The return of Elric?

It looks like the multiverse of the Eternal Champion Elric will be returning to the world of in-print role-playing games thanks to Goodman Games:

“Goodman Games is thrilled to announce a licensing agreement to publish official tabletop role-playing material based on Elric of Melniboné, the iconic sword & sorcery character and setting created by legendary author Michael Moorcock! 

The Classic Era of Elric will include a line of sourcebooks, adventures, maps, and additional supplements, all designed for compatibility with both Fifth Edition and Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game systems. The project is scheduled to launch via crowdfunding in 2027. Products will be released following the successful campaign and will be available at game stores worldwide.”

Despite the influence that the early Elric stories had on me (and I remain fond of them to this day), I have to confess that I’m not all that excited about this. One reason is that the setting will use 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons and Dungeon Crawl Classics – two systems about which I have decidedly cool feelings. DCC was a poor fit for another cherished fictional setting – Jack Vance’s Dying Earth – and I doubt that it will be appropriate for Elric (at least not without some heavy reworking). 

A second – more decisive – reason is that I already own a lot of "Elric" role-playing books: three editions of Chaosium’s Stormbringer (including Elric!, which is the same system as 5th edition Stormbringer), and a lot of supplemental books for those editions, as well as all the Elric of Melniboné books that were published for Mongoose’s Runequest II (MRQII) system. (MRQII, as many readers no doubt know, eventually evolved into Mythras.) So I already have more than enough Elric material – as well as some Hawkmoon and Corum material – to run multiple campaigns, all using RPG systems that I much prefer to both 5e D&D and DCC.

But who knows – maybe the new material will be good! Time (and funds) permitting, I may check out what Goodman Games produces for everyone’s favourite melancholy albino. 

The new Mythras Imperative is now available!

I recently mentioned that a new version of Mythras Imperative was in the works. Well … it’s here!

The Design Mechanism’s announcement (at the RPG Pub):

The new, revised, expanded, ORC-licensed edition of Mythras Imperative is now available – just in time for Christmas.

While the game and mechanics are fundamentally the same, we've tweaked a few rules, made errata corrections, and fully integrated rules for firearms, vehicles, new character creation options, and sample creatures (with a complete list of traits to make them worthy opponents).

Most important of all, Mythras Imperative is licensed under ORC, meaning that 3rd party creators can freely use, adapt and build upon the Mythras Imperative foundation for their own unique d100 games, supplements and adventures. Combine Mythras Imperative with its sister book, Classic Fantasy Imperative, or any other ORC-licensed open gaming system.

So whether you want gritty fantasy or mythic historical, Pulp-era spies or cinematic superheroes, Mythras Imperative has you covered. Simple to learn, simple to play, but with a surprising depth that is the result of many, many years of refinement.

The PDF version is free to download. The Print on Demand version is $24.99 (black and white, softcover, 80 pages). A POD version for Drivethru customers will follow later.

TDM Store

Lulu Store

DTRPG

As I’ve mentioned many times before at this blog, Mythras is the game that I’ve played the most over the past dozen years (I include its immediate ancestors, RuneQuest 6 and Mongoose Runequest II, within the ‘Mythras’ category, as they’re all essentially the same game, written by the same people). I don’t write about it as much as I do some other games, primarily because I don’t run (“Game Master”) Mythras. I tend to write more about games that I’ve run in the past, am running currently, or plan to run in the future. But if I wasn’t so fortunate as to belong to a group with a couple of excellent Mythras GMs – one of whom is the co-author of the system, the other the co-author of the Mythic Babylon book – I’d definitely be running Mythras myself. 

Anyhow, if you’re still unfamiliar with Mythras, I recommend checking out Mythras Imperative, as it’s a nice, lean presentation of the system, easily readable within an afternoon.

Forthcoming Mythras loot

  

The wheels keep turning over at the Design Mechanism. There are some cool things coming out for Mythras later this year or early 2023. Among them:

 

Mythic Polynesia: the latest addition to the Mythic Earth range, and a comprehensive guide to the peoples of Polynesia, their way of life, myths, unique culture, and dozens of seeds for adventure.

Mythras Factions: a short supplement dealing with factions of all kinds in Mythras. From gangs to guilds, ambitious families to multinational cartels. The supplement includes unique rules for creating your faction, and guidance on how they can achieve their goals.

