going

I’m going to Chaosium Con UK!!!

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On May 23, 2025

I’m so excited to go to Chaosium Con UK from the 23rd to the 25th May in Cranfield. It’s been extremely difficult to choose the events and games to attend during the con, because there are so many to choose from, and they all look so interesting, so I want to share that experience here.

For starters, the sign-up for events started on April 7th and I didn’t check my inbox until the following day, so obviously, the juiciest events, such as a game GMed by Jeff Richards, were already fully booked. Oh well… Still, I decided to not be let down by that and get the most out of it. So I started checking the games and events with available seats in them, and I ended up booking what look like interesting games.

My Chaosium Con experience will kick off on Friday at 9 o’clock with one of the games in the 1st Round of the RuneQuest Tournament. Organized by Brian Duguid and others, this will consist of 3 consecutive RuneQuest games, with only one participant from each table getting to classify for the next round. This will be a playtest of the new, but parallel, ruleset for RuneQuest, and the scenario will be a classic one: The Cradle. Or, at least, the first part of that scenario.

14:00 – Time to run my own scenario: The ruins of the God Learners. Let’s see how that goes! I hope my players love puzzles…

19:00 – I’ll play my first game of Rivers of London! It will be The Font of all Evil, a published scenario for the game.

On Saturday there’s more games and events:

9:00 What’s next for RuneQuest? In this panel, Chaosium will tell us what’s coming next for RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha, and I guess also for the parallel RuneQuest Fantasy game that is currently being developed and playtested.

10:00 – A demo game of Age of Vikings: I’m excited to try this new iteration of the BRP rules applied to Iceland.

14:00 – QuestWorlds game in Glorantha: Sky Fall & River Run: A Glorantha HeroQuest. Run by Matthew Cole, who has also done New Pavis in 3D and even offers virtual reality tours during the con (see further down), is running this promising scenario.

19:00 – Harvest Queen – RuneQuest game by Andrew Moreton. A trek into the Ghoul Woods! I’ll tell you more about it once I have played it.

Finally, these are the events I chose for Sunday:

9:00 – Strange Aberrations – A RuneQuest game run by Simon Bray, set in Lunar Tarsh. He is the author of the JC book Furthest: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh, so this is going to be great.

14:00 – A game of Lords of the Middle Sea, an upcoming BRP-based RPG, GMed by its own author: Jason Durall. This is the only VIP game I managed to book. All VIP games (games run by authors) cost 25$.

19:00 – I’ll finish the con with a grand game of Glorantha: The Gods War, a boardgame by Sandy Petersen. This game for 8 players will incorporate all the expansions. Will we be able to finish it in 4 hours???

So, not bad at all. The only problem is all the other events I’ll be missing by attending these ones! 😀 It’s sad I can’t be everywhere at once, haha!

The website Tabletop Events organises your schedule as you book your tickets. I “liked” so many events (in orange) that you can’t hardly read anything, but it is still useful to visualize your schedule.

For example, on Friday at 9:00 starts the Artists’ Atrium where talented artists like Katrin Dirim and Lee O’Connor will be selling their lovely art. Plus, there will be a stand where you can buy the Jonstown Compendium and Miskatonic Repository publications with (obviously) no shipping costs.

In the evening these 3 interesting RuneQuest games will be played, while I’m playing Rivers of London:

RuneQuest – Dark Harvest
“With the Lunar Empire gone, the Kheldon tribe is holding a sacred harvest festival to choose the harvest queen to embody Ernalda and her sacred year husband, many and varied strange people have turned up who meet the requirements but….. Everything will turn out for the best no doubt” – By Andrew Moreton.

RuneQuest – A Tusk Too Far

“Proud soldiers of the Mammoth War Society in Seshnela, you are tasked to find some fresh mammoth tusks to house the regiment’s spirit. After preparing yourselves, you will start the long walk, 1000 km north, all the way to the edge of Walindum’s Glacier. May Makan’s Grace be with you”. – By Hervé Carteau. This is one of the games that were already fully booked when I checked the list of events. Here’s hoping we will one day see these adventures published on the Jonstown Compendium…

The third other game is the RuneQuest game run by Jeff Richards. I hope I can talk with some of the players afterwards to know what it was about and how it went.

Then on Saturday I’ll miss the new Gloranthan skirmish wargaming game with 28mm miniatures by Andrew Taylor, but also the seminar about Q&A about Glorantha. What questions will be asked? In the afternoon, I’ll miss the panel Secrets of Sun County, in which Michael O’Brien (author), Nick Brooke, Jonathan Webb (author of the Sandheart series) and Malin Ryder (Life and Traditions under the Sun Dome) will chat about Sun County and their publications!

The following games I can’t play in also caught my interest:

RuneQuest – Unwelcome Guests
“Play leaders of the Redrock Clan as they receive news that unwelcome visitors are on their way. How will laws of hospitality in the wilds affect how they deal with spiritual opponents? Roleplay focused not adventure focused”. – By John Hunter.

