Chaosium Inc. - Newsletter

The latest RPG news from Chaosium...
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#87 the straight scoop from the well of chaos... Play a game and honor Greg Stafford next weekend! Next weekend on November 10th, Greg Stafford's family is holding a memorial celebration of his life in Berkeley CA. For the many, many gamers around the world who would love to attend but can't, or would like to commemorate and honor Greg's life and achievements, here's a way you can: Play one of Greg's games, or a game he influenced (that scope is **wide**).  Or play any game - as Greg said in his last public speech at the 2018 ENnies, the gaming industry only exists because of your enthusiasm and support. We at Chaosium recognize that countless RPG fans are fans (including us!) because of Greg Stafford and what he achieved. Feel free to share an image of your game on social media or at BRP Central, with the hashtag #WeAreAllUs.   Show the "Greg Rune" (aka the Sartar Rune) in your post - copy and print the image here, or from Redbubble (all "Greg Rune" merchandise is currently available at cost, with no artist margin). As one of the greatest game designers of all time; winner of too many awards to count; and a friend, mentor, guide, and inspiration to generations of gamers, Greg Stafford influenced the universe of tabletop gaming beyond measure. What better way to honor his legacy than getting your friends together and playing a game in remembrance of him! The outpouring of grief and remembrance for Greg Stafford has been immense. The posts in the condolence thread at BRP Central are appreciated by Greg's wife and family. If you'd like to show your appreciation for Greg Stafford's life and legacy, or express your feelings, or pay your respects, you are most welcome: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/8417-greg-stafford-condolence-thread Greg Stafford: "game designer, mythologist, shaman, father, grandfather, husband, brother, and friend" This is the beautiful obituary for Greg Stafford, "game designer, mythologist, shaman, father, grandfather, husband, brother, and friend" from his family, published in The Lost Coast Outpost: https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2018/oct/29/obituary-francis-gregory-stafford-1948-2018 It concludes on a wonderful note: "To honor Greg’s memory the family requests, in lieu of flowers, that you strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know, go somewhere you haven’t been, face a personal challenge head on, read about something new, and enjoy life. We are all us." #WeAreAllUs Out Now! Call of Cthulhu the Video Game     Call of Cthulhu the video game is out now on PS4, Xbox One and PC! Get it now: http://callofcthulhu-game.com/shop    Chaosium Sponsors Extra Life for Kids Game-a-Thon  Sean Murphy, Edwin Nagy, and the New England Gamers are planning their 4th annual game-a-thon in support of the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Starting Nov. 16 at 6 PMEastern (23h GMT) on twitch.tv/enn321, they will stream live for 24 hours. At midnight (5h GMT), Sean is running Call of Cthulhu. During the entire event, your donations allow you to mess with the game (add monsters, design a trap, whatever!) and make you eligible to win gaming prizes. Chaosium is sponsoring the Call of Cthluhu portion and donors during these hours can win a complete RuneQuest PDF bundle as well as prizes from Gallant Knight Games and Frog God Games. Primarily, of course, your donations help sick children.   Contributions can be made at any time to Team NEG (New England Gamers) at Extra-Life.org, at https://goo.gl/VmB78P.  Edwin can be reached at enn.in.me@gmail.com. Molly Tanzer's 'The Deductive Method', special Miskatonic University short fiction "Graduate programs at any university are a grind, a perpetually uphill marathon that exhaust even the most brilliant scholar. At Miskatonic University, the perils facing the unsuspecting grad students include far darker, stranger things than cutthroat departmental politics and shrinking financial aid, as Simcha discovers when she takes up a predatory professor's offer of access to an unpublished Sherlock Holmes tale penned by the consulting detective's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle." That's the blurb for Molly Tanzer's 'The Deductive Method', the special Miskatonic University short fiction we commissioned specially for our MU board game Kickstarter. Backers will receive the tale in digital format next month, and it will be a Kickstarter exclusive until mid-2019. Here's Victor Leza's cover for the story: Now available to preorder: Miskatonic University - The Restricted Collection Board Game   Our Miskatonic University - the Restricted Collection board game is now available to preorder on Backerkit!  Order the complete boxed game for USD$25.00 plus shipping Or two complete MU games for $45 plus shipping Or the MU game and Khan of Khans for $45 plus shipping. The game is currently being printed and delivered to our fulfilment warehouses in the USA, UK and Australia by the end of November. Miskatonic University - the Restricted Collection was successfully Kickstarted earlier this year. The game is was designed by board game design legend Reiner Knizia, with graphic design by award-winning graphic designer Ian O'Toole. More details about the game at the MU - Restricted Collection Kickstarter page. PREORDER NOW

What is Ab Chaos? (...from Ab Chaos #7, May 31 1992) Ab - Latin "from" Chaos - (1) Any condition or place of total disorder (modern vernacular); (2) the disordered state of unformed matter which preceded creation (since Milton, Paradise Lost); (3) the dark, empty space which preceded creation (Greek Mythology); (4) the [formerly] Californian roleplaying game company. Ab Chaos is an informal newsletter for Chaosium fans. Through our history we have tried to serve the players and gamemasters through craft and art as well as (and sometimes at the expense of) marketing and moneymaking. We appreciate your loyalty, and offer this communication to those who are curious about us, beyond the mere "product". It is planned to be informal and irregular. We are, after all, not the Orderium.