Mythic Britain: Gwynedd. A supplement for Mythic Britain, this mix of short campaign setting and adventures focuses on Gwynedd and Ynys Mon, a kingdom fraught with strife, and on the edge of implosion as old scores are settled between the sprawling families and clans.

Book of Schemes (expected early 2023): Welcome to Guelden, a city-state ruled by intrigue, guilds, feuding families, and a lust for power. This complete setting is in a similar vein to the popular Fioracitta, and details both Guelden and its immediate surroundings. The city can be dropped into any existing campaign, or used as the foundation for a new one, and is highly compatible with other books in the Mythras range.

 

  

Mythras is my favourite new RPG of the current century (as I’ve said many times here before). It’s certainly the one that I’ve played the most over the past dozen years (if its immediate predecessors, Mongoose RuneQuest II and RuneQuest 6 are included). So it’s great news that more interesting material will be available for it in the near future!

 

Also forthcoming are some items for Lyonesse: a scenario and a supplement focusing on “Rogues, Vagabonds, Thieves, and Miscreants.”

 

OpenQuest SRD now available from D101 Games

OpenQuest is the "rules light-ish" sibling of Mythras (and both are descendants of RuneQuest and Basic Role-playing). It's a great system, one that I've played in the past and would be happy to do so again in the future (although I haven't been able to read the 3rd edition version yet). Based on my experience with it, I highly recommend OQ for anyone who wants a simpler d100 fantasy system alternative to Mythras.

And now D101 has made available for all the OpenQuest SRD. Enjoy!

 

 

Steve Perrin, RIP

 

Influential game designer Steve Perrin passed away recently at the age of seventy-five.

In addition to RuneQuest, Perrin authored or contributed to numerous other role-playing games, including two of my all-time favourites: Stormbringer and Call of Cthulhu. And RQ's system, of course, informed all subsequent Basic Roleplaying (BRP, or “d100”) games. He also authored the influential AD&D module, Under Ilefarn, which was the first original adventure for TSR’s Forgotten Realms setting. 

Arguably, Perrin’s influence on RPG design was second only to that of the genre’s creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Shannon Appelcline provides a nice overview of Perrin’s work here.

Greg Stafford RIP

Greg Stafford passed away on October 11^th.

Stafford was the founder of Chaosium—one of the most important companies during the early days of role-playing games (perhaps second only to TSR)—and creator of the acclaimed Pendragon RPG. He helped to create—and provided the setting (Glorantha) for—one of the greatest and most influential RPGs of all time: RuneQuest. In his role at Chaosium during its ‘golden age’, he helped to shape and support two of my all-time favourite RPGs: The Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer. By all reports he was a generous genius. It is hard to believe that another one of the greats from the mythic era of role-playing is gone.

Here is the announcement at Chaosium.

[Part of William Church's map of Glorantha from RuneQuest 2nd ed.] 

Mythras Bundle of Holding

Curious about Mythras (formerly RuneQuest 6)? Well, over the next two days you can get a rather impressive bundle of Mythras PDFs for a very low price!

The Starter Collection (14.95 USD [retail value 47 USD]) includes:

• Mythras core rulebook ($15)
• Mythras Imperative (free)
• Classic Fantasy ($20)
• Three Mythras adventures:
• A Gift From Shamash ($4)
• Xamoxis' Cleansing ($4)
• Madness & Other Colours ($4)

If you want more, you can get the Bonus Collection (threshold starts at 24.95 USD  [retail value 52 USD]):

• Mythic Britain ($18)
• Mythic Britain Companion ($5)
• Mythic Rome ($14)
• Mythic Rome Maps (PWYW)
• Three Classic Fantasy adventures:
• M1 The Terror of Ettinmarsh ($5)
• G1 These Violent Delights ($5)
• N1 Tomb of the Mad Wizard ($5)

Design Mechanism's nominated charity is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

More information on this Bundle of Holding can be found here.

And Newt Newport (of D101 Games) recently reviewed Mythras at his 'Sorcerer Under Mountain' blog. 

Chaosium explains its decision regarding RuneQuest

Since I previously criticized Chaosium (under the new leadership of the gentlemen from Moon Design) for their decision to abandon RuneQuest 6, and to produce yet another version of RuneQuest (the fourth within a decade!), one embedded within Glorantha, it seems only fair that I should link to their official explanation for that decision.

