April plans: Looking at Good Resources for Basic Roleplaying (Part I: Trilemma Adventures)

 I've been deeply immersed in work, meaning I have had precious little time to spend enjoying more basic things in life; I've managed a couple game sessions recently (my son is running a biweekly Fallout RPG game, and I am two sessions in to a D&D 5.5 game that I decided on because it was the path of least resistance), but it looks like that will all be intermittent for me for the next several weeks. 

When I get to this stage of "overhwlming tidal wave of work," I often find myself latching on to a single system and thinking a lot about it when time permits. As it happens this time the system is (once again) BRP from Chaosium. I've actually been spending a bit of time contemplating it already, as the recent BRP Creatures book effectively doubled the number of resources a GM might have and need for the game. The problem is, Chaosium is intermittent at best with its release schedule on BRP, and that schedule often includes stuff like the Vikings RPG, which is cool and all, but also not really what I want out of a BRP supplement for the most part. My expectations are unrealistically high: I would love a line of BRP books reminiscent of GURPS in the 90's, but I know that's a bit of a pipe dream. Luckily a lot of GURPS stuff from that era works well as generic sourcebooks...

Which gets to my idea for an April discussion point: analyzing what resources out there make good sourcebooks very specifically for BRP. These don't all need to be generic resources, either....they just need to be books that work well in being adapted to BRP. 

With that in mind, I will take some time to compile a list for discussion, and I shall spend the next month seeing how much time I find to blog about all of this! I already have found a couple Shadowdark books that I realized would be fun to adapt to BRP, and there's more than one or two generic books that make good resources. No genre limits either, as of course BRP Is multigenre. Also, if I find an actual BRP-compatible book that people may not know about that is worth considering I will mention it as well.

Okay! A new target goal...we'll see how this goes.....

My first suggestion is Trilemma Adventures, a book I have talked about before on this blog, I think. It's an incredible art book (especially if you get the print version and not the POD edition), and gorgeously illustrated with hand-drawn 3D maps that are incredibly evocative. Every map includes a keyed set of locations with details, just enough to inspire the creative GM, not enough to bog you down in excess details, which means that all of the scenarios and maps in the book can be used very easily in your own world building. While Trilemma Adventures has an old-school aesthetic (and the monster supplement has a generic core version with additional books in a 5E and B/X flavor), the actual modules are suitably unique and interesting enough that all you as a BRP GM would need to do is match up the appropriate stats for relevant monsters and NPCs with your own resources, flesh out some of the artifacts and objects, and you are good to go....nothing here will make you feel like you're just reskinning a D&D module with BRP stats (not that there's anything wrong with that!), and this is an excellent resource if you are a BRP GM who's been looking for an excuse to flex some of the contents of the new BRP Creatures book, which has a robust fantasy bestiary within its pages; practically everything in Trilemma Adventures either has an available analog in the BRP Creatures book, or can easily be statted out.

So, if you want to do BRP in a fantasy setting, pairing the core rules with BRP Creatures and Trilemma Adventures will give you a load of instant resources for a lengthy campaign, either structured around the implied world of the Trilemma setting, or reskinned (100% easy to do) into whatever fantasy realm you want powered by the BRP engine. 

The Third GM Inspiration: Runequest Cities

 

The Third GM Inspiration: Runequest Cities

Long out of print but still available at used game stores or on Ebay (recent search here) for probably more than I would pay for it, Runequest Cities is one of the oldest resources in my game collection that I persistently find invaluable at the game table. There may also be PDF versions of it somewhere online. 

Originally published in 1979 by Midkemia Press, Cities was part of a series of resources for OD&D/AD&D providing some excellent altenrative resources to other third party publishers of the day (especially Judges Guild, which managed to produce both great stuff and also invented the concept of shovelware for print games before it existed as a concept for video games). At some point the series, which includes other more directed books named Carse and  Tulan of the Isles, Chaosium acquired ownership and published an edition of the books. Eventually when Avalon Hill took over as publisher for Runequest III they released the book as Runequest Cities in a fourth edition. This is the copy I have held on to since its release, and have used in countless fantasy campaigns.

