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By David Larkins, Pendragon line editor. A new edition of the Pendragon RPG is coming! The intention of this series of design journals by Pendragon line editor David Larkins is to trace the path of development, starting in the early 1980s and culminating with the forthcoming new edition of the Pendragon RPG, which will be first to be wholly published by Chaosium in a quarter-century. Pendragon Design Journal #1: Where It All Began Pendragon Design Journal #2: Bringing the Light Pendragon Design Journal #3: A Modular Approach Pendragon Design Journal #4: Refining Traits and Passions Pendragon Design Journal #5: Honor and Glory “History, romance, and legend all agree that fighting is a knight’s primary work.” — so begins the Combat chapter of the forthcoming Pendragon 6th Edition Core Rulebook. For knights, combat is both a deadly necessity and one of the best ways to gain Glory—both for the vanquishing of enemies and as a means to an end. The new edition retains the deadliness of earlier iterations, but one of Greg’s top priorities in his work on this - his ultimate edition - was to present the most clearly-explained, exciting, and immersive take on Pendragon combat yet seen. For this month’s Design Journal, I am taking a look at a few of the changes I particularly like for combat in 6th Edition. Clearer Definitions Greg and our team of developers and editors took great care in explicating combat actions, trying to eliminate as many gray areas from previous rules as possible. Mounted Charges are clearly defined, and even include some fun extra elements which I’ll talk about below. Grappling and brawling work smoothly and intuitively. It feels like, in my playtests over the past couple years, I have seen more shield rushes, takedowns, and other creative close-quarters combat than in all my prior years of running Pendragon! And it’s not limited strictly to grappling. In my latest session earlier this week, a Player-knight, having lost their weapon, wished to use his horse against a knocked-down opponent who was trying to get up again. Thanks to the clearly-defined list of combat actions, he saw he could attempt to Trample his foe and did so! (Horses in 6th edition now have a non-charging Damage statistic to go with their charging Damage, so it’s possible to determine just how much it hurts to have a charger step on you. Answer: it ain’t fun!) Mounted Charges The definitive image of the knight in combat has to be the mounted lance charge, and I absolutely love the improvements Greg made to this fundamental combat action. The basic mechanic is the same, though all mounted charges now use the Charge Skill. (Charging with a lance remains the best tactic by far, but in a pinch you can attempt to charge in swinging your sword or axe.) It’s the small changes, though, that I like so well, the ones that add more flavor to the play experience and solve persistent in-game problems. For example, whether you play with miniatures or use theater of the mind, the game has been a little hazy on questions of where someone ends up after a mounted charge, and whether they’re able to charge again. Now, when you need to know the answer to this sometimes quite vital question, a quick consultation of your horse’s Movement Rate and the outcome of your prior Mounted Charge Action determines the post-charge distance between you and your opponent, and tells you how much space you need to get up to speed for another Mounted Charge. Want to target multiple opponents on a charge? The rules tell you how you can do that based on distance traveled as well. My favorite addition, though, has to be the rules for charging fumbles and ties. If you’ve ever read period accounts of jousts and lance charges, you know that a lot can go wrong. In 6th edition, Greg added simple rules (baked into the normal resolution process) for determining if you crash into your opponent’s steed with your own, or whether two knights armed with lances manage to knock each other out of their saddles simultaneously (something that happens all the time in the literature); the danger posed by flying splinters from shattered lances; even the remote (yet always hilarious) possibility of accidentally pole-vaulting yourself off your horse when your lance buries itself in the ground! (Even though there is only a 1/400 chance of this happening, I’ve seen Player-knights pull it off more than once…) Weapons and Armor I’ve talked in the past, both in this column and in interviews, about how I feel that Pendragon 6th edition manages to feel a bit more immersive in its medieval trappings. This is due to a variety of factors, but one of the big ones for me is in the department of weapons and armor. Weapons carry specific names now. There is both a qualitative and mechanical difference between an arming sword and a longsword, for example. However, Weapon Skills are now more generalized: both of those blades are wielded using the Sword Skill. The One-Handed Hafted Skill covers both battle axes and maces. Furthermore, because we assume knights have trained at least a bit with every weapon, all Weapon Skills default to DEX/2. This eliminates the problem of earlier editions, which had so many Weapon Skills, many starting at 0, that Player-knights tended to specialize in just one or two weapons, and trying to play catch-up when a new weapon appeared on the scene was throwing good Skill points after bad. With the new system, I’ve experienced much more variety in how knights arm themselves, and we see a genuine arms race develop over the course of the campaign. Although the arming sword and lance reign supreme on the battlefield during the Boy King Period, by Twilight any knight worth their salt is going into battle with a Longsword and Pollaxe! Armor, likewise, now feels more satisfying and flavorful in the game. Knights assemble their harnesses by combining various pieces in three categories: padding, armor, and helmet. Rather than generic descriptions like Partial Plate, your knight of the Conquest Period might go into battle wearing a coat of plates over an aketon, with a great helm and cervelliere to protect their noggin. Helmets are a vital piece of the harness, but as always a closed helm imposes penalties to Awareness; removing your helm to get a better look at things definitely makes you more vulnerable! On the other hand, a knight caught by surprise, sleeping in their aketon, might only have time to pop on a nasal helm before rushing into battle. It’s these little changes (and the fact that they’re organic parts of an already robust and streamlined system) that make combat in 6th edition so much fun for me. Art: "Fight Between Knights" by Eleonor Piteira