I don’t have much to say about the rules-related reasons offered. Since I think that combat special effects are the best thing about RQ6’s combat system, and I have no interest in Glorantha, this forthcoming version obviously is of no interest to me. And even though my earlier post was strangely interpreted to be a comment on Chaosium’s financial condition (even though I said nothing about that in the post itself), a new Glorantha-based, 2^nd edition-compatible RuneQuest may very well be a grand success for Chaosium. After all, there seems to be a healthy number of fans of Glorantha with deep pockets out there. I hope that those folks are happy with the new version of RuneQuest.

That said, there are some puzzling things about Jeff Richards’s explanation of Chaosium’s decision. He writes, “we had imagined that the new RQ would be a streamlined RQ6,” but that, in part because “RQ Classic was a smashing success,” they decided that “the new rules had to be backwards compatible to RQ2.” 

This suggests that the decision not to proceed with RQ6, at least in part, was motivated by the outcome of the RQ Classic Kickstarter. Yet the decision to not use RQ6 came well before the Kickstarter. I knew this already (as a semi-regular RQ6 play-tester with Loz’s group in Toronto). But MOB publicly stated this in a recent post at RPGnet:

We actually formed the design team last year directly after Gen Con and we first met in person (including Ken, Sandy, Jason and Chris) in late September. It's only Steve who is a recent addition, and we're delighted to have him on board!
 MOB
VP - Chaosium

So “directly after Gen Con” (August 2015) the new design team for the new RQ was formed.* Yet somehow, according to Richards, “The RuneQuest Classic Kickstarter resolved the question” – despite the fact that that Kickstarter did not happen until many months after Gen Con. 

Hmmm...

While Chaosium’s decision not to use RQ6 obviously was disappointing to fans of that system, what many found especially annoying (including myself) was how Chaosium miscommunicated this decision. As late as December 3^rd – long after the decision to not use RQ6 had been made (as MOB’s post indicates), Chaosium’s Rick Meints publicly stated the following:

The RQ6 "Glorantha" project is progressing. We have it as a 2016 release, most likely later in the year. Lots of writing and editing is underway.

What could have motivated Meints to post such a misleading statement? Even if Chaosium did not want to make public their decision at that time, surely some other, less misleading statement could have been made. (And of course the decision did become public very shortly afterwards.)

To summarize: 

(a) Chaosium’s ‘official explanation’ for their decision not to use RQ6 suggests that that decision was made, at least in part, because of the success of the RQ Classic Kickstarter -- yet the decision not to use RQ6 was made months before the Kickstarter. 

(b) Chaosium unnecessarily put off announcing their decision -- and in fact made public statements that suggested that they were continuing with RQ6, long after they in fact had decided not to proceed with RQ6. 

Perhaps I've misinterpreted Chaosium's public statements, or there is a straightforward explanation for the prima facie contradictions of those statements?

[Finally, I should note that I stated in my comment on December 14: "I don’t intend to post anything more about Chaosium’s new direction for RuneQuest here (unless something especially newsworthy occurs)." I took Chaosium's recent statement to be "newsworthy," hence this post. Barring any further developments on this matter, though, I do not anticipate writing more about the new RQ here.]

* UPDATE (2016-03-01): MOB informs me that the team that formed directly after Gen Con included Loz and Pete (the Design Mechanism). I had assumed that they were not part of the team, as they were not mentioned in MOB's post. I thank MOB for the clarification. 

RuneQuest 6 to become Mythras

The game now known as RuneQuest 6 will soon be known as Mythras.

Here is the official announcement from the Design Mechanism:

Mythras is the new name for RuneQuest 6th Edition, the acclaimed roleplaying system developed by The Design Mechanism.
From July 2016, the name Mythras takes over from the previous trademark, but the same great rules continue, bringing you d100-based roleplaying adventure centred on logical, consistent, straightforward mechanics, coupled with innovative approaches to character creation, combat, magic and monsters. The name may have changed, but the song remains the same.
Why did we choose Mythras as a name? First of all, the game has always been about adventuring in mythic landscapes, with characters shaping their own stories, creating their legends and forging their own myths. It comes from the authors’ deep love of real world myths and ancient stories and so is the natural starting point for a new name.
Next comes Mithra or Mithras, a deity found in Persian, Greek, Roman, and Celtic mythologies. Mithras is a god of warriors, a divine protector of oaths and covenants, a protector of cattle and of waters. In the Zoroastrian Avestas, he is described as Mithra of Wide Pastures, of the Thousand Ears, and of the Myriad Eyes.
Bringing these two sources together gives us Mythras, a game concerned with myths, protectors, oaths, great deeds and wonderful stories: the perfect name for our game system.

