You're right, they are doing what makes sense given the mess they're in, and I wouldn't expect them to do otherwise. Things are obviously much, much worse than anyone has let on.

That doesn't alter that fact that BRP and BRP-based products look dead in the water as things stand now, and all mention thereof has been avoided of late. Even Chaosium RuneQuest is moving to the "I'll believe it when I see it" category at this stage, i.e. if by mid-2016 Chaosium is still functioning and able to produce new material for relatively unprofitable sidelines like RQ when there are more important things like CoC, fiction and boardgames to consider.

Here's hoping.

Just one point, when Ben was hired his name appeared on the Chaosium website as line editor for BRP and Magic World, not "hourly employee running the office and warehouse".

Yar, it's not the shutting of the warehouse/office that bothers me but the implications of further retraction. As much as I enjoy CoC it has become Chaosium's Munchkin game. I'm kinda at a loss for seeing anything coming down the pipe from them that I'm looking forward to.
Meanwhile Alephtar has deleted their BRP catalog... so no more BRP Rome, Merrie England, Dragon Bones, etc. from them.

It does look like Alephtar's catalogue will return under another banner, though.
Sometime..

I hope they don't throw BRP under the bus when they're managed to pick Chaosium up and back on its feet. That would be a loss.

I think it's pretty hard to predict anything until the CoC7e Kickstarter is out of the way. There's simply not going to know where they stand until that's dealt with.

Chaosium is such an odd duck. On the one hand they've outlived just about every other first generation rpg company. On the other hand, excepting a brief stint in the 80s, it seems like the company has spent its entire existence reeling on the brink.

Quote from: Vile;858024You're right, they are doing what makes sense given the mess they're in, and I wouldn't expect them to do otherwise. Things are obviously much, much worse than anyone has let on.

I think it's possible to be way too doom and gloom about this. For starters, I am quite positive that Moon Design would not have put their collective fat anywhere near the fire if they were not confident they could turn this ship around; if on examining the books and assets and getting a clear idea of what was going on on the ground (rather than relying on Charlie Krank's reporting) Greg and Sandy came to the conclusion that the situation was unsalvagable, I think they would have just declared bankruptcy and held a funeral for Chaosium rather than inviting Moon Design to stick their soft bits in the hornet's nest.

Furthermore, like I said, the retraction was necessary and should have happened decades ago. It is absolute lunacy in this day and age for an RPG publisher to be utilising a substantial amount of warehouse space; warehoused product is sunk costs that don't just earn you nothing but actively cost money to keep and these days it's both much better and more viable to do short print runs repeated regularly rather than keeping pallets of product piled up in a warehouse. A company of Chaosium's level of activity can sustain itself in a vastly retracted form and still have plenty of spare capacity to develop all sorts of other stuff, particularly given the extent to which Chaosium have used freelancers over the years rather than full-time employees.

QuoteThat doesn't alter that fact that BRP and BRP-based products look dead in the water as things stand now, and all mention thereof has been avoided of late. Even Chaosium RuneQuest is moving to the "I'll believe it when I see it" category at this stage, i.e. if by mid-2016 Chaosium is still functioning and able to produce new material for relatively unprofitable sidelines like RQ when there are more important things like CoC, fiction and boardgames to consider.

Again, I'm sure Greg would not have prevailed on Design Mechanism to take the course they've taken unless he was confident that the new Chaosium could make it work. Nobody knows better than Greg and Moon Design how much demand there is out there for Glorantha stuff so I'm sure they will find a way to make it work.

Quote from: Vile;858024That doesn't alter that fact that BRP and BRP-based products look dead in the water as things stand now, and all mention thereof has been avoided of late.

There are a number of things going on with BRP, but they are all under NDA. Its safe to say that announcements will be made, as and when the upper echelons of Chaosium are ready to do so.

QuoteEven Chaosium RuneQuest is moving to the "I'll believe it when I see it" category at this stage, i.e. if by mid-2016 Chaosium is still functioning and able to produce new material for relatively unprofitable sidelines like RQ when there are more important things like CoC, fiction and boardgames to consider.

I'm working on Chaosium RQ at the moment, and can assure you there is a very firm publication date.

Quote from: SimlasaMeanwhile Alephtar has deleted their BRP catalog... so no more BRP Rome, Merrie England, Dragon Bones, etc. from them.

Don't worry. BRP Rome shall arise again.

Quote from: Pete Nash;858060Don't worry. BRP Rome shall arise again.

As will Merrie England.

Well now, that's the first couple of positive announcements I've heard (from my preferences, that is)! Thanks for chipping in, gents!

Yes, good to hear... if Rome were to move over to RQ6 I would see that, in particular, as an excellent fit.
To be clear, any disappointment on my part is purely selfish. I'm not suggesting those changes weren't wise business moves and I've got no ill will towards the folks making the decisions.

Quote from: soltakss;858063As will Merrie England.

If it's not a secret, will that be BRP and through Chaosium, or Alephtar's upcoming Revolution D100, or something else entirely? I ask because I need to decide whether to take someone up on their offer to sell me their copy, or to wait for the new one.

Chaosium put out some welcome clarification on what is going on with BRP.

Summary:
- Big Gold Book is being semi-retired, in the sense that it's no longer going to be the centrepiece of the game line but it's going to remain available as a PDF and print-on-demand product for those who want it.
- A new BRP Essentials 32-page core booklet is being produced, which sounds like it's something in the spirit of the original 16-page booklet. Future BRP supplements and games will build on this baseline.
- Games under development include a hardboiled detective game (intentionally very different in style from Call of Cthulhu) and a new edition of Mythic Iceland, plus a Mythic Iceland campaign pack.
- They intend to continue producing BRP materials, though that said "we will be producing a lot of Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest products", so it could be that BRP ends up with a somewhat gentler release schedule than those lines.

I'd be overjoyed if Pedro Ziviani and Peter Nash could synthesize their previous work in a new Runequest Vikings.

And if I could get the Glorantha material (originally slated for AiG) without picking up a third copy of the RQ6 core rules, yeah, that'd be great.

But I remain hopeful for the future of Chaosium, CoC and RQ6.

Quote from: Vile;858120If it's not a secret, will that be BRP and through Chaosium, or Alephtar's upcoming Revolution D100, or something else entirely?

I can't really say at the moment.

Quote from: Vile;858120I ask because I need to decide whether to take someone up on their offer to sell me their copy, or to wait for the new one.

BRP Merrie England: Age of Chivalry is worth buying as it contains a lot of information. I suppose it all depends on how long you want to wait and what you want in the supplement.

Quote from: Dimitrios;858040Chaosium is such an odd duck. On the one hand they've outlived just about every other first generation rpg company. On the other hand, excepting a brief stint in the 80s, it seems like the company has spent its entire existence reeling on the brink.

As much as I'm never been one of their customers, I hope they pull back from the brink soon.  It would sadden me if Chaosium went away.  And I am, admittedly, looking to see what this version of RQ is going to be like.  I only ever had the Mongoose version.