While there have been many good City campaign resources over the years, the reason I like this particular book the most is that it manages to pack an incredible volume of interesting randomized detail into a tight 64 page package. It also did a lot of stuff that is "back in vogue" today but was honestly invented, if not by this book, then certainly by the first generation/era of RPGs. Among these inventions are some excellent rules on generating realistic towns and cities procedurally, along with a lovely section on character catch-up; downtime rules, effectively, for seeing what is going on the PCs when they have been out of action for a while, or had some decent time off between adventures. Today games often pack in some rules on this (see Pathfinder's downtime rules or D&D 5E's section on the same in their expansion books as an example), but here is, in my opinion, a much nicer set of interesting rules for doing exactly that.

Runequest Cities is also excellent for campaigns looking for a baseline sense of mythohistorical verismilitude. It provides a fine picture of a city setting that could easily have nestled somewhere in antiquity with ease, and the tables fit settings with such baseline assumptions easily (ergo the reason it was adapted as a Runequest resource). If you play Mythras, GURPS, Savage Worlds or even, say, Pathfinder of D&D with some baseline assumptions set in a more Romanesque era rather than a renaissance or steampunk era then this book will prove incredibly handy for generating interesting encounters on the street and building realistic settlements.

The downside of Runequest Cities is it is out of print. You can find copies for a pretty penny on Ebay, but if you are interested in the closest modern equivalent resource I think the next best book like this I have found it Kobold Press's Campaign Builder series, especially Cities & Towns.  

BRP Creatures drops November 12th!!!

 How do I keep missing these things? Why does Chaosium stealth drop news of BRP on their blog and nowhere else? The same thing happened with the BRP GM Screen, the first I heard of it was a listing on the Noble Knight game store. 

Anyway, here's the blog post I found from Chaosium after seeing the preorder appear (once again) on Noble Knight. 

Deathbat's Goals and Predictions for 2024

 Well the new year is here and along with it comes a slew of blogs and vlogs talking about new year predictions, goals and rampant, wild speculation. For my part of this, I am going to lump my post into a list of predictions and goals for myself:

Goal: run Mothership - easily achieved! I am starting the new campaign next Saturday (sesh zero was last Saturday, obstructed by work).

Prediction: D&D One will release but D&D Beyond will be in poor shape for an "early access" portal of online graphics-focused gaming - I actually think that we won't be anywhere close to seeing a properly ready product on D&D Beyond in the way most gamers imagine it will need to be. We're going to see a product that only hints at that demo WotC showed us, instead.

Goal: run Dragonbane - also easily achieved! I will plan to run this, probably on Saturday, after the Mothership campaign.

Prediction: Tales of the Valiant will arrive and be a big hit, may eat in to Pathfinder's market share but won't steal casuals from D&D. Much as I'd like to imagine it could, I don't see it happening. But I do believe that Kobold Press is well known for putting out good products, and that will garner attention within the more "core" RPGer crowd that may be seeking a D&D alternate. It's target of 5E compatibility will make it an easier sell.

Goal: run Traveller! Now that the newer release books are all in my hands I have a keen interest in building out a new Traveller campaign, and I might consider using The Great Rift set to do it. Probably a goal for later this year due to my interrupting the flow with Mothership in January.

Prediction: We will get D&D-like (what we used to call heartbreaker) fatigue in 2024 as numerous other D&D-inspired games finally release in response to the revamped D&D plus the post OGL kerfuffle. Examples include Tales of the Valiant, of course, and the second set of Pathfinder 2E revised book, but Shadowdark is a thing, as is a 2nd edition of 13th Age allegedly supposed to release some day, and there are a fair number of other D&D-based post-OGL products named last year which I recall as being scheduled for release this year.

Goal: Try to get at least 2 posts out every week this year on the blog. I'll try! It is a good writing exercise, this as always has been less about writing for an audience (yeah, may explain some posts lol) and more about writing for myself to keep my own interest engaged.

