Do we have any ideas on release dates?

[GAZZA]

I know that there's nothing concrete, except more or less that the gods supplement is next, but I have some specific questions:

• Is the GM guide next after that? When we will get Hero Quest rules?
• Suppose we want to play dwarves, or elves - is there any plans for that beyond the very sparse stuff in the Bestiary? Will we be getting the equivalent of RQ3 Elder Secrets ... ever? Is there anything planned in the GM guide, or will this be left to a later supplement? (I already assume trolls will be in a separate supplement, which is fine - I'm a big fan of the Uz - but the Aldryami are more or less playable, and Mostali can be as well in some circumstances).

I don't need something like "the GM guide will be out for Xmas 2020" or anything, but it would be good to know if I can expect it by the end of, say, 2021 or so, simply to make plans. If it's going to be delayed indefinitely, I can make arrangements to adapt older material or fan converted stuff, but I consider that to be very definitely my least preferred option. I strongly suspect the answer to my questions is, "nobody knows, sorry" - which is fine, but I thought it was worth asking, as I can't find anything on Chaosium's website that has anything more promising than "coming soon".

[Lordabdul]

The best we have as far as I know is this thread:

Now that the Pegasus Plateau is out, the Starter Set is next, and only after is the GM guide. I believe that both are scheduled for this year. Only the next item on the list (Gods of Glorantha) is on the "maybe" list and might slip into 2021 (or to be more precise, GoG "may" have a PDF before the end of the year... last I heard, it's pretty certain the printed version will be only next year).

Edited May 19, 2020 by lordabdul

[GAZZA]

Wow, thanks a lot man, that's really helpful. I had gotten the impression that the gods book was next and we were waiting an unspecified time after that for the GM guide; to hear otherwise has honestly made my day! Cheers, and thank you for the link.

[g33k]

On 5/19/2020 at 12:24 AM, GAZZA said:

Wow, thanks a lot man, that's really helpful. I had gotten the impression that the gods book was next and we were waiting an unspecified time after that for the GM guide; to hear otherwise has honestly made my day! Cheers, and thank you for the link.

I think @Jeff is the primary author on both the Gods' Books (how many volumes are expected now, 2 or 3?  or has that not yet been decided?)  and  the GM's Guide.  So writing either one puts pause to the other (except when work on one informs and advances work on the other (which does happen, I think!)).

To an extent, we are subject to Jeff's specific inspirations/productivity:  not all bits of text (and game-mechanics) flow from the pen (or the keyboard) with equal readiness.  IIRC, the Gods book(s) took a huge leap forward as he was writing the RQG core, because developing the Gods content for the core-book got him to write a bunch of other cults earlier (and more productively) than he had planned to.

I think that @lordabdul is mistaken -- Gods will be ready before GM book.  The last things I had read (which may not be the last word from Chaosium, and -- even if it were -- things may have moved on from that "last word from Chaosium" status) was that the Heroquesting rules (and maybe other bits) were still under development / being written, but the Gods were mostly done writing.

On 18 March (about 2 months ago) @Rick Meints wrote, "Gods of Glorantha is in final editing and art commissioning. The RQ Starter Set is written and going through editing. The GM book is still being written."  This is why I think the Gods books will come out before the GM book.

Art direction / artist output can be a BIG delay, and is expected to take a BIG chunk of time with the Gods (possibly allowing the GM book to pass it in the production pipeline?) .

 

In the end... Chaosium won't really know, until each project gets through layout (and maybe not even then) which will actually get to market first...  I could even envision an odd confluence of events where they're ready almost simultaneously.

Chaosium has been too-often bitten by releasing a best-available ETA in these earlier stages, discovering that issues outside their control prevented them from hitting that ETA, and having to field angry customers throwing their earlier estimates in their faces.  So, they don't do that -- as I understand it, "making customers angry" is generally considered double-plus-ungood, in the business world. 

  

Edited May 20, 2020 by g33k
thinko

[Rick Meints]

We usually have a dedicated thread to forthcoming publications. We prefer to update people there than keeping an eye out for new threads asking the same question with somewhat different wording. As has been said, we have lots of books in the works, and we chat about them on a number of existing threads. We don't announce specific availability for a book until layout is underway, or possibly even not until layout is complete. Then we know when the PDF will go up for sale and when the book will go to the printer.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Rick Meints