MOB

Rick's new 'Out of the Suitcase' post outlines how the current Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine originally stems from 16 pages of introductory material explaining the wonderful world of role-playing games, a mere 44 years ago... https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-48-good-old-burly-bob-a-basic-history-of-basic-roleplaying/

Alone Against the Static is our latest Call of Cthulhu solo adventure. It is designed to be played alone - no Keeper needed. But here our Stream of Chaos team show you how it can actually be played using a traditional Keeper and Investigators format. The same approach can be used with all our solo adventures! Get your copy of Alone Against the Static today! Full colour hardcover: $29.99 (price includes PDF) PDF: $14.99 PDF also available at DriveThruRPG.

Lucia Versprille is Theadore Holt.

Josephine McAdam is Detective Vic Mason.

It's another brilliant cover reveal from our friends Aconyte Books! The Shadow on the Glass is the first Cthulhu by Gaslight novel in a series of brand new fiction Aconyte is creating and publishing in collaboration with Chaosium. Following the cover reveal of Cath Lauria's Secrets and Sacrifices, the first Regency Cthulhu novel, to be released on April 2nd 2024, comes Jonathan L. Hoawrd's The Shadow on the Glass, to be released on June 2nd 2024. London, 1891. Elizabeth Whittle and William Grant enjoy scalping London’s bourgeoise, taking on the persona of grand spiritist Cerulia Trent and her agent to connect the living and the dead. When a detective arrives, sniffing out fraud with a scientifically minded spiritualist society, the duo decides to take one last job before escaping to the continent. However, their final séance ends horrifically… and soon Lizzie isn’t Lizzie anymore. William, desperate to banish whatever monster they summoned, is soon embroiled in an electrifying eldritch mystery where he makes a deal with the devil to save his friend and stop an even greater evil from transforming the known world. For more details and to preorder see the Aconyte Books announcement.

Graveyards of Arkham is coming soon.... The incomparable Mark Meer will be your Keeper of Arcane Lore... Noura Ibrahim is Big Betty Briggs.

Bridgett returns! Chaosium's Bridgett Jeffries, last seen on these shores for PAX AUS in 2022, joins Call of Cthulhu creative director Mike Mason and bestselling RuneQuest creator Andrew Logan Montgomery as an International Guest of Honour at Chaosium Con Australia in June. In addition to her community coordinator role at Chaosium, Bridgett is a co-host at the Miskatonic University Podcast, appears in numerous actual play podcasts and streams, and is a bestselling Call of Cthulhu creator at the Miskatonic Repository. She is also a vocal advocate for community content creators, and runs her own horror gaming club, Symphony Entertainment Gaming & Arts. Says Bridgett: "I am absolutely thrilled to reconnect with my Chaosium family and Chaosium fans Down Under. I am so incredibly grateful for the opportunity to attend Chaosium Con Down Under! Great vibe, amazing people, good games, spectacular food, and epic coffee!? It’s Chaosium Con Down Under, baby! Let’s GO!!!" Tickets for Chaosium Con Australia go on sale soon! It's going to be an epic weekend parts mythic, epic, heroic and horrific, with Chaosium's favourite games on offer, plus local and international guests, panels, an auction, and more! Here's the details - save the date!: Dates: June 8th-9th 2024 (King's Birthday Weekend) Location: Moonee Valley Racing Club, Melbourne VIC Australia. Convention Hotel:The Sebel Moonee Ponds (a short walk from the venue) Bridgett (center) at the community creators meet-up at PAX AUS (Melbourne, Australia) last October

Let's run with this a bit further: having turned to growing spuds in desperation during the Great Winter*, the Sun Domers (re)discover that the Cradle River valley is a perfect place to grow them. They even improve the soil! Theological implications abound. They did once grow potatoes here long ago, the first count brought them with him from their ancestral lands in Dragon Pass. But, some time during the Solitude of Testing, knowledge of their cultivation was lost. Potatoes became haram (after all, Yelmalio rune lords are forbidden to eat them, see Sun County p.22). Perhaps in one terrible year of famine the last of the seed potatoes were eaten, leading to recriminations and anathemas. It was probably a greedy Light Son that ate the last-ever baked spud, leading to rune lords being religiously sanctioned. In future, potatoes would be reserved as a food for the common folk, the light servants piously intone. Except they didn't have any of the precious taters left. Eventually, like riding horses, "potatoes" would just be a memory. But everyone knew Yelmalio forbade his most favoured (light) sons to touch them, so they must be bad (whatever they are). And then their world was opened up again. Horses came with Dorasar, and potatoes came with the Lunars and their Teelo Norri poor bread. *scenario hook: during the Great Winter the Sun Domers send a crack party (of player characters) to steal a sack of seed potatoes from the Teelo Norri Poorhouse in Pavis. Plot twist: the Sisters are happy to turn a blind eye to such theft of their moon tubers, seeing it as proselytising by stealth...

