Quote from: RPGPunditThe difference is that the core CoC D20 book was excellent...

So I've heard.  And, it should be pointed out, done by throwing a lot of manpower and money at it from a different angle (i.e. from WotC).

QuoteAfter that, it would have been relatively simple and acceptable for them, for starters, to make a shitload of money presenting D20 CoC re-issues of some of their most classic campaigns.  Imagine how glorious D20 Masks Of Nyarlathotep could have been?

Sadly, I have to point to Dragon Lords of Melniboné again.  Elric!/Stormbringer was a pretty sweet game with a ready-made audience, too, but simply tacking D20 stats onto existing text came out a stumbling flop.  They took a fucking bath on that one.  I'm not convinced that D20 Masks... would have fared any better.

Chaosium is currently demoralised.  At its heart were Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford, and Lynn Willis.  Now it's basically just Charlie Krank (is Lynn still tight with the company?) and it's been this way for years.  Maybe the release of the new, compiled Basic Roleplaying will give them the jolt to the heart they've been needing for a while, though it ain't gonna bring d20 CoC back from the dead.

!i!

Yea but there's a big difference between doing a converted set of RULES and a converted adventure/Campaign.  D20 Masks of Nyarlathotep would only have required changing around the NPC stats, and maybe adding one or two new features (a handful of pages at most) to attract people who had bought the earlier BRP version.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Ian AbsentiaSo I've heard.  And, it should be pointed out, done by throwing a lot of manpower and money at it from a different angle (i.e. from WotC).Sadly, I have to point to Dragon Lords of Melniboné again.  Elric!/Stormbringer was a pretty sweet game with a ready-made audience, too, but simply tacking D20 stats onto existing text came out a stumbling flop.  They took a fucking bath on that one.  I'm not convinced that D20 Masks... would have fared any better.

Chaosium is currently demoralised.  At its heart were Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford, and Lynn Willis.  Now it's basically just Charlie Krank (is Lynn still tight with the company?) and it's been this way for years.  Maybe the release of the new, compiled Basic Roleplaying will give them the jolt to the heart they've been needing for a while, though it ain't gonna bring d20 CoC back from the dead.

!i!

I will admit that I wrote a pretty positive review of Dragonlords of Melnibone within a few days of its release. Bear in mind that this was back in the early days of d20, and DLoM was one of the first really major releases by an established publisher other than WotC. But if I wrote that review today, after seeing outstanding licensed d20 books like Conan, Babylon 5, The Black Company, and Thieves World, my estimation of DLoM would be at 2 or 3 stars (out of 5). More like 2 1/2 stars, but the EN World reviews page doesn't allow halves.

Anyway, I agree about Chaosium. It seems odd to me how moribund that company has seemed over the last 10-15 years. It really struck me as a major loss for Pendragon to go to another publisher. Maybe Pendragon wasn't a huge seller, but it was more a prestige thing than anything else. But that's nothing compared to RuneQuest. I still think of it as a Chaosium game, despite how many years of it being published by other companies? Why has Chaosium let so many of its best properties go? It makes no sense.

Probably because Cthulhu was by far their bestseller, and they decided to bet the farm on a one-trick pony, same as Palladium did.

This is generally a mistake even if your product is good; but its a big mistake if your product is uneven and you start running out of ideas (like Palladium), and positively disasterous if you're completely intellectually bankrupt and just keep re-issuing the same old junk, in particular when your game line was once revered as putting out some of the finest products in history (like Chaosium).

RPGPundit

I met Charlie Krank and Greg Stafford many years ago, back when a then mobile Origins visited the LA area. Both were open and friendly. What happened to cause a rift between them I have no idea.

That said, I'd have to say Charlie's behavior since he got Chaosium in his hands is puzzling. He basically killed Chaosium's fiction line, threw away the RPG lines (and that, for all intents and purposes includes Call of Cthulhu), and has made Chaosium, once a leading light among RPG publishers, a subject for a "whatever Happened To" article.

The way things are going we will see Chaosium entering bankruptcy. Based on previous behavior on the part of Charlie Krank, it will be involuntary. When that happens it could mean the end of the Mythos as we know it.

Slightly tangential question, but when does Lovecraft's fiction enter the public domain?

Quote from: Hastur T. FannonSlightly tangential question, but when does Lovecraft's fiction enter the public domain?

Lovecraft died in 1937, so I think that according to current US law that would be in 2012.

It's been argued, however, that Lovecraft's copyrights weren't renewed after his death and his works are already in public domain. Arkham House claims to own them, but there are reasons to doubt their claim (apparently Chaosium used to paid them for the license, but they no longer do).

Penguin have recently put out Lovecraft's better stories and novellas across three volumes of their modern classics range.  Houellebecq also included two novellas in his recent (devastatingly poor) book about Lovecraft (in which he concludes that Lovecraft's like... really bleak).

Either Arkham House aren't too bothered about spreading the love to other publishers or they've effecitvely given up defending them because if they're trying to sell books then it seems weird they'd allow all these competing editions.