Industry | Publishing |
---|---|
Founded | 1997 | in California, US
Defunct | 2013 |
Headquarters | US |
Owner | Greg Stafford |
Website | web |
Issaries, Inc. was a game publisher incorporated in California in 1999 by Greg Stafford to control and manage products using Stafford's fictional world of Glorantha. [1] It partnered with Moon Design Publications to develop the flagship roleplaying game Hero Wars . In 2003, it acquired the HeroQuest and RuneQuest trademarks from Hasbro, which led to the licensing of a new edition of RuneQuest. The company's last statement was in 2013 and is now listed as Dissolved. [2]
Greg Stafford founded Issaries as a company to hold on to the trademarks and copyrights for Glorantha after obtaining them from Chaosium. To deal with funding difficulties, Chaosium issued a press release in August 1997 to offer shares of Issaries for $100 each, planning to start the company after raising $50,000 so that a new Glorantha-based RPG could be produced. [3] : 57, 60 Stafford approached Robin Laws to design the new game, which became known as Hero Wars, and was the first release published by Issaries in 2000. [3] : 60–61 The original run of Hero Wars sold out in 2003, so Stafford published the second edition of his game again based in Glorantha as HeroQuest and Issaries published several supplements for the game. [3] : 64 Stafford moved to Mexico in 2004, at which point Issaries stopped publishing RPGs, and when he came back to the US in 2005 he used Issaries to license the Glorantha rights to other companies such as Mongoose Publishing and Moon Design Publications. [3] : 66
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game White Bear and Red Moon (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including RuneQuest and HeroQuest, as well as several works of fiction and the computer strategy game King of Dragon Pass. The Gloranthan world is characterised by its complex use of mythology, heavily influenced by the universalist approaches of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade, its sword and sorcery ethos, its long and distinctive history as a setting for role-playing games, its community development and expansion, and its relative lack of Tolkienesque influence, which is uncommon among early American fantasy role-playing games.
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
Francis Gregory Stafford, usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism.
HeroQuest is a role-playing game written by Robin D. Laws first published as Hero Wars by Issaries, Inc. in 2000. It has its roots in Greg Stafford's fantasy world of Glorantha, but was designed as a generic system, suitable for, but not tied to any particular genre.
Robin D. Laws is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist.
RuneSlayers is a free role-playing game first published in 1998 by its authors, J.C. Connors and Christopher Lawrence. The game was originally developed as RuneQuest: Slayers, a follow-up to the third edition of RuneQuest by the publisher Avalon Hill, which owned the RuneQuest trademark at the time. In 1998 Avalon Hill was acquired by Hasbro and the project was canceled. The authors then published the game on the Internet as a free PDF file, under the title RuneSlayers.
Different Worlds was an American role-playing games magazine published from 1979 to 1987.
Rudy Kraft III is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Michael O'Brien is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Rick Meints is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Moon Design Publications are publishers of tabletop role-playing game books set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. They were founded in 1998 by Rick Meints and Colin Phillips in the UK.
Apple Lane is a tabletop role-playing game adventure for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1978. Set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, Apple Lane is a small hamlet that provides the basis for three adventures. Subsequent updates for new editions of RuneQuest and HeroQuest focus only on the hamlet, updating its timeline. There are also a number of licensed and foreign language editions.
Cults of Terror is a tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1981. The sourcebook details nine evil deities and the cults that worship them, for use in Greg Stafford's fantasy world of Glorantha.
Glorantha: Genertela, Crucible of the Hero Wars is a supplement created by Chaosium and published under license by Avalon Hill in 1988 for the fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest.
Gods of Glorantha, subtitled "60 Religions for RuneQuest", is a boxed supplement published under license by Avalon Hill in 1985 for Chaosium's fantasy role-playing game RuneQuest. The fifth of their boxed supplements for RuneQuest, it provides information and game rules related to sixty fictional cults, and was the first to feature the world of Glorantha instead of the default setting of "Dark Ages of fantasy Europe". The supplement was designed by Chaosium staff writers Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford, Steve Perrin and Charlie Krank. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Casus Belli, Different Worlds, Dragon, and The Games Machine.
Balastor's Barracks is a tabletop role-playing game adventure for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1978. Set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, against the backdrop of an ancient ruined city, the adventurers search for a lost artifact.
Pavis: Threshold to Danger is a boxed tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest, originally published by Chaosium in 1983. This boxed set detailed the fictional city of New Pavis for use in role-playing adventures. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Dragon, Different Worlds, and Fantasy Gamer. The set was republished in 1999 by Moon Design Publications in a single volume with Big Rubble: The Deadly City as Gloranthan Classics Volume I – Pavis & Big Rubble. The 1983 edition was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.
RuneQuest Companion is a tabletop role-playing game supplement for RuneQuest. Originally published by Chaosium in 1983, it consisted of reprints of Wyrm's Footnotes magazine articles as well as new material to expand the game rules and setting. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including Dragon, White Dwarf, Fantasy Gamer, and Different Worlds. It was republished in 2019 in PDF format as part of Chaosium's RuneQuest: Classic Edition Kickstarter.