The 'Unnatural Selections' series is our regular round up of notable Chaosium reviews worth a look. With the news that the forthcoming core rules for our new edition of Pendragon was voted one of ENWorld readers' Most Anticipated RPGS of 2024, here's what reviewers and readers have been saying about the Pendragon Starter Set. It's out now: start your knight's Journey with the Pendragon Starter Set today! "An electric experience on the table.... Even as a starter set, Chaosium’s latest incarnation of Greg Stafford’s love affair with Arthurian legend delivers on player’s expectations." — Dicebreaker. "5 Stars - This is how all Starter Sets should be done!" — Roberto M. (customer review). "Definitely recommended." — Really Dicey (video review). "5 Stars - Wow. An utter and complete triumph! Like the other Starter Sets that they have produced, it is a subset of the upcoming complete rules set. A subset that has been specifically designed to introduce new people to the hobby of tabletop roleplaying in Arthurian England. The teaching, as always, is innovative, and the graphic design is marvelous. An amazing product that comes at a bargain price! Highly recommended!" — Scott S. (customer review). “Really cool. You have an adventure to play yourself, adventures to share with your friends, and plenty of tools and mechanics to start your own original adventures...” — The Gaming Table (video review). "5 Stars - This will surprise no one, but once again Chaosium have treated us with a gorgeous, affordable and utterly satisfying starter set. The SoloQuest is beautifully written. The layout of the books and pregens is a feast for the eyes without losing readability even for those of us with dimming eyesight. Truly the layout, graphic design and typography is at least on par with Runequest, which I hold with the highest esteem. Bravo, I say! Thank you for bringing this gem into our paws." — Manu (customer review). "5 Stars - Abundant material, beautifully illustrated and produced." — Gregory M. (customer review). “A lovely thing to have and I’m excited to see all that 6th Edition has to offer… if this as accurate a taste of the writing and production values of 6th Edition as the Cthulhu and RuneQuest sets are of their respective games, the new edition is going to be an absolute treat when it emerges.” — Refereeing & Reflection. Pendragon Starter Set Box Set - $29.99 - price includes PDF PDF - $14.99 DriveThruRPG PDF - $14.99 Roll20 All maps, art, multi-sided tokens, and character sheets fully integrated and ready for the virtual tabletop - $14.99 Cover art by Mark Smylie

Good news - we've all but finished post-production of episode one of our blockbuster Call of Cthulhu actual play show Graveyards of Arkham! Soon we'll be making an announcement about the release date for the premiere. In the meantime, here are some stills taken from the first episode – we think you're going love it: L-R: Graveyards of Arkham Keeper Mark Meer with episode one guest NPC Andrew Leman, and investigators Lucia Versprille, Noura Ibrahim, Patrick Logan, and Josephine McAdam. And while you're waiting, we invite you check out the first season, Bookshops of Arkham, if you haven't already:

Our friends at The Glass Cannon Network are back with season two of Time for Chaos, their epic playthrough of one of the most celebrated TTRPG campaigns of all-time, Masks of Nyarlathotep. Watch new episodes of Time For Chaos Fridays at 8PM ET on YouTube, with the podcast releasing at midnight. Join Keeper Troy Lavallee and his investigators Ross Bryant, Noura Ibrahim, Rob Kerkovich and Kate Stamas in their epic globe spanning adventure where they come face-to-face with ancient evils beyond the scope of human comprehension. Often considered the greatest role-playing game campaign ever written, Masks of Nyarlathotep stretches the boundaries of horror, driving both characters and players insane since its publication in 1984. And to celebrate the new season, for a limited time use the code "TFC" at the Chaosium.com to receive 10% off your entire order!

Argrath made an alliance with Sun County down river. That protects Pavis (or at least is in the way), should a Lunar invasion come via the sea. I'm sure he's mindful that the Sun Domers adroitly switched sides at Moonbroth II though, betraying their Lunar allies, and could do so again (they have survived here in Prax for 800 years using the strategy of "winning by not losing"). But Argrath hosts a pretender count in Pavis that he could unleash on them with nomad support if he ever so chose, and that helps keep the current regime at the Sun Dome in line.

