Part One: Arrival, Fellowship, and a Game of Golf

Back from Chaosium Con UK, and trying to capture it for Roll4Sanity! This is the full report so get comfy! What this year was all about? In a word: fellowship. In a few more words: sedate in the best possible way, with moments of genuine, heart-racing chaos thrown in for good measure with friends who stop you from loosing all of your sanity.

We travelled up on the Thursday to meet new friends and old, grab some food in a late pub lunch, and settle in for a calm before the storm. There was an official Chaosium meet and greet that evening, which we passed on partly because there would be plenty of opportunities to meet the Chaosium team throughout the weekend, and partly because the bar was perfectly pleasant company on its own. It was a good start and the Thursday evening with a fair few people were already there was easy and relaxed.

Friday Morning I went to the only game for which I’d sign up – you can read about that here – https://roll4sanity.com/the-curious-malady-of-young-lord-claudan! After lunch and the Miskatonic Repository even, late Friday afternoon found us setting up for the evening’s live stream — a game called Par of the Course, which you can find on YouTube via the link below. The investigators are competitive golfing friend in 1920 Arkham and must take tea off in a storm If you’ve ever wanted to see me wearing a silly costume and playing a round of cosmic golf, now is your chance. Slight spoilers: my character didn’t die, despite my best efforts. There was even a fumble near the end, and I still survived. The Miskatonic Playhouse had produced promotional golf balls especially for the occasion — audience members who had a ball with a matching number on the dice rolled during play could hold it up and claim a prize. It was a genuinely lovely touch, and getting to step out into the audience in character to congratulate new members of the Golf Club was one of those convention moments you don’t forget in a hurry.

The stream went well and was warmly received. A special mention here to Sweet, one of my German Call of Cthulhu players, who was at the convention and stepped up to handle vision mixing for the live stream. Having someone that capable and enthusiastic in the crew made an enormous difference. It was a late night getting everything struck and packed away — you have to leave the room exactly as you found it, which means putting all the tech in and taking all the tech out in the same day — but it was worth every minute.

Part Two: The Big Reveals and Saturday’s Hectic Sprint

Saturday began gently enough. Breakfast was good — slightly soggy scrambled eggs, but exactly what was needed for a sore throat after giving everything to the night before. The beans were plentiful, the company was good, and a full breakfast at Chaosium Con has a way of making lunch feel entirely unnecessary.

After a spot of prepping for the Saturday night stream it was time for the seminars – What’s coming up in Cthulhu, long look at Campfire Tales and the how Mike and Paul made the 7th Edition of Cthulhu.

Chaosium had a lot to announce. Ten new books across Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, Rivers of London, and Age of Vikings — a genuinely impressive slate as you’ll see at the end of part two. I’ll focus on the Call of Cthulhu titles, naturally, but there was something for everyone.

I picked Clockwork and Claws at the show so that was no surprise so first up, and expected by most, was Innsmouth — due in July 2026 and already very close. The second in Chaosium’s series of New England town guides following Arkham, this one is written by Mike Mason, Bradley Freeman, Lynne Hardy, and Keith Herber, nodding to some of the original contributors to earlier Innsmouth material. Wisely, Chaosium have designed it so you don’t have to include the infamous Raid on Innsmouth at all which can be treated as myth or rumour if your campaign calls for it. Both a standard and leatherette editions are planned. August brings a new printing of the Keeper Tips book — a 40th anniversary leatherette edition, which is a lovely way to celebrate a book that has served Keepers well for a very long time.

The announcement I was most personally excited about was the Keeper Companion, by Mike Mason and Paul Fricker, due in September. I had heard Mike mention on a podcast that they were working on something, but I had no idea it was this close. The concept is wonderful: everything they wanted to include in 7th Edition but couldn’t, all the feedback they’ve gathered over the years, all the optional rules they’ve developed since gathered into one book. You don’t have to use any of it, but if you do, your games will likely run more smoothly. Chase rules and automatic fire were specifically mentioned, and as someone who has done a Roll4Sanity video on automatic fire, I am genuinely looking forward to seeing what the designers of 7th Edition would actually do with it now.

October sees the Cthulhu by Gaslight Keeper’s Screen Pack, which I think is a smart release. It’s era-specific, the player-facing artwork sounds atmospheric, and it fills a real gap. I did take the opportunity to ask whether this might lead to a full slipcase set combining the Keeper’s Guide, Investigator’s Guide, and Screen Pack. The answer was a diplomatic “anything is possible.” so if that sounds appealing to you, it might be worth dropping Chaosium an email to say so.

November brings Call of Cthulhu: Tools of the Trade — a 1920s equipment and weapons guide. The cover features a Vickers machine gun apparently being used to take down a Knocker, which raises as many questions as it answers. I hope it covers how to acquire unusual weapons across different parts of the world, and how to handle them in play. I suspect it will be very useful indeed.

Also announced, though I’m still processing how I feel about it, was The Curse of the Seven — a two-volume campaign in a slipcase, written by Karis McDonald and Kevin Ross, described as the next Masks of Nyarlathotep. That is an extraordinary claim to make, and it sets expectations at a dizzying height. Whether it earns that comparison remains to be seen, but it sounds promising and I hope I get to play it someday but might pick it up if only for the slipcase!!

