Report on ImpCon 3

The good folks at Chaosium have now organized three “Impromptu Conventions”, nicknamed “ImpCon”, where they get online on Discord and Zoom and chat in a totally informal way with their gamer community. The idea is that it’s a virtual “after-con” experience, comprised of liquor drinking and chatting, entirely skipping the “moderated panels and game slots” step.

In lieu of games and formal panels, ImpCon has (virtual) lobbies, where people can chat about whatever comes to mind, with all of Chaosium’s game designers dropping by to partake in the socialization. The schedule is made up of thematic video chats for all of Chaosium’s present games (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, QuestWorlds, 7th Sea, and even BRP itself!) and future games (Rivers of London, Lords of the Middle Sea). It also involves fun activities such as John Wick’s “watch along” parties where he provides live commentary on movies like Pirates of the Caribbean or Princess Bride.

ImpCon 3 was the most recent occurrence and as always the lucky attendees were treated to scoops and sneak peeks into upcoming products (especially art!) which we are explicitly asked to not share outside of ImpCon. Thankfully, Chaosium has started the marketing machine on at least one of these products, the RuneQuest Starter Set, so you can already gaze upon many aspects of this glorious upcoming boxed set.

The much awaited Cults of Glorantha book is still in production, as artists such as Loic Muzy, Agathe Pitie, and Katrin Dirim are hard at work on the many, many illustrations needed for the two-and-a-half book set. By Chaosium’s request, we can’t share the exclusive previews that were shared during ImpCon3, but we can definitely repost other previews that Chaosium has shared publicly shortly before or after.

I’m sure that Agathe Pitie’s giant monomyth painting will be analyzed by fans for quite a long time! I wonder if Waldo’s in there?

We learned a few things about the Sartar Homeland Set, such as the contents of the box: a Player Guide, a Sartar Gazetteer, a Boldhome booklet, an Encounters booklet, some posters, and the much teased big map of Sartar.

• Player Guide will feature a new customized character creation in which, for instance, players decide if their character is from the countryside or from a city. This should affect starting skills such as Farm and Herd vs Tradetalk, for instance.
• A tattoo guide would also be included in the Player Guide. We hope that it comes with a “blank” sheet like in HeroQuest’s Sartar book, where players could draw their character’s tattoos.
• Last, some household management mechanics inspired from Pendragon’s Book of Manor will appear in the Player Guide, probably expanding on the Sacred Time mechanics which were already taken from Pendragon’s Winter Phase.
• The Sartar Gazetteer will present the Orlanthi kingdom as a much less “cattle herding hillbillies” region, and a more “urbanized silk road” setting. As often with Gloranthan lore, things evolve and change with time, which is bound to frustrate as much as it excites. I’m definitely looking forward to gaming in Bronze Age cities which, as I educate myself on the topic, seem full of surprises in terms of density, scale, social layers, and much more.
• The Boldhome booklet will describe the Sartarite capital in as much detail as New Pavis in the classic Pavis boxed set.

Further down the road Chaosium is working with various authors on settings and adventures books for Pavis, the Big Rubble, Nochet, the Upland Marsh, Talastar & Dorastor, Sun County (the one in Sartar!), and more. To round this up, the Dragon Pass Campaign book, pitched as “The Boy King campaign in Glorantha”, is still being written, and the Gamemaster Guide, Heroquesting Guide, and Weapons & Equipment Guide are at various stages of completion.

Of course we want to thank again all the people at Chaosium for organizing this and for their willingness to open up in front of an ever demanding crowd of grognards. We’ll see you all again for ImpCon 4!