Convention scenarios are released to the Cult of Chaos Library in January, following a year of convention play. They are exclusive to convention play for one year, retired at the end of that year. Until then, access is done by requesting a copy of the PDF from Todd@Chaosium.com in an email that tells Chaosium which convention you are planning to run it at. 

The convention scenarios from 2019 have all been released today to the Cult Library:

https://basicroleplaying.org/forum/58-the-chaos-library/

This includes two each of convention scenarios for: Call of Cthulhu, King Arthur Pendragon, RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha

Hi there!

Sorry to take so long getting to this.

It is unclear what sort of "push" you are expecting for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha that differs from what we do for our larger product line, Call of Cthulhu. We have a demo, you just need to ask the head of the Cult of Chaos (Todd@chaosium.com) for a copy when you want to run it. But sure, I can also upload it to the Cult Library. And we ran scenario writing contest and used the GMs from the Cult of Chaos to support conventions around the world with the first two scenarios from that contest ("Remembering Caroman" and "The Fainting Spirit"). Those had a great run over the year and will be replaced by two new convention scenarios--in editing now. As with CoC, convention scenarios are by-request-only for the first year, and then posted to the Cult Library by spring of the next year.

I wonder if those posting here are not reading the GM newsletter that goes out to the Cult of Chaos where we make announcements about new scenario availability and the "retirement" of scenarios from by-request-only to the Cult Library? I hope that this is not the case and rather it is the fact that the last notice on new scenarios was a year ago. Surely that span seems likely to have faded the memory.

I will be posting in the next one a complete reminder about what support the Cult of Chaos offers GMs: scenarios, demos, prize support, and recruitment through the newsletter for convention organizers or gaming clubs that want more GMs. Hopefully that clear up some of what you feel is "missing"--by explaining that it it there, you just have to ask for it.

As for the other things that were brought up:

• The problem with flyers and posters and such is getting these to you. We can (and have) sent posters to game stores, which is pretty much what other organized play groups do, but it is up to them to post these. Outside of sending things through our distributor as part of a store's shipment, there really isn't a reasonable way to send stacks of flyers or cards to individual GMs. Best we can do is send these when there is a group of GMs requesting prize support for a convention they are running games at. I will look at partnering with our marketing team to get those ready by the summer convention season. 
• The Organized Play short campaigns have been the products of the Line Editors for the various product lines. Mike Mason has been amazing in producing one every other year. And yes, we would love to create one for RuneQuest. But that has to fit into the existing production cycle. Of course, you want to hear in advance about when this might happen. But the tabletop industry is just not the same as other industries and announcing upcoming releases before they are ready for layout--and especially making promises about "when" something is going to come out--is a problem area for nearly all game manufacturers. So we don't make those announcements. If @Jason Durall has more to add, I invite him to do so.
• Player questionnaires? It is problematic to fill one of those out and then give that right back to the person who needs the feedback. Players don't like doing this, too much pressure.
• As for improving our events material, see above about flyers. But we had a choice: offer convention scenarios for free or produce them as adventure modules that GMs purchase from us. We elected to go a different path than Pathfinder Society and D&D Adventurer's League. If you want to purchase material, I would point you to Chaosium.com and the Jonstown Compendium on DriveThru RPG. If you want a free scenario for convention play, just ask. I'll ask which convention you intend to run these at and then send it over by email.

We are trying to make this a communal effort of our community to participate in the branding and iconography of the Cult of Chaos and are explicitly excluding non-members. In the same manner that we run a convention scenario contest every year and encourage everyone to participate.

The Cult of Chaos is not a business, it is a collection of GMs that run games in stores, libraries, pubs, and conventions because they want to share the game with others. Similarly, we invite them to be part of running local organizations that run games under the greater umbrella of this organization, like Rogue Cthulhu, You Too Can Cthulhu, the Runemasters in the UK, and others.

We looked at the idea of our in-house artists doing this logo and rejected that to instead turn it over to the members to do this as a fun way to participate during the part of the year where convention play dwindles and there aren't many public events to run games at. Year-round engagement.

Our members turn their talents to making props for the table, flyers to post at game stores, banners to put up by their convention tables, or graphics to announce their games on social media. All as amateurs, not as professionals. We are both tapping into that, but also attempting to encourage that as much as possible. Just as the scenario writing contests are a venue for people to practice pitching ideas and then to write full length scenarios and work with an editor. These are meant for the inexperienced to gain some experience and then see if they want to make pitches to Chaosium or other companies in a more professional manner. Our website always gives the details on how to pitch projects for publication or on how to send a portfolio of art to see about getting paid work, but you have to start somewhere.

