Jason D

On 3/20/2021 at 4:39 AM, Shiningbrow said:

Does that Book 3: Soloq... Have an 's' on the end? Or is it singular?? 

One adventure. 

On 3/19/2021 at 12:32 AM, klecser said:

Those of us who follow the broader industry know this, are darn sick of this practice, and are absolutely delighted that Chaosium is challenging this rancid status quo. As I Tweeted earlier today on this topic: Chaosium makes products truly by Gamers for Gamers. Not by a board room.

I speak as someone who loves starter sets in general, and is greatly disappointed by many. I've seen too many of them that are essentially big empty boxes with 4-5 hours, tops, of use. The goal with this one was that anyone who runs RQ will find some useful material in it. 

The next installment of the development blog goes into the contents. 

On 3/18/2021 at 6:49 PM, Manimati said:

Will it be released before my birthday ? 😜

So many variables: 

1. We have no idea when your birthday is, so let's say the time until your birthday equals ?. 

2. Printing takes X time, shipping to our four warehouses in the US/UK/AUS/EU takes X time, getting through international customs takes X time, then additional shipping from customs takes X time. Then it's a case of how long it takes our warehouses/fulfillment centers to from "pallets of boxes on loading docks" to "ready to put product into the mail." Let's call that time... X. 

So putting those together, it's hard to say whether ? is greater than or equal to X+X+X+X+X. 

On 3/18/2021 at 5:18 PM, Jape_Vicho said:

Curiously one of the pregens is called Yanioth Vareena's Daughter, yet doesn't look at all like her... I'm intrigued.

It's her. Different artists have different takes on the pre-generated adventurers. 

On 3/18/2021 at 3:33 PM, PhilHibbs said:

Does the SoloQuest adventure have a title that can be teased?

The next blog installment goes into more detail IIRC. 

On the issue of whether Moorcock's relevant still, Tor Books seems to think so: 

https://www.tor.com/2021/03/02/revealing-omnibus-editions-of-michael-moorcocks-elric-of-melnibone/comment-page-1/?

On 2/25/2021 at 7:52 PM, Agentorange said:

A while back there was a discussion about Adamant Entertainment developing a BRP based game for Bas Lag with a comment that China Mieville was in talks with another company. a shame as I've always felt RQ/BRP would work well with the setting

I was actually in contact with Adamant about that and was supposedly going to be a part of the writing team. (Huge fan of China Mieville's work.) 

I was told that they'd be happy to have me work on it. However, there were so many stalls and delays and inexplicable "soons" that it became apparent it just wasn't going to work out. 

The publisher was just then also going through Far West situation and had a licensed deal take a nose-dive due to some rights tangle they had nothing to do with (Buckaroo Banzai), so it became clear that there was no clear path to publication, much less to serious development. 

I gather that the rights passed back to Mieville, and somehow ended up in the hands of Zak S, which is not encouraging given his relationship to the RPG industry at present. So my guess is that a Bas-lag game is stalled until the rights leave Zak's hands, if those rights are still there.

I suspect if another Bas-lag book were to come out the license would be much more appealing, however there doesn't seem to be one on the horizon for the immediate future. (He seems to be primarily interested in nonfiction/political works these days.) 

On 2/26/2021 at 10:12 AM, DreadDomain said:

I would have read it like you did first but I see how both interpretations are possible. It would be interesting to compare with the quote/link @Jason D was referencing above.

My awareness of it came from a few posts on the Stormbringer/Elric RPGs Facebook group, where someone (whether an overenthusiastic fan or developer with Titam... it is hard to know) claimed that it was in the works.

Given the situation, that may have been speculative, premature, or magical thinking. 

48 minutes ago, DreadDomain said:

Are you trying to give us hope? 🤔🙂

Quite the opposite.

Trying to clarify what seems to be deliberately missed. 

A French studio has the rights to do Mournblade and (I gather) Hawkmoon in French. They have indicated on social media that they want to do an English version of Mournblade, called Stormbringer. I am led to understand that they don't have global rights, which I assume includes English. Rick - who knows far more about these things than I do - says the same.

The BBC is doing an adaptation of Hawkmoon, and has the game rights currently wrapped up with their license. I don't really know the specifics of that license. It may include more elements of the Eternal Champion IP, it may also be in conflict with the French license. Or the BBC license may have an exception letting the French studio have the French game rights.

