Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Kickstarter Checkpoint


There's been a bit more news than normal for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It's been over a year since I've played it so while I'm enjoying Icons, I'd be lying if I said I've no desire to return to it...

Geek and Sundry seems to be providing a lot of coverage lately. A few days ago they had an article covering how Chaosium's Horror on the Orient Express and Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition were tremendously successful - and nearly destroyed the company. The article in question is Cthulhu Company Kickstarted Itself to Death, Then This Happened. It discusses how despite making around three quarters of a million dollars between the Kickstarters, as of last June they had around ten thousand dollars in the bank and while Horror on the Orient Express had been printed and shipped, the 7th edition had not. They had massively underestimated international shipping costs. Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen pooled their shares in the company together to re-attain control of the company and had the Moon Design Publications team take control of Chaosium. In so doing they all sunk in around a hundred thousand dollars to get the Call of Cthulhu books printed and shipped. Today I received my USPS tracking information indicating my books are on their way, due to arrive next week.

Given I'm not a big Glorantha fan, I've never been a huge follower of Moon Design Publications. I greatly enjoyed the last few versions of RuneQuest and to be honest I'm a little disappointed that RuneQuest is being brought back to assuming Glorantha as a setting as opposed to it being a possible setting. Of course nothing stops one from making their own setting despite this - lots of people played 1st and 2nd edition RuneQuest in their own worlds. For me, Glorantha seems rather interesting but also incredibly intimidating. I'm hopeful that the new Glorantha products will make for a good introduction to the setting.

With all that, it is nice to see the classic Chaosium products - RuneQuest, Pendragon, and Call of Cthulhu - all back under the same umbrella. And I greatly admire the dedication the Moon Design team has shown in making good on the 7th edition Kickstarter. It's certainly something they did not have to do - given they were founded as a Glorantha company, they could have looked at Chaosium's books and regretfully announced they were liquidating the company and would not be able to make good on the 7th edition Kickstarter. While I've had some trepidation that Call of Cthulhu will take a lesser role next to RuneQuest, truthfully I can't imagine people who've sunk so much of their own money in delivering the product intend to let the line lay dormant. The Moon Design team described their decision as both a long-term investment and for personal reasons, with Chaosium being the initial creator of RuneQuest.

Now if they can actually deliver Pulp Cthulhu, I will be in awe. It was originally due in 2002. My eldest daughter was born in 2002 and is turning 14 next week.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Image
Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG,  Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889  when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day). Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein.  Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons  which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent.  With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works before but having vagu
Keep reading

Stepping Away and a New Beginning

Image
After maintaining this blog for nearly seven years (an eternity in internet time), I've decided to step away from it. When I first began I wasn't 100% certain what it would be about. For a while I thought it would be a blog related to OSR type RPGs but I found my own tastes not firmly rooted there. Looking at the history of the blog, I see a lot of Call of Cthulhu which is hardly surprising. However, some lack of consistency definitely made it tough for me find a defined niche and over the past few months I've been giving some thought to starting a new, more narrowly focused blog. The imminent end of Google+ played a part in these thoughts, with much of my traffic coming from that site. I write because I enjoy writing, but I do enjoy growing an audience. My plan to start a narrowly-focused blog took a turn when I had the opportunity to join the  Rolling Boxcars  blog. Talking with the contributors (one of whom I game with on Discord already) and going through thei
Keep reading

RPG Review: Fate Accelerated

Image
Fate is a difficult system for me to grok. I like it conceptually, but I have a difficult time when it comes to running it.  Fate is what's considered a narrative game. Instead of modeling a simulation of the reality of the RPG setting, it is designed at supporting a story. I've seen arguments as to whether or not this makes it a "real" RPG. I think the whole debate is a bit silly, dealing with issues of "bad wrong fun". Truthfully the challenges I have with it are largely a function of me being a grizzled gaming grognard, gaming since the early 1980's. To paraphrase Yoda, I must unlearn what I have learned. I've a hunch that I'd actually have an easier time grokking Fate were I to know less.  Overview With that prelude behind us, let's take a look at the Fate Accelerated game. It is a variant of the Fate Core game. Fate Core looks a lot like what one would expect from an RPG book - pretty thick, lots of skills, stunts, etc. F
Keep reading

Using the Force in D6 Star Wars

Image
Defending yourself with just 1D in Sense is not easy, as Luke discovers when training with a remote. My previous post discussed the proto-D6 System as found in the Ghostbusters RPG. For those unfamiliar with the D6 System and the way it does the Force (or for a brief review) the essentials are: You roll a bunch of six sided dice against a target number, typically ranging from 5-ish (easy) to 20 or even higher. Your rating is listed as something like 2D+2 which means roll 2d6+2. By default, most normal/non-heroic people have 2D in most stats.  Starting heroes will might have their best skill be at 5D or a touch higher. You can take as many actions as you want in a round. However, taking two actions in a round reduces all dice codes by 1D, taking three reduces all by 2D, etc. Starting with Force skills will lower a characters starting attributes. Unlike most skills they start off at 1D. There are three Force skills - control, sense, and alter. Control lets you control t
Keep reading

Developing Boston for 1920s Call of Cthulhu

Image
While Chaosium has produced sourcebooks for many locations in Lovecraft Country (Kingsport, Arkham, and Innsmouth) as well as non-fictional cities of the 1920s (such as New York City and New Orleans), the nearby city of Boston, while being featured in many adventures, has never received its own full sourcebook. The most common era for my Call of Cthulhu  games has been in the 1920s - some campaigns have been in New York City while others have been in Lovecraft country. For those in Lovecraft Country, many adventures have been in nearby Boston. Over the years I've slowly been building up some expertise in the area and I thought it might be of interest to others gaming in the same setting - whether with Mythos horrors or a purely mundane game. First, let us investigate those official sources. While Boston has found its way into many adventures, I can think of two sources where it has been given a fair amount of detail. First, The Unspeakable Oath  double issue 16/17 has a ref
Keep reading