While I'm dismayed that the DM didn't go with my suggestion "Mythic Quests" (no, not really!), this name has the virtue of being evocative and short.

In terms of rules, Mythras will be RQ6; this is not a 'new' or heavily revised version of the system. The main changes between the two core books will include:

Layout (cleaner, fresher, better, no ligatures, better use of space)
Art (some brand new pieces)
A couple of brand new Special Effects
General Errata
Most likely a renaming of the term 'Strike Rank' to 'Initiative'.

So nothing substantive. (But "no ligatures"? Oh no!) 

If you already own the RQ6 core rulebook, there'll be no need to pick up Mythras -- unless, of course, you want an attractive new book!

Old School Con 5.5: Featuring VIPs Loz and the Grognardia Guy

If you live in Toronto or are within easy travelling distance, and feel like playing some ‘old school’ role-playing games for a day, consider attending OSCon (5.5) on Saturday, January 16th, 2016.  There will be a number of different games available, including Call of Cthulhu, Dungeons and Dragons (various editions), Labyrinth Lord, and RuneQuest 6.

Design Mechanism’s Lawrence Whitaker (‘Loz’) – author of numerous RPG books over the years, and co-author of RuneQuest 6 – will be there, running a couple of RQ6 games: a Luther Arkwright adventure in the morning, and a Mythic Britain adventure in the evening.  I highly recommend playing in one of Lawrence’s games if you have the chance, as he is a superb Game Master.  I know this from experience, having played in a couple of his campaigns (one set in the Young Kingdoms and one set in Mythic Britain) over the years, as well as few shorter adventures from time to time.

Also running a few games of Empire of the Petal Throne is James Maliszewski, the fellow who used to write the Grognardia blog.  I have to confess that I’m a bit surprised to see Maliszewski as one of the Con’s VIPs, given how his ‘Dwimmermount’ kickstarter turned out.  I was not interested in, and hence did not back, ‘Dwimmermount.’  And I only casually followed the massive disaster that it became.  But my impression is that there were, and presumably still are, many within the ‘old school’ community who feel that they were badly burned by his abandonment of that project.  Perhaps, though, all that is water under the bridge now?  (I have no idea.)

In any case, OSCon should be good fun.  I took part in the second one (summer of 2012, I believe), during which I ran a Call of Cthulhu game.  I won’t be running a game this time around, but I look forward to playing in a couple.

Chaosium Comment Confusion

In response to my last post – in which I criticized Chaosium’s decision to abandon RuneQuest 6 and instead develop yet another version of the game (the fourth one in less than a decade) – I received the following comment from 'MOB', Vice-President of Chaosium:

You are of course welcome to voice your opinion about Chaosium's plans for the new edition of RQ. But what's with the OTT headline? Anyone reading just that could come away with the impression the company has been mortally wounded and is about to go under. Which is absolutely not the case. Not cool at all. 

Despite whatever "insider knowledge" you say you have, the ongoing relationship between Chaosium and TDM continues to be completely amicable: we are not just professional colleagues but long-standing friends. Someone's already posted the link to our Q&A about the new edition, which makes clear it is far from being just a "modified version of RuneQuest 2" and in fact retains many core elements of RQ6. Loz and Pete will rightly feature in the credits of the new Chaosium edition, and we have wished them well for the direction they are taking with the TDM successor to RQ6 (just as they have wished us well). While Chaosium and TDM have mutually decided to work on our own things for now, we all agree the door remains firmly open for future collaborations. 

MOB  VP – Chaosium

While I’m grateful to MOB for his contribution to the discussion, I found this to be a rather strange comment, for a few reasons:

1. I can’t imagine that anyone who read my previous post would interpret it, or its title, as commenting on Chaosium’s financial condition. I think that it’s obvious that my remarks concern only Chaosium’s decision regarding the future of RuneQuest. I cannot control how others interpret what I write, obviously, but Chaosium’s interpretation does not strike me to be a very plausible one at all. (And anyone remotely familiar with Chaosium would surely know that the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game is far more popular, and thus presumably far more important for Chaosium’s financial health, than Runequest.) 

