Chaosium Newsletter

The latest RPG news from Chaosium Inc.

#46 the straight scoop from the well of chaos... New RPG Submissions Guidelines At its heart, Chaosium is a roleplaying game company. Since RuneQuest came out in 1978 and Call of Cthulhu followed in 1981 we've been producing award-winning roleplaying games with artistic integrity. The who's who of RPG writers have all contributed to make our games great. We'd love for you to join our tribe! Do you have a scenario ready to go, or an amazing concept? We would love to hear from you. We are accepting submissions for Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and more. http://www.chaosium.com/roleplaying-game-submissions New Fiction Submissions Guidelines Chaosium was born out of fiction. Greg Stafford discovered Glorantha through his writings which led him to founding the company. Only a few years later, Chaosium turned H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous story of the Cthulhu Mythos into our most award winning RPG game, Call of Cthulhu, written by Sandy Petersen. We have carried on their tradition with our Fiction line. And James Lowder, the Chaosium Fiction Line Editor, has prepared our fiction submission guidelines for both experienced and new writers alike. Do you have a story written? We would love to hear from you. http://www.chaosium.com/fiction-submissions CHAOSIUM APPOINTS JAMES LOWDER EXECUTIVE EDITOR FOR FICTION Award-winning editor and author James Lowder has joined Chaosium as executive editor of fiction. Chaosium President Rick Meints commented: “James embodies that magic combination of wisdom and enthusiasm. Knowing his craft inside and out, he brings his advocacy and integrity to the table at every turn. Having him relaunch our fiction line is a ‘the stars are right’ moment.” RUNEQUEST QUICKSTART COMING FOR FREE RPG DAY Free RPG Day is approaching! On June 17, pick up your copy of the RuneQuest Quickstart from your participating FLGS. Participating stores around the world are listed here. The Quickstart also includes a new adventure The Broken Tower plus 5 pregen characters, ready to play. Miss Free RPG Day? Don't worry, it will be available direct from Chaosium.com on 1 July. The results are in! Cult of Chaos Call of Cthulhu Scenario Writing Competition 2017 Earlier this year Chaosium invited members of the Cult of Chaos, our cadre of volunteer game masters, to submit pitches for short scenarios that could be played in a single 4-hour time slot at games conventions. We received over 100 pitches and from these 11 were picked to go through to the second round, where they would be written up into full scenarios. At the final deadline, all 11 were submitted, and for the last few days we have been reading over these entries. We’d like to thank everyone who pitched and those who went through the process of writing the final set of scenarios. Of the 11 finalist scenarios, we have picked six that we would like to further develop into fully laid out convention scenarios, that we hope to make available at key conventions in 2017 and 2018.  These winning entries are: Weekend in the Woods by Matt Ryan The Kids are Alright by Jason and Ann D’Angelo Those Within by Freddie Folds Midnight Masquerade by Ed Possing Searching for the Rhinegold by Benjaim Constantineau and Jean-Sébastien Boisvert Dansereau As the Leaf Withers on the Vine by Charles Perryman Congratulations to those entrants!  We’d also like to thank the runners up: Mark Platt, Morgan Hua, Jay Jong, Aaron Eskenazi, and Jason Michal. Whether winner or runner up, we expect to be seeing more from these people in the future! We’ve emailed all of the finalists to personally thank them for taking part, and to provide some feedback, which we hope will help in further developing the entrant’s scenario writing skills.  While not everyone could win this time, we hope that the experience is a learning one and are keen to see everyone who took part continue to write and hone their skills so they can join the ranks of the next generation of professional scenario writers. In addition, all of the 11 finalists who submitted a complete scenario will receive a $40 Chaosium web store voucher in thanks for their participation. So, look out for these winning Call of Cthulhu scenarios at future conventions like Origins, GenCon, and others! If you are interested in joining our volunteer game masters program, you can find out more and register at www.chaosium.com/organized-play Rune Masters & Plunder Return! If you're a RuneQuest fan of old, maybe you remember the Rune Masters book? We've bought it back, and this new RQ Classics version restores material previously cut from the original, with colorful biographical notes for each of the 45 characters now described in the book! http://www.chaosium.com/rune-masters-pdf Also available from RQ Classics, Plunder: The Book of Treasure (1980), and its infamous "With all this loot, I can afford some clothes at last!" cover. http://www.chaosium.com/plunder-pdf Chaosium brings games, designers, and its Cult of Chaos to For the second year, Chaosium offers UK Games Expo attendees a Cthulhu workshop, games, and a glimpse at Glorantha. Plus the latest releases at the Chaosium Booth, including Pulp Cthulhu, The Two Headed Serpent and H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers. Friday 12.00pm (SEM2957) in Piazza 1 Chaosium's Rick Meints and Michael O'Brien reveal secrets about the forthcoming return of RuneQuest, the epic tabletop roleplaying game set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. Saturday 1.00pm (SEM3009) in PIazza 1 Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu RPG Line Editor, Mike Mason (Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition, Dark Heresy 1st Edition) leads a workshop on constructing terrifying horror adventures. Mike will be joined by Lynne Hardy (Achtung! Cthulhu, Cogs, Cakes & Swordsticks) to run an informal session about designing and writing horror scenarios, as well as answering questions on writing for the gaming industry in general. Cult of Chaos Members of Chaosium’s volunteer game masters program, the Cult of Chaos, are running a variety of Call of Cthulhu and HeroQuest Glorantha games throughout the convention. More than a dozen of these games will be Call of Cthulhu. Attendees can check for available spaces to pre-book a spot. To find out more about the mythic worlds Chaosium has to offer, drop by Stand C5 (NEC Hall 1) at National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham 2-4 June. Licensee Focus Hero Lab, the character creation software, has finally leveled up to Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition. Hero Lab makes character creation a breeze, automatically tracking modifiers for every stat, ability, item, spell, and option you select. Hero Lab also acts as an electronic character sheet at the game table, keeping track of your health, abilities, and more during the game. Licensee Focus: We welcome Rapier Miniatures as our newest licensee! UK-based Rapier have been gaming in Glorantha for 35 years, and now they get to make the figures they've always wanted for this world.

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.

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