RuneQuest – Cold Winds in M’nethren
“Set in the Glorantha West, scenario for 4-6 players playtest extended Glorantha West Sorcery rules. Kingdom of War is just around the corner, how do we survive? Players will be high initiate level sorcerers in the kingdom of Loskalm”. – By Brantalos.

QuestWorlds (Glorantha) – Belintar’s Mind-Maze
“Luck, Death & Dreams: Belintar’s Mind-Maze (QuestWorlds) Kethaela, 1616. Weirdness is afoot in the dreamscape that is the final stage of the Tournament of Luck and Death — maybe YOU are part of that weirdness!”

“Kethaela, 1616 ST. Following recent exertions to repulse the malign influences of Red Moon and White Bear, the Pharaoh seeks a new vessel through which to realise their dreams of flourishing and stability. Powerful, visionary devotees, shamans and magi from the Sixths of the Holy Country have gathered to participate in the dawning of a new pharaonic reverie. What is tested is not just power, might and wisdom but also their pliability, porousness, situatedness, their relation to scales both grandiose and miniscule. Amid the greatness of the greatest, the merely great are united in humility and eagerness to witness, learn and change. The strange, wondrous realm of the Tournament of Luck and Death is but the hinterland of a much deeper dream. Of course, all dreams end eventually, come crashing against the bare rocks of the day … and when that happens, who is left to pick up the pieces, and on which side of (un)reality do they find themselves?” – By FGR

QuestWorlds (Glorantha) – Long Night of the Seventh Soul
“Arrolian youths undergo initiation to the Lunar Way in the form of an overnight vigil. Come along, it’ll be trippy and involve spiritual-ethical quandaries and transformation. Inspired by knightly vigils, Victor Turner, and William Blake. See long description for more: Riverjoin, Arrolia. The mercurial Red Moon drifts ambiguously from one phase to the next. In set of ruins by the flowing water, somewhere outside the city, a group of adolescents gather for the rite of passage that will see them emerge as initiates to the Lunar Way. This is who you are, who you were.

We are like shadows in the water, like passing clouds. As we leave our youth behind, we are laid spiritually bare, naked as we descend into the dark.

Beyond obscurity’s threshold, the dark night of our vigil awaits.
From Innocence to Experience, we cannot be closed to the annihilation of ‘ourselves’, our passage across light and dark.

Death, rebirth, confusion, illumination, Joy, stasis, barbarism, War, unknown enemies, strange alliances and then, the return as something new, different, but still Us.
And at the end of it all, what colour is the Moon who shines upon us? Can you accept Her ways as easily as She accepts yours?” – By FGR.

RuneQuest – Duck Day Afternoon
“Those Yelmalions have gone too far! When Eider Browns smuggling operations have been shut down by the Sandheart Militia what’s a duck to do ? Revenge that’s what! Lysander Lighteyes famed helmet stolen right before their stupid faces! So come you Four Feathers let’s get looting – By Kevla

RuneQuest – Trouble in the Rubble – 1618, the Lunar army occupy the city of Pavis. When a young priest of Lhankhor Mhy suggests an archaeological search for a lost temple in the adjacent ruined city, this won’t bother the Lunars surely? A dungeon adventure with consequences…”. By Chris Jensen Romer.

Finally, on Sunday these are the panels and games I would have loved to be part of:

Your Glorantha Will Vary

“Join Michael O’Brien, Nick Brooke and David Hall for a freewheeling panel on what was/is/ might/might not be going on in your/their Gloranthas. Expect alternate Sun Counties, Lunar Empires and Sartar tribes for starters. Bring “your” Glorantha questions!”

Michael O’Brien VIP Game – Sun County
A RuneQuest scenario for five players, set in Sun County.

Beg the Count to pluck out your eyes rather than send you to Pent Ridge.
– Sun Domer adage

“The salt mines at Pent Ridge are hell under the sun for prisoners and guards alike. Inmates curse the sun as “Yelm the Torturer”, yet fear breaking discipline lest they be banished into the deepest caverns with the worst criminals, shut off from the light forever. So why has Vega Goldbreath, leading Light Lady of Sun County, sent us in a secret mission to infiltrate the prison? Why do we have to pretend we’ve all broken our geases? I don’t even like bird meat…” – By Michael O’Brien.

Vistas of New Pavis by Matthew Cole
“Visit New Pavis as never before! This is a demonstration of the 3D design work undertaken to build the Gloranthan city of New Pavis. Afterwards, a Virtual Reality headset experience can be booked (four sessions).”

So, what do you think? What looks more promising in your opinion? The list of events includes many more interesting panels and games (Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, ElfQuest…), but these are some of the ones that caught my attention as a fan of RuneQuest. I’ll try to publish a full write-up of the convention in the following weeks.