Prediction: We will not see a lot of new IP or gaming properties this year as the market is too knotted around D&D at the moment. Once the new D&D books and whatever happens with D&D Beyond finally drop, we will see a sag in the market for a bit, and possibly some waning interest over time, followed by maybe some more creative endeavours in 2025. This will be my "bold" prediction. Will see if it comes to pass next year.

Goal: pace myself. I am honestly getting older, so I keep reminding myself, and it can be hard to run two games a week these days while managing a business and family. I need to keep that in mind and not be shy about letting my gamer cohorts know that sometimes Wednesday or Saturday nights are just not good for gaming. Also, whenever possible, I need to foster more local IRL gaming because the VTT experience is just never really going to cut it for me. 

Okay, that's it for my gaming predictions and goals of 2024! I wish I had more of a non-D&D sort for predictions, but it's hard to come up with anything noteworthy. To that end:

--I could say "Chaosium will give up on Rivers of London" for example, but that's hardly a prediction and more just an observation that they backed a really esoteric IP (for the states, at least) and didn't do enough promotion. 

--Or I could speculate that we'll reach January 1 2025 and still be waiting for the third Esper Genesis book to arrive (I am going to call that one now), but that's mostly just a recognition that something on the business/publishing end of the publisher for that book series has gone very south and that I suspect the real reason that they haven't produced the book is lack of funds. 

--Likewise I could predict that Steve Jackson Games may announce a new edition of GURPS this year but I doubt it; I think the core developers/writers at SJ Games are too old and tired to take up the mantle of a new edition, and GURPS has languished in its own special corner of the cottage industry for so long that no new blood exists to come take up the task. 

--I could also predict 13th Age 2nd Edition won't see release this year, because they probably want to wait until well after D&D's next edition has saturated its way through the audience and generated a new group of expats for a different variant edition, but who really knows, Pelgrane Press publishes to the toot of its own horn. 

--I could also predict that Pathfinder, despite now having better, more organized and comprehensive books out, will flounder in the market due to the perceived buy-in being too high for most gamers, but it will still appeal to the subset of D&Ders who crave a bit more dynamic mechanical flair in their games. We'll see!

Anyway, Happy New Year!  

Having fun with Basic Roleplaying

The revised edition of Basic Roleplaying is a lovely book, it changes just enough to make it more useful and efficient, while still being the system I've been enjoying for going on 43 years now. I didn't have much to say in this post, but amidst a year of GM burnout, a developed fascination for minimalist zine games, and a lot of work interrupting play, it's been nice to get my hands on the new BRP hardcover and start experimenting with what I can do with it. In every way this book feels just a bit more like what I need to generate some interesting scenarios and campaigns. I'll post some soon, once I've sorted out what I won't use, or end up using (to avoid spoilers for my players). I will say that I have a near-future hard SF campaign ready, as well as that long-awaited ancient Egypt campaign in the works, and some developing ideas on a new Strange Apocalypse style supers campaign.

That's it! Just a short comment to let everyone know I exist and will be back on track for posting soon, things are returning to normal for me again. 

Most Exciting News of 2023: Basic Roleplaying Returns!

 I just got the Ab Chaos newsletter from Chaosium this morning and here was the announcement:

Holy cats....a new release of the BRP book in April, with print to follow! Just when I thought Chaosium had all but abandoned BRP as a generic game system. 

Questions do abound, though. Will this revision reflect the 7th edition Call of Cthulhu changes? Will it be a truly big book with enough core content to let a GM devise their own games, or will it mostly be a framework with the intent that it spark lots of open content, as it will fall under the open content license Chaosium has set up? How much of it will reflect Chaosium today vs. the Chaosium of prior eras? The old Gold Book covers "Old Chaosium" well enough, so if this one is mostly focused on the current edition of the system as reflected between Runequest and Call of Cthulhu I think I would be fine with that.  The lighter resource for BRP previously released free online is probably the new template for this book, I presume, which is a good thing....it is an excellent modern iteration of BRP.

