Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Delays Of Cthulhu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Egg Embry" data-source="post: 7727884" data-attributes="member: 6808965"><p><strong>Chaosium Inc’s Call of Cthulhu</strong> is one of the best-known RPGs in gaming with numerous official products as well as third party expansions to the franchise. While the majority of these produce outstanding products, some of those third party publishers have collected money via crowdfunding, then gone months between backer updates, and have yet to fulfill their commitments. Around <strong>Gen Con 50</strong>, <strong>Chaosium</strong> made announcements that addressed several of these unfulfilled third party products.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center">[ATTACH]90253[/ATTACH]</p><p>[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] </p><p>What are third party products? The <strong>Call of Cthulhu RPG</strong> is popular and <strong>Chaosium </strong>cannot produce enough material to meet the demand. To fill that void, they grant other publishers licenses to produce <strong>CoC</strong>-compatible materials. For most of these agreements, the third party develops their product based on <strong>CoC</strong> with only limited input from <strong>