MOB

So it's been a *wild* past few days over at DriveThruRPG, with all three of our TTRPG titles shown here rocketing to the top sales tier Adamantine. At 11.59pm PT on Thursday 19th January we're reverting back to normal prices — please tell your friends so they don't miss out! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2/Chaosium

We are pleased to announce that Chaosium community ambassador Bridgett Jeffries is stepping up to a new full-time role at the company as coordinator of events and outreach. Bridgett's main focus will include convention-related events (particularly those in North America, including the forthcoming Chaosium Con), the Cult of Chaos gamemaster program, and continuing to support our community content programs for independent creators at DriveThruRPG. Bridgett at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia PA, last December On taking on her new role, Bridgett said: "Chaosium made me feel welcome. Engaging with the community has been my favourite aspect of being a community ambassador: Empowering creators to publish. Directing them the support that they needed. Chaosium is now empowering me to continue in that same spirit; the community that I'll now serve just grew a bit larger and deeper." Bridgett (center) at the community creators meet-up at PAX AUS (Melbourne, Australia) last October As part of our Chaosium Interviews series, Bridgett talks to James Coquillat about her professional pathway into the TTRPG industry and shares what she learnt on the way:

Is what the Ebay.co.uk scammer told me when I messaged asking if they'd mislabelled the Jonstown Compendium release they were touting for top dollar. It was advertised as a "perfect bound softcover", but I know for certain that book has only ever been released in hardback (printed by OneBookShelf). You'd think it would be obvious – even if you legitimately bought the PDF, knocking off a copy at your local print shop to then sell is totally not cool. It just means bogus, poorer quality copies go into circulation and the honest buyers buying a fake - are hoodwinked; look at the lower production standard and think worse of the genuine publisher (especially when the perfect binding inevitably falls apart); and, have unwittingly dudded the original creator. DriveThruRPG POD titles are printed and shipped from the UK so there's not even that excuse about the cost of postage. Reported to Ebay, for all that will probably achieve.

What are some of the most effective TTRPG safety tools? Art Hunter, of the Stream of Chaos, talks about some of the best tools out there, and how to apply them in both convention and home games. Art is talking to James Coquillat. Get your copy of the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Tips book. And here's the TTRPG consent checklist mentioned in the video.