Usually, these things either take effort to resolve, or the rights expire. 

5 hours ago, DreadDomain said:

For some reason, the extract you quoted is not from me. Irrespective, It was my understanding from quotes from MOB and Jason that the rpg rights were not available (Jason adding it was tied up with the BBC). I would be happy to be wrong.

Intellectual property licenses are weird and sometimes messy things, especially when it comes to larger IPs and multiple licensees. 

Many seemingly contradictory things can be true simultaneously. 

On 2/18/2021 at 3:17 PM, PichulRixth said:

Thanks everyone!  What I’m looking for is stats and attacks for such investigators. Maybe abilities.  I’ll check out the resources mentioned above for ideas.  

You could always pick up Basic Roleplaying with expanded rules for mutant abilities, psychic powers, and super powers. 

9 hours ago, DimensionalRambler said:

The customers are out there, Chaosium just needs to improve their marketing game.

You might be the first person to have said that in years. 

19 hours ago, PichulRixth said:

Apologies if this is a naive question for this system.  Are there rules for having non-human investigators?  Like werewolves, vampires or witches?  I’m just looking for some stats and abilities that beef up the investigators.  Given it’s still CoC I’m not looking to make them invincible, against Cthulhu it’s unlikely it would make a difference.  But against human enemies it might give them an edge.  

I have a theory that you could run almost any Call of Cthulhu (and especially Pulp Cthulhu) adventure with Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Liz Sherman as your investigators without changing much of anything.

Just beef up the number of foes (maybe a last-minute summoning), add an enigmatic talking animal, describe a lot of broken statues, and be sure to have Hellboy fall through the floor at least once. 

On 2/6/2021 at 9:43 PM, Jakob said:

Just to add another "Why I (at first) ignored Magic World" story: I actually thought it was a Magic/Fantasy supplement for the BGB; and since I tend to have relatively little interest in toolbox systems (I do tinker, but I like to start out with something that is playable out of the box), I gave it a pass. Only much later I found out that it was actually a reworking of Stormbringer/Elric! (had I known earlier, I would have ordered it right away.)

Let me know if you should ever want to play some Elric!/Stormbringer. 🙂 

Yes. Pedro just turned in his completed and updated drafts of the updated Mythic Iceland and the Mythic Iceland Companion.

We're looking at doing them as a slipcase edition together, and sold separately. 

23 hours ago, NurgleHH said:

I think you should hurry. Moorcock and also his fans are not young ones and the audience for Stormbringer is slowly fading away like dust in the wind. And with newer systems in the RPG-World the chance for release of the old stormbringer is becoming only a wish of few survivers, I'm afraid

Moorcock's works were just re-released less than a decade ago by Gollancz, and are still in print. 

The BBC Hawkmoon series will likely spike readers to that novel series and associated Moorcock books. 

I have very little doubt that a new edition of Stormbringer would find an audience among longtime fans as well as newcomers to the character and his amazing universe. 

On 1/30/2021 at 12:56 PM, Sir Pom-Pom said:

As others have said before: it's very difficult if not nearly impossible.

FAQ: What issues did Michael Moorcock have with Chaosium?

https://www.multiverse.org/forum/fabulous-harbours-%E2%97%A6-welcome-to-moorcock-s-miscellany/faq/15384-faq-what-issues-did-michael-moorcock-have-with-chaosium

All of those issues were with the old management, who are no longer with the company.

Chaosium is essentially a new company, fiscally stable and responsible, and the company has done much to rectify the mistakes of the past, even going above and beyond what could be reasonably expected. I cannot provide more details, but a major goal has been to re-establish goodwill with the Moorcocks. 

On 4/15/2020 at 9:49 PM, Hionhurn said:

Maybe official Tokens as well as cardboard pawns in appropriate art, hopefully with a stylised feel to them in a similar but not identical feel to TSR's Planescape art by Tony DiTerlizzi. 

These are underway. 

On 11/29/2020 at 7:03 AM, DreadDomain said:

Sword and Barrows. The Artesia/Blackheart/Known World rpg where the Runes are replaced by the Arcana.