And the logo is intended for use by this community. It is going to be something that YOU get to put on your flyers or your social media posts to announce your games. On that basis I feel it SHOULD come from the community.

Your point of view is a good one for professionals. As a professional photographer I don't ever join contests (as an amateur, I entered three and one once). But for the reasons above, this isn't aimed at professionals. It is something that we feel rightfully makes use of our membership to create something that represents the membership.

• Miskatonic Faculty (Call of Cthulhu RPG, Pulp Cthulhu) 
• Runemasters (RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha, HeroQuest Glorantha)
• Eschelle (King Arthur Pendragon, Prince Valiant Storytelling)
• Myth Masters (Mythic Worlds, HeroQuest, 7th Seas, etc.)

I will be preparing a ZIP file with the needed logos, permissions, and instructions on how you may use those logos. Aiming for the end of the month of this.

I'd love an NPC creator, where I was not forced to add the +25 and +10 personal skills, but instead could just use the raw character made through the occupation and cult selections.

I would invite the OP to both join the Cult of Chaos, the Organized Play group for all of Chaosium's games. And then to post this in the Cult Library, a repository of free scenarios accessible by GMs in the Cult of Chaos.

On 12/2/2018 at 8:04 AM, davidthegnome said:

PM sent

Emailing Todd@chaosium.com is the more dependable route. I'm not on this forum year-round, especially given how much I am traveling to meet people in person at conventions.

On 11/30/2018 at 8:24 PM, Sean_RDP said:

 

What do players want?

In general, I found players wanted to play with cool things, be powerful, the illusion of choice, and for their actions to be campaign relevant. Sure, "Our table killed Bob the Goblin!" was great but even more so if killing Bob was unique campaign wide. RQ veterans or Glorantha fans want to feel as if they are in the middle of events, touching greatness even if not doing greatness themselves. But what would the new players want? What would someone coming from D&D or FATE or Powered by the Apocalypse want? And you will need new players, new blood, new authors, but especially the new players. Younger players too, not just the children of adults who played though these would be a great source of new players as well. I think defining what a role player in 2019 wants from an organized play is paramount. After all their main examples are Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, and especially Adventure League. which are far different animals. 

How about the rules?

There are parts of the new rules that are, vague. This is not a problem for home games but for organized play it breeds chaos. So, a simple errata that cleans up a few vague rules for the organized play only! This is not Chaosium giving an official ruling, it is Chaosium and the organizers avoiding SAN loss by making campaign specific rulings. Which rules? Well not going to get bogged down in that but basically if you read through and you think "that sounds vague" then write a sentence clarifying it.

What about characters?

I think having the pre-gens as nameless and easy entries to play would be good. Maybe campaign specific pre-gens? These could act as templates for each Homeland. Over time more templates could be approved and added. And then a simple version of character generation could be published in the campaign doc. I would avoid one overarching society as that seems artificial. However, maybe a movement lead by a new NPC (or an old one) that brings together these roving vagabonds to tackle important tasks in Dragon Pass. 

As for progression and potent items. Players like simple things. Like, add 5%+your Skill Category Mod for each skill you used successfully during play of that session. Certs and printing certs can be a pain, but players also like collecting things. A token of some kind for each module or a sheet with space to write in module names and loot.  For buying and selling mundane stuff, I would make that part of each session, where the GM and players upgrade the mundane items as needed. 

Stories, Adventures, and The Campaign

Let's start with campaign first. Unequivocally the campaign should be in the current timeline, but an alternate timeline. Embrace YGMV and make it know what happens in OP Glorantha stays in OP Glorantha. I also think there is no reason not to put it in Dragon Pass, BUT with occasional adventures in other lands to take advantage of products written for those lands. After all the Organized Play is a way of marketing new products to players and I say that without a trace of cynicism.  It needs to be worth Chaosium's efforts. 

I would break the adventures down to Homeland specific stories and then other stories if there is time and resources. Six Homelands means six mods per year? Maybe Focus on three Homeland each year and give each one a duology. So 2019 (as an example) Esrolia, Sartar, and Prax. Esrolia Pt1 comes out in April and part 2 in October. The other Homelands follow in May/November and June/December. Again just an example.

