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1645: England has descended into civil war. Prince Rupert and his Alchemist-Cavaliers fight on behalf of their exiled king against the clockwork war machines of Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army. Between them, a host of political and religious factions struggle for survival. First launched to critical acclaim as a series of supplements for RuneQuest II (“The best British fantasy setting since WFRP 1st edition” said Newt Newport), Clockwork & Chivalry now returns in a standalone 2nd edition featuring the new Renaissance rules, a D100 open gaming system based on OpenQuest and compatible with 1st edition supplements. Fast, brutal, and geared up to a world of black-powder weapons and political machinations, the new rules will also be the bedrock of a series of fantasy and historical RPGs forthcoming from Cakebread & Walton: Purveyors of Fine Imaginings. Alchemists, diggers, dragons, engineers, mercenaries, puritans, ranters, royalists, satanists, thieves, witches, zombies… which side are you on? *** As many of you probably know, Mongoose Publishing will cease to support the RuneQuest II license in the autumn, and this has left us with a big decision to make regarding the future of Clockwork & Chivalry. Giving up on the line was never an option – we were determined to finish the Kingdom & Commonwealth Campaign, and have other ideas we want to develop for the game world. At the same time, we value our autonomy as a small independent games company. The new Renaissance system will be based on OpenQuest and Mongoose RuneQuest I, and will aim to be as compatible as possible with existing C&C supplements. At the same time, this rule-set, stripped of the C&C background but incorporating some of the rules (such as Righteousness Points and Factions) will be released under an Open Gaming License as a free download. The rules will be aimed squarely at role-playing in the age of black powder weapons. The creation of Renaissance will give Cakebread & Walton a solid rules set for the development of further games in the future, as well as allowing others to use it in their own games under the terms of the OGL. Once Clockwork & Chivalry 2nd Edition is released, we’ll be re-issuing the first 4 parts of the Kingdom & Commonwealth campaign with minor tweaks to fit the new rules, and then the last two books in the campaign, Hobbes: Leviathan and London Calling. We’ll also release a small conversion document so that those playing C&C with the existing RuneQuest II Core Rulebook need not change rules to finish the campaign. C&C2, a 400 page core rulebook including all the rules you need to play as well as all the background in the original worldbook and then some, will be out in December. The other revised volumes and new C&C2 supplements are to follow in 2012. As usual, our games will be distributed by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and will be available from all good game stores!

Yes, you can tell what I was listening to while writing :-) Not sure about Long Lankin, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Alison Gross made it in there. And Lady Derby of "They Called Her Babylon" gets a mention, naturally! Glad you like the preview :-D

It's kind of surprising that the ECW has never had it's own RPG, since there's so much wargaming and live battle re-enactment in that period. I've run 7th Sea and GURPS Swashbucklers from that period, and had lots of fun. I also co-wrote GURPS Celtic Myth and Realms of Sorcery for WFRP 1st edition, both of which had a strong mix of historical research and making stuff up. Playtesters are always welcome!

That's the sort of response we like to hear! I've not long finished a degree in the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science, with special attention paid to 17th century magic and religion, so I think you'll like it. Mind you, we're hoping it will appeal to people who don't have a Masters in 17th century history too!

Coming next summer! This is a quick announcement; there'll be more info when our web site is up and running in the new year... Clockwork & Chivalry The Roleplaying Game of Uncivil War © 2009 Ken Walton & Peter Cakebread Copernicus has proven scientifically that the Earth is the centre of the universe. Galileo's telescope has seen the light of the sun glinting from the heavenly spheres. And in England, they are fighting the war to end all wars... The country has been torn asunder. On one side, Puritans in their Leviathans, great machines of metal and wood, powered by the righteous power of clockwork, churn through the mud of the battlefields, their mighty guns drowning out the hymn-singing of the Elect within; on the other side, Prince Rupert, premier Battle Alchemist of the age, summons elementals and calls down storms from heaven, leading his Cavaliers in a desperate struggle, despite the death of King Charles at the hands of his enemies. And between the feet of these wrestling titans, the ordinary people of England struggle to get by, split into a myriad religious and political factions, their faith undermined, their aspirations raised by the overthrow of the old order, and the promise of a new world to come... Will you be a Leveller or a Digger, a Ranter or a Quaker, an Anabaptist, a Laudian or a Catholic? Will you accept conscription into the swashbuckling Cavalier army of the New-King-in-Exile or the dour clockwork dictatorship of the Puritan mechanical philosophers? Will you become a clubman and protect your community from both sides? Will you turn outlaw and take to the woods, robbing from the rich merchants that grow fat from war profiteering? Will you join the siege of an enemy city, or attempt to escape the misery and disease of your own besieged town? Or will you try to get away from everything and set up your own idealistic commune, a little bit of Heaven on Earth in the midst of the chaos? Clockwork & Chivalry is a role-playing game set in a 17th Century England that never was; a world of war, of mad machines and mighty magic, of mud and blood and hope and death, of righteousness and revolution. Tuck your flintlocks in your belt and your slide-rule in your hat-band; the King is dead, long live the Mainspring! An OpenQuest compatible game, using the D100 Open Gaming Licence.