Chaosium's Lords of the Middle Sea Cover Art

In July last year Chaosium announced Lords of Middle Sea: The Roleplaying Game was in development. Based on Lynne Willis's 1978 futuristic proto-Steampunk board game, set in the post-apocalyptic ruins of a flooded North America, the tabletop RPG utilizes a streamlined version of the Basic Roleplaying system.

While writing and playtesting continues, the project's creative director Jason Durall has also been working on concept art for the game. Here's a work-in-progress of the cover! It's by acclaimed Finnish artist Ossi Hiekkala (Flamme Rouge, Honshu, Eclipse, Nations, Castell, etc).

The figures depicted on the cover are pregens and characters from the in-house playtest campaign, shown at right.

For more about the upcoming game, see Jason's recent EN World interview.

 

[Ringtail]

I love BRP so this sounds great. I also like the "streamlined" aspect.

While I already find BRP pretty simple, there are some bits of say Call of Cthulhu 7e that I don't like. (Chases for example, I find them very fiddly and complex and kills the mood while I try to figure them out) I actually almost prefer using the CoC Quick-Start rules to the full version.

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

(whoops, wrong thread)

 

[jacleg05]

Looks very interesting. I feel a disturbance in my wallet.......

 

[LabyrinthLord718]

I love BRP so this sounds great. I also like the "streamlined" aspect.

While I already find BRP pretty simple, there are some bits of say Call of Cthulhu 7e that I don't like. (Chases for example, I find them very fiddly and complex and kills the mood while I try to figure them out) I actually almost prefer using the CoC Quick-Start rules to the full version.

I agree, compared to the combat system, the chase mechanic for 7e is a bit fiddly. One thing that I've found that works well when running chases for 7e is to have a grid up. The opposition's tokens are placed in a column on the far left and there's a marker showing how far the PCs have to move. I then start the PCs with a 2 space lead, per the rules. Then I run the chase as normal, but you can see where everyone is at any given point and how far they are from escaping, which leads to some very interesting decisions on the part of the players; a particularly fast PC may make it to the end with relative ease, but will he keep going? Double back and try to help? Etc.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Adapting a 1978 board game. You've got to give Chaosium credit for marching to the beat of their own drum.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Adapting a 1978 board game. You've got to give Chaosium credit for marching to the beat of their own drum.

I feel like they read my mind about what I'd like to see in an RPG, especially a BRP RPG. I've shared the cover art on other RPG sites (linked back to here, the original source) and there is a real interest out there. Just have to spread the word.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

Adapting a 1978 board game. You've got to give Chaosium credit for marching to the beat of their own drum.

"As a sort of futuristic proto-Steampunk – before Steampunk proper existed as a genre – Lynn Willis's Lords of the Middle Sea was Chaosium's second original IP, after Greg Stafford's Glorantha. It's a pleasure to be bringing it back for a new gaming audience", said Chaosium president Rick Meints.

[Lords of the Middle Sea was Lynn Willis's first Chaosium title. Lynn went on to become one of the longest-serving members of the Chaosium team, co-authoring or contributing to such revered titles as Basic Roleplaying, the second and third editions of RuneQuest, the original Masks of Nyarlathotep (with Larry DiTillio), Worlds of Wonder, Ringworld, Elric, Ghostbusters (for West End Games), and the fifth and sixth editions of Call of Cthulhu. Lynn Willis passed away in 2013.]

 

[Morrus]

Adapting a 1978 board game. You've got to give Chaosium credit for marching to the beat of their own drum.

WotC adapted a 1974 roleplaying game a few years ago. Turns out it's now the popular RPG in the world!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WotC adapted a 1974 roleplaying game a few years ago. Turns out it's now the popular RPG in the world!

Fair point. Nothing else had been done with Dungeons & Dragons in all that time since.