Either way, this is the best news and the thing I am most looking forward to in 2023 now (next to Mothership 1E finally being released).

Deathbat's Tabletop Gaming Predictions for 2019

Ah, this is going to be a tough one because the game industry (for RPGs, at least) is fairly stable and predictable these days. But I'll give it a shot with some suggestions for what may come to be:

1. D&D will see an official sourcebook for at least two of these: Spelljammer, Dark Suns, or Eberron

It's clear that Wizards of the Coast has been setting up all three for a return at some point, the question is just: when? And will we see more Ravnica/Planewalker stuff for Magic soon?

2. Far West will not appear this year, and therefore not appear this decade

I have no bone in this failed Kickstarter that is somehow still in limbo after something like seven years. Follow Erik Tenkar for occasional "updates" on the Kickstarter, but the only certainty anymore is that clocks are right twice a day, and this Kickstarter kicked the bucket a long time ago, but the author manages to keep stringing it out to hopefully run out the statute of limitations on lawsuits, I am guessing. 

3. Modiphius will hit some sort of Criticality this year

Modiphius is a prolific publisher and distributor, and just acquired the controls to the entire World of Darkness line in the wake of some shake ups at Paradox/White Wolf over poor editorial controls. As a result Modiphius now has a ridiculous number of titles and IPs under its belt, possibly more than they can handle, although I admit I have no information on total staff size or arrangements.

In general Modiphius has been brilliant at handling high quality print and PDF distribution, Kickstarters and distribution deals. I don't know how long they can sustain, and given that they were the only retailer online I ordered from in the last two months that was not quite able to fulfill their orders within the same month that the orders were placed, I suspect that they may be a bit overwhelmed. My prediction is that this year Modiphius could do very well, but it is possible --likely, even-- that they have bitten off more than they can chew at last, and I wonder if some of their product lines are maybe not moving as fast as they should? Even Cubicle 7 seems to have streamlined their product schedule, for example.

It could be that Modiphius is effectively sliding in to a new category of publisher/distributor and maybe is closer to Fantasy Flight Games in terms of scope now than, say, Cubicle 7. But I predict either way that we'll see some sort of impact on their high volume of product output this year.

4. D&D will see more than four major releases from WotC this year

D&D seems to be doing well enough that we're seeing more product creep, which is either a good thing or not depending on who you are. I predict we will see five major releases this year instead of four like last year, with some clever tie-ins to work it all together.

5. Pathfinder 2.0 Release will please the hardcore and capture the curious but fail to expand market share

I don't think this is a brave prediction, unfotunately. I think that the open playtest led to an unfortunate feedback loop in which players turned off by the playtest simply bailed out, and the ones willing to embrace it stayed in, and as a result the playtest will be a solid refinement of what that core likes, while missing the information necessary to expand the game to include the larger overall audience. Will it be playable? Absolutely. Will it be worth playing? Only if it offers an experience that is competitive with D&D in a way that is going to capture new players. Unfortunately I think it's going in the opposite direction.

6. Palladium may go belly up

Possibly not until 2020, but I have a feeling that Palladium will hit rock bottom and finally go kaput this year. Too much negativity from burned fans over Robotech may be the cause, but it's chiefly due to the fact that while many could argue Palladium's games have been stuck in the nineties, now even their business practices are stuck in the nineties, and this along with what seem to be perpetual financial woes may be it for them. I could possibly be wrong here.....but only in that this may not happen until 2020 or maybe 2021, but since I need something contentious for my list this is a good bet.

7. The Fantasy Trip gets a serious revival

This is a no-brainer: TFT is being released, in print, by Marchish. Steve Jackson Games is providing an encouraging online storefront for new product. We'll see the release of classic TFT lead either to serious expansions or a 2nd edition announced before the end of the year.

8. BRP revised finally appears

Fingers crossed, we will see the new 32 page BRP book and maybe an updated Mythic Iceland in PDF at least before December 2019. Of course, Chaosium still needs to get print versions of the Glorantha Bestiary and GM Screen out, which I sincerely hope does happen....even if you're not a Glorantha fan, the game is amazing and deserves attention. It will MAKE you a Glorantha fan!