D&D has its Epic each year and other big con adventures. So perhaps a conventions only 4-8 hour Hero Quest each year. 

***

I apologize if all of the above seems presumptuous, it is not meant to be.  Doing organized play well and efficiently and cost effectively won't be easy at first. I do not even know, outside a few of us, if anyone really wants it. But I do think it is worth exploring for a number of reasons and OP is a great way to get people playing the game. 

I feel like you skipped some things, perhaps making assumptions about what an organized play campaign "must" include, but not being explicit about those assumptions.

For instance, should there be character advancement? Who is writing these scenarios and how do we keep that from draining the resources used to create published content? How is an OP living game better at getting people to try the game rather than a carefully designed demo scenario intended for conventions or a home campaign?

And you passed right over my key concern: how do you write scenarios that work for all characters, when the players have a much wider array of choices? The Lightbringers alone are five playable archetypes (with some extreme variants within those cults). To that add a shaman, a wizard, and an Earth priestess. And much more. D&D and Pathfinder have some key archetypes (Mage, Warrior, Healer, Thief), but they use such a restrictive set of skills that their adventures barely require skill rolls and everything MUST devolve to combat at some point. Player groups are expected to self-select a balanced party. What does that term mean for RQ?

And I don't know, as a writer, if the band at any given table is going to have a good scan skill, or singing, or bargain, or insight, or Air Rune, or Hate Lunars . Not unless I use pre-gens. Which starts to defeat the idea of character advancement.

Further, what makes RuneQuest unique is that your own relations drive the narrative. You are sent on missions by your chief or queen, to better the situation for your own people. Or perhaps your own village (like Apple Lane) is under a threat which you have to resolve to keep from losing your own cows and orchards. RQ is not a game where the adventurers are wandering murder hobos, arriving at a different village each week.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We ARE developing scenarios for convention play, both through our contest and in house. And taking the easy route, they currently use Vasana, Harmast and the rest of the gang; but do not have any character advancement or the gaining of items that travel from adventure to adventure. And we are currently working on several books of scenarios and campaign settings in house, but these are intended for home play. That takes a lot of writing and editing resources already. So again, development of a "living" campaign will come later. Giving us time to seek workable answers for the challenges listed above.

Indeed, Jason and I have talked about this several times. It's a priority once we get home campaign materials out of the development cycle.

Question we are still grappling with: how do we write scenarios for standardized convention play where we know nothing about what skills and magic the table will have? Home stuff can be an outline for GMs to tune, but that's too much to expect for just-met-you-all environments. At least in D&D/Pathfinder players self-organize tables to have each class. RQ had more choices than that. Even two Orlanthi can be radically different.

The scenario contest sidesteps that by using pregens from the core rules.

This year, we are specifically aiming for RQG for the contest. Prizes are allocated in an effort to get a ton of submissions and the judging will be by me and Jason Durall, the line editor for RQG.

Outside of that, please do directly send me a pitch if you have a 13G convention scenario. My email is on each of the newsletter set to the Cult of Chaos. 😉

PAX is weird about event scheduling. Basically, they are morally opposed to it, first come first serve. Which they discovered in their first year, just plain doesn't work for RPGs in timeblocks.

They will have onsite registration. In advance of the event, but I don't know more details than that.

We have four tables of RQ in one time block, so 24 seats. Playing Darkness at Runegate, the sequel to The Broken Tower. Sat at 1pm, if I remember the time correctly.

So many events coming in 2017!

We are planning to make a presence at five conventions this year, setting up our booth and running games for more and more people. But we need GMs. Chaosium thrives because of dedicated fans such as yourselves. So please consider contacting us about being a GM at one of our events!

Featured events:


Gamestorm takes place in Portland, OR on March 30th - April 2nd at the Red Lion Jantzen Beach. We debuted The Dead Boarder at this event in 2016. This year we are increasing our presence by placing a booth in the dealer's room and scheduling games for people to sign up for in advance.

If you GM for 12 hours of table time at Gamestorm, we will get you a free badge to the convention, a Chaosium convention gift pack (which will include some fun gifts from Chaosium licensees, like Fantasy Flight).

Deadline for signing up with us as a GM: January 30th



The UK Games Expo is an amazing event in the West Midlands. This three-day event is home to the Cthulhu Masters, a semi-competitive version of Call of Cthulhu where a single winner is determined at the end of their tournament. Chaosium will be hosting games at this event, running our convention-exclusive scenario, the Free RPG Day adventure, and our two demos. A massive step up from previous years.