2. As for my “insider knowledge,” I didn’t reveal any of that knowledge in this post – except for the timing of Chaosium’s decision not to use RQ6 in the future (which MOB obviously does not dispute, as it's knowledge that I did in fact have).   

3. Chaosium goes to great pains in the comment to emphasize how amicable things are between them and the Design Mechanism. That’s wonderful. But it has no connection to anything that I stated in the post. At no point did I claim or even suggest that relations between the two companies are now unfriendly or hostile. 

In any case, RuneQuest aside, I certainly do hope that the new Chaosium succeeds, as I am a huge Call of Cthulhu fan. Moreover, I actually am pretty happy with the (somewhat controversial) 7th edition of CoC – as is clear from my review of it (the RPGsite version), and my ongoing use of it in my current CoC campaign. I was a backer of the kickstarter, and am grateful that the new management has taken charge of sorting that out. My impression is that they’ve been doing a very fine job with it. I’m also excited about Chaosium’s reinvigorated Cthulhu Mythos fiction line.

To conclude: (a) I don’t intend to post anything more about Chaosium’s new direction for RuneQuest here (unless something especially newsworthy occurs); and (b) I wish them well, and likely will continue to support (and blog about, etc.) their work on Call of Cthulhu. So that’s that.

Chaosium fumbles fatally with its plan for a new RuneQuest

Chaosium’s ‘new’ version of RuneQuest will not be based on RuneQuest 6.  Instead, it will be a modified version of RuneQuest 2. Thus there has been a divorce, so to speak, between Design Mechanism, which will continue to publish and support RQ6 (albeit eventually under a different name), and Chaosium.

I’ve known about this for a few weeks now, but had to keep my lips sealed until an official announcement was made. (Ironically, I received initial news of the split the day after my post on the bright future for RuneQuest 6 with Chaosium.)

Here is the official announcement from Design Mechanism:

As you may have heard following announcements and comments made at Dragonmeet today, it appears that the next version of RuneQuest (to be published by Chaosium) will be based on a new version of Basic Roleplaying using RQ2 as its underlying core, with some adaptations made by the Chaosium team. Pete and I cannot say anything ourselves about these developments, except to note that Chaosium’s RuneQuest will not use RQ6 to anywhere near the extent originally envisaged following the GenCon announcements back in August. 

We are delighted however, to announce that RQ6 will continue under a new name. We will be announcing that name in due course, but the game system you have grown to care about will live on – as will all the supplements we have created so far, and the ones we intend to release. Pete and I have no direct involvement in RuneQuest’s future per se and so will be devoting our energies to Design Mechanism products. 

I’m sure this news will raise many questions, and some we will not be able to answer – a fact that is simply beyond our control. However we can talk freely about the next printing of our rules and will be very happy to do so. 

We wish Chaosium every success with both BRP and RuneQuest.
Loz and Pete

This is, in my view, an absolutely horrible decision on the part of Chaosium.

Why would they want to split the RQ fanbase yet again? And why would they think it wise to go back to RQ2?

Now, I could see Chaosium opting to use the Call of Cthulhu 7th edition rules as its base for BRP and the new re-Glorantha-ized RQ (even though it's not as good a system as RQ6, and has been somewhat controversial amongst longtime CoC players). That at least would 'unify' all their RPGs under one system. But what they're doing instead is baffling.

I will continue, of course, to play and support RQ6. And while I prefer a setting-neutral version of the RQ6 rules, and so am happy that that version will continue in the future (with a new name), I do regret that RQ6 will not enjoy the additional exposure and distribution that it would have had it been part of Chaosium's line.

Ah well…

The Future of Chaosium, Basic Roleplaying, RuneQuest, and the Call of Cthulhu

There have been many changes happening within the Basic Roleplaying ('d100') world, specifically, with Chaosium and the Design Mechanism.  (Some of the ownership changes already have been mentioned in an earlier post.)  Here is my understanding of the changes that I think will be of most interest to gamers.