From our Fan Use and Licensing Q&A: Q: What is the Sanity ('SAN') mechanic in Call of Cthulhu? A: Sanity (abbreviated as 'SAN') is the game mechanic in Call of Cthulhu that models the behavior of protagonists in Mythos fiction when confronted with incomprehensible physics and monstrous entities from beyond space and time. The cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos defy safe or easy comprehension. When faced with such terrors, the human mind attempts to rationalize them but may be corrupted by the experience. The acquisition of Cthulhu Mythos skill points in the game reflects an investigator developing a human-centric understanding of the Mythos, while the loss of SAN points balances this acquisition with the cost associated with this new, but terrible knowledge. In this sense, SAN is a corruption of human morals, behavior, and personality. "Sanity" is the game’s register of the investigator’s mental resilience. It is not designed to model or make light of real-world mental health conditions, in the same way that hit points (and the loss of them) in most RPGs do not make light of real-world physical trauma and injury.

Long-time Call of Cthulhu fan and co-contributor to Terror Australis 2nd edition John Hughes has created a downloadable autocalc character sheet set as a free resource for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying community. Features of John's character sheet set include: a clean, uncluttered design; autocalc functionality with default skill stats and automatic calculation of derived statistics; custom graphics capability including an image library with twenty-two portraits, fifteen general images, and character silhouettes: androgynous, female, and male. You can also add your own images. a link to the CoC7 Quick Start rules; a Clear All button; and minor tweaks including relationship and character arc fields. Check out an example of a completed character sheet here. John recommends using a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat to fill in your own sheets. John says "Please share and enjoy!" Download the sheets for free via John's website, Myth-O-Logic.

It's week three of New Gamemaster Month, and if you’re just jumping in, don’t fret—it’s not too late. You have a bit of catching up to do, but nothing you can’t handle. This is the annual month-long seminar in the form of twice-weekly posts, organised by our friends at Monte Cook Games to guide prospective GMs up to and through their first game. Chaosium is one of the six game companies taking part, and our featured system is RuneQuest! Our posts were written by RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall, who has been playing and gamemastering for more than 35 years. Jason's most recent New Gamemaster Month post is here, but you can start at the beginning here. You’ll need a copy of the RuneQuest Starter Set or RuneQuest core rules. Purchase from Chaosium.com and you get 10% off your total order by using this coupon code at checkout: NewGamemasterMonth2022. The code is valid through to 1 February 2022, and can be used once per customer. What's more, you get the PDF included, and instantly, so there's nothing stopping you getting started!

Yes, it is reprint with a new cover, and a few cosmetic changes inside. Done so because we are currently sold out of the Starter Set in the USA, and we decided while we were at it to feature a new cover marking the game's 40th anniversary. If you already own the Starter Set you don't need to buy it again (unless you really like the new cover).

Pendragon line editor David Larkins discusses what fans can look forward to in 2022. He's talking with James Coquillat as part of our Chaosium Interviews series.