If you GM at this event, you would fall under the UKGE GM policies and we would be happy to help facilitate the hours-keeping and scheduling. They offer a series of incentives for running games there, ranging from badge, food vouchers and accommodation (5+ four-hour sessions), to a full weekend badge (eight hours of running). We'll schedule the tables and log your time, making sure you are covered for this event.

Last Day to commit to this event: March 31st.



While the details of this event are still being worked out, we are happy to fit into Origins' ongoing "Cthulhuthon", a center point for groups such as Rogue Cthulhu, Shoggoth.net, and this year, Chaosium Inc. Exclusive convention content is planned, and you get to be part of an entire gloom-ridden part of the convention center. 

GMing for Chaosium will earn you a free badge to Origins, through Chaosium, for 12 hours of volunteering. Our renown prize support for running games will be repeated here, including special GM volunteer gift bags. 

Last day to join Chaosium in Columbus: April 14th.



The three non-stop tables we ran for the 2016 Gen Con were extremely popular. But with two different demos, a new Free RPG Day scenario coming, and a special convention-only scenario, we can easily expand on last year's success by taking an entire room in the main convention center. Expanding to ten or more non-stop tables is a bold move, but we know that there is enough demand for Call of Cthulhu.

But we need GMs. Lots of GMs. That's 50+ hours, up to twelve tables, which means 42 or more GMs needed for full staffing. Can you be part of this diabolical experiment? 

As with every other convention, if you offer 12 hours of table time, we will match your volunteer spirit with a free badge to the event. There will be prizes and a raffle for a major prize at the end of the event. Last year Sam Briskin won a red leatherette collector's edition of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition. (Sam at our booth!). We guarantee that this will be the most amazing--and sanity blasting--event of the year with us. We encourage you to make plans to attend Gen Con and be part of our Insanity 500.

Deadline to be part of the insanity: June 2nd.

Event scheduling is happening now

All of these events are having their schedules created right now. These big conventions need big planning and we are booking hundreds of event listings this month in preparation for a huge summer for Chaosium. Not only is the massive demand for Call of Cthulhu being fulfilled, but we are creating special sessions, planning demos of the upcoming RuneQuest RPG, and filling tables with board and card game previews for products under development. Want to play with a well known writer? We've got you covered!

But we need your participation. The Cult of Chaos is organized to run games for people at public events and this is your chance to hit the largest events, tickets paid for by us.

Contact Todd@Chaosium about your intent to rule games with us and help build the biggest summer we've ever had.

And thanks for all of the effort you do on your own for Call of Cthulhu and Chaosium. We love what you do and want to continue to support your GMing of these games.

--Todd Gardiner
Director of Organized Play
Chaosium Inc.

This isn't an ideal game for a convention since it isn't episodic play in the way that the D&D Adventurer's League is. This is a campaign in which the Keeper is developing relations between the player characters and the NPCs over multiple sessions.

Great for game clubs, regular groups that meet in a store, or online play. But it is intended to keep (mostly) the same group over the course of the campaign's chapters.

That said, nothing wrong with just going for it and making Chapter One a one-off for a convention. As long as the players know it is intended to be a campaign.

Meanwhile, speaking of convention play, we have this thread going on one the open forum: 

Actually, I love that you started a new thread. :-)

We have a great little one-hour demo that is in editing right now, perfect for introducing brand new players (even new to roleplaying!) to Call of Cthulhu. We will make that available once it is done with layout, copy editing, art, etc. I ran 11 sessions of this at GameStorm in Portland and plan to run more at the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival in San Pedro this month. Stay tuned for a release date.

Meanwhile, for running scenarios of 7th edition, Nameless Horrors is highly recommended. Six scenarios intended as one-off games, each with pre-generated characters that are built into the scenario. They vary in length and run-time. I personally have run three sessions of Bleak Prospect from this book and found that tight control can fit that game into two hours, more relaxed play puts that scenario at just under three hours. And one scenario says it runs "two sessions", but could be squeezed into a six hour convention slot by my estimation.

But all existing scenarios are so easily converted into 7th edition that a Keeper can do this in their head while playing. So anything is fair game. I've been getting a lot of con reports about Deadlight getting to tables.

I'd like to encourage other Keepers to share their favorite scenarios for convention play.

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