Last Friday was of course Friday 13th, so the following day the timing was perfect for Miskatonic Repository creator Rina Haenze: "Pleased to announce that my award-winning debut scenario, the slasher flick homage Saturday the 14th, is now available for Print on Demand, in the same week as an actual Saturday the 14th occurs. Coincidence? I think not! Come investigate the aftermath of a slasher's attack on Camp Shady Pines, if you dare..." Here are the newest releases in the Miskatonic Repository; an eclectic collection of independent Call of Cthulhu titles to kick off 2023! My Uncle's Trunk - A Stolen Inheritance Keith Applegarth ($5.99, 79 page PDF) As William St. James' sole surviving heir, you have received an inheritance from your favorite Uncle: an old travel trunk full of memorabilia and a huge portrait of your uncle. Oh, and did I forget the trust? Can you get your stolen inheritance back? Do Chatbots Dream of Eldritch Beasts? Bum Lee ($2.99, 22 page PDF) What happens when an algorithm is trained on data corrupted by cosmic evil? ALChat is a real-time data-mining generative AI with a malign intelligence. Just as a diffusion model destroys data to create images, ALChat murders the living to create new synthetic life. In this modern Call of Cthulhu scenario, the investigators must solve the mystery by navigating a rapidly shifting metaverse, investigating and weathering online flame wars, and delving through the shadows of the deep web. They will face AI-generated horrors and avatars of the dead brought back to life. Will they find the answers that they seek before their world is forever altered by machines learning from the Mythos? Archives of Terror - horror and paranoia in 1990 Romania Christopher Dimitrios ($4.50, 21 page PDF) An exiled Romanian occultist returns home after the 1989 Revolution to untangle her complicated past, and possibly make things right. The Investigators join her into the legendary archives of the Communist Secret Police and search for secrets that might better be left undisturbed. They each harbor dark secrets, and they each hope for redemption of their sins. But in the shadows, an ancient power from the dawn of humanity waits, watches... The Devil and the Drum Craig Pay ($7.99, 40 page PDF) Set in August 1946, in the southern English county of Devon, the investigators are National Trust volunteers asked to survey an old ruined abbey. Events unfold amidst an unnatural storm wreaking havoc across England. Curio - A 2-Page 1920s Adventure Adam Preset ($2.50, 2 page PDF) The funeral takes place on a rainy summer afternoon in June 1925. You pay respects to Minerva Fortescue, obscure occultist and long-retired emerita of your secret society. She was privy to many mysteries, their nature passing with her as she left this life. But your Order asks you to take on an onerous and unenviable assignment: to sift through inventory from her long-shuttered antique shop. What trinkets and treasures and terrors will you find, and in whose hands are they best kept? Maps for Curio - A 1920s Adventure Adam Preset ($2.00, 6 JPGS) Set of six maps suitable for virtual tabletop or printing. They cover one location, an antique shop used in Curio - A 2-Page 1920s Adventure. Gamemasters, use these maps for your adventure if you need a multi-level antique shop with many mysteries to discover! Gaslight Gurglings Laurence Tilley ($1.23, 30 page PDF) A Mad Miscellany of facts and tips for running Call of Cthulhu 7th edition in an 1890's Cthulhu by Gaslight British setting. Cthulhu Maps - Tatters of the King - Book 2 & 3 - Pack 2 Lovemaps ($24.90, 30 maps) Maps pack for the Tatters of the King campaign, books 2 and 3. Part of series: Prologue, Pack 1 (Book 1). Also available in a Tatters of the King Bundle of 60 maps. Bouts of Madness Deck Aaron Sinner, Todd Walden (5.07, 55 cards PDF/$11.95, 55 cards) A physical deck of 54 cards offering expanded bouts of madness for play with the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Also available as PDF print-and-play version of the deck. Includes a full color and a black-and-white, low ink file for home printing. Also new titles in Chinese, French, and Korean! Under the Miskatonic Repository community content license, Call of Cthulhu fans can sell and share their own independently-created material on DriveThruRPG. If that appeals, check out the Miskatonic Repository Guidelines and free creator resources and start creating!

Apropos of nothing, here's a parable from legendary game designer Greg Stafford: Back in 1966, Greg first started creating Glorantha, future setting of the RuneQuest TTRPG. He began by describing the west coast of the northern continent. Wizards lived there, on the coast... Greg describes how these wizards built up a great empire and, using ruthless means, tried to consolidate all of the stories and myths of the world into a great unified whole under their control. (Yes, you could say these wizards "Gathered together all the Magic".) This hubristic scheme failed – the great empire of the God Learners managed to make so many enemies and have such internal contradictions that eventually what they so painstakingly built was torn apart in a terrible catastrophe that ended the age. Islands sank, the land was shattered. But from the ashes arose vibrant new kingdoms, who made their own way in the world without reference to the past. The once glittering empire of the wizards was shunned and forgotten, their very name cursed. Now, all of this Greg Stafford dreamed up in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when tabletop gaming was in its infancy. (Folks, this stuff predates TSR, let alone WotC.) Greg went on to found Chaosium in 1975 to publish his board game White Bear & Red Moon, and then the TTRPG RuneQuest (1978). Both games are set in his world of Glorantha, whose genesis began with Greg's tale of the rise and fall of the wizards living on the northern coast. When Greg passed away in 2018, John Wick in his tribute reminded everyone of the 'Stafford Rule': “The older I get, the more I hear young RPG designers say ‘Never been done before!’ And then I just point to stuff Greg Stafford wrote about a few decades ago.” Admittedly, the Stafford Rule is more about revolutionary game mechanics than linking happenings in a fictional setting to real world drama. But this insight did make @Jeffand the rest of the RuneQuest dev team chuckle. We think Greg would have smiled cheekily too.

