTRONIC BOOK — Host and Hostility: Three Regency Call of Cthulhu Scenarios https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=7 BEST RULES — Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=18 PRODUCT OF THE YEAR — Rivers of London: The Roleplaying Game https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=23 FAN AWARD FOR BEST PUBLISHER: Chaosium Inc. https://vote.ennie-awards.com/vote/2023/ballot.php?category_id=22 Congratulations to our team members, creative partners, and to all the nominees and judge's spotlight awardees. All winners will be announced August 4th at 8PM EST at Gen Con. and also vote in this category for the How We Roll podcast and Seth Skorkowsky - two shows that love Call of Cthulhu! P.S. we're doing a follow-up series to Bookshops of Arkham: Sign up now to get notified about our Kickstarter at launch.

How do you celebrate milestones in true Pendragon style? Line editor David Larkins reflects and answers questions in an interview filmed on the release day of the new Pendragon Starter Set. Part of our Chaosium Interviews series with James Coquillat.