THE CHRONICLES OF FUTURE EARTH - Science-Fantasy Roleplaying in Earth's Far Future

The Earth we know is gone, forgotten in the depths of time. In its place is the Urth, a world of mystery and danger, steeped in a thousand centuries of history and legend, where humankind brushes shoulders with beings and creatures strange and monstrous. The Venerable Autocracy of Sakara, the greatest and oldest, Empire on Urth, rules over half the world, led by an immortal God-Emperor whose very word is law. It’s a world of deep, dark forests, brooding mountains, timeworn ruins haunted with the ghosts of the past and the weird monsters of the future. Arcane sorcerers explore strange dimensions, terrible priests wield powers from extradimensional beings known as Gods, mighty soldiers forge new histories from the ruins of the past. It’s a time of danger, reckoning, and adventure. Welcome to The Chronicles of Future Earth.

The Chronicles of Future Earth is volume one of Chaosium's new techno-fantasy setting for BRP. It contains: an introduction to Urth, the world of the unimaginably far future, focussing on the vast and ancient city of Korudav; new races, cultures and occupations; new magic, artifacts, and religions; rules for demons and divine powers; a bestiary of the Urth’s more deadly denizens; and “The Worm Within”, an introductory scenario showcasing this unique and adventure-filled world.

By Sarah Newton, aka Shaira. 112 pages. Published by Chaosium December 2010.

Supplement for the setting: Children of the Worm

Very nice. I just ordered this yesterday. I can't wait to check it out.

Hi everyone,

Awesome to see Chronicles getting its own thread - and to see it hit the shelves at last. Happy to answer and questions on the book, setting, or future publications - hope everyone enjoys the read!

Cheers

Sarah

Sarah,

Anything you can tell us about further books in the line would be most appreciated.

John

Sarah,

Anything you can tell us about further books in the line would be most appreciated.

John

Hi John,

Up next from Chaosium will be the PDF adventure "Children of the Worm", which is a multi-part scenario set along the Grand Canal of Tegru Kanesh in Korudav. It also provides new critters and magic, and details of the "P'Tek" or Troglodytes, a Jeniri race, and their deity Babisiya (called by them the Dark Mother). That should be out in the next few months - last I heard Dustin was finishing up the art and doing some layout.

This summer I'm working on a Chronicles Player's Guide, hopefully (possibly?) for release later in the year (to be confirmed by Chaosium!). This should be a bigger book, about twice the size of the Chronicles core book, detailing the Venerable Autocracy from a player character's point of view - the various regions, races, temples, with lots of cool detail on the Sakari jeniri and esteri and tons of new magic. It's kind of the "everything you need to know about playing in the Venerable Autocracy" book

After that - we haven't spoken in detail yet. I have a near-finished scenario "Vales of Yala", which follows on from the paragraph beginning "The scene through the portal changes..." on p89 of the Chronicles core book - although that's not the only way to get there Also there's "Nightmare in the City of Dreams", which follows on from the end of the Worm Within scenario and is a mini-campaign set in and around Ambara, city of the Shalai time dragons.... a bestiary... gazetteer... the Springtide Civilizations sourcebook... adventure pack #3... lots of stuff still to discuss and pin down in detail!

Anything there pique your interest? What would you like to see?

Cheers!

Sarah

How long is the PDF adventure you mentioned ? long enough to consider a print or POD version....I'm just not a big fan of PDF's. Sorry I'm just old fashioned that way.

That said I'll probably buy it anyway. I ordered my copy of the main book yesterday so should have it soon. The big supplement you mentioned sounds rather fine as well

Same here - I'd prefer a print copy.

Hi guys,

The format of 'Children of the Worm' is decided by Chaosium rather than me, but right now I believe it's a pdf release. I haven't seen the finished doc, but I'm guessing it will be about 20-30 pages, layout depending. I'll chat with Dustin nearer the time to see if there are POD possibilities. At the very least I'll be printing out my pdf - I prefer hard copy too;-)

Cheers!

Sarah

The other possibility might be if you've several shortish PDF scenarios/adventures to compile them at some point into a book....

My review on the Chronicles of Future Earth is up on rpg.net:

TCoFE review.

I'd like to see some more information on the other races and gods for players to use. And new monsters for me to use!

I would also like more information on what the Avatar is up to and why he took down Ellib and now Amadorad. Details on the War of the False Avatar would be great.

Also, could PCs join the Legion of the Sword of Fire rather than side with the Legion of Lord Regos? I'd rather have the two Legions both be options without one being easily labled "evil" or wrong and the other "good" or without a doubt right.

I just received my copy a couple of hours ago and couldn't be more pleased. It is easy to read and has drawn me in. So far the world has the perfect balance between strangeness and familiarity that I like best in fictional worlds. Great Job! School has just been called off for tomorrow due to snow so I plan on curling up and exploring a bit more of Future Earth.

I just got mine, too. Overall, the setting looks very evocative - I wont be able to comment further until I read it, and this will be some time from now, so consider this a mini style review.

The illustrations are really nice and seem to do the setting justice. I especially like the cover.

But my first impression on opening the books was 'Gack! What's with the hideous borders?' Seriously, they detract from the rest - they're all stripey and dominate the page, visually - which they shouldn't. The 'Chronicles of the Future Earth text across the top of most (why not all?) pages is also pretty cheesy.

Some other oddities:

a) The same picture of the chimaera (and a few other illos) appears at least 3 times in the book. It's a good picture, but once is enough. I'm sure this is a cost saving measure, but the space saved by the double and triple pictures could have been used to add more creature stats (see next item);

An elephant-like beast of burden appears on the cover and on page 4. This beast seems to go without a name in the text, though, and gets no stats - which seems like an omission to me if it was important enough for the cover. A number of animals are listed under prices (Chelothor, Orn, Chambriother, and Bantoor) but they get no description or stats at all;

c) The text entries for Gimmerling and Chaos Crawlers have the wrong pictures (should be switched).

d) The index is incorrect in places

e) No credit is given for the illustrations (that I could find)

All this after a 10 minute look-through.