Here's a better look at the new box art by Lin Hsiang... we hope to have the 40th anniversary reprint out by late March - early April.(Due to a surge in demand for Call of Cthulhu we're sold out of the current version of the Starter Set in the US and UK)

The inaugural Chaosium Con is happening in Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 8-9, 2022. Come along for a weekend dripping with cosmic horror, essential runes, swashbuckling adventure, and chivalrous quests! A Message from Bridgett Jeffries: Here are a couple of ways that you can get in on the ground level for Chaosium Con and contribute to the chaos… errr we mean, fun! Volunteer: Chaosium wouldn’t exist without our fans, and our inaugural convention won’t be successful without volunteers! We could really use your help in operations! Opportunities range from working the registration table, helping in the Great Market, assisting with set up, tear down, and more! We’re looking for part time help (4-5 hours) throughout the entire convention. Click the link to volunteer and help us make history! GMs: Volunteering to be a Game Master at the inaugural Chaosium Con has its own bragging rights! In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to share your favorite Chaosium games, meet new players, and share your creativity with others! Whether it’s a LARP, board game, or tabletop roleplaying game… we need you to run it! Click the link to submit your events! Attend, get involved, and let’s do great things (and be safe) together! See you at Chaosium Con!

The third installment of New Gamemaster Month is up - here Jason Durall talks more about the setting (Glorantha) and the rules (RuneQuest). "The most important things to take away from the rules reading is how to roll and read dice, the different levels of success, how to read a character sheet, and the concept of augments using skills, Passions, or Runes. Once you’ve got an understanding of how those mechanics work, most of the rest of the rules fall into place," says Jason. Read the post in full here.

A quick update from QuestWorlds line editor Ian Cooper: "The first draft of the Questworlds Core Book is off to copy editing here at Chaosium! Susan O'Brien will be polishing it up – I am really looking forward to the process of collaborating with her to make QuestWorlds better and take it to the next stage. I'm far too close to it now, to be capable of the alchemy that will turn lead into gold. We are getting art in from Lionel Marty, including the character art shown above, and now I can focus on finishing art direction (and drawing up some charts etc.), whilst the book goes through the refiner's fire. 2022 is going to be the year of Questworlds! And don't forget in the mean time you can always check out the SRD."

7th Sea creator John Wick talks about what's coming for the 7th Sea RPG in 2022. The latest in our 'Chaosium Interviews' series with James Coquillat.

Check these out at DriveThruRPG - two collections of Call of Cthulhu adventures created during the Fall 2021 RPG Writer Workshop! Bundle One consists of 15 titles for $19.35 (total value $64.53, save $45.18 - 70% off) Bundle Two consists of 19 titles for $19.99 (total value $46.17, save $26.18 - 55% off) Our congratulations to everyone who has published for the first time, we're immensely proud of you! For anyone who would like to give scenario writing a go, our friends at the Storytelling Collective will be running the workshops again in 2022! Under The Miskatonic Repository community content license, Call of Cthulhu fans can make their own work for use with the game line available to the public, using guidelines, templates, and art provided by Chaosium. Whether you share your content for free or put it up for sale, this program is a digital home for terror that joins the dreamscapes of all who peruse it.

In his latest "Out of the Suitcase" post, Chaosium president Rick Meints tracks down the article RuneQuest co-creator Steve Perrin wrote in 1978, entitled 'D&D is a thing of the past'. Here Steve described how RuneQuest, Chaosium’s first RPG, blazed a new trail away from the main RPG that dominated the market. RQ offered a stark contrast to what many players perceived as the one true way to play a game: Experience points, Levels, Fighters can’t cast spells, Magic-users can’t wear armor, and Clerics can’t use edged weapons. RuneQuest turned that world upside down or simply chose to ignore it. Almost 44 years later, Rick shares how Steve explained it all those years ago... https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-27-dd-is-a-thing-of-the-past-rediscovering-how-revolutionary-runequest-was-

Explore the Skies! Now 60% off, Upwind is a narrative style RPG set in a strange alternate world of floating island nations, flying sailing ships, long-lost technology, wild elemental powers, looming war and forgotten legacies. Imagine Bakshi’s classic animated film Wizards has a head-on collision with Disney’s Treasure Planet and the resulting fire is put out with a whole lot of Studio Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky. That, in an unexpected, animated mash-up, is Upwind. UPWIND AGE RPG - 60% off Upwind Core Rules - Hardcover + PDF - $44.99 $17.99 (US, UK, EU, AUS, CAN) Upwind: The Grand Amplifer Campaign - Hardcover + PDF - $29.99 $11.99 (US, UK, EU, AUS, CAN) Originally developed at Biohazard Games, Upwind was a joint production with our friends at Nocturnal Media.

