#Chaosium

[oldschoolfrp]

"Endless" by Gary Davis, Art Feature in Chaosium's Different Worlds 35, August 1985

#sci fi #Gary Davis #Different Worlds #Chaosium #spacesuit #space #sci fi art

[vintagerpg]

Different Worlds 21 (June, 1982). A two month break! Alan Burton on the cover. Absolutely adore this one. Great color scheme, great composition, very late ‘70s fantasy fan art vibe. There is something in this that reminds me of some of the stranger art in the David Day Tolkien books.

#roleplaying game #dungeons & dragons #tabletop rpg #rpg #d&d #ttrpg #Chaosium #Different Worlds #Alan Burton

[eleonorpiteira]

A few of the many interior illustrations I did for Chaosium's Pendragon Starter Set! (x)

#pendragon rpg #pendragon starter set #pendragon #chaosium #king arthur #illustration #interior illustration #digital art #digital illustration #digital painting #art only tag #I did most of these more than a year ago #some of them almost 2 years ago #and there's stuff that hasn't been released that is from early 2020! #it's kind of old for me at this point but hey work is work #gotta show it to have more work etc #(thanks for nothing elon musgo)

[ladyeroway]

In every corridor that shifted the maze

No single part of you was ever the same

Now we're so tired by the things we have seen

All we've forgotten only visits in dreams

- Colder Heavens by Blanco White

It's our final season of Call of Cthulhu and Gideon is ready to take down those who would destroy the world as he knows it.

#gideon ambrose #call of cthulhu #pulp cthulhu #scholar #artists on tumblr #digital art #chaosium #erowayart #erowayarts

[dr-archeville]

For the last several weeks, as rumors of Wizards of the Coast’s new version of the Open Game License began circulating among publishers and on social media, gamers across the world have been asking what Paizo plans to do in light of concerns regarding Wizards of the Coast’s rumored plan to de-authorize the existing OGL 1.0(a).  We have been awaiting further information, hoping that Wizards would realize that, for more than 20 years, the OGL has been a mutually beneficial license which should not – and cannot – be revoked.  While we continue to await an answer from Wizards, we strongly feel that Paizo can no longer delay making our own feelings about the importance of Open Gaming a part of the public discussion.

We believe that any interpretation that the OGL 1.0 or 1.0(a) were intended to be revocable or able to be deauthorized is incorrect, and with good reason.

We were there.

Paizo owner Lisa Stevens and Paizo president Jim Butler were leaders on the Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards at the time.  Brian Lewis, co-founder of Azora Law, the intellectual property law firm that Paizo uses, was the attorney at Wizards who came up with the legal framework for the OGL itself.  Paizo has also worked very closely on OGL-related issues with Ryan Dancey, the visionary who conceived the OGL in the first place.

Paizo does not believe that the OGL 1.0a can be “deauthorized,” ever.  While we are prepared to argue that point in a court of law if need be, we don’t want to have to do that, and we know that many of our fellow publishers are not in a position to do so.

We have no interest whatsoever in Wizards’ new OGL.  Instead, we have a plan that we believe will irrevocably and unquestionably keep alive the spirit of the Open Game License.

As Paizo has evolved, the parts of the OGL that we ourselves value have changed.  When we needed to quickly bring out Pathfinder First Edition to continue publishing our popular monthly adventures back in 2008, using Wizards’ language was important and expeditious.  But in our non-RPG products, including our Pathfinder Tales novels, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and others, we shifted our focus away from D&D tropes to lean harder into ideas from our own writers.  By the time we went to work on Pathfinder Second Edition, Wizards of the Coast’s Open Game Content was significantly less important to us, and so our designers and developers wrote the new edition without using Wizards’ copyrighted expressions of any game mechanics.  While we still published it under the OGL, the reason was no longer to allow Paizo to use Wizards’ expressions, but to allow other companies to use our expressions.

We believe, as we always have, that open gaming makes games better, improves profitability for all involved, and enriches the community of gamers who participate in this amazing hobby.  And so we invite gamers from around the world to join us as we begin the next great chapter of open gaming with the release of a new open, perpetual, and irrevocable Open RPG Creative License (ORC).

The new Open RPG Creative License will be built system agnostic for independent game publishers under the legal guidance of Azora Law, an intellectual property law firm that represents Paizo and several other game publishers.  Paizo will pay for this legal work.  We invite game publishers worldwide to join us in support of this system-agnostic license that allows all games to provide their own unique open rules reference documents that open up their individual game systems to the world.  To join the effort and provide feedback on the drafts of this license, please sign up by using this form.

