Rivers of London, RuneQuest Gods, Regency Cthulhu Coming Soon From Chaosium

Chaosium has been posting preview graphics of some of its upcoming games, all marked 'Coming Soon'.

Magic has returned to our world. The London Metropolitan Police Service’s special magic branch take to the streets to come to grips with the “demi-monde”—those who have been irreversibly changed by magic. Welcome to Rivers of London.

The Prosopaedia: An Encyclopedia of the Gods of RuneQuest! An essential reference for all Glorantha fans. Discover the deities of RuneQuest and inspire your adventures and characters for years to come.

A time of social niceties, grand balls, romantic intrigues and disappointments. Twisted horrors Have lain dormant for centuries now seek to burst forth into England. Welcome to Regency Cthulhu.

 

[TrippyHippy]

That's essentially what I don't like about. I'm going to struggle to explain this clearly, but here goes:

I don't fine it fun (anymore) to be faced with a challenge and to have a one-roll, binary outcome of whether or not I succeed at it. "I'll study the markings and see if they look familiar." (roll)
"I'll try to climb the wall." (roll)
"Is the Duke somebody I know anything about?" (roll)

Then again, I do like dice rolling in combat. I think that's for two reasons:
- Combat usually consists of lots of dice rolls, so you have the opportunity to change your approach as the battle ebbs and flows
- Actual combat is so much more complex and dynamic than, say, trying to recognize runes, that it makes more sense (to me) to abstract it to dice rolls

And I'm not saying I have a perfect solution. Although I've struggled to GM Dungeon World, I do like how the dice mechanic isn't strictly binary pass/fail, but helps informs the narrative. (And it doesn't have skill lists.) Some games with dice pools, in which you count successes, also are a step in the (my) right direction.

Percentile dice don't, I suppose, have to mean binary pass/fail (Rolemaster/MERP tables, anyone?). A game with percentile dice could, for example, assume you succeed at your task, and the percentile dice help determine complications. But I see percentile dice and skill lists, and it carries a connotation of what I don't like, which is why I recoil.

P.S. Oh, and instead of skill lists, I'm finding I like games with traits that you creatively apply to challenges.

I think that you will find that many percentile based systems have worked out ways of dealing with this issue. That you recoil from them is why you haven’t, probably experienced them.

 

[GrahamWills]

That's essentially what I don't like about. I'm going to struggle to explain this clearly, but here goes:

I don't fine it fun (anymore) to be faced with a challenge and to have a one-roll, binary outcome of whether or not I succeed at it.
...
Percentile dice don't, I suppose, have to mean binary pass/fail (Rolemaster/MERP tables, anyone?). A game with percentile dice could, for example, assume you succeed at your task, and the percentile dice help determine complications. But I see percentile dice and skill lists, and it carries a connotation of what I don't like, which is why I recoil.

Good news! The most recent version of BRP, with d100 rolls allows for fumbles, failures, successes, hard successes and extreme successes! I played this weekend at Chaosium Con and it was more common than not to have degrees of success for combat, passive skills, opposed skills and well, pretty much everything.

I'd expect Rivers of London to use the same system.

 

[efka526]

In one of the Rivers of London books Peter says that he played Call of Cthulhu. So this is quite meta. Looking forward to the release.

 

[Dioltach]

Probably False Value: he plays a bunch of RPGs and boardgames with some coworkers.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

In one of the Rivers of London books Peter says that he played Call of Cthulhu. So this is quite meta. Looking forward to the release.

Ben is a Call of Cthulhu fan from way back. His desk:

 

[efka526]

Ben is a Call of Cthulhu fan from way back. His desk:

LOL. Love it. Still hoping to play/DM the new 2022 German version of Masks of Nyarlathotep this year after we finish Tatters of the King. Already read all the books and started to prepare Masks. It is such a huge campaign.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

There was one more preview graphic announced at Chaosium Con, for the Starter Set of the new edition of Pendragon:

What Kind of Knight Are You?

The Pendragon Starter Set contains everything you need to step into Arthurian Legend. Begin with a solo scenario to learn the core rules, and then enjoy 5 in-game years of group play in King Arthur's Britain!

Coming soon!

[Pendragon Starter Set cover art by Mark Smylie; Rivers of London cover art by Lin Hsiang; Prosopaedia cover art by Katrin Dirim; Regency Cthulhu by Riley Spalding]

Related to this – released at Gen Con and now a free download: The Adventure of the Sword Tournament is a complete scenario and special preview of the rules for Pendragon 6th Edition. Within, you’ll find:

• A ready-to-play scenario, allowing you and your players to partake in the epic moment when an unknown, back-country squire draws the sword from the stone.
• A rules overview covering Traits, Passions, Skills, and combat.
• Five pregenerated Player-knights.
• A primer on the city of Londinium: the setting for the scenario.

Pendragon Quick-Start

www.chaosium.com

 

[Michael O'Brien]

Ooh, look what just showed up from our printer in Poland... advance copies of Regency Cthulhu! – special leatherette and hardcover.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I love the concept, but looking at the image in that link...the one of the character sheet...I see there's a long list of fairly specific skills.

I know that's a common thing in RPGs, but I...I...I'm just not sure I want that anymore. The existence of those skills suggests they are supposed to be used, and I find myself wanting less RNG in my games, not more.

Then I thought, Wait, maybe those skills are meant to be used in a different way, more like 'traits' and less as numerically ranked skills. But then I saw this quote:



Bah.

And the real kicker is that I'll probably buy it anyway.

Here's the image, for convenience:

They just guaranteed I don't buy the RoL RPG, despite being a big RoL fan and being a big fan of TT RPGs, and thus the likely target audience.

Rivers of London has a very specific vibe. It is not at all, not even slightly the vibe, Chaosium's d100-based rules provide (I say that having played an awful lot of games using them). Something like PtbA or Resistance (particularly the latter, actually) could emulate RoL's vibe perfectly. A lot of other systems could do a decent job. But this? No. I can see the normal CoC stats and everything up there.

Like, I can see Sense Vestigia is there as a percentage roll. God no. I've read the books long enough to know that is absolutely NOT how Sense Vestigia works. It's not a pass/fail thing. Maybe there's more to it in the actual rules but that's not good. Nor is the extensive skill list generally, especially as it puts skills which might be used multiple times every investigation on an equal footing with ones that might easily go a campaign without ever being used.

 

[humble minion]

Ooh, look what just showed up from our printer in Poland... advance copies of Regency Cthulhu! – special leatherette and hardcover.

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Judging from the table of contents, it looks much more like an adventure or adventure compilation rather than a setting sourcebook?