The dramatic recent developments at Chaosium, and its new relationship with the Design Mechanism, generated a fair amount of discussion on a number of RPG discussion boards (e.g.,
RPGnet,
BRP Central, and the
DM forum). Overall, though, I think that these changes clearly bode well for the future of both the
RuneQuest and the
Call of Cthulhu games.
The biggest downside to the new arrangement, in my view, is the likely disappearance of an in-print setting-free version of
RuneQuest one year from now. That’s a real pity. I worry that baking Glorantha into the RQ core book will create a barrier for potential players who are interested in RQ – say, for their own settings, or for those supported by the DM (e.g.,
Mythic Britain,
Luther Arkwright,
Classic Fantasy) – but not in Glorantha. I have nothing against Glorantha. (It’s not really my cup of tea, so it’s unlikely that I would ever run games in it myself, but I’d be fine with playing in a Glorantha campaign.) I just think that everyone would be better served with a setting-free version of the RQ core rules and a separate campaign book for Glorantha. It’s early days, though, so perhaps a setting-free version of RQ (even simply the ‘RQ Essentials’ PDF) might survive.
That complaint aside, though, having
RuneQuest distributed alongside Chaosium’s other games will be a great boon for the game and its community.
As for the
Call of Cthulhu, the print version of the new edition has been stalled for far too long, and the PDF version needs to be cleaned up. Getting the 7th edition rules finished up and in stores is key to keeping the game and its community healthy. Right now one can purchase modules that use the 7e CoC rules in game shops, but not the rule books for those modules. Fixing up, publishing, and distributing 7e CoC is the top priority for the ‘new’ Chaosium, and rightfully so. Whatever one thinks of the 7e version of CoC (I think
it’s fine, though I thought 6e was just fine as well), it is time to get those wheels turning!
In short, with the new leadership at Chaosium, and its new relationship with the Design Mechanism, the future for the two premier ‘BRP’ (‘d100’) games –
RuneQuest and
Call of Cthulhu – looks very bright.