In addition to Paizo, Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and a growing list of publishers have already agreed to participate in the Open RPG Creative License, and in the coming days we hope and expect to add substantially to this group.

The ORC will not be owned by Paizo, nor will it be owned by any company who makes money publishing RPGs.  Azora Law’s ownership of the process and stewardship should provide a safe harbor against any company being bought, sold, or changing management in the future and attempting to rescind rights or nullify sections of the license.  Ultimately, we plan to find a nonprofit with a history of open source values to own this license (such as the Linux Foundation).

Of course, Paizo plans to continue publishing Pathfinder and Starfinder, even as we move away from the Open Gaming License.  Since months’ worth of products are still at the printer, you’ll see the familiar OGL 1.0(a) in the back of our products for a while yet.  While the Open RPG Creative License is being finalized, we’ll be printing Pathfinder and Starfinder products without any license, and we’ll add the finished license to those products when the new license is complete.

We hope that you will continue to support Paizo and other game publishers in this difficult time for the entire hobby.  You can do your part by supporting the many companies that have provided content under the OGL.  Support Pathfinder and Starfinder by visiting your local game store, subscribing to Pathfinder and Starfinder, or taking advantage of discount code OpenGaming during checkout for 25% off your purchase of the Core Rulebook, Core Rulebook Pocket Edition, or Pathfinder Beginner Box.  Support Kobold Press, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Roll for Combat, Rogue Genius Games, and other publishers working to preserve a prosperous future for Open Gaming that is both perpetual AND irrevocable.

We’ll be there at your side.  You can count on us not to go back on our word.

Forever.

–Paizo Inc

#OGL #ORC #RPGs #TTRPGs #Paizo #Kobold Press #Chaosium #Green Ronin #Legendary Games #Rogue Genius Games #WotC #animated gif #reaction gif

[leeoconnor]

This is Red-Quill, former swamp bandit turned freedom fighter against the nefarious Lunar Empire, who is aided by his devotion to the god of thunder!

So I got to draw some duck-men. It was hilarious. It was a blast. They're from the fantasy world of Glorantha and you can play as them (or alongside them) in the RuneQuest TT RPG.

Here, a duck shaman is sending out her spirit to go and met her mentors’ spirits in the spirit world. Shaman business. Her look is actually based on a real duck breed. (I was thrilled endlessly that all of these fantasy ducks are based on real-world duck breeds.) The big one with the snout is a troll shaman. Also pictured: her pet bullfrog and the sculptures of it that she’s made, because she loves it so much.

So these aren’t furries or anything, they’re more realistic versions of whimsical, hissing cartoon ducks like Marvel’s Howard the Duck or Disney’s Donald Duck. They’re sword and sorcery duck people! More precisely, they’re part of the accepted and generally very well-loved fantasy setting called Glorantha. You will know about Glorantha in a roundabout way I suspect… The Elder Scrolls game Morrowind lovingly ripped off a bunch of it and it was the setting for the indie game legend King of Dragon Pass and its successors. The most popular way for people to experience Glorantha over the years though has probably been the table-top role-playing game RuneQuest.

Here, a healer initiate of the goddess of mercy Chalana Arroy, tending to some fellow ducks. (The seated guy in the middle with the shoulder bandage is supposed to look like a mandarin duck, I had to tone him down though, otherwise his bright colours would have stolen the show.) 

So Runequest has a very lovely new edition that came out a while ago. It has a unique appeal in that it’s an RPG that lets you play out mythology. Well, kinda. Being a mythology nerd (I have an in-progress Fionn Mac Cumhaill graphic novel as proof) I was powerless to resist. RuneQuest’s storied publisher Chaosium (they of the Call of Cthulhu RPG) run a community content programme for RuneQuest called the Jonstown Compendium (named after a big library in the setting of Glorantha) where people can publish their own adventures and sourcebooks as PDFs via DriveThruRPG and popular titles then become Print-on-Demand books.

A put-upon member of duck nobility here, she’s a big deal for the duck people, but sadly the humans nearby don’t take her seriously.  The crosses aren’t crucifixes, they’re the rune of death, which is supposed to look like a simplified sword. The runes that look like Ys are the truth rune. These are the runes of her god, Humakt, GOD OF DEATH. And sword fights. The duck people love the god of death. *Falls off chair*

You can buy the book with these guys in as either a PDF or a hardcopy, it’s called ‘Duckpac’ and is from Drew Baker, Neil Gibson and friends at Legion Games. (The title of the book is a bit of a pun on an old RuneQuest book about trolls, which was called ‘Trollpak‘.) This book is for you if you want to play as a fully-realised duck person, with duck-person things to think about, based on a history, genealogy and mythology of duck-people. Yes, really! It’s pretty incredible.

