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By Jason Durall, RuneQuest creative director The Starter Set for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is coming! Between now and its release later this year, RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall's Design Diary will share insights about the development of this exciting new boxed set which will introduce the RuneQuest RPG and Greg Stafford's mythic world of Glorantha to all-new audiences. Diary #1: What to expect in the RQ Starter Set Diary #2: Cover Art reveal, and what's inside the box Diary #3: The new adventurers Diary #4: More about the new adventurers Diary #5: Welcome to Jonstown, setting for the Starter Set (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #6: Creating the Jonstown City Maps (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #7: Printer's proofs are back! Diary #8: A Gateway to Adventure Diary #9: Beyond the Starter Set Diary #10: Take a look at an advance copy of the Starter Set (guest post by Rick Meints) Diary #11: The back covers make a map! (guest post by Michael O'Brien) Diary #12: Putting the SoloQuest in RuneQuest Diary #13: Writing the Battle of Dangerford SoloQuest (guest post by James Coquillat and David Naylor) Diary #14: Unboxing while we wait... Diary #15: A release date, and Jason sees the physical box for the first time Diary #16: Cover artist Ossi Hiekkala's reaction to the RQ Starter Set (guest post by Ossi Hiekkala) Now that the RuneQuest Starter Set is – finally! – available [get your copy here!], you may be wondering what comes next if you're getting into RuneQuest... Often, the course of development and the release schedule are inscrutable for fans, but when pieces start coming together, things become clear. The RuneQuest Starter Set is designed as a gateway product allowing players and gamemasters to begin playing RuneQuest with as few barriers as possible. The fourth booklet, Adventures, contains a variety of rumors and story seeds specifically designed to extend the life of the Starter Set beyond the use of the SoloQuest and the three standalone adventures. These can be fleshed out into interludes, full adventures, or even inspire new campaigns, with minimal effort and few external resources. The description of the city of Jonstown is intended as a base for adventure far beyond the scope of the Starter Set adventures, including all of the information you need to run entire campaigns based there! If you want to keep playing, the next and best stop is getting hold of the RuneQuest core rules and the Gamemaster Screen Pack. These are available singly or in a deluxe slipcase combined with the Glorantha Bestiary. The rulebook will help flesh out your adventurers with more spells, more paths for advancement, and the full rules allow for situations not covered in the Starter Set, but pound for pound (or rather, kilo for kilo), the best value is the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. There you’ll get a full calendar, maps, a rules reference, a deluxe four-panel landscape gamemaster screen, but also an Adventures booklet like the one from the Starter Set, this time with a variety of adventures set in and around Apple Lane and the fortress-city of Clearwine. For those not familiar with the geography of Sartar and Dragon Pass, Apple Lane is just on the other end of the Afritha Vale, barely a couple of days’ walk away. This sleepy little hamlet is part of the material covered in the Glorantha booklet in the Starter Set, and thus players will be able to easily move from Jonstown to the west, for additional adventures set in the region. On a map, sharp-eyed fans will notice that Jonstown forms a triangle with Apple Lane and Clearwine, with a number of adventures set within that very area. Like the Adventures book in the Starter Set, the Adventures book in the Gamemaster Screen Pack contains three full-length ready-to-play adventures, along with story seeds, rumors, non-player characters, monsters, and standalone encounters that can lead to further adventures. Together, just the Starter Set and the Gamemaster Screen Pack contain enough ready-made entertainment for many, many sessions of play. Adding the Glorantha Bestiary to the mix adds non-human adventures, particularly from the Elder Races such as elves (Aldryami), dwarfs (Mostali), trolls, trollkin, centaurs, minotaurs, baboons, Agimori half-giants, and even ducks! From there, one could then use the adventure collection The Smoking Ruin & Other Stories, which contains additional source material and several ready-to-play adventures in the surrounding region. The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories presents even more adventures spread across a wider area, designed for new players to Glorantha, opening the whole of Dragon Pass to adventure! nb this is Jason's final RuneQuest Starter Set Design Diary

A selection of wonderful Call of Cthulhu contributors discuss their first Call of Cthulhu book, and their experience coming into the game. What was your first?