Copyright © 2018 Chaosium Inc., All rights reserved.

Chaosium Inc. - Newsletter #84

News from Chaosium...
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#84 the straight scoop from the well of chaos... The Glorantha Sourcebook - Out Now in Hardback! THE GLORANTHA SOURCEBOOK is an essential resource for Greg Stafford’s world of  Glorantha, one of the most extensively developed and renowned fantasy settings of all time. System-free and Player-friendly! 226 pages, full color hardback. PDF included. Shipped from our warehouses in USA, UK and Australia. HARDBACK: https://www.chaosium.com/the-glorantha-sourcebook-hardcover/ "Glorantha is my personal North Star as an author of vast fantasy game narratives… a sacred but unattainable goal."— KEN ROLSTON, The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Oblivion. This systemless sourcebook can be used to enhance and support any fantasy roleplaying game of your choosing, including RUNEQUEST, HEROQUEST GLORANTHA, and 13th AGE GLORANTHA, and others. What the Critics Say "Drawing on long out-of-print sources, and including new materials, this belongs in the collection of new Glorantha fans and old timers alike… vividly told, beautifully illustrated, and inspirational."—Andrew Logan Montgomery, Exploring the Otherworlds of Fiction, Magic, and Gaming. "Awesome…rich in detail. …Quite surprisingly, Chaosium has managed to produce an introductory book that is also interesting for veteran fans of Glorantha."—El Runeblogger (review is in English). 13th Age Glorantha - now available in hardback! 13TH AGE GLORANTHA is the d20 "love letter" to Greg Stafford's mythic universe Glorantha, one of the greatest RPG fantasy settings of all time. By DUNGEONS & DRAGONS lead designers Rob Heinsoo (4th Ed) and Jonathan Tweet (3rd Ed). 13TH AGE GLORANTHA is now available in hard cover! Join us in Glorantha, Greg Stafford’s classic fantasy world of richly imagined cultures, ferocious combat, and colliding mythologies. Create your group’s unique Gloranthan campaign using 13th Age: the d20-rolling game of heroic fantasy, escalating combat, One Unique Things, and limb-ripping owlbears! 466 page full color hardback + PDF. Available from our US, UK, and Australian fulfilment warehouses. https://www.chaosium.com/13th-age-glorantha-hardcover What the Critics Say "A 400+ page love letter to Greg Stafford’s World of Glorantha, one of the most extensively developed and renowned fantasy settings of all time"—EN World. "13G gets an enthusiastic thumbs up... It is clear the authors love Glorantha, and their giddy enthusiasm is on every page"—Andrew Logan Montgomery, Exploring the Otherworlds of Fiction, Magic, and Gaming.   Jonathan Tweet talked to RPGGeek TV about 13th Age Glorantha at Gen Con this year. Get a quick overview of 13G from one of the co-creators of the game! Licensee Focus The Props of Nyarlathotep: Peru Delphes Devoivres of Sedefkar Simulacrum fame is back with another beautiful set of sculptural art pieces for Masks of Nyarlathotep. This time, it's glorious objects from the new Peru chapter. Her new Kickstarter fully funded on day one, and has just a week to go! Check out Delphes' amazing work here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/195095939/the-props-of-nyarlathotep-the-peru-chapter RuneQuest Leatherettes Sold Out in Australia and UK, limited stock left in US.   Due to unprecedented demand, we are now out of stock of the RuneQuest Leatherette edition in the UK and Australian warehouses. Leatherette still available from our US warehouse. Rest assured, we do have plenty of copies of the RQG hardback in all three locations! 448 pages, full color hardback. PDF included. New Miskatonic University Coat of Arms revealed in MU: The Restricted Collection Kickstarter   We've created a new coat of arms for Miskatonic University for our forthcoming Miskatonic Univerity: the Restricted Collection board game! It's available now on various merchandise items including t-shirts, wall art and mugs at our Redbubble Merchandise Store. We've also got a detailed explanation of the imagery on the Chaosium news blog, which is also available as a poster. The MU board game is on track to be fulfilled as promised in November, and will go out into a general release after distribution to the Kickstarter backers is complete.