As seen above, this is in the discussion/consideration phase. The ball is in Mark's court. We'd be happy to work with him on it, as we are huge fans of his work (as you will see in months to come as more RQ/Glorantha products featuring his art come out).  
 

On 11/29/2020 at 7:03 AM, DreadDomain said:

Conan: Roleplaying in the Hyborian Age. I always felt RQ/Mythras would be perfect for it. Where the rules are replaced by Personality traits

I am uniquely positioned to say that this would be quite the thing, having run a Conan game back in the day using Elric!. We at Chaosium are also big friends with the people at Cabinet Entertainment, who own the rights to Conan, but currently Conan is licensed by Modiphius and they are still actively supporting the line. 
 

On 11/29/2020 at 7:03 AM, DreadDomain said:

Stormbringer. Why RQ and not the already beloved Stormbringer/Elric!/Magic World? Because I prefer Skill Category modifiers and a strong emphasis on cultures and personalities. Would be happy to have combat influenced more by Stormbringer.

It goes without saying that we're huge fans of Moorcock and Stormbringer and would happily work on a new Eternal Champion game - or anything with MM - if the Million Spheres align just right. 

On 11/29/2020 at 7:03 AM, DreadDomain said:

Mythic Iceland. Well, that's a no brainer.

Pedro just turned in completed manuscripts for MI and the MI Companion, so it's now a question of how quickly we can do it. 

On 11/29/2020 at 7:03 AM, DreadDomain said:

A good nod to Harn except that I feel it is already very well serviced by Harnmaster.

Though Harn is quite an interesting setting (I played some back in high school and college), I think there's too much crossover between the core RQ audience and its potential audience for Chaosium to consider it as a setting.  

On 12/2/2020 at 10:35 AM, Sid Vicarious said:

The World of Xoth has had releases using D20, Legend, Pathfinder, and 5e. I'd love to see the entire line re-done and unified under a single ruleset, namely RQ, and with colour art and Chaosium production values. 

I don't know much about it. Is the author interested in talking to us? We're happy to discuss licensing BRP/RQ if someone reaches out.

On my own wish list, I'd love to see us do another original setting or two using RQ as the core engine, perhaps something more unexpected like the New Sun novels, Bas-lag, Neveryon, Empires of Dust (Anna Smith Spark's novel series), or Charles Saunders' Nyumbani. 

There's only so much time in the day, though, so we have to focus on just a few things at a time. 🙂 

If it's a problem, then just give him a minimal skill in Tradetalk.

Communication is mean to be a roleplaying challenge, not impossible. 

I'm currently doing a sweep for corrections for the reprint and will just add Tradetalk to his skills just to make that explicit. 

On 1/25/2021 at 7:11 PM, 7Tigers said:

Thanks a lot Jim, but, @Jason D, still no official player handout please?

I only just saw this, but I'll see what I can do. 

7 minutes ago, Scotty said:

See page 40 - Cyclical (characteristic) - Duration (one week)

Please make sure you have downloaded the latest version of the PDF

On 1/8/2021 at 8:02 PM, Bill the barbarian said:

I had thought the last issue I was sent for checking was just fine in Preview on Mohave (at least on the world to be checked and a few spot checks). Are there still issues I have not seen?

That last version seemed to work, but that's what Apple support tells us. 

As a note, the new version promulgated has this on the copyrights page: 

Is this based on the latest version? It's been uploaded apparently in the last 24 hours. 

6 hours ago, lordabdul said:

I think the example for Healing Plants on p72 needs fixing?

The first roll, a 1d10 on the "usefulness" table, yields a 5 which means the plant is useful against the Creeping Chills.

Then the example says that the character looks closely at the second plant, which I would expect means rolling another 1d10 on the same table. But the example says she rolls a 6, which means "other". That's a different die on a different table! She should roll another d10 first, and then move one to rolling 1d6 twice to see if she's lucky enough to have a magical plant among the two plants she has... or maybe the two tables should be switched, and the d6s are rolled first, the d10s second. Whichever works.

As a slightly nitpicky aside, at the top of that same column of text:

It might make more sense to just say "A result of 'Other' on the seasonal potency table denotes a special type of plant....". The term "Categories" doesn't relate to anything else called "Categories" on the page.