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.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

Oh, I don't think they're wrong to make this game. It just isn't coming from some sort of focus grouped, market-driven spreadsheet. This is them saying, "you know what would be fun? This!"

I think that's awesome, honestly.

We got eleventy million zombie games in various media over the last decade. Some of it was likely because of zombie superfans. But some of it was because The Walking Dead was hot, and cashing in on that seemed smart.

There's no existing audience for a post-apocalyptic flooded United States with a steampunk/1970s drive-in movie vibe. There's just creators with vision and enthusiasm.

We need more exciting and novel stuff, not less. Rock on, Chaosium.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Oh, I don't think they're wrong to make this game. It just isn't coming from some sort of focus grouped, market-driven spreadsheet. This is them saying, "you know what would be fun? This!"

I think that's awesome, honestly.

We got eleventy million zombie games in various media over the last decade. Some of it was likely because of zombie superfans. But some of it was because The Walking Dead was hot, and cashing in on that seemed smart.

There's no existing audience for a post-apocalyptic flooded United States with a steampunk/1970s drive-in movie vibe. There's just creators with vision and enthusiasm.

We need more exciting and novel stuff, not less. Rock on, Chaosium.

I am an audience of one.

Or maybe they know something we don't.

Either way, rock on indeed.

 

[foolcat]

Nuns with guns, yay!

Wow, this cover is a blast. Ahem. Action! Excitement! Danger! Looks like an old-fashioned Italian movie poster to me, which I guess was the general idea. Evocative.

You already had my curiosity, now you have my attention.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Or maybe they know something we don't.

I think it's fair to say that Lovecraft is as household name-adjacent as he is today because of Chaosium. They may well have a tentacle on our collective pulses.

 

[MidnightBlue]

The cover sold me!

I don't have anything against BRP, but it isn't my go-to system...though I absolutely love the quality of Chaosium's books and products. Can't wait to add this one to my shelves!

 

[Michael O'Brien]

Saturday evening roleplaying: Jason Durall ran another Lords of the Middle Sea playtest! Jason reports, "Tonight's session featured betrayal and a running battle in a hurricane over the Nebraska Sea between four ships: the Bella Dama, a Mexican Empire cargo airship and a gunship, and a zeppelin air-carrier out of the New Republic of California. Action packed white-knuckle suspense!"

 

[foolcat]

Saturday evening roleplaying: Jason Durall ran another Lords of the Middle Sea playtest!

Dammit, now I'm jealous. I feel like I need to get my hands on this, the sooner the better.

If/when you're ready to broaden the circle of play testers, I've got a great group of six at hand (we're based in western Germany), with both BRP/CoC/RQ veterans, and system-agnostic (i.e. casual) folks on board. You can also find me over at BRPcentral with the same handle.

 

[Blue Orange]

I imagine owning the IP is one of the major hurdles when you want to produce a product these days, so it makes sense Chaosium would want to get the maximum mileage out of their back catalog. Kind of like the way Marvel occasionally digs out obscure superheroes from 40 years ago. Looks like they're doing a good job with it--maybe we'll see White Bear and Red Moon remade for the modern boardgame era?

You wonder how many fun old things are sitting around in the metaphorical IP warehouse of various companies these days. Maybe we'll see the Snits and the Bolotomi?

 

[Michael O'Brien]

I imagine owning the IP is one of the major hurdles when you want to produce a product these days, so it makes sense Chaosium would want to get the maximum mileage out of their back catalog. Kind of like the way Marvel occasionally digs out obscure superheroes from 40 years ago. Looks like they're doing a good job with it--maybe we'll see White Bear and Red Moon remade for the modern boardgame era?

(This was the precise moment in playtest game #4 when Andrew's grand strategy, built around the phrase "release the Bat", suddenly fell apart...)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I imagine owning the IP is one of the major hurdles when you want to produce a product these days, so it makes sense Chaosium would want to get the maximum mileage out of their back catalog. Kind of like the way Marvel occasionally digs out obscure superheroes from 40 years ago. Looks like they're doing a good job with it--maybe we'll see White Bear and Red Moon remade for the modern boardgame era?

You wonder how many fun old things are sitting around in the metaphorical IP warehouse of various companies these days. Maybe we'll see the Snits and the Bolotomi?

White Bear and Red Moon would be amazing, as well as all of the various Snit board games from Dragon.