....okay, that's enough of that! I'll do one for Computer Gaming next.

Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha - There's a Lot of Game in Here

First off, you don't need my impressions to give you a sense of Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha when you can find it right here for free. This edition is a fifty page free release to accompany the "Free RPG Day" which is, best I can tell, something other parts of the country get but no one in New Mexico participates in. Luckily (?) Chaosium is offering the print version for $9.95 on their site as well. I was a bit behind in snagging the latest Call of Cthulhu goodness so I threw a copy in for good measure.

My first impression on reading through the PDF is it happens to be a mostly complete game. Although specific bits (such as additional possible magic systems beyond spirit magic and rune use) and a bestiary are clearly reserved for a future actual release, you pretty much have about as much in this book as, say, Mythras Imperative offers, and Runequets also offers a scenario.

One of the reasons I'm grabbing a copy is that the new core system is really pretty classic and also pretty nice. It's got some "issues" depending on whether you are still sold on certain classic elements of BRP and RQ....I have no love of the strike rank mechanic, for example (but accept that it's still core to the Runequest design concept). I have fallen in love with Call of Cthulhu 7E's bold excision of the 3-18 stat ranges in favor of uniforn percentile scores, shoring up what now feels to me like a nearly forty year old artifact of game design derived from D&D. But all this aside, the new RQ looks a lot like old RQs of the past.

It's still "RQ 7th Edition" to me no matter what the Chaosium crew would like me to think. And the "Roleplaying in Glorantha" part is still annoying, but I guess in some respects this is a vanity product aimed at a niche audience so this is probably a design feature we will just have to accept if Glorantha is not your thing.

There is good news, though.....nothing overly unexpected.....but just from reading this tome I can safely say that running Runequest adventures in settings other than Glorantha should be just as easy as it was in 1982. All you have to do is embrace the runes and core conceits of the magic system as chracteristic of whatever setting you desire, and that's it. Gamers have been cutting the setting from the mechanics since the dawn of the hobby, this is nothing new here. And this sort of concern is ultimately only for people like me who do not need a pre-created world to run games in, or who find the specific design ethos of Glorantha not to their liking. For most gamers, I have a feeling the new Runequest is going to make Glorantha accessible and easy to adapt to in a way we haven't seen before.

Anyway....check it out....I am really hoping we get to see the final product later this year.

R.I.P. Magic World

In Ab Chaos #25 (the Chaosium newsletter) it was announced that Magic World has been officially put out to pasture. Chaosium will continue to sell the books it has, and PDFs, but that's it. This is nothing (so far as I recall) that we didn't already basically know, it's just mostly closure. The official reasons: they are a small crew focused on other things, Magic World was very niche (I am sure it was) and they don't want to do "generic" fantasy (which is a shame that MW is considered generic fantasy; ain't nothing else like it in the fantasy RPG genre). There is also the more general feeling I get that Chaosium content from 1984 to 2014 has been wiped off the map for all practical purposes, and all projects associated with former Chaosium folk no longer in the mix. Okay, fair enough....one must expect that the current crew will focus on what they are most interested in (and what is presumably most profitable).*

But there is good news for the all the MW fans out there: Chaosium is indicating that they are open to licensing for Magic World, for any fans interested. There are definitely a few hardcore fans out there who've produced some impressive online supplements (check out basicroleplaying.com for examples such as the Big Damn Book of Monsters). Dustin Wright, unfortunately, is out of BRP entirely as of the last post I read from him over there so it seems unlikely we'll get any new content from the original author/compiler. It's also unclear to me if Chaosium would be open to a license in which someone produces an entirely new or revised rulebook (given they plan to continue selling the two books they did release in PDF, at least).

