Malleus Monstrorum Slipcase Set is out!

[Grimmshade]

Errors in RPGs are worse than errors in other literature in my opinion because they muddy rules mechanics. Chaosium seems particularly bad at spotting them for some reason, as does Modiphius.

This is coming from someone who bought all the Cthulhu 7e Core and setting books last year and am a huge fan of this edition. 

I purchased and then returned all the Core Runequest books upon release a couple years ago because of errors that made the rules (in my opinion) unintelligible. 

I'm not really satisfied hearing "we'll update the PDF", because I buy physical copies of all RPGs because I dislike PDFs. 

I really think Chaosium needs to take a hard look at their editors/proofreaders, because companies like Arc Dream are much smaller and yet put out books with much fewer errors. 

It's disappointing to have errors in a $100 box set. I love the books, but man, the errors are a downer.

[DreadDomain]

My perspective on this is coloured by my relationships with my favourire game lines (in the very broad sense of the term). A large proportion of the games I love are powered by three systems, GURPS, HERO and BRP, and what Steve Jackson Games, Hero Games and Chaosium are publishing does influence my expectations significantly.

To summarise and simplify, when it comes to editing, playtesting and proofreading SJG is far ahead of Hero Games and Chaosium but it comes at a price. For many years now, they really have not been able to publish GURPS supplement at a reasonable pace. Most of what they do publish, are small PDF, black and white, low and art and flash. There is not a lot ofsupplements they have published in the last many years that got me excited except perhaps Dungeon Fantasy and its following supplements. But they do have the best written, edited, proofread supplement out there. 

Hero Games is almost non-existent by now and even supplements published by Hero Games nowadays are in fact written, edited, laid out by fans (albeit very competent ones). It is killing my interest into the game and I am now almost waiting for the next revival, if it ever happens. It may sound like I have almost given up on them and it's because I almost have,

Then comes Chaosium. Chaosium does not have the same level of writing/editing/proofreading quality that GURPS has but I feel the level is still high "enough". It could be improved but what have been published in the last few years have lighten up the flame of roleplaying in me and even if I am a RQ boy at heart, Call of Cthulhu actually feels better written, better edited and bring more excitement value to me. Most of my roleplaying money goes to Chaosium these days so they may be doing something right.

Do they knock every single one of them out of the park? No. Unfortunately, everytime a "What game disappointed you the most" thread comes up on rpg.net, RuneQuest: Roleplaying In Glorantha pops to mind immediately. Is it because, it is the worst game I have ever laid eye on? No, RQG has loads of excellent stuff and is absolutely beautiful to look at. It is simply because it is painful to look at RQG and realise what it could have been with better writing and editing. Does it ruins RQ to me. Not really and I still have bought every single book so far but I am a fan so it plays a lot into it.

So yes, some books were not up to scratch and there is definitely room for improvement when it come to editing/proofreading but generally, when I pick up a Chaosium book nowadays, it is gorgeous, exciting and fun. And it keeps draining my bank account.

[sgtscott658]

Howdy-

So is this some sort of monster manual for CoC?

 

[Ejlertson]

5 hours ago, sgtscott658 said:

Howdy-

So is this some sort of monster manual for CoC?

 

Yes

[SunlessNick]

Necromancy I know, but I'm curious about why the Formless Spawn were decoupled from Tsathoggua.  Their writeup describes them as spawn of the Old Ones generally.

Edited August 20, 2022 by SunlessNick

[AlHazred]

My hobby shop hasn't had one of these ever. Anybody know where one can be acquired for a less-than-ruinous price?

[Closterphobia]

1 hour ago, AlHazred said:

My hobby shop hasn't had one of these ever. Anybody know where one can be acquired for a less-than-ruinous price?

I don’t know what country you’re in (I’m in Canada) but ultimately I had to sign up to a couple of “Notify me when available” notices from a couple different Canadian online shops to get one. I had to wait a bit, but pounced on the first one that became available. I didn’t buy direct from Chaosium only because I was trying to keep the shipping cost down and didn’t necessarily need the PDF.