Last Saturday, January 7th, Australian Call of Cthulhu writer Kelly Grant passed away from cancer at the age of 58. Today, in Kelly's honour, we're releasing her work 'Women of the French Revolution'. This is a free 11 page resource to use with our Call of Cthulhu historical supplement Reign of Terror. Recognising that the original Reign of Terror did not offer many opportunities for female investigators, Kelly helped rectify that by writing 'Women of the French Revolution' for Love Eterne, the forthcoming second volume for our Call of Cthulhu French Revolution setting. Kelly also wrote a new scenario for Love Eterne, 'The Poisoned Garden'. You can read more about these and the other Call of Cthulhu projects Kelly worked on for Chaosium in our tribute, posted earlier this week. Reign of Terror project lead Mark Morrison said, "It was such a pleasure to work with my clever, brilliant friend Kelly on new material for Reign of Terror. Her article on Women of the French Revolution gave me so many new insights into the period, as indeed happened on any subject every time I spoke with her. If Louis XVI’s Versailles had existed in her time, I’m sure she would have marched on it.” Multi-talented, passionate, cerebral and caring, Kelly still had much to offer creatively, and we will miss her terribly. Our heartfelt condolences go to Kelly’s husband Martin and their girls Adele and Grace, and their family and friends. Download Kelly Grant's Women of the French Revolution: A resource to use with Call of Cthulhu's Reign of Terror Setting. Reign of Terror is available direct from Chaosium in full colour hardback (price includes PDF), and PDF. Also available in retail distribution, and DriveThruRPG and Roll20. Many thanks to Mike Mason, Nick Nacario, Susan O'Brien, and Mark Morrison for their assistance in putting together this tribute to Kelly so quickly. The Call of Cthulhu projects Kelly worked on for Chaosium will leave a legacy of creativity and inspiration.

Details here:

Details here:

Want to try a new TTRPG in 2023? Or get your friends into playing Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest? — Call of Cthulhu Starter Set – $0.99 — RuneQuest Starter Set – $0.99 Both games are based on the world-renowned Basic Roleplaying System (BRP), which uses a roll-low D100 core mechanic that is simple to learn and teach (also currently available at DriveThruRPG for $0.99!). These offers all end January 19th.

More apropos of nothing... Call of Cthulhu Starter Set – $0.99 RuneQuest Starter Set – $0.99 Both games are based on the world-renowned Basic Roleplaying System (BRP), which uses a roll-low D100 core mechanic that is simple to learn and teach (also currently available at DriveThruRPG for $0.99!).These offers all end January 19th.

Chaosium is pleased to be part of the Open RPG Creative License initiative, announced today by our friends at Paizo. In response to Wizards of the Coast’s new version of the Open Game License, Paizo will spearhead the development of a system-neutral open RPG license that can be freely used across the tabletop RPG industry. Chaosium, Green Ronin, Kobold Press, Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games are already on board, and other companies are expected to join. Chaosium issued its own (non-WotC) Open Game License for its Basic Roleplaying System in 2020, enabling designers to create their own roleplaying games using the Basic Roleplaying rules engine, royalty-free and without further permission from Chaosium. At the time, Chaosium raised concerns about serious deficiencies and legal uncertainties in the WoTC OGL, especially if it was being used for non-D20 games. "Although Chaosium has never used the WotC OGL we are very happy to be working with the rest of the industry to come up with a system-wide OGL that anyone can use." said Chaosium vice president Michael O'Brien.