The second installment of New Gamemaster Month is up - here RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall talks about the chosen adventure: “A Rough Landing”, from the RuneQuest Starter Set. "We’ve picked this adventure because it’s a great introduction to Glorantha for new players and it was designed to be particularly easy on gamemasters running RuneQuest for the first time," says Jason. Read the post here: https://bit.ly/3K0reBH Feel the itch to start GMing? Get 10% off your total order at Chaosium.com with this coupon code : NewGamemasterMonth2022.

More Than Just A Screen The Keeper’s Screen Pack enhances your games of Call of Cthulhu with scenarios, reference tables, and maps that increase the flow of play, and help to immerse you in the horror of the Mythos. $19.99 – This Bundle Includes: The Screen The Keeper Screen is presented as a page in your Roll20 game that summarizes important mechanics, statistics and charts, and allows every Keeper to stay on top of the most common rules in the game. Separate handouts of the most commonly-referenced rules in the game allow for players and keepers alike to spend less time flipping through rulebooks, and more time saving the world. A set of large, full-color maps round out the set. Featuring the world, Lovecraft Country, and the city of Arkham itself. These maps will be useful in a wide range of Call of Cthulhu scenarios, and will be a handy reference when penning your own tales of Mythos horror! The Scenarios Inside are two ready-to-play scenarios, each set in 1920s New England—the signature Call of Cthulhu setting. Twelve premade characters allow new players to jump into the action. Blackwater Creek - Blackwater Creek is a non-linear scenario about what happens when the Mythos pollutes a small town. Missed Dues - In Missed Dues, investigators operating on the wrong side of the law follow up on a missing cat burglar for a local mob boss. Product Information Roll20 Enhancements: All maps, handouts, art, and character sheets fully integrated and ready for the virtual tabletop. Maps with GM layer information and dynamic lighting support (requires plus / pro subscription). Blackwater Creek Module (2-5 investigators plus Keeper) Missed Dues Module (2-5 investigators plus Keeper) Keeper Reference Addon (3 maps, the Keeper Screen page, handouts of useful information with links to the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook compendium and Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook compendium as well as page numbers, and rollable tables for manias and phobias). The Missed Dues and Blackwater Creek modules are also available separately: Missed Dues - $7.99 Blackwater Creek - $7.99 What the Critics say about the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen Pack: "Much more than a screen; the best screen product I have seen on the market."— Antonios S., RPG.net - Call of Cthulhu Screen Pack Review. "If there's a gamemaster screen release out there with more gaming goodness than what's packed in the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen Pack, I'm not aware of it. 10/10"— The Gaming Gang, Call of Cthulhu Keeper Pack Review and Play Through. Double Gold ENNIE Award 2017 - Best Aid/Accessory, Best Cartography. Play Call of Cthulhu with Roll20! Throughout 2022 we'll be adding more Call of Cthulhu releases to Roll20 on a regular basis. Other current titles include: Call of Cthulhu Starter Set - $24.99 Call of Cthulhu Quickstart Rules (inc. 'The Haunting' scenario) - FREE Call of Cthulhu Keeper Rulebook - $54.95 Call of Cthulhu Investigator Handbook - $44.95 Harlem Unbound - $44.99 The Lightless Beacon - FREE Dead Light and Other Dark Turns - $14.99 Gateways to Terror - $19.99 Mansions of Madness Vol 1: Behind Closed Doors - $42.99 Malleus Monstrorum Cthulhu Mythos Bestiary - $59.99 Reign of Terror - $34.99 The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic - $39.95 For useful tips and advice about playing Call of Cthulhu and other Chaosium games online, see our helpful Getting Started with Online Gaming guide.

The books are saddle-stitched as before but the covers are slightly thicker.

Announcing the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set: 40th Anniversary edition! This new printing of the Starter Set includes: New box art by Lin Hsiang Updated interior book cover designs All corrections and errata 40th Anniversary Investigator Sheets Coming Soon! Current version (nb currently SOLD OUT in USA)

Chaosium's Jeff Richard continues his chat with James Coquillat about the various projects for 2022 he's personally working on – including a new edition of the Chaosium's classic board game White Bear & Red Moon aka Dragon Pass. Part of our 'Chaosium Interviews' series on YouTube.

Chaosium's Jeff Richard talks to James Coquillat about some of projects he's personally working on which will be revealed in 2022, including the eagerly-awaited Cults of Glorantha. Part of our 'Chaosium Interviews' series on YouTube.