The other news in the email is that Mythic Iceland is nearing completion. I imagine this will sell well, both because many found it a great book, and also because this will be our first look at the new edition of the Runequest/BRP Essentials game system. I was never sufficiently excited by this setting to think of using it for gaming, but I am sure it somehow has it's place. It was, admittedly, one of the best sourcebooks for BRP to be released, so it's good to see it will continue to exist.




*And lets face it, Chaosium is practically the poster child for the cottage industry of gaming, where everything is already niche, so supporting a niche within a niche is just not a good idea. That said...is Mythic Iceland really that much better of a seller than Magic World was?

2015 Gaming Year in Review Part III: The More Things Change...

This was an interesting year for some of the most venerable role playing game publishers out there as they were handed over to the winds of fate, changing hands in ownership rather unexpectedly.

HIGH: Chaosium returns to classic form

Chaosium was returned to Petersen and Stafford early this year, which seemed like a fascinating turn of events, especially after it was revealed how close the company was to folding as a result of the debt it accrued due to the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Kickstarter (or rather, the lack of money to afford fulfillment). Most of the year was spent paring down Chaosium's focus, making it leaner and tighter, all while focusing on fulfillment. Late in the game Runequest became a major focus as well, as BRP fell to the wayside and the company at least on the surface seems to be repurposing itself to old fans of Runequest 2 and those tolerant fans hanging on patiently for CoC 7.

LOW: Chaosium's return to classic form fragments the BRP crowd

The downside of all this is that all of the established licensed products and support are now a thing of the past. The Design Mechanism's Runequest won't be the "official Runequest" which seems odd to all the people who've come to identify Pete and Loz as the life-bringers of the setting. A generic edition will no longer be a thing as Glorantha returns to the fore, much to the delight of the Gloranthaphiles but also to the detriment of the fans of the system but not the setting.

2016 will definitely be the year we see how this all affects the niche corner of gamer fans who love their BRP gaming.

HIGH: Paradox Entertainment Buys White Wolf

Paradox, a computer game company known for non-AAA budget games that usually are pretty good, bought White Wolf, saving it from a slow death at the hands of CCP, the copany behind EVE Online. Suddenly it looks like we'll have a new 4th edition Vampire: The Masquerade, continued support for the Old World of Darkness (now just plain old World of Darkness), Onyx Studios support for Chronicles of Darkness (what used to be the "New" WoD), and promises of a computer game, possibly an RPG.

Onyx had done a great job reviving and keeping World of Darkness alive, but only if you knew where to look. This new direction from Paradox is a good sign.

HIGH: Design Mechanism does get to continue supporting its own system

On the plus side, Chaosium is fine with Pete and Loz continuing to provide support for the system formerly known as Runequest 6. Fans of the system got a taste of how versatile it can be in the Luther Arkwright expansion, and now maybe in 2016 for many of us we won't need to stress too much about Chaosium's future because Design Mechanism has a perfectly viable Glorantha-free alternative out there.

Predictions: if Chaosium stays solvent, meets its Kickstarter obligations, and produces a great edition of Runequest that everyone can get behind then they will see some smooth sailing by close of year. If too many of these goals are not met then the future will look grim. Meanwhile I predict White Wolf will have a lot going on and will at last get exposure on a retail level again, possibly growing its fanbase, and it will hopefully do well under Paradox. Meanwhile I expect Pete and Loz to produce at least 2-3 high quality books powered by the Design Mechanism House Engine before Chaosium gets Runequest 4 out.

Next: OSR!

Alephtar Games no longer licensed for Chaosium products? Revoluton to come...

There's a thread here on basicroleplaying.com which does not provide details but does indicate that Alephtar Games no longer has a license to produce official Chaosium content. It suggests that they are looking for a "Revolutionary" solution which some have taken to imply is the Renaissance! RPG, a D100/BRP variant based on the OGL version of Legend. We could be wrong on that last one, but I'm hoping not. (UPDATE: and further browsing revealed this announcement. So they'll be doing their own D100-based system variant. Hmmm. On the plus side it will be OGL-based with an SRD, so if they do a good job on this then maybe Revolution will fill a void that Chaosium seems to be trying to close right now.)