1. The RuneQuest 6 rules will form the basis for the next generation of Basic Roleplaying (BRP).

Chaosium will be coming out with a new version of BRP, to be called Basic Roleplaying Essentials (‘BRPE’).  BRPE will be a rules booklet (32 pages!) that, like the famous one of yore, will serve as the ‘core’ for all future Chaosium games (with one important exception, which I’ll get to below).  BRPE will be based upon the RuneQuest 6 rules.  (Fortunately for devotees of the earlier version of BRP, it looks like the ‘gold book’ – and various other products, like Magic World – will continue to be available as PDFs.)

So for fans of RQ6, the future looks bright with BRPE.  Already a BRPE-based version of Mythic Iceland is in the works.

2. The next version of RuneQuest will use the RQ6 rules but will be set in Glorantha.

Chaosium plans to publish a ‘new’ version of RuneQuest next year.  The rules will be those of RuneQuest 6, though perhaps with some minor changes.  One big change, however, is that Glorantha will be included within the core book, and the rules will be adapted for that setting (in terms of magic, cults, beasts, cultures, and so forth).

I’m not too keen on this move myself, as I prefer the setting-neutral version of RQ.  But if the rules themselves will not change (much), I’m not too bothered, as I already own 5 copies of RQ6, plus the PDF.  Also, it is not clear yet whether something like the PDF version of RQ6 or ‘RQ Essentials’ will continue to be available after next summer.

In any case, the 32-page BRPE rules will obviate somewhat the need for a system-neutral version of RQ.  (I say ‘somewhat’ as BRPE will not include any rules for magic, stats for monsters, and a few of other things that are essential for running fantasy role-playing campaigns.)

3. The Design Mechanism will continue to publish material for RuneQuest.

Design Mechanism’s settings will continue to enjoy support.  So Mythic Britain, Monster Island, Luther Arkwright, and the like, will not be disappearing anytime soon.  

Lawrence Whitaker previews the Design Mechanism’s plans for the near future in the following post (with further discussion at the DM discussion board):

Our release plans have had to be modified, and Pete and I have a few things to work out - more around how rules are handled than the titles we publish. Some things I can expand on. 

1. More Mythics - Mesopotamia, Saxons and Greece. Not sure what will happen with Mythic Constantinople. Mob says he still wants to do it and has an outline written (indeed, Pete and I have played in part of it), but it’s a long shot. Mythic Britain will be extended by both a Logres, Saxon-based campaign (written by Paul Mitchener) and more scenarios from me (I have one I’ll be playtesting at a couple of local cons and with my own group). 

2. More Arkwright - Scenarios and Parallels. I’m actually keen to see submissions for Arkwright adventures so if you have an idea, let me know. 

3. More Sword and Sorcery - I’m actively thinking about expanding the Scourged Earth setting hinted at in the GM Pack, and resurrecting a set of Elric/Stormbringer scenarios I wrote many years ago to fit with the setting. One scenario is complete and I’m working on another. I’ve also been fleshing out the Scourged Earth/Wall background with some physics and dimensions for the Wall itself. 

4. More Thennla - I have Jon’s Taskan Campaign waiting for review and layout. I’ve postponed work on this pending some of the rules considerations we need to make, but it will certainly appear. I will also be talking to Jon about Assabian Rites as the next book. 

5. More one-offs - Short scenarios and so on. 

6. A project we can’t announce yet, but is genre-based and should be a lot of fun. 

What you won’t see from us is any Gloranthan material. That will be handled through Chaosium. However, I’m heavily involved in laying out Ian Cooper’s ‘Coming Storm’ books, and I’m very keen to create an RQ stat pack for it. 

There will be a much fuller announcement on Design Mechanism’s future this side of Christmas. There are going to be some important changes, but we’re still writing, developing, commissioning and publishing our own stuff, so from that POV, it’s business as usual.

All this sounds pretty great, and I’m looking forward to checking out a number of these items when they become available.

4. The print version of Call of Cthulhu 7th edition is coming along – finally.

The kickstarter campaign for the 7th edition of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game has been beset with a surfeit of problems and delays.  They are too numerous to catalogue here (and, frankly, I’ve long since stopped following the progress of CoC 7e).  But thanks to the new management team at Chaosium, we should be seeing the print versions of CoC 7e, and associated materials, in the very near future.

