Chaosium game publishers recently announced the development of a new tabletop roleplaying game product to their already vast and impressive catalog of games. Lords of the Middle Sea Roleplaying Game is based on the original 1978 Lords of the Middle Sea board wargame, set in an alternate universe North America in the year 2401.
Lords of the Middle Sea Roleplaying Game (LMS) doesn’t yet have a publication date, but the team producing the game has been named as Jason Durall (Basic Roleplaying, RuneQuest, The Laundry, World War Cthulhu, Conan, and others) and Jeff Richard (The Guide to Glorantha, King of Sartar, HeroQuest, and more). Award-winning veteran game designer John Snead (Blue Rose, Eclipse Phase, Exalted, Mage: The Awakening, The Laundry, and others.) has been picked to write the LMS core sourcebook. The core rules are being based on a simplified version of Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying system announced in March of this year under the Open Gaming License.
In Chaosium’s Lords of the Middle Sea Roleplaying Game announcement blog post, author Michael O’Brien writes about how Lords of the Middle Sea started out as a board wargame in 1978. When wargame and RPG designer Lynn Willis joined Chaosium that year, the LMS wargame was his first game product for the studio. Copies of the LMS wargame are considered valued collector’s items. Before Willis passed away in 2013, he had helped launch a long list of renowned Chaosium games, including Basic Roleplaying, Call of Cthulhu (5th & 6th editions), Elric, Masks of Nyarlathotep, Ringworld, RuneQuest, and Worlds of Wonder.
Like the LMS wargame before it, LMS RPG takes place in a post-apocalypse North America of 2401. Earth has only just begun to recover from the natural devastation and global collapse of society brought about by nuclear war. Players become survivors making their home and base of operations aboard their ship, scavenging and exploring the ruins for things to use and trade.
The player’s ship is created alongside rolling up characters, and can be customized and improved with found technology over the course of an adventure. Though much of the world’s tech was destroyed when civilization died, some may still be found in bunkers deep underground and in other long-forgotten areas.
You can read the full Lords of the Middle Sea Roleplaying Game announcement at Chaosium, and be sure to follow Chaosium’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels for updates on this and their other quality games.
Source: Lords of the Middle Sea Roleplaying Game