'Chaosium Unveiled' take a quick look at the newly-released RuneQuest Starter Set: there's a lot in the box! Available now from all five Chaosium fulfilment warehouses (US, EU, AUS, CAN, UK) via Chaosium.com: Price includes PDF.

– Magic, Myth, and Might in a Box! – Great news! The RuneQuest Starter Set is now out in release world-wide, available to order from all five Chaosium fulfilment warehouses: USA, EU, AUS, CAN and UK. USD$29.99 — Remember that you also get the PDF when purchasing the physical copy direct from Chaosium.com. The RuneQuest Starter Set contains everything you need to play an epic roleplaying game of gods, cults, magic, family, and fantasy! In RuneQuest, everyone uses spells and anyone can be a warrior. The gods provide powers to their mortal worshipers, and can intercede on their behalf. Each RuneQuest adventurer is unique, defined by their Runes, culture, and cult—all chosen by the player. The RuneQuest Starter Set also includes these free downloadable materials to enhance your play experience:

A brand new way of experiencing tabletop roleplaying games! Immersive, exciting and easy to use. View, manipulate and experience highly detailed and exciting props on your phone or in augmented reality. This video is a brief demonstration of a canopic jar from The Mummy of Pemberley Grange, a Call of Cthulhu scenario written for the Miskatonic Repository's 'Seeds of Terror' range by our friends at TYPE40. If you would like to know more you can find out here: https://type40.com.au/call-of-cthulhu-digital

Chaosium's Jason Durall and Jeff Richard will be at the Otherland Bookshop in Berlin, Germany for a launch party of the RuneQuest Starter Set on November 13th - meet the designers, get your copy, get it signed, have a drink! All welcome - #weareallus

The God Skin & Mad Prax is the fourth and final volume in Jon Webb's 'Sandheart' series of adventures set in Sun County, Prax. It features the scenarios 'The God Skin' by Sandheart creator Jon Webb, and 'Mad Prax: Beyond Sun Dome' by Chaosium's Michael O'Brien, author of the original RuneQuest 3rd Ed release Sun County (1992). Involving the player characters in a truly momentous event marking the beginning of the Hero Wars, 'Mad Prax' could, if you wish, serve as a fitting end to a Sandheart campaign. "What began as a one-person operation (Jon) evolved into what I think is a best-practice example of community content creation, with Jon gathering the talents of Glorantha-loving layout experts, cartographers, artists and writers to produce what have become some of the most well-received and popular titles in the Jonstown Compendium... It’s immensely gratifying for me to see that, coming up to thirty years since Sun County was published, there is still much to be written about, discovered, argued over, and gamed in, in this small and distant, yet special, part of Glorantha." —MOB, Chaosium Inc. The four-part Sandheart series is available in the Jonstown Compendium at DriveThruRPG in PDF and print formats. And to celebrate the publication of Book 4, prices of the first three books have been discounted by $2.00 in all formats. PDFs are now $9.95, and hardcovers are just $19.95. The God Skin & Mad Prax" Sandheart Vol. 4 Jon Webb & Michael O'Brien ($11.95, 105 page PDF) Two further adventures in Sun County – two further journeys to take. Totalling 105 pages, 56 illustrations, six maps, one VTT map and nine handouts with layout by Nick Brooke and superb art/cartography from Mark Baldwin, Dario Corallo, Kris Herbert, Jacob Webb and Ludovic Chabant. In The God Skin Incident, a murder and robbery lead the Sandheart militia into a confrontation where they have to make choices of who to side with. After the dust has settled they must quest for holy vengeance across the plains of Prax. The God Skin Incident is situated in Sun County and Prax and is expected to take between four and six sessions to complete. In Mad Prax, the Sandheart militia find themselves drawn into the midst of a great historical happening. Written by Michael O'Brien (author of Sun County) this adventure is based on the 1991 convention scenario 'Mad Prax: Beyond Sun Dome'. Under the Jonstown Compendium community content license, fans of Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha can sell and share their own material on DriveThruRPG. If that appeals, check out the Jonstown Compendium Guidelines and start creating!

