Its been a while since I posted: RuneQuest II has kept me very busy, so I thought I'd bring you up to date on projects on this side of the Atlantic and the US Border.

Well, the biggy is that RQII is now available in all its glory. This game was a labour of love and the reaction has been very favourable so far. In the wake of completing RQII I've been working on the following titles.

Arms and Equipment: an updating of the previous edition. Obviously some things have changed but much is familiar. The book contains the ship rules, enchanting and alchemy rules so its not just concerned with equipment.

Monster Coliseum: Lots of familiar RQ creatures (and a few new ones) get the RQII treatment. Each creature entry also comes with notes on its combat styles and how it performs in an arena environment. The book also includes arena rules for playing gladiators, racing chariots, and using the arena as a backdrop. An arena with personalities and NPCs rounds out the book so GMs have somewhere to use all those beasties for the purposes of carnage-based entertainment.

RQ Empires: a popular book in its first edition, this has undergone an extensive makeover. Empires has a new combat system (faster and leaner) and extensive rules to facilitate solo play. The structure of events during a state's year, and those for solo adventuring, are brand new and take their cues from Traveller's extremely popular lifepath system. In fact, one wet wintry day when I'm not writing, I intend to roll up a few RQII characters, create an empire or three, and play through a few years' worth of solo Empires campaigns. This book is capable of doing that. Finally, I've also included guilds and factions in there as their structure fits neatly with the book's wider themes.

Mega City Archives vol 3: Lawbreakers. Having great fun working through the annals of Dredd and writing the entries for this popular series. Its helped cook-up some ideas for a Dredd scenario or two that I have mulling around in my head.

So that's the recent spate of work. What's next?

First will be Cults of Glorantha. I intend this to be a comprehensive, accurate, very usable compendium of cults for Second Age Glorantha, complete with myths, magic and so forth. All the major cultures will be represented and organised for easy reference: so Draconic, God Learner, Storm Pantheon, Solar Pantheon, Nomad Pantheon, City Gods, Pamaltelan and so on. Its a major undertaking, but one I'm looking forward to.

Following that will be The Abiding Book, a deep-dive into God Learner culture, tradition, history and myth. Everything you need to know about the Middle Sea Empire will be in this tome which will, of course, write itself without me having to lift a finger. I like easy projects like this one...

Later in the year sees a return to the world of Elric, which I always love writing. An update of the core rules, Cults of the Young Kingdoms and a new book, Cities of the Young Kingdoms. Cities is an interesting poser: do I go to town (pun intended) on two or three key cities, or provide a broader-brush overview of several? What I can guarantee is that this book will have tons of adventure seeds and those of you who know me of old and may have played in my Elric convention games can be assured that one city in particular will feature in this book.

Oh and as if that's not enough, I'll be getting 'Living Glorantha' underway for its Continuum debut. If anyone reading this is in southern Ontario and fancies getting involved in some Living Glorantha in the Trenton/Belleville area, do drop me a private message via the Mongoose message boards - my handle is Loz.

So, lots going on for 2010. A busy year that, even this early on, has been filled with surprises and shocks. But the Canadian Writers Studio here in Brighton presses on and I'm looking forward to the challenges ahead.

Lawrence