Chaosium's half-million-dollar Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Kickstarter is one that has been plagued by delays for three years now. When Sandy Petersen and Greg Stafford took over at Chaosium in 2015, one of the things they promised was that fulfilling this Kickstarter would be a key priority. And just yesterday, the company announced that the final shipment of product has arrived at its destination ready to be sent directly to the Kickstarter backers from four distribution centres in the USA, Canada, Australia, and the UK.
For those not following the long story, A Kickstarter update last October informed backers that there was no money to print or ship books. Moon Design Publications, which acquired ownership shares in the company, provided additional funds to fulfil the Kickstarter and settle other debts of Chaosium (freelancer payments to writers, artists, editors, and so on).
Chaosium has been letting backers track the cargos of books (which traveled by ship), and the final ship arrived right here in Southampton, UK yesterday. Below are some photos of that very cargo ship, NYK Hermes, posted by a pair of fans who went to Southampton Docks to see the vessel come in. This shipment contains the Keeper's Rulebook, Investigator's Handbook, Keeper's Screen Pack, slipcases, Nameless Horrors, and Petersen Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors. There are other rewards not part of this shipment; Chaosium's Rick Meints explains that "We wanted to get the core products to everybody as quickly as possible, while working within the limits of an extremely tight budget. T-shirts, mugs and the like were not included because if a packing slip or customs invoice for this first shipment had any mention of a 'non-book' item the whole shipment could be unfairly subject to import taxes, customs duty, or VAT, and nobody wants to pay that if it can be avoided."
(Photos from Nigel Clarke)
For those not following the long story, A Kickstarter update last October informed backers that there was no money to print or ship books. Moon Design Publications, which acquired ownership shares in the company, provided additional funds to fulfil the Kickstarter and settle other debts of Chaosium (freelancer payments to writers, artists, editors, and so on).
Chaosium has been letting backers track the cargos of books (which traveled by ship), and the final ship arrived right here in Southampton, UK yesterday. Below are some photos of that very cargo ship, NYK Hermes, posted by a pair of fans who went to Southampton Docks to see the vessel come in. This shipment contains the Keeper's Rulebook, Investigator's Handbook, Keeper's Screen Pack, slipcases, Nameless Horrors, and Petersen Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors. There are other rewards not part of this shipment; Chaosium's Rick Meints explains that "We wanted to get the core products to everybody as quickly as possible, while working within the limits of an extremely tight budget. T-shirts, mugs and the like were not included because if a packing slip or customs invoice for this first shipment had any mention of a 'non-book' item the whole shipment could be unfairly subject to import taxes, customs duty, or VAT, and nobody wants to pay that if it can be avoided."
(Photos from Nigel Clarke)