For the game's 40th anniversary, a selection of wonderful Call of Cthulhu contributors talk about how their experiences with the Call of Cthulhu RPG felt different to other games for them.

Of the eclectic things published by Chaosium over the years 1978's Authentic Thaumaturgy is probably the most gonzo. In his newest 'Out of the Suitcase' post, company president Rick Meints talks about the two Chaosium editions of the book, which was the written by P.E.I. Bonewits, "the world’s only academically accredited occultist". https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-25-as-authentic-as-thaumaturgy-can-get

By Cults of Cthulhu co-author Chris Lackey Boy, am I excited about Cults of Cthulhu! It’s been a few years since we started on this book and I fondly remember Mike Mason sitting down with me during Dragonmeet in London, asking me if I would be keen on writing a book for Chaosium. I had done a bit of game writing in the past, but I suspect his offer had a lot to do with the fact that I’m the co-host of the podcast Strange Studies of Strange Stories (formally the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast); that I was an associate producer on both The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in the Darkness movies from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society; and I’ve written for some Lovecraftian comics to boot. My history, and Mike’s keen insight, seemed to convince him to let me take a stab at Cults of Cthulhu. I owe a lot to the Call of Cthulhu RPG. I started playing CoC in 1989 with the glorious 4th edition, but I was playing role-playing games since I was 8 years old. I got into RPGs throwing dice with my dad playing Dungeons and Dragons with his church group (no satanic panic there)! But it was Call of Cthulhu that brought me into a whole new style of gaming and also introduced me to this crazy writer, H. P. Lovecraft. I, like many people, discovered Lovecraft through the Call of Cthulhu RPG. I never suspected when I was but a youth, rolling up investigators in my parent’s basement, that I would one day make a living talking about Lovecraft and weird fiction. Now, returning to the source of it all, I have co-authored a CoC supplement! Achievement unlocked! Cults of Cthulhu is something a bit different from previously published adventures and sourcebooks. It attempts to help Keepers find good characters and compelling stories surrounding one of the most ubiquitous threats in the world of the Cthulhu Mythos: the Cultist. I’ve always thought that despite the focus on cosmic horror and nihilism, that the good Mythos stories are truly about people. Sure, people aren’t much in the grand scale of the Elder and Outer Gods, but they’re darn important to us! The idea of looking at why people would willingly become cultists is something that always intrigued me. Not only that, but how does a cult function? What is the day-to-day? Do cultists have jobs? Families? The more I thought about each cultist being a real person, the ideas and the stories just started pouring out. Sure, they’re evil, insane, or just plain confused, but they are people. People with hopes and dreams, fears, and obligations. Cults of Cthulhu goes deep, not only into what shape a cult may take but how they would function in our society. More importantly, the book also helps you create your very own, fleshed-out, unique and inspired cult to cause investigators to have nightmares! There is a lot to think about, but hopefully, Cults of Cthulhu minimises the logistics and helps you find the characters and the stories that make Cthulhu cults such fascinating threats in your games. I had a great time working on this book with Mike (and others) and I think it’s a fun read and a really useful tool for crafting your own Cthulhu cult centric games and stories. — Chris Lackey

Early next week we'll be opening up ticketing for the inaugural CHAOSIUM CON (8-9 April, Ann Arbor MI). Sign up to our mailing list and we'll inform you when ticketing opens. Places are limited! Join our con mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/hKCjgr

Books, Magazines, Madness! – a selection of wonderful Call of Cthulhu contributors discuss the products that introduced them to the mythos and to Call of Cthulhu over the past 40 years.