Here's everything we released in 2021 on DriveThruRPG in case there's something you missed for your DriveThruRPG library: JANUARY Malleus Monstrorum Keeper Deck (Call of Cthulhu) The monsters of the Cthulhu Mythos at your fingertips! Call of Cthulhu Keeper Decks (Call of Cthulhu) Four decks of reference cards that will enhance your Call of Cthulhu experience! APRIL Call of Cthulhu Starter Set for Astral Virtual TableTop (Call of Cthulhu) Also available separately: Paper Chase Edge of Darkness Dead Man Stop MAY Sisterhood (Mythos Fiction) Dark Tales & Secret Histories AUGUST Bundles of titles created by alumni of the Storytelling Collective's Write Your First Adventure workshop (Fall 2021): RPG Writer Workshop Summer 2021 Call of Cthulhu Vol. 1 RPG Writer Workshop Summer 2021 Call of Cthulhu Vol. 2 SEPTEMBER A Time to Harvest (Call of Cthulhu) Death and Discovery in the Vermont Hills! OCTOBER Cults of Cthulhu (Call of Cthulhu) At long last, the intricacies of the nefarious Cthulhu cult are revealed! NOVEMBER RuneQuest Starter Set (RuneQuest) Magic, Myth, and Might in a Box! DECEMBER RuneQuest Weapons & Equipment (RuneQuest) Wondrous items and essential goods for adventurers in the world of RuneQuest And community content! Throughout 2021 community content has gone from strength-to-strength. Independent creators released hundreds of titles for Call of Cthulhu on the Miskatonic Repository, RuneQuest and Glorantha on the Jonstown Compendium, and 7th Sea in the Explorer's Society! For all the Jonstown Compendium releases, check out Nick Brooke's useful Jonstown Compendium Index. And for the Miskatonic Repository, Nick also has compiled a helpful Miskatonic Repository Catalog. We wish our DriveThruRPG customers all the best for 2022, and may you stay safe and well until the Stars are Right again – from all the team at Chaosium.

In partnership with Chaosium Inc., our friends at TYPE40 have created a set of highly detailed digital props for use with the scenarios in the Call of Cthulhu supplement Doors to Darkness. The Doors to Darkness 3D Prop Set includes: Bone Whistle: 3 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Coral-like Rock: 3 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Glass Vial: 4 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Gold Watch: 2 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Mass. License Plate: 2 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Mysterious Pods: 3 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Revelations of Gla’aki: 3 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Silver Bracelet: 2 digital reference cards + 3D digital prop Using Augmented Reality: 1 digital reference card AR: Supported Devices: 1 digital reference card Each prop comes with a set of digital reference cards with handy in-game mechanic information for the Keeper, as well as a unique QR code, allowing players to access the digital prop on their phone from anywhere in the world! TYPE40’s Digital Gamer Props are a great way to enhance your tabletop experience. Players can explore the props for clues in Augmented Reality or on their phone with no download or app required. Digital Gamer Props for Doors to Darkness are available now! Head on over to TYPE40 to get yours today, along with Digital Gamer Props for Masks of Nyarlathotep (Peru chapter is Free!) and Digital Props for the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set.

Coming later this year for the RuneQuest Starter Set: we're assembling a crew of 14 more pre-gen characters – Non-human Adventurers! A sneak look at some of what's coming: here's a Telmori Wolfsister and an Issaries Duck, gorgeous art by Lionel Marty. You can download the current set of 14 pre-gen characters from the RuneQuest Starter Set in our Free Handouts Pack at Itch.io.

https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/15009-pendragon-design-journal-3-a-modular-approach

New Gamemaster Month kicks off today – this is the annual month-long seminar in the form of twice-weekly posts, organised by our friends at Monte Cook Games to guide prospective GMs up to and through their first game. Chaosium is one of the six game companies taking part, and our featured system is RuneQuest! Our posts were written by RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall, who has been playing and gamemastering for more than 35 years. 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. You’ll need a copy of the RuneQuest Starter Set or RuneQuest core rules for New Gamemaster Month. You can get these titles wherever you buy roleplaying games. If you purchase from Chaosium.com, you will get 10% off your total order by using this coupon code at checkout: NewGamemasterMonth2022. The code is valid through to 1 February 2022, and can be used once per customer.