After inadvertently insulting the president of the Avalon Hill Game Company, Rick Meints missed out on a picking up a small piece of RuneQuest history. In his latest 'Out of the Suitcase' post, he talks about how it took him nearly 29 years to finally get a copy for his collection. https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-37-a-recent-addition-to-my-collection-29-years-after-unknowingly-insulting-the-president-of-avalon-hill

Basic Roleplaying aka 'The Big Gold Book' has rocketed from Platinum to ADAMANTINE Best Seller in less than 24 hours! Wonder if that's some sort of DriveThruRPG record? ...might have something to do with our 400 page #TTRPG toolkit being only 99c (for a limited time – normally $21.95). If you're looking for a highly versatile RPG system that's intuitive and easy, and which you can apply to any setting, come check it out! https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/24384/Basic-Roleplaying

Currently available in softcover from Chaosium.com, US only: https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-softcover

Apropos of nothing 🤔... we've made Basic Roleplaying aka 'The Big Gold Book' only 99 cents on DriveThruRPG (normally $21.95)*. At some point, almost every gamemaster wants to create their own Mythic World. That's what the Basic Roleplaying System (BRP) is all about! It is simple, fast, and elegant, using a skill-based percentile system. Combat is fast and deadly, and with a strong focus on non-combat skills that some game systems are challenged to support. Players roll percentile dice against the Gamemaster-led opponents, or even themselves. At the core, most Chaosium RolePlaying games use a variation of the Basic RolePlaying System, which started with RuneQuest. Call of Cthulhu, StormBringer, SuperWorld, Pendragon, and others (including, most recently Rivers of London) followed. So, if you want to create your own Mythic World and leverage a proven system that is the backbone of some of the most successful games in RolePlaying history, look no further! Also check out the BRP Wiki. *We'll keep it that price until the end of DriveThruRPG's current 'New Year - New Game' sale (ends January 19th).

Talented artist Gary Bedell talks about the art they created for the Rivers of London TTRPG, as well as sharing valuable insights about working as an artist across various industries. Gary is talking to James Coquillat as part of our Chaosium Interviews series. Catch them all at our Chaosium YouTube channel!

On Saturday January 7th Australian Call of Cthulhu writer Kelly Grant passed away from cancer at the age of 58. Multi-talented, passionate, cerebral and caring, Kelly still had much to offer creatively, and we will miss her terribly. In her memory, later this week we'll be releasing her work 'Women of the French Revolution', a free 11 page downloadable resource to use with Call of Cthulhu's historical supplement Reign of Terror. Kelly first began writing Call of Cthulhu scenarios for Australian RPG conventions in the 1990s, and later was part of a small team writing, producing and coding the popular MMORPG DragonRealms. She took a lengthy break from game writing while completing a PhD in Art History (including field work in Pompeii!) and raising a family, but returned to writing for Call of Cthulhu in recent years with a flourish. There are three Call of Cthulhu projects Kelly worked on for Chaosium that will leave a legacy of creativity and inspiration: Kelly’s scenario 'The Singular Serum of Dr Contarini' will feature in the next volume in the Mansions of Madness series of adventures; its setting shows off her deep love of and rich knowledge about the city of Venice and its history. Kelly was also writing 'The Relic': a mini campaign that begins in the trenches of World War One and, with a nod to Foucault's Pendulum, initiates a quest for Templar treasure. Unfortunately, before her illness took hold, Kelly was only able to fully complete the first scenario in this imaginative and erudite campaign which would have led the investigators to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and thence to the Dreamlands. But we will see what is possible with this exceptional though sadly unfinished project. 'A Poisoned Garden' is Kelly’s scenario for Love Eterne, a second volume in the works for our Reign of Terror French Revolution setting. Recognising that the original Reign of Terror did not offer many opportunities for female investigators, Kelly helped rectify that by writing 'Women of the French Revolution' for Love Eterne. We'll be featuring it as a tribute to her later this week. Members of Chaosium’s Australian team enjoyed tabletop gaming with Kelly over many years, going all the way back to those early gaming conventions. The great times are too many to recount, but some examples in recent years include Andrew playing in her long-running Horror on the Orient Express campaign; Allan and I playtesting the next part of 'The Relic'; Kelly throwing herself wholeheartedly into Mark and James C.'s experimental 40 player Shadow of the Demonlord campaign; and the regular Pathfinder 2 campaign Susan played in with Kelly, and Kelly’s husband and youngest daughter. Kelly was also a highly talented potter and ceramicist, and taught art and art history at the university level. Her tentacled mugs – examples of which you can see illustrating the Women in Tabletop Gaming Interview we did with her in 2018 – are a much sought-after specialty for Australian Mythos fans. Our heartfelt condolences go to Kelly’s husband Martin and their girls Adele and Grace, and their family and friends. Michael O’Brien 8th January 2023