Sign up here if you want to be told the *instant* the RQ Starter Set is available to order on November 10: http://eepurl.com/hH175z

In his latest 'Out of the Suitcase' post, Chaosium president Rick Meints shows off the back cover of his new edition of the Meints Index of Glorantha ("if it was produced between 1975 and 2015 you'll find it herein"). For this edition Rick decided to use a back cover style and format that might look a bit familiar to many long-time RuneQuest fans: https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-24-wherein-the-back-cover-gets-finished

By Jason Durall, RuneQuest creative director The Starter Set for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is coming! Between now and its release later this year, RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall's Design Diary will share insights about the development of this exciting new boxed set which will introduce the RuneQuest RPG and Greg Stafford's mythic world of Glorantha to all-new audiences. Diary #1: What to expect in the RQ Starter Set Diary #2: Cover Art reveal, and what's inside the box Diary #3: The new adventurers Diary #4: More about the new adventurers Diary #5: Welcome to Jonstown, setting for the Starter Set (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #6: Creating the Jonstown City Maps (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #7: Printer's proofs are back! Diary #8: A Gateway to Adventure Diary #9: Beyond the Starter Set Diary #10: Take a look at an advance copy of the Starter Set (guest post by Rick Meints) Diary #11: The back covers make a map! (guest post by Michael O'Brien) Diary #12: Putting the SoloQuest in RuneQuest Diary #13: Writing the Battle of Dangerford SoloQuest (guest post by James Coquillat and David Naylor) Diary #14: Unboxing while we wait... Diary #15: A release date, and Jason sees the physical box for the first time Guest post by Ossi Hiekkala, cover artist. I must admit I got bit emotional when I opened the package and finally saw this. Who would have thought the 12-13 year old scrawny nerdy kid from Kuopio, Finland, of all the places, who bought the RuneQuest 3 boxed set sometime around 1987-88 as his first RPG, would illustrate the RQ Starter Set that will be out this month 2021? I certainly wouldn’t. The set is ridiculously cheap (USD$29.99), especially when you consider the production value and all the stuff there is inside it. It is very heavy, and the cardboard is thick and sturdy. Everything screams ”quality”. Inside is only one another illustration from me, a smallish portrait. If some awkward teenager sees the cover and gets interested, and decides to buy the game, starting a new lifelong hobby, I can say in earnest I have done something good in this life. Happy gaming! Order from Chaosium or support your local store by asking them to order the set*. *Release date is November 10. If you would like to be informed the moment the RuneQuest Starter Set is released on November 10th, please sign up to our email list and we'll message you when it's available to order!

Playing the first chapter of Masks of Nyarlathotep on The Calyx today, Becca used the amazing digital props created by TYPE40 to great effect! (Paula taking a closer look on her phone) Download the Peru Chapter 3D props for FREE yourself: https://type40.com.au/product/masks-of-nyarlathotep-3d-prop-set-pack-1-peru

The Storytelling Collective's Fall 2021 Write Your First Adventure Workshop has just commenced but registration is still open if you'd like to take part!Over the next month you'll write, produce, and publish your first one-shot tabletop roleplaying adventure, with a dedicated Call of Cthulhu stream written by Call of Cthulhu 7th edition co-author Paul Fricker. Details here.

So this happened today... #happyhalloween

Join us in celebrating 40 years of Call of Cthulhu. Iä Iä!

With the release of Cults of Cthulhu in PDF, this thread is to catch any typos or errors spotted. Please note them here, quoting the page number, the error, and the suggested correction. We have a couple of weeks' window to catch errors before going to print. If corrections come in later than this, we will correct the PDF file and the print file for reprints.

