GMorts Chaotica: Chaosium Inc.

New Runequest from Chaosium...
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#68 the straight scoop from the well of chaos...

This is the new logo and cover for the forthcoming RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha! The art is by Andrey Fetisov, whose work also graces the recently-released 13th Age Glorantha and the Gold ENnie award-winning Call of Cthulhu the Coloring Book.

Check out the final Designing the New RuneQuest column on the Chaosium news blog, where Jeff outlines the current status of the RQG project, the books that will comprise the finished product, and some more of the wonderful art that is going into them.

As Jeff says, RQG is "a big and unbelievably beautiful book - without a doubt the best-looking book I've ever worked on (that includes the Guide to Glorantha, Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed, The Glorantha Sourcebook, and plenty more)."

Over the coming weeks, as the PDF release of the RQG draws closer, we'll be sharing more about the new game on the Chaosium news blog.

*Please note, the cover is still a work-in-progress!

Syrinscape and Chaosium Inc. Announce Partnership to Create Official Sounds for Legendary Game of Mystery and Horror

An exciting new partnership: official sounds for the Call of Cthulhu RPG! Syrinscape is the award-winning app that creates movie-like, immersive sound for tabletop games.

Chaosium President Rick Meints: “Call of Cthulhu games often involve creating more of an immersive experience than many other types of games. Just like our games often feature elaborate handouts and props, we have also noticed that our players often crave soundtracks that help build that sense of unease, suspense and dread at the gaming table, punctuated by moments of horror and excitement! Syrinscape’s sounds provide exactly that, and we are proud to be partnering with them."

Syrinscape's first custom SoundSet, Call of Cthulhu 7^th Edition: Masks of Nyarlathotep, is set for release at Gen Con 2018. More details on the new partnership here!

MU Admissions Office is Open: The Player Mats!

Award-winning graphic artist, board games aficionado and Lovecraft fan Ian O'Toole (The Gallerist, Vinhos Deluxe Ed, Lisboa, Khan of Khans) is on board to make our new Reiner Knizia Miskatonic University game look and play beautifully! Here's what the player mats look like:

We're close to finalising the launch date for the Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection Kickstarter (late April).

Get on the tenure track!

If you'd like to be informed when the Kickstarter goes live,
just sign up with your email here

Unnatural Selections: reviews of note

Petersen's Abominations; Griffin Mountain; The Haunting

Petersen's Abominations is now out in hardback! This is a collection of five nightmarish modern-day scenarios by the creator of Call of Cthulhu himself.

Here's the Reckoning of the Dead blog's review (of the PDF):

"The scenarios in Petersen’s Abominations are every bit as dangerous as those he wrote for Shadows of Yog-Sothoth in 1982, and every bit as enjoyable... Chaosium does it again, and offers us a marvelous supplement for our insatiable Call of Cthulhu appetites."
—Reckoning of the Dead.

ORDER PETERSEN'S ABOMINATIONS HERE

OK, this is not a recent review (in fact, the Grognardia Blog itself ended in 2012). But RuneQuest's Griffin Mountain is back in the wild again as a fully-remastered PDF true to the original printing. This is what Grognardia said about it in a retrospective review in 2010:

"Originally published in 1981, Griffin Mountain has been called -- not unreasonably -- one of the best RPG products ever produced for any game... a true masterpiece of the early days of gaming. It's a great example of a sandbox, filled with people, places, and adventure hooks to keep a party of characters busy for innumerable nights of adventure. Best of all, none of it feels heavy-handed or pre-scripted. Instead, what you get is a large canvas on which to create stories of one's own against the backdrop of one region of the world of Glorantha."
—Grognardia

ORDER GRIFFIN MOUNTAIN PDF HERE (or from DriveThruRPG HERE).

Finally, still speaking of classics, Seth Skorkowsky explains why Sandy Petersen's starter scenario 'The Haunting' has been in print constantly for nearly 30 years, and has been "a rite of passage for nearly every Keeper in that time."
—video review:

ORDER THE HAUNTING, AVAILABLE IN THE CALL OF QUICKSTART RULES HERE (or from DTRPG HERE)

Recent Releases from Chaosium...

Available in Hardback (with PDF included)...

Now available in PDF. Get the full price of the PDF back as a discount when the hardback is out!

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.