Runequest has a reputation online for being ‘the game with silly duck people in’, which is entirely justified, they’re like the cute mascots of the whole deal. The story goes that back in the late seventies, one of the gang of friends who help make the game world was a Carl Barks Donald Duck comic strip fan, resulting in a town called Duck Point existing on the map. There’s another story that someone involved was making lead miniatures of Carl Barks style Conan the Barbian gag ducks and he needed a game to attach them to so it didn’t look like a straight Disney rip-off. Stories real and apocryphal abound. There’s never been an official book about ducks (or the ‘durulz’ as they call themselves) for the RuneQuest game so this one’s here for you and has background, characters, locations, adventures and more.

A scarred duck boatman (boatduck?) and diver, initiate of a river god, on his barge, wondering what the heck you’re doing paddling about in his river.

The bit of decorated driftwood in the background above is his effigy of his god. I made him look like a Bronze Age version of a swimming athlete, like Duncan Goodhew with rustic trunks and a swimming hat. I was passed a reference photo of an upright duck (who looked amazing), so this was an upright composition, in a tall portrait frame.

Here’s a little vid of me flipping through the lovely hardback print version of the book. This is the first print volume and then there’ll be another volume of solo and group adventures.

That old love of the UK comics scene Mr. John Freeman even saw this madness and featured it on his Down The Tubes site here, Which Was Nice.

Oh and as if you above verbiage wasn’t enough proof, you can check my RuneQuest nerd chops by looking at my very own RuneQuest campaign log page and wiki here, if you fancy. It’s got more drawings on there!

#ducks #durulz #runequest #glorantha #jonstown compendium #drivethrurpg #chaosium #legion games #games #gaming #pod #rpg #ttrpg #brp #art #illustration #artwork #duck people #rpg book #anthromorphic art #fantasy #bronze age #Instagram

[open-hearth-rpg]

#RPGCovers Week NIne Stormbringer (1981) Frank Brunner

In the 1970s and 80s, to my kid eye Michael Whalen’s covers were the absolute best. He was the first artist I actually remember looking to find their name. His Elric series in particular, for me, struck me as the height for a certain kind of high fantasy. So when the first Elric rpg dropped in 1981, it had a high bar. 

And Stormbringer vaulted it, for me at least. The cover is striking an simple, dominated by reds, silvers, and blacks with the shocking white of Elric’s face and hair contrasting. I knew Brunner’s work from Doctor Strange, Creepy, Howard the Duck, and Warp! His style reminded me of Gene Colon and Gene Day. It’s simple and well crafted. Eventually Brunner would become the lead character designer for Fox’s X-Men cartoon series.

It’s a very different look from any other rpg item at the time. It chooses to focus on a still image of an iconic face, rather than a tableau which might illustrate the world or the kinds of things players could aspire to. 

The cover I picked is from the box, but one of the great things for the game is the use of Brunner’s images throughout. The core book has an entirely different, full figure image done in red ink. Then the various chapters have large Brunner black & white images as a frontispiece. (Including classic Sword & Sorcery unclothed ladies). The chapter took that larger illustration and cut out bits as interior images. It’s a cheap way to go, but in this case it actually pulls the content together. 

#ttrpg #rpg #rpg covers #chaosium #elric of melnibone #stormbringer

[fearnesnblerns]

just finished chaosium’s bookshops of arkham actual play and it was SO GOOD omg

the 2-hour episodes make it easier to digest, mark meer is a lovely keeper (his voice and flow >>>>), and it introduced me to some very cool players!

i knew carlos luna from dimension 20 (his role in coffin run was hilarious!), and saige ryan from the good time society’s call of cthulhu games, but lucia versprille and patrick logan were completely new faces for me

loved the chemistry of all the players! felt like a mix of scooby doo (each pc clearly has an expertise/“role” in the group) and stranger things (relationships and varied backgrounds of the pcs)

i’ve recently been getting into lovecraftian stuff and always loved dark academia so the outfits, setting, and general vibes of this gang were 10/10

the actual play itself was super fun! i enjoyed the various props, actors brought in to play npcs, and the choice to have the dice and such online instead of taking up space on a table to make the visual arrangement feel more intimate and era-appropriate

overall super fun and cozy experience (disregarding the disturbing imagery here and there)!! highly recommend!!