Not sure what this means, other than that it seems that Chaosium is once more drawing tight on the third party publishers out there. Design Mechanism and Alephtar.....hmmmm.

I'll say this much: I am glad I already own all the Alephtar releases to date, and I have recently polished off my collection of Runequest 6 books so that I now own everything Design Mechanism has produced so far.

I better really, really, really like Call of Cthulhu 7th edition when it arrives. (Especially since I can't use my spanky new Cthulhu: Dark Ages 2nd edition which does not, in fact, contain the rules of play.....sigh....)

More on Chaosium's Reaquisition of Runequest

Loz post's about what this all means on the Design Mechanism Boards here. I really appreciate the full disclosure; Pete and Loz have always been great at explaining what is going on and why/where/how. A quick summary, with my diatribe shotgun commentary:

1. Runequest 6 will go away in 2016, to be replaced by Chaosium's Runequest which will no longer be generic, and will fully incorporate Glorantha as it's core setting. Fans of Glorantha will rejoice at last (it's been long in coming) while fans of the more generic mytho-historical default Runequest going back to Avalon Hill's edition in 1983 will be disappointed. My concern is that over the last 32 years a significant fanbase for Runequest developed that identify the game with its mechanical and historical rigor as a generic system and not as a vessel for Glorantha. If the Chaosium Runequest is still fully able to support a non-Glorantha environment, I will be happy; if it requires a little work or is too distinct a product of its setting then I will have to sit this one out.....I get that Glorantha is appreciated, and I appreciate that; but I am an old gamer dude and my world/setting investment lies elsewhere.

2. Loz and Pete can continue to support RQ with supplemental material through the Design Mechanism. This is good...have you seen the RQ6 supplements? They are stellar books, meaty and ambitious. Monster Island and Mythic Britain are two of the best books I own.

3. Loz does not know the status on Chaosium's existing games, i.e. Magic World, the only one occupying the same creative/genre space as Runequest. Good news I suppose is if the new RQ is specifically a Glorantha-focused rule set (welcome back to 1978 I guess) then maybe Magic World will continue to exist for those who prefer a non-Gloranthafied edition of the BRP system.

4. The new RQ will be mechanically identical to RQ6 (or close enough I guess). This is good; it's probably the best iteration of BRP on the market, and frankly a future revision of BRP should --in my opinion-- borrow more from RQ6 than from CoC 7th. Or do what it always does and provide all the options for both.

Chaosium Blowout Sale

You probably already know about it, but Chaosium has a huge sale going on, probably to help move dusty back stock and to generate money to help pay for Kickstarter shipping costs (my guess). They may also be looking to refine their store focus away from competition with other online retailers, and move what I suspect is a lot of monographs that are just lying around waiting for people to buy them when a sale crops up.

So I just dropped a ton of money over there....about twenty books in total.....how about you?

Interview with Sandy Petersen at Yog-Sothoth.com

Check out this really interesting and informative interview (audio) with Sandy Petersen on the Changes and recent problems of Chaosium here. Really interesting listening. I had no idea Chaosium was in the dumps as deep as it was...probably because I didn't back any of their Kickstarters (thankfully! My aversion to paying for hypotheticals is paying off)

Greg Stafford and Sandy Peterson return to Chaosium. Names taken, asses kicked apparently

Tenkar scooped this one from a Kickstarter post on the Horror on the Orient Express...which I had no idea was still in a "indeterminate fulfillment" stage but apparently it is (ironic considering I bought a retail big box and have it on my shelf). As always beware the backer. But...well, go over to Tenkar's Tavern and read the excerpt for yourself. Short version:

Greg Stafford is back as CEO and President of Chaosium.

Sandy Peterson is also back.