The maps are quite nice. I especially like the hand-drawn ones that are associated with the adventure. Wish I knew who drew them, though. The map of Korudav is also very good, though in quite a different style. The names on this map really make you want to explore!. The Hivernium map is good, though the scrolly text is a little hard on the eyes - easier on the big copy included with the book.

I wish I had time to read more of the text so I could say more about it. I don't really like to say negative things about books that I know people have worked hard on - but at the same time I think all the glowing words are a little misleading - this isn't a perfect product and (sorry Kruvil) definitely doesn't deserve a 5/5 for style. I'd probably give it a 3/5 for style myself, but then I really hate needless watermarks and ugly borders with a passion.

I got mine also. It's excellent. I can't wait to see what's coming next. Chaosium has a real winner here. It was well worth waiting for.

Is the adventure in BRP Adventures "Escape from the Slavelands" in any way related to CoFE ?

Hello,

I'd like to dedicate my first post to the chronicles setting. My past experience with brp has, up until now, been limited to CoC which I've played on and off for years.

I picked up my copy of Chronicles, based on the cover art alone, which I thought was extremely evocative. That being said, the content of the book is also brilliant. As other posters have pointed out, the relatively meager page count, setting format considered, keeps you wanting more. This approach to setting books is something that is rarely seen, and I must applaud the idea. I hope that future books will arrive at a steady stream, not a slow trickle! But i know...it's the economy, stupid!

Sarah Newton has done a wonderful job creating Urth. I don't think I've ever been so intrigued by a setting, so polarized by cross genre reference. She has managed to hit the nail on this one, and I'm looking forward to future releases.

edit: by the way, I've created a "chronicles of..." playlist on grooveshark. My username is tyrannosirus, and playlist name is...take a wild gues.

BTW I see the PDF of this book is now available on Chaosium's site.

Here's my LibraryThing review of the Chronicles of Future Earth:

http://www.librarything.com/work/10972783/reviews/70219266

Two questions:

- "Escape from the Slavelands" - does it relate to this?

- is it more a Fantasy RPG or does "ancient technology" play a part in it as well (and to what degree)?

Two questions:

- "Escape from the Slavelands" - does it relate to this?

Hey that was my question ( see post #14 )

it was! but I really want an answer!

Well I have both products and I am in the middle of a Fantasy Grounds session using "Escape from the Slavelands" ( which has been fun).

I received CoFE after I posted my original question and I have read CoFE once. I am also converting the adventures in CoFE into FG files.

As written "Escape from the Slavelands" is not related to CoFE. It takes place thousands of years before CoFE. But having given it some thought, I would like the mutant pcs in my game to get to CoFE, so they might find a dimensional gate or they might get "summoned" by a sorceror to Urth.

Ancient technology exists in CoFE, and it could be tailored to suit your taste. From my reading of the book: because this setting is thousands of years after an Armageddon of the Gods, ancient tech is a rarity by default. But as I said before, you could tailor that to suit your game, unless you are stuck on the "official canon". At this stage there is very little in the way of canon.

There is more of the setting dedicated to demon summoning and sorcery than there is to ancient technology, but that might change as more material is published. Currently there are 7 pages on ancient artifacts, 9 pages on the gods, and 15 pages on demons and divine powers. I see CoFE as a very flexible setting, that you as a GM could focus on different aspects of it, to create a suitable style, that your players find fun.

Hi wbcreighton,

thanks for the response and the overview. I think I will skip this setting then, as it is has too many Fantasy aspects and I am currently looking for something more SciFi leaning towards Fantasy.

Thanks!

After that - we haven't spoken in detail yet. I have a near-finished scenario "Vales of Yala", which follows on from the paragraph beginning "The scene through the portal changes..." on p89 of the Chronicles core book - although that's not the only way to get there Also there's "Nightmare in the City of Dreams", which follows on from the end of the Worm Within scenario and is a mini-campaign set in and around Ambara, city of the Shalai time dragons.... a bestiary... gazetteer... the Springtide Civilizations sourcebook... adventure pack #3... lots of stuff still to discuss and pin down in detail!

Anything there pique your interest? What would you like to see?

Hi!

My copy has not arrived yet as I ordered it yesterday but I’m pretty anxious to read it.

The idea of a future earth encourages thinking that future earth not only on a foreign region of the modern world but a closer one. So the idea of a gazetteer really compels me. As far I have read about this setting on the web it looks like one of the core elements of the setting is the Autocracy of Sakara which “rules over half the world” and that makes me wonder what's on this half and what doesn’t. Will the gazzetter cover that non-AoS regions?

I just got my copy a few days ago, haven't had time to really read it yet but I have browsed it and I am quite impressed.

One thing I did do (as I tend to do w/ all my rpg books when applicable) is peruse the mini-poster map. And I noticed something kinda strange. Is it me or is there something up with the Precincts portion of the Korudav map and it's associated numerical key? There doesn't seem to be numbers 1, 7, or 8 that I can see on the map? But there is a number 9, though that isn't in the key?

As I said, I haven't actually been able to read the book yet so is this explained? I.e. somethings you can put where ever you want, or is it just cartographic typos?

yep I have found the same cartographic typos on my copy. There's no number 9 key. I also notice that 6 should be 5 as it looks like 6 is a lake.

Thermifex hill (number 4) is supposed to be in the Akemenek precinct, probably 5? (There's is a map of that precinct in the book).