#bookshops of arkham #chaosium #call of cthulhu #patrick logan #lucia versprille #mark meer #saige ryan #carlos luna #coffin run #dimension 20

[adventuresandshopping]

Wyrms Footnotes #1-14 Bundle - Chaosium

Published from 1976 to 1982, the 14 issues span most of the early history of the company. Want to relive the original experience? — look no further! While some issues contain a page or two about other Chaosium games, the core focus and most of the page count relates to Gloranthan lore and RuneQuest related information. Also of note is the "What's Next" section of forthcoming projects in each issue, which detailed Chaosium's product pipeline, including a number of never published projects that died somewhere along the way.

#Runequest #Chaosium #zine #TTRPG #RPG #DrivethruRPG #osr

[krinsbez]

Help Me Pick My Next RPG Thing, Part 2!

Well, the most votes went to "More Pulp Cthulhu or related" so...

(I'm including all the various Call of Cthulhu stuff I bought in this category)

I may or may not have a third poll after this.

Edit: Gah, I forgot to put in a "Click Here To See Results" option, I'm so sorry!

I'm gonna randomly pick...Dreamlands.

#Random Thoughts #Poll #Pulp Cthulhu #Call of Cthulhu #Down Darker Trails #Regency Cthulhu #Terror Australis #Harlem Unbound #Cthulhu Confidential #Raiders of R'lyeh #Chaosium #Pelgrane Press #Berlin the Wicked City #Cthulhu Dark Ages #Reign of Terror #Horror on the Orient Express #Cthuhlu #Japan: Empire of Shadows #Children of Fear #Cthulhu By Gaslight #Cthulhu Through The Ages #Chtulhu #Roleplaying Games #RPGS #TTPGs #Cipher Bureau

[lycrabustier]

Man witnessing Azathoth and totally losing his shit.

From the Call of Cthulhu coloring book.

#art #call of cthulhu #cthulhu #azathoth #chaosium #coloring books #cosmic horror #hp lovecraft #horror

[oldschoolfrp]

That old time religion -- Followers of Wakboth (the Devil, the Doom of the World) seek a return to the Great Darkness when Chaos reigned across Glorantha (Guillaume Sorel, Runequest supplement Les Dieux de Glorantha, Oriflam for Avalon Hill & Chaosium, 1987)

#Runequest #Guillaume Sorel #Glorantha #human sacrifice #Les Dieux de Glorantha #skull mountain #evil cleric #Wakboth #evil altar #statue #JDR #jeu de role #jeu de rôle #Oriflam #Avalon Hill #Chaosium

[vintagerpg]

Different Worlds 23 (August, 1982). If you’ve ever desired a Bill Willingham group portrait of the 1982-era X-men, wish granted.

#roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #rpg #d&d #ttrpg #Chaosium #Different Worlds #Bill Willingham

[skunts-own-truth]

You know me, I’m a Warhammer, Dune, Star Trek, Jim Starlin, One Piece, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, & horror nerd. Ain’t so bad, right? Well, there’s a part of me that climes out from the depths of my squishy soul and comes out screaming “ABANDON ALL OTHERS, BECOME ONLY A RUNEQUEST GLORANTHA FAN!”

It hasn’t happened yet, but the call grows stronger and stronger with each passing year. One day I believe I will have to cave, and I will become unapproachable.

#Runequest #Glorantha #Runequest Glorantha #chaosium #King of dragon pass

[ladyeroway]

My poor dear boy Gideon. He has really gone through it. After being cursed by Yig, losing someone he loved, bitten and poisoned by a very large snake, and then shot - I decided it was time for a little upgrade and redesign.

#gideon ambrose #call of cthulhu #pulp cthulhu #CoC #chaosium #artists on tumblr #ttrpg art #ttrpg oc #i used a new set of brushes and i really love it #i decided that he would grow in a beard #partly because shaving would have been hard due to the gun shot and bite #then of course the doctor had to open up the bites to drain the poison #he also just didnt care to keep on top of it in his grief #erowayart #erowayarts

[amartworks]

A scene from a recent session of Call of Cthulhu RPG where some delicious dynamics are being written alongside good friends.

#call of cthulhu #ttrpg #film noir #1920s #chaosium #oc #do i name the other characters in case they pop up. uuh #samuel carmelo #isaac wilkinson #jefferson #clementine moore #jeff doesnt have a surname. he wasn't expected to survive this long #mine