The 'Unnatural Selections' series is our regular round up of notable Chaosium reviews worth a look. MIG3: The Meints Index to Glorantha (aka MIG3), contains an exhaustive catalog of RuneQuest and Glorantha titles and related products. This new edition covers everything published for RuneQuest and Glorantha between 1975 and 2015. "He even has entries for Glorantha books that don’t exist. How’s that for exhaustive? There should be a book like this for every RPG line." Stu of The Vintage RPG Podcast discusses new edition of The Meints Index of Glorantha on the latest episode of the award-winning podcast. Have a listen here. Designers & Dragons RPG historian Shannon Appelcline says "Rick Meints' MIGs have always been awesome. The newest one not only has the benefit of 20+ years of additional research, but Rick is also now in charge of Chaosium, so there's some secret lore in there as well." Jonstown Compendium creator Brian Duguid says, "A gorgeous looking production, and a fantastic tribute not just to the indefatigable efforts of Rick Meints but to all the creativity of the cast of thousands who appear in it.” Purchaser Matt H gives the MiG III 5 Stars and says, "Collectors and casual readers should find it of value". Purchaser Scott Shafer gives it 5 Stars too, and says, "The depth and breadth of RuneQuest is ably chronicled in this book. It is designed for collectors, but even the casual fan will find something of value in its pages. Highly recommended! The MiG III is the definitive guide to all publications to include material on Glorantha in existence. Available now in full colour hardcover. It's a Chaosium website exclusive!

With just over a week to go, our Call of Cthulhu Humble Bundle has raised over USD$50,000 for the World Wildlife Fund charity —one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organizations! Jump on board while you can and see why Call of Cthulhu has been the #1 horror TTRPG for over 40 years. $408.00 Value • Pay What You Want • Supporting the World Wildlife Fund https://www.humblebundle.com/books/call-cthulhu-chaosium-inc-books

Can Con is coming up in just over a week in Australia's national capital. And MOB, Susan, Brian, Andrew and Mark from the Chaosium team, plus the Stream of Chaos's Jackson will all be in attendance! Get your Chaosium products at the Aetherworks booth, and we're running sessions of Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, Rivers of London, and Pendragon – prebook here: https://chaosconventions.com/cancon-2024 Can Con Community Creator Meet-up Plus, we're planning a community content creator's meet-up on Sunday 28th at noon: BYO lunch, we're meeting directly outside the Snowy Pavilion. If you're interested in creating for the Jonstown Compendium, Miskatonic Repository, and new Companions of Arthur community creator programs, do come along! The convivial community content creator meet-up we had at PAX AUS last October!

Chaosium Con Australia is coming in June! Today we are excited to announce bestselling RuneQuest creator Andrew Logan Montgomery joins Call of Cthulhu creative director Mike Mason as one of our International Guests of Honour! Winner of the 2022 Greg Stafford Memorial Award for Gloranthan Fandom, Andrew's Six Seasons in Sartar trilogy sits at the top of the highest selling titles in the Jonstown Compendium, Chaosium's platform for independent RuneQuest creators at DriveThruRPG. Six Seasons in Sartar was the first Jonstown Compendium title to attain Platinum Best Seller status. Among its dozens of five star reviews, it has been described as "one of the best RuneQuest adventures ever" (Shannon Appelcline) and "a superb treatment of community, myth, and tragedy in Glorantha [that] as a campaign starter has no equal" (Reviews from R'lyeh). ”Chaosium Con Australia marks both my first time down under and my convention debut. I couldn’t be more excited for both. Looking forward to seeing you all there!” said Andrew Logan Montgomery. Chaosium Con Australia takes place on June 8-9 in Melbourne, Australia (King's Birthday Weekend). The venue is Moonee Valley Racing Club, Moonee Ponds. The convention hotel is The Sebel Moonee Ponds, a short walk from the venue. More Chaosium Con Australia guests will be announced in coming weeks. Badges for Chaosium Con Australia will be going on sale later this month: stayed tuned! And remember, in addition to Chaosium Con Australia in June, the original Chaosium Con once again takes place in Ann Arbor MI on April 18-21 – badges for the US con are available now!

There are no meaningful edit differences.

With just 12 days to go, we have sold over 18,000 Call of Cthulhu Humble Bundles and raised over USD$40,000 for charity! Get this amazing deal today, and support a good cause at the same time! $408.00 Value • Pay What You Want • Supporting the World Wildlife Fund https://www.humblebundle.com/books/call-cthulhu-chaosium-inc-books

