Dragonmeet - updates from Jeff Richard

[Steve]

Most (all?) of this has already been posted on G+ (in the Glorantha community) by Andrew Jones. But I thought I'd post up my own summary based on my notes from Jeff's seminar at Dragonmeet in London, 5th December 2015, not least because G+ postings soon get lost in the mists of time.

This is going to be purely about Glorantha-based stuff, not the Call of Cthulhu and BRP updates that Jeff and Mike Mason also provided.

• The RuneQuest 2 re-issue (via the Kickstarter) is progressing well, and the rulebook itself is ready. Jeff held up a softback "test" copy printed via Lulu.com.
• A European fulfillment centre is being set up and will start from February 2016, including the HeroQuest: Glorantha rulebook.
• Prince of Sartar - a colourist has already been brought on board, despite this being a later Patreon goal. The next chapter is New Pavis, then the following chapter will be the classic Cradle scenario. The Patreon campaign means that PoS can continue, before this there were problems given that this isn't a product being sold, it's a free web comic. There will be a monthly Google hangout with Jeff and Kalin for backers.
• The Glorantha sourcebook (for 13th Age, but rules-free) is waiting on the final 13th Age in Glorantha manuscript so that Jeff can finish it off. Art is being commissioned now.
• The Coming Storm - this advances the timeline from 1618 to 1625. Apparently Greg has joked that "it only took 40 years" to advance these seven years! The first book is the setting, the second is the campaign. It is planned that all the major NPCs will be depicted in art in the books, and many examples of this (great!) artwork were handed round, plus several maps.
• The Gods War boardgame, by Sandy Petersen, is on course for a Kickstarter in 2016.
• The new Chaosium RuneQuest will be later in 2016.
• Trollpak (the new three-volume version, not to be confused with the reprint stretch goal in the RQ2 Kickstarter) is at the stage of commissioning art.
• The Guide to Glorantha will be reprinted in 2016, in the same format as before. It won't be in general distribution though.
• The RQ2 reprint might be in stores, or it might not. This is being looked into.
• Sandy Petersen is very involved in the new Chaosium RuneQuest.
• Jeff's very brief comments on what the new CRQ will be have been reported (and mis-reported) elsewhere, and are better explained in Jeff's forum posts on the RQ forum and in the Chaosium press release.
• The Reiner Knizia Gloranthan board game that was previously announced by Chaosium was referred to by Jeff as "Khan of Khans". It's set in Prax, and a key theme seems to be stealing stuff from other players.
• Jeff announced that in late 2016 there will be a Kickstarter for a "re-modelled" Dragon Pass board game. This is being totally revamped by Chris Klug, it's not just a reprint. Basic KS goals will include cardboard figures for Harrek, Jar-Eel etc, with stretch goals for plastic figures. It is aimed for between 2 and 5 players and around 90-100 mins of play.

Edited December 8, 2015 by Steve

[smjn]

2 hours ago, Steve said:

The new Chaosium RuneQuest will be later in 2016.

Will be? Will be what? Released? With so many things in the works ATM I highly doubt this will be the case in reality. If the game is supposed to be ready, say this time next year, it should already be quite far in the development cycle and perhaps even being playtested. From what we've learned so far this does not seem to be the case. Actually I think we can consider ourselves extremely lucky if RQ7 will get released this decade.

I'm really somewhat frustrated that the New Chaosium has caused more unneccesary delays by changing course again instead of allowing The Design Mechanism finish what they started with Adventures in Glorantha. At the very least I think Chaosium should give TDM a permission to publish the unfinished draft AiG to the awaiting public.

[jholen]

2 hours ago, smjn said:

Will be? Will be what? Released? With so many things in the works ATM I highly doubt this will be the case in reality. If the game is supposed to be ready, say this time next year, it should already be quite far in the development cycle and perhaps even being playtested. From what we've learned so far this does not seem to be the case. Actually I think we can consider ourselves extremely lucky if RQ7 will get released this decade.

I'm really somewhat frustrated that the New Chaosium has caused more unneccesary delays by changing course again instead of allowing The Design Mechanism finish what they started with Adventures in Glorantha. At the very least I think Chaosium should give TDM a permission to publish the unfinished draft AiG to the awaiting public.

This. 

[aumshantih]

I'm sad about the lack of "Gods of Glorantha" news.  For those of us who choose to explore in non-Orlanthi sections of the world, having something to look forward to would be nice.

I'm hoping the revamped "Chaosium RuneQuest Glorantha" will be able to handle adventurers from all over Glorantha, and includes examples from a little further afield than just Dragon Pass.  Heck, having some write-ups for "The Abiding Book" in any current version of the Glorantha ruleset would be miracle of the Invisible God.