TL;DR — Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Pendragon, 7th Sea, Rivers of London, Questworlds and the rest of the Chaosium family of games are utterly unaffected by whatever happens with the D&D OGL. CBR article here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/how-dnd-open-gaming-license-changes-will-impact-other-ttrpgs/ar-AA164K6Z

Darren provided editorial support on our 7th Sea novels and the latest edition of Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Arthurian Companion. None of these have been released yet.

New Gamemaster Month is the annual month-long seminar in the form of twice-weekly posts, guiding prospective GMs up to and through their first game. Its organised by our friends at Monte Cook Games and begins today! As one of the six game companies taking part, our featured system is RuneQuest! Want to get Started? Check out the first New Gamemaster Month post here: WELCOME, AND LET’S GET STARTED! – and then select "RuneQuest" as your chosen system. Chaosium's posts were written by RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall, who has been playing and gamemastering for more than 35 years. What do I need? You’ll need a copy of the RuneQuest Starter Set or RuneQuest core rules. These titles are available in print and PDF, and available from Chaosium.com, DriveThruRPG, and wherever you buy roleplaying games. If you purchase from Chaosium.com, you will get 10% off your total order by using coupon code at checkout: NewGamemasterMonth2023 The code is valid through to 1 February 2023, and can be used once per customer.

As I noted on the other thread, the Bits and Mortar scheme is not meant for online sales (even if the seller also has a physical store front). Yes, we do. Our return is significantly more if you buy direct from Chaosium, compared to buying from a retailer or DriveThruRPG or Amazon or other online seller.

As featured on the Chaosium news blog (Journey to Jonstown #50): https://www.chaosium.com/blogjourney-to-jonstown-50-out-now-the-comprehensive-jonstown-compendium-catalogue-2022-edition

The team at Chaosium is saddened by news of the passing of our hobby game industry friend and colleague Darren Watts. Darren’s most visible fame in tabletop publishing came from his work on the Champions superhero role-playing game. Along with Steven Long and other investors, he founded DOJ (“Defenders of Justice”) in 2001 to purchase the rights to Champions and the rest of the Hero System game line. Darren served as president of the revitalized Hero Games for a decade. In that time, the company released many popular and critically acclaimed titles, including books Darren designed or co-designed such as Galactic Champions, Millennium City, and Lucha Libre Hero. Since leaving Hero in 2011, Darren designed or wrote for the Star Trek and Doctor Who RPGs, as well as Darren Watts’s Golden Age Champions in 2017; We Rate Dogs: The Card Game, published by Chronicle Books in 2019; and two recent Ghost Show Press film essay collections, Transgressive Horror and Subversive Sci-Fi. Darren also worked behind the scenes for many publishers, including Chaosium, where he provided recent editorial support on our 7th Sea novels and the latest edition of Phyllis Ann Karr’s The Arthurian Companion. Darren’s most lasting impact on the tabletop community may come from the hours and effort he devoted to supporting smaller publishers and independent creators, helping them craft better games and find their audience through his work with Indie Press Revolution, local gaming conventions, the Metatopia Game Design Festival, and the First Exposure Playtest Hall at Gen Con. Darren was known in industry circles as a community builder with a strong desire to improve the quality of the games we all publish and play, but also the social conditions that underpin their creation. He always made time to listen to both industry newcomers and old friends, and to offer encouragement, advice where requested, or a witty remark certain to recenter a grim discussion on to more hopeful, or at least more amusing, possibilities. Our condolences go out to Darren’s wife Diane and their families, and to his friends and fans around the world. The hobby and the world are diminished by his passing. James Lowder 1 January 2023