As @Rick Meintsnoted when this question came up elsewhere: "Every time we have sold a product that isn't in all of our warehouses (for whatever reason) we have gotten vociferous and often nasty complaints. The bigger the audience, the more numerous the complaints. Our UK audience that buys direct from us is substantial (bless you one and all). No matter how much we declare in bolded all caps text that a new product isn't in warehouse X, people skim the message, put the item in their cart, see a very high shipping charge and then openly declare that we are just villainous scum who are trying to rip them off. It is not a pleasant experience." It is, in particular, not a pleasant experience for our wonderful customer service specialist Dustin, who has to field all those complaints. Australia is a significantly smaller audience than the UK though. Furthermore, Australians are used to the tyranny of distance and so are better habituated to releases of all sorts of things - books, tv shows, movies, etc - often coming later. (Though for the RQ Starter Set, copies actually arrived in Australia first of all our warehouses, months ago in fact.)

Cthulhu Calls! At long last, the intricacies of the nefarious Cthulhu cult are revealed! Cults of Cthulhu gives you the rules to inject fully-realized and unique Cthulhu cults directly into your Call of Cthulhu campaigns, and create your own antagonists. The tome also contains three scenarios featuring insidious Cthulhu cults spanning from the Gaslight era to the modern day. Buy the 336 page PDF direct from Chaosium.com now and we'll take what you paid off the cost of the full colour hardback when it's out in the early new year. Plus, these FREE downloadable resources: Keeper Reference Booklet (11 page PDF) Keeper Map Pack (18 page PDF) Player Handouts and Maps (29 page PDF) Plain Text Handouts (6 page PDF) NPC Portraits (6 page PDF) Cults of Cthulhu also available at DriveThruRPG.

And now all sold out, in <24 hours

Now available to purchase, and going quickly (only 14 left): https://type40.com.au/product/official-40th-anniversary-limited-edition-call-of-cthulhu-leather-document-wallet

By Jason Durall, RuneQuest creative director The Starter Set for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is coming! Between now and its release later this year, RuneQuest creative director Jason Durall's Design Diary will share insights about the development of this exciting new boxed set which will introduce the RuneQuest RPG and Greg Stafford's mythic world of Glorantha to all-new audiences. Diary #1: What to expect in the RQ Starter Set Diary #2: Cover Art reveal, and what's inside the box Diary #3: The new adventurers Diary #4: More about the new adventurers Diary #5: Welcome to Jonstown, setting for the Starter Set (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #6: Creating the Jonstown City Maps (guest post by Jeff Richard) Diary #7: Printer's proofs are back! Diary #8: A Gateway to Adventure Diary #9: Beyond the Starter Set Diary #10: Take a look at an advance copy of the Starter Set (guest post by Rick Meints) Diary #11: The back covers make a map! (guest post by Michael O'Brien) Diary #12: Putting the SoloQuest in RuneQuest Diary #13: Writing the Battle of Dangerford SoloQuest (guest post by James Coquillat and David Naylor) Diary #14: Unboxing while we wait... It's exciting to see we're finally able to announce a release date for the RuneQuest Starter Set - November 10th! As noted in the previous design diary, we've been waiting for copies to arrive in our final fulfilment warehouse in the UK and appreciate everyone's patience in this time of incredibly disrupted shipping movements. Due to these delays in shipping, I was only able to lay eyes on an actual physical copy of the Starter Set while attending a gaming retreat in rural Germany last week. The organizer had ordered a box of twelve copies to be express-shipped to the event. He offered me a copy, the first out of the box, but I thought it would be best to go to a fan and attendee. Later, the purchaser of that very copy asked me to autograph the cover and we paged through the box together. I was only to get my own copy a week later, when I went to Poznań, Poland, to visit the team from Black Monk Games. A visit to their warehouse yielded me my own copy, and I was heartened to see that the rest of the Black Monk team were also eager to get copies for themselves. I am thrilled that it is everything I was hoping for... a substantial and impressive release with gorgeous art and incredible production values. If you would like to be informed the moment the RuneQuest Starter Set is released on November 10th, please sign up to our email list and we'll message you when it's available to order!