Award-winning Australian novelist Jane Routley is back with her second Miskatonic Repository creation: A Midsummer Night's Darkness, a one-shot set in 1909 with Suffragettes as investigators! And another Australian author of note Rjurik Davidson, "a master of antipodean weird", makes his Miskatonic Repository debut with Stars Over Siberia, a scenario set in St Petersburg, 1929. Just two of a host of brilliant new Call of Cthulhu titles in the Miskatonic Repository - it's going to be a great year for community content! A Midsummer Night's Darkness Jane Routley ($3.31, 27 page PDF) The Recipe: Take a doughty group of suffragettes travelling through rural Shropshire in a caravan. Add two beginner sorcerers in search of arcane power. Stir in a vengeful poacher. Bake it all together on a warm midsummer evening for a night of terror. 1909 one shot scenario which includes 6 pre-generated characters. Tell Me, O Muse Simon Alexander ($3.99, 17 page PDF) In the shadow of the Great War, an ancient mystery rises from the ash. "Tell Me, O Muse" invites experienced Investigators to challenge a conspiracy of truly epic proportions, where history and mythology collide in the unfathomable depths of Lovecraftian horror. A Keeper's Comfort Fleming Barto ($5.00, 59 page PDF) Fifteen years is a very long time, a lot can happen, especially alone…Harry Kincaid and Thomas Wolmont may be America's best lighthouse keepers, manning the most remote light in the US for the last 15 years, only one problem, no one knows where they are. Take the role of United States Lighthouse Service Inspectors, arriving at Keel Island and attempting to piece together the lives of these men. 1920s-era, inspired by Robert Eggers’ “The Lighthouse”. Halcyon Days Michał Pietrzak ($1.00, 12 page PDF) The mysterious disease has caused the deaths of three unrelated people in Kingport. A friendly doctors asks the Investigators for help in identifying the cause of the disease. What they find may affect them in ways they would not expect... Short adventure set in Kingsport of 1925. Alpaca in the Coffee John Hedge ($3.50, 38 page PDF) How would you react when the last person who'd ever use violence, turns violent? Something is very wrong with the coffee. Can the investigators unravel the mystery and confront a burgeoning sentience before it causes the city to tear itself apart? Alpaca in the coffee is a modern scenario set in Leith, part of Edinburgh in Scotland. It is an investigative mystery involving wyrd science, AI, and difficult choices. It is the third installment in the Alpaca Series. The Era of the Body Snatchers Mark Corrigan ($3.50, 43 page PDF) On a cold and wet November night in 1830s Ireland, strange things are afoot in a small graveyard in Faithlegg, Co. Waterford. These are troubling times where not even the dead can rest easily… In this Cthulhu by Gaslight scenario, uncover the dark secrets of The Hellfire Club, a clandestine organization shrouded in mystery and steeped in occult rituals. Led by the enigmatic and self-proclaimed 'King of Hell,' the club's disturbing practices involve gruesome sacrifices, reanimation of corpses, and a sinister pact with an eldritch horror. The Inner Light Jason Shayer ($4.99, 33 page PDF) A murder investigation leads investigators to an influential wellness institute that is a front for the Cult of Cthugha. The cult hopes to free the Great Old One, Cthugha, from its bonds and bring about a new world order. The cult leader, August Chase, has lived for centuries, waiting for the right time to perform the ritual that will free his master. Chase will use the influence of his cult to prevent the investigators from stopping him. However, he’s unaware that his most trusted devotee, Dr. Trinity Emerson, has a plot of her own to seize the power for herself. One shot scenario set in the Classic Era of the 1920s, tthe second Miskatonic Mystery Club adventure (the first adventure is The Shambler Between Worlds). The Horror of Morinrood Rob Leigh ($9.99, 43 page PDF) The investigators are sent to a remote island in the Irish Sea to investigate a murder at a small research facility. But they are not alone: corporate agents, environmental protestors, and even the mi-go have taken an interest in the island. Trapped by a violent storm, the investigators must unravel the mysterious happenings on Morinrood while also staying alive. Modern day survival horror scenario inspired by computer games such as Prey (2017) and Resident Evil. Investigators must unravel a mystery, brave a punishing storm, and collect access cards to unlock new areas, all while dealing with the hostile creatures that now call the island home. The Neighbor Quico Vicens-Picatto ($3.00, 15 page PDF) The Johanson family, an extremely impoverished immigrant household, has recently moved to Liverpool. Their new neighbor in this place won't be an ordinary person by any means, and they'll have to fight to escape a terror that will not only come from the outside but also take root within, destroying them from the inside out. In this scenario, cosmic horror blends with psychological horror. The characters will soon be plagued by uncertainties about what is happening both outside and within the family. This will leave them feeling completely uneasy and cause them to experience intense anxiety, making it difficult for them to make wise judgments. Haunting of the Silverton Peter Wilbur ($10.00, 43 page PDF) A plea for help! A ghost is haunting a train. Can the investigators get the ghost out of the train or will they join the ghost on the train? An investigation involving research and investigative skills with deadly combat that hopefully can be avoided. The Haunting Handouts Revised J.J. Lahtinen (Pay-What-You-Want, suggested price $0.50, 1 page) Enhanced handouts for The Haunting scenario, available in the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and 40th Anniversary Keeper Rulebook. Sanity Flowchart J.J. Lahtinen (Pay-What-You-Want, suggested price $0.50, 1 page) Sanity Flowchart, available in A4 and A5, textured and untextured formats. Cthulhu Maps - Beyond the Mountains of Madness - Maps Pack Lovemaps ($59.90, 80 maps, 200 tokens) A truly huge (1.9gb) pack of resources for the Beyond the Mountains of Madness campaign. Stars Over Siberia Rjurik Davidson ($9.95, 62 page PDF) The year: 1929. The place: St Petersburg, USSR. The scientific community is abuzz by the recent meteorite that blazed across the sky and came down on 2 June near Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. That brilliant ball of stone appeared like so much in the communist country, full of future potential, but fiery, blinding, dangerous. Meanwhile, deep shadows are gathering in Moscow and St Petersburg, for the frightening figure of General Secretary Joseph Stalin is taking control. Like a spider at the centre of a web, he monitors everything in Russian society, ready to scurry out and devour. The investigators are summoned to the office of Pietr Kutzenov, head of the New Research division of the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. Kutzenov instructs them to make a secret mission to retrieve the remains of the meteorite. But the journey is filled with secrets and revelations, and no one will return unchanged! WHAT IS THE MISKATONIC REPOSITORY? Are you a Keeper looking for new scenarios and story elements? A player looking for something mysterious to spark a character idea? Is your group looking for eerie ideas to use in your game? The Miskatonic Repository is where you can find —and create —self-published material for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Interested in submitting content? Go here to see the guidelines, and here for the additional guidelines. No extra license is required. Get started and download the MS Word template or the InDesign template for Miskatonic Repository submissions, and check out our other free creator resources.