(Like other backers of the kickstarter, I’ve had the PDF version for a while now, although I expect that it will be updated in the near future to match the books.  And I recently received the PDF for Petersen’s Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors.  So the wheels are turning, at long last.)

5. No ‘unification’ of the Call of Cthulhu and the RQ-based BRP systems.

While BRPE will serve as the core for most future Chaosium role-playing games, no changes will be made to the CoC 7e system.  So Chaosium’s role-playing game lines will not be fully ‘unified’ – though, of course, CoC 7e and BRPE will share many similarities, given their common ancestor.

Whatever one thinks of 7e CoC (and I think it’s perfectly fine), this decision makes sense.  The last thing that Call of Cthulhu needs now is another revision!   Let the game be played for a few years, at least, before even contemplating any changes.  Moreover, I’m not sure that BRPE would be a great fit for CoC.  Combat is very detailed in RQ6 and BRPE – and the awesome combat system is, of course, one of the things that makes that game great – but combat really is not the focus for most CoC games.  Overall, I think that the core CoC rules need to be even ‘lighter’ than those of BRPE.  Perhaps I’m wrong about this, but even if so, it should be some time before Chaosium contemplates producing another version of CoC.

6. The discussion board ‘BRP Central’ is now the official Chaosium board.

Here it is the link to BRP Central, in case you’d like to join!

I’ve been a member for a few years now, though I don’t post there too often.  That may change in the future, however, given all of the exciting developments with respect to BRP.

Conclusion:

So those are top ‘news items’ concerning the future of RuneQuest, Basic Roleplaying, and the Call of Cthulhu games – at least to the best of my knowledge.  Overall I think that the future is very bright!  ‘BRP Essentials’ looks like a great introduction to the system (I’ve skimmed through a draft).  The Design Mechanism will continue producing brilliant settings and adventures for RuneQuest.  And the Call of Cthulhu looks to finally be stirring from its rest in deep, dark R’lyeh.

A Year of Great Gaming Comes to an End

[Spinoza with his huge d20 in Amsterdam]

I spent the 2014-2015 academic year (roughly, September 2014 to August 2015) on sabbatical in Toronto.  Amazingly, I managed to get some research and writing done while at the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto.  More importantly, though, I managed to get some great gaming done!

Here is what I did:

1. I played in roughly 15 (I can’t recall the precise number) sessions of RuneQuest 6 within the Mythic Britain setting (GM: Lawrence Whitaker).  This was one of the finest role-playing experiences I’ve had as a player – surpassed only by the Young Kingdoms (MRQII) campaign which I played in during the spring and summer of 2011.  (The GM for that earlier campaign also was Lawrence.)

2. I played in 3 sessions of RuneQuest 6 using the Luther Arkwright setting (GM: Lawrence Whitaker).  Lawrence ran the sample scenario from the book – which, amusingly, is set in an alternative parallel version of Toronto.  Hopefully I will be able to return for the final session of this adventure sometime this autumn or winter.

3. I ran (‘keepered’?) 7 sessions of Call of Cthulhu 7e, covering 3.5 scenarios.  (My initial impressions of 7e are noted here.)  I hope to return to this campaign, on occasion, in future visits to Toronto.  At the very least, I have to finish up the current adventure, set at the famous (and infamous) Miskatonic University.  (The classic 1920s New England ‘Lovecraft county’ setting was used.)

4. I ran (‘DM-ed’) 2 sessions of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.  (The first two parts of the ‘Mines of Phandelver’ adventure included within the 5th edition ‘Starter Set.’)  I would like to continue this campaign in the future, but I’m not sure if that will be possible.

5. I played in a ‘one shot’ session of Trail of Cthulhu (GM: Chris).  (This was most definitely a one shot, as all of the PCs turned into giant worms at the end!)

6. I played in 2 sessions of … something.  It was a Cthulhu-esque adventure set in the Free Congo State during 1907.  I can’t recall the name of the system, unfortunately, but the adventure was quite compelling (very reminiscent of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness).  (GM: Chris.)

These were all live tabletop games.  (I also ran a few sessions of AD&D 1st edition online.)  That’s is pretty good, I think, at this stage in my life and career (viz., a middle-aged professor).

I plan to write up an overview of the Call of Cthulhu campaign at some point, as well as some more of my impressions of D&D 5.

In the meantime, alas, back to teaching…