If you don't know who those two are, go read Designers & Dragons and mentally stick their names next to Arneson and Gygax (and if you don't know who THOSE two are, please resume playing Faraway Land or Mouse Guard or whatever you young scamps do on the computablets)

They are going to finish fulfilling the Horror on the Orient Express backer product that apparently is still log jammed somewhere (I did not know about that)

They are going to look deep into the heart of Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and....rip it out? I have no idea. It's intriguing to wonder what's up. The 7th edition of CoC has been sitting on site as a PDF for a few months now, but no word on a print release. I guess Chaosium has had some money trouble....not really surprised....

Finally promises of returning to making awesome games. I hope BRP and Magic World remain on that list. Especially MW since I don't think they can extract Runequest 6 from the Design Mechanism. Or....can they? Who owns the RQ licensing again? Hmmmmm.....

Magic World Chronicler's Companion out by GenCon?

While perusing the Basic Roleplaying boards for tiny scraplets of info on potential future Magic World releases (yeah all of us D&D 5E gamers need to sit down and shut up when it comes to info on release schedules, m'kay???) I noticed this awesome bit posted by Nick Nacario that the Chronicler's Companion is conceivably going to exist this year. I am very happy....at this rate Magic World will be releasing product at a 1:2 ratio to D&D 5E. More money for me to spend on comics I guess, but I guess a book a year is better than none at all!

So from Nick's post:

Hey all,

I am currently laying out the Chronicler's Companion. It contains all of the material that Mr. Monroe stated earlier in this thread BUT with the addition of the Horsechester material that Mr. Richard LeDuc has written. The Horsechester material consists of a sourcebook detailing the village and environs of Horsechester as well as three scenarios that take place in and around the region.

Look for it in the next couple of months. I'm going to try to get it to GenCon.

Nick Nacario
Magic World Guy
Chaosium Inc.

CORRECTION: The scenario in the back of Horsechester is a three part scenario, NOT three scenarios. Sorry for the mistake.

Chaosium Haul

Since Halloween came and went that means Chaosium had another sale. It's getting harder these days for me to find books at Chaosium that I don't already own, but I snagged a few....specifically a copy of Cthulhu Rising (my only other copy is a tape-bound pre-revised edition from ages ago), Jovian Nightmares and (finally) Val-du-Loup. 

So did you find anything interesting? Sale's still going on, I think..... 

BRP - Blood Tide at the printers

I didn't even know it existed a few minutes ago and suddenly I'm reading an email from Chaosium that a 240 page tome of piracy called Blood Tide for BRP is at the printers and due for release around August 18th. I like this version of Chaosium, where you don't even know a book exists and then suddenly there it is! Cunning strategy, that. And better than the alternative approach of announcing the book well in advance then missing deadlines by a few months or years (cough CoC 7th cough Pulp Cthulhu cough).

The order page is here. Chaosium has a great article on the age of piracy here. The author of this book is Kenneth Spencer, who's works include some decent stuff, nothing shocking but also nothing worrying, and the article he provided on the age of piracy looks good. His Rocket Age RPG has me tantalized, too.

$13 off any order of $39 or more on Chaosium.com

Check it out: Chaosium.com has a promotion this weekend for an automatic $13 discount on any order of $39 or more. Earlier this week I mentioned that BRP Enlightened Magic was out....it's a very good excuse to buy a copy, and speaking of Englightened Magic, I received my physical copy today, which was awesome....I think Chaosium's new site has fixed the order fulfillment issues I've had with them in the past.

So, I happen to not own a copy of The Laundry RPG yet so I ordered a copy on the discount....will talk more on both that and Enlightened Magic later....

BRP - Enlightened Magic is out

Amidst all the furor over D&D 5E's release there is still other news out there. Yes! Hard to believe. One bit of news is Chaosium's recent reboot of their site...it's suddenly much nicer and easier to use. I just popped over and ordered the latest BRP sourcebook, Enlightend Magic. It looks good, hopefully will be just the book I need for my historical occult campaign that I'm always thinking about running....or even just a good resource to supplement my ongoing Magic World campaign, which admittedly has already got a cornucopia of coolness with the Advanced Sorcery book.

Once I get it (and I have a history of late order problems with Chaosium but hope the site change fixes that issue) I'll offer up a review....