What is Ab Chaos? (...from Ab Chaos #7, May 31 1992) Ab - Latin "from" Chaos - (1) Any condition or place of total disorder (modern vernacular); (2) the disordered state of unformed matter which preceded creation (since Milton, Paradise Lost); (3) the dark, empty space which preceded creation (Greek Mythology); (4) the [formerly] Californian roleplaying game company. Ab Chaos is an informal newsletter for Chaosium fans. Through our history we have tried to serve the players and gamemasters through craft and art as well as (and sometimes at the expense of) marketing and moneymaking. We appreciate your loyalty, and offer this communication to those who are curious about us, beyond the mere "product". It is planned to be informal and irregular. We are, after all, not the Orderium.

Copyright © 2018 Chaosium Inc., All rights reserved.

Chaosium Inc. - Newsletter

The latest Kickstarter, RuneQuest and Call of Cthulhu news from Chaosium...
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#73 the straight scoop from the well of chaos... Miskatonic University board game Kickstarter nears its final 48 hours!   Over 300% Funded—15 Stretch Goals Reached So Far—2.6K backers   Don't miss your chance to graduate with honors! Our Miskatonic University board game Kickstarter ends on Tuesday May 8 at 2.05PM, US Eastern Time. So there's still time to enrol and graduate with honors. The basic "Professor" pledge is just $25.00. This includes the complete game with all stretch goals and expansions. A great new game by a famous designer at a very reasonable price! Stretch Goals so far... $30K (funded!)—Diploma Mill: Bachelor degree (inc $1 backers) $35K (funded!)—Rules in German $40K (funded!)—Card Upgrade $45K (funded!)—Rules in French $50K (funded!)—Diploma Mill II: Masters degrees $55K (funded!)—Rules in Italian $58K (funded!)—MU Short Story by Molly Tanzer $61K (funded!)—Player Mat Upgrade $64K (funded!)—Rules in Spanish $67K (funded!)—Cover Art for MU Story $70K (funded!)—Box Upgrade $72K (funded!)—Card Expansion: TA $74K (funded!)—Card Expansion: Hide $76K (funded!)—New Crest & Seal for MU $78K (funded!)—Box Interior Upgrade $81K—Graduate Student Forms $85-95K—??? $100K—Doctoral Degrees All MU Kickstarter backers whose pledge levels includes their name appearing in the Rule Book (Deans, Associate Deans, Professorial Chairs, Valedictorians etc) will also be invited to nominate their Staff Activity Number (SAN). What is the MU game all about? Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection is Reiner Knizia's game for 2 to 5 players, and takes around 30 minutes to play. In true Lovecraftian style, players are seekers of secret wisdom. In their curiosity, reckless graduate students have unleashed a nameless horror from the bowels of Miskatonic University's famous Orne Library... The Players are MU professors, desperately searching the treacherous Restricted Collection, looking for fragments of eldritch lore and arcane sigils to help the Chief Librarian, Dr Henry Armitage, defeat it. But, forbidden knowledge comes at a price... Players always have the opportunity to go deeper, to push their luck, but in so doing, risk their sanity and their souls. Actual Play Video on the Kickstarter Page! RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is Coming Sign up and we'll let you know the moment it launches! The new Chaosium edition of RUNEQUEST is coming soon! Sign up to be informed the moment the PDF comes on sale*.   SIGN UP HERE And as a special bonus for signing up now, we'll also give you exclusive early access to downloadable RQG content (art, wallpapers, the RQG character sheet) over the coming weeks! *The PDF will be made available immediately so you can start your RQG adventures in Glorantha straightaway! And you will receive a coupon for the full cost of the PDF off the price of the hardback version when it is released later this year. Art credit: "Kallyr's Funeral Pyre" by Andrey Fetisov SIGN UP HERE Recent Releases from Chaosium... Available in Print (with PDF included)... Our MISKATONIC UNIVERSITY board game Kickstarter campaign ends at 2.05pm EDT on Tuesday May 8th. We hope you'll check it out and consider supporting! —The team at Chaosium

What is Ab Chaos? (...from Ab Chaos #7, May 31 1992) Ab - Latin "from" Chaos - (1) Any condition or place of total disorder (modern vernacular); (2) the disordered state of unformed matter which preceded creation (since Milton, Paradise Lost); (3) the dark, empty space which preceded creation (Greek Mythology); (4) the [formerly] Californian roleplaying game company. Ab Chaos is an informal newsletter for Chaosium fans. Through our history we have tried to serve the players and gamemasters through craft and art as well as (and sometimes at the expense of) marketing and moneymaking. We appreciate your loyalty, and offer this communication to those who are curious about us, beyond the mere "product". It is planned to be informal and irregular. We are, after all, not the Orderium.

Copyright © 2018 Chaosium Inc., All rights reserved.