And then, shortly after the session a whole 2027 roadmap was released on social media which included a Masks of Nyarlathotep board game. I have absolutely no idea how you condense that campaign into a board game Horror on the Orient Express has a fairly linear structure that lends itself to the format, but Masks is sprawling, non-linear, and deeply character-driven. so how that translated will be interesting.

The Campfire Tales talk was really helpful as I have the book and was quite surprised fun it looked to play but to have the folks who help make the book tell you all about it is super helpful. After a quick break Mike Mason and Paul Fricker shared a really interesting design history of the 7th Edition of Call of Cthulhu even how at one point that they were considering publishing it independently at the book was written but no contract with Chaosium was in place! One the revelation is that a specific episode of Boardwalk Empire was used as a reference for mapping out Call of Cthulhu combat actions. I’ve yet to watch the scene but apparently it has all the actions one would expect in Call of Cthulhu Combat.

There was another session in the main lecture all which finished ay six pm giving us only one hour so set up a full streaming rig of three camera, 6 channels of radio mic, a boom mic and 4 desktop microphones, all squeezed into a vision mixer hooked to a computer ready to live stream to the world! No pressure then?!

Fortunately, I had the most wonderful crew. Sweet again, having seen the setup from the night before. Chris, who assembled the camera stands. The other Chris, who has considerably more IT experience than I will ever have and handled the vision mixer and HDMI routing. And myself, sorting three separate layers of audio: a boom mic for the Keeper, desktop microphones for the players, and radio mics as backup. We got it done. The talent arrived: Mike Mason as Keeper, with Lynn Hardy, Karis McDonald, Paul Fricker, and Newman from the Miskatonic Playhouse as players. There was a very conspicuous bag on the table that we kept trying to move as clutter but it was a prop. The stream is on YouTube and I’ll link it below; watch out for the bag.

It started at seven with no delays, Mike had the game wrapped by half nine, and thanks to the crew we were in the bar by ten. I would usually spend at least 90minites before and after a stream setting things and so to have a crew that saved all that time and gave me support naturally I was very happy to buy everyone a drink. It was one of those evenings that reminds you why you do all of this. I then sat out in the cold air to eat the cold burger I didn’t have time to eat earlier.

Part Three: Sunday, Streaming Gremlins, and the Spirit of the Convention

Sunday arrived hot. The convention centre needed the air conditioning running, which tells you everything about the British bank holiday weather. Breakfast again fuelled us for the day, and after a confusing seminar spirituality and roleplaying we set up for the Rivers of London live stream scheduled for two o’clock. This one was in a smaller room in the same space where the Mikemares game had been held the previous year, for those who saw that one. Setup went smoothly with the crew in place, the audience filed in, and we were ready to go. but the stream didn’t work.

We restarted OBS. Nothing, so as the old addage states “The show must go on” the game started. So we recorded it instead it will go up on the YouTube channel in full when it gets uploaded so you’ll be able to see the continuation of the Rivers of London: Waters of Lethe story — the link will follow when it’s up. What went wrong? I think as the Miskatonic Playhouse streams as a guest on the Chaosium YouTube channel it might have been to do with a software key that you enter into get access to the platform. Those keys expire, as a sensible security precaution this time perhaps the the key had lapsed by the time we went live.

And with that my tech duties were done made considerably easier with the help of friends. I changed into something considerably more relaxed, and spent the rest of Sunday doing what Chaosium Con is actually for: being with people. Sweet went off to play a Matt Sanderson game — the two of us had played Blue with Matt the previous year, so it was good to see that connection continue. I, rather contentedly, did very little. We actually had time to eat food in the restaurant and caught up with people I hadn’t had a chance to speak to properly. There was the hellos and goodbye to faces I’d seen across the weekend but who were leaving that night. But for those who stayed we lingered over a drink and let the weekend settle.

Looking back, it was a more sedate Chaosium Con than last years – or at least it felt that way, though I was probably setting up for streams during the hours when the bar was at its busiest. One thing I did notice was that there seemed to be less of the spontaneous mingling that I remember so fondly from before. In 2025 you could walk into the bar, find a group mid-conversation, and be welcomed in within moments. This year the bars for me where far less busy were more people sitting apart, in smaller clusters, which is a shame. If anyone from the Chaosium Con team is reading this, I’d gently suggest that some kind of structured mixer earlier in the weekend perhaps a pub quiz on all Chaosium IP so you need a play from all gams at your table! The Thursday evening could be an option for a time slot for the dedicated who arrive early. Karaoke was suggested in jest to David the the main convention organiser as I hear Mike Mason sings an amazing version of the country song Folsom Prison Blue. How to make this karaoke happen? That is a question!

I also want to take a moment to mention some of the people who made this convention what it was. Sweet, both Chrises, Ian, Newman — the live streaming crew who gave up their time to make the Roll4Sanity streams happen. Karis McDonald, Mike Mason, Paul Fricker, and Lynn Hardy, who were outstanding on stage. And a particular special mention for Lynn. If you ever have the opportunity to meet Lynn Hardy, take it. Her contribution to Call of Cthulhu is extraordinary — she organised the Rivers of London line, wrote for Achtung! Cthulhu, worked on Cthulhu by Gaslight, and her credits across the game run deep. She is generous, warm, and brilliant, and I would read her autobiography without hesitation.

It was a really, really good weekend. Thank you to everyone who was part of it. Here’s to the next one.