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Out the Suitcase: Chaosium President Rick Meints's stories from a life-time as a collector of all things Chaosium


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Out of the Suitcase' is a new regular series of posts on Chaosium.com from Chaosium President Rick MeintsAn avid RPG collector, his love of all of Chaosium's publications, plus anything Gloranthan or RuneQuest in nature, has earned him the nickname "Mr. Suitcase".

Out of the Suitcase #1 - Jack O'Bears and Me

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-1-jack-obears-and-me

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I'm asking around to find out if that's what happened with the Vikings material. It's certainly possible it got repurposed. Sandy Petersen, Steve Perrin or Ken Rolston should know. Worlds of Wonder came out in 1982 and Vikings for RQ3 came out in 1985, so the time between the two products is not that much.

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Hope that Helps,
Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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In this 'Out of the Suitcase' instalment, Rick looks at the special editions produced for Call of Cthulhu's 20th anniversary in 2001.

(BTW, this year is the 40th anniversary of Call of Cthulhu. We have some special items underway to mark this milestone too. Look out for these later this year!)

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-8-the-20th-anniversary-edition-call-of-cthulhu-rulebook

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In his latest "Out of the Suitcase" post, Rick has an intriguing real-life Call of Cthulhu mystery to solve...

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-10-can-some-investigators-help-solve-this-mystery-with-library-use

Although it is on the cover of the first edition rules booklet, Marvel Comics artist Gene Day drew this iconic depiction of Cthulhu several years before the RPG was even conceived of. Rick is trying to track down which publication Gene drew this for, and wonders if anyone can use their Library Use skill to find out more:

 

Call of Cthulhu first ed rulebook 1.jpg

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In his newest 'Out of the Suitcase' post, Chaosium president Rick Meints poses the question, was 1981 Chaosium's golden year? From his shelves, Rick shows off the impressive array of releases Chaosium fans were treated to 40 years ago.
 
Plus, a solution to Rick's real-life Call of Cthulhu mystery from his last 'Out of the Suitcase' post...
 
 
 
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In 'Out of the Suitcase', Chaosium President Rick Meints shares stories from a life-time as a collector of all things Chaosium. Here Rick talks about one of the "best decisions I ever made", moving to the UK in 1995 and being welcomed into a wonderfully creative and energetic circle of friends collectively known as the Reaching Moon Megacorp.

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https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-13-reaching-moon-megacorp-one-of-the-best-decisions-i-ever-made

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Edited by MOB
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Although he's an avid collector of all things Chaosium, Rick can't tell you if the special 'Designer's Edition' of the Call of Cthulhu first ed rulebook includes blank or printed inside covers and the errata. Find out why in his latest "Out of the Suitcase" post...

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-15-the-curse-of-the-cthulhu-completists

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"With the recent launch of our Kickstarter a lot of people have been asking what's scoop on Call of Cthulhu Classics? Since I did a lot of the work, I am happy to explain...", says Chaosium President Rick in his latest 'Out of the Suitcase' blog:

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-16-so-whats-the-scoop-on-call-of-cthulhu-classics

"This is great for Call of Cthulhu fans who don't own these long out-of-print releases but would like to. You don't have pay collector prices on Ebay for these any more.

And for the fans who do already own them? Well, in these remastered supplements we're adding additional bonus content by the early authors, including designer's notes, bonus scenarios, articles from various sources, some history, plus a few other surprises."

Edited by MOB
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RuneQuest’s own literary bibliography humbly preceded D&D's Appendix N, and its genius is in its simple motivating force for others to do likewise. It inspired, sometimes subtly. But although it was listed as Appendix N in RuneQuest 2nd edition (1979), it was technically Appendix M! Rick explains why in his latest 'Out of the Suitcase' post

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-17-the-first-appendix-n

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Many of our current projects mine our vast library of prior Chaosium publications for inspiration and depth of material. Being the de facto company archivist, Rick delved into the company archives for copies of 1978's Perilous Encounters and the even rarer Dragon Pass Conventions supplement for it.

The latest 'Out of the Suitcase' post from Chaosium President Rick Meints, sharing stories from a life-time as a collector of all things Chaosium:

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-18-what-perilous-encounters-await-our-heroes

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Rick writes "Every so often we get a wonderful completist collector of Chaosium games ask us about some of our product numbers that never got used. One of the earliest ones we skipped was CHA2341 in the Call of Cthulhu product line."

What was the mystery title? Chaosium president Rick Meints tells all in his latest 'Out of the Suitcase' post:

https://www.chaosium.com/blogout-of-the-suitcase-19-another-mystery-solved-cha2341

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I would love to have insight and inside info from @Rick Meints on "Castle of Eyes" - both the Gormenghast inspired novel by Penelope Love, which Chaosium published in 1993 and the Stormbringer campaign book with the same title, which was announced by Chaosium but never materialized. 

The idea of a tie-in between an original work of fiction and a Stormbringer campaign was pretty exciting and ambitious and could have brought the game in an interesting direction: was it to be a Morcockian pastiche or an alternative non-Moorcock setting? The novel as it was published is not set in the Eternal Champion multiverse. Yet it clearly has Stormbringer-ish details (summoning and binding demons).

When the topic has surfaced in online discussions in the past I was able to get only very scant info on the rpg side of the story. I remember reading that everything originated from Penny Love's own Stormbringer campaign. Or was it a RuneQuest campaign? 

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On 8/13/2021 at 11:43 AM, smiorgan said:

I would love to have insight and inside info from @Rick Meints on "Castle of Eyes" - both the Gormenghast inspired novel by Penelope Love, which Chaosium published in 1993 and the Stormbringer campaign book with the same title, which was announced by Chaosium but never materialized. 

The idea of a tie-in between an original work of fiction and a Stormbringer campaign was pretty exciting and ambitious and could have brought the game in an interesting direction: was it to be a Morcockian pastiche or an alternative non-Moorcock setting? The novel as it was published is not set in the Eternal Champion multiverse. Yet it clearly has Stormbringer-ish details (summoning and binding demons).

When the topic has surfaced in online discussions in the past I was able to get only very scant info on the rpg side of the story. I remember reading that everything originated from Penny Love's own Stormbringer campaign. Or was it a RuneQuest campaign? 

Chaosium announced the Stormbringer book "Castle of Eyes" in that same blue newsletter...

It was supposed to be CHA2116 and retail for $18.95.

Expected September - Castle of Eyes is a grandiose, epic campaign filled with visions of splendor and horror.

After a millennium of fighting a catastrophic war, the ruling family of the castle suffers from decay and an intense fear of strangers from the outside world. Desperation and starvation threatens the people, and a brewing battle between competing claimants to the throne threatens to destroy all. The adventurers are caught in between, and are forced to assert themselves, becoming central figures in the struggle to control the throne.

Edited by Rick Meints
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Hope that Helps,
Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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