Jennell Jaquays was inducted into the Gaming Hall of Fame in 2017. There are many facets to her status as a pioneer in the hobby games industry; we love that one is she was the first artist to depict a TTRPG duck (RuneQuest ducks for the cover of Wyrms Footnotes #8, shown here). Chaosium president Rick Meints wrote about this in his 'Out of the Suitcase' series back in 2020: https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-2-ducks-ducks-and-more-ducks/

In my latest Jaxarte story, which will feature in the forthcoming new edition of A Rough Guide to Boldhome, due out at Chaosium Con, our hero is a guest in one of Boldhome's Mostali mansions and comes across Dwarven tinned food. Each of these cylindrical metal containers is stamped with a symbol – "what appeared to be a cow, a sheep, some sort of flightless bird, and what looked to be a man": Two of the footnotes from the tale: 11] The Dwarf of Dwarf Run will occasionally offer “Cows in Cans” and the like for trade: as these foodstuffs do not spoil they make excellent long-term provisions for buyers expecting to be besieged or about to take a long sea voyage. It is said that the Mostali have a special magical hand tool to effortlessly open their cans; if so, this is a secret they keep to themselves. [12] Jaxarte does not go into details, but the famed cook Antonor Lukewarm of Geos in Jonstown is said to have sampled various Dwarven canned goods and recorded his impressions. He tasting notes said, “When the dwarves assert that their tinned beef is ‘100% cow’, let me warn you they are speaking quite literally. The can I sampled was certainly fresh, but in addition to meat it contained visible lumps of hair, horn, and viscera.” He tried the other varieties Jaxarte mentions; the sheep symbol proved to be mutton, the flightless bird was demi-bird (“tough, strangely bitter, and with bits of bone like chalk” ) and the man symbol was “probably herd man, but tasted like pork”.

Manage your Call of Cthulhu characters online! Build yours now on Roll20! And while you're at it, save 20% off the Roll20 Keeper Bundle - until January 19th! PLUS - save up to 40% off 49 Chaosium titles – RuneQuest, Pendragon, 7th Sea, Rivers of London, Call of Cthulhu and more – in DriveThruRPG's New Year New Game sale! And the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set is 60% off. For the next five days!

As we reflect on the achievements of RPG pioneer and GAMA Hall of Famer Jennell Jaquays, who passed away earlier this week, at the link is the interview Lynne Hardy did with her for 'Women in Tabletop Gaming Month' in 2018. https://www.chaosium.com/blogwomen-in-tabletop-gaming-month-15-chaosium-interviews-jennell-jaquays/

Mark 13:30

Marketing will kick into high gear when we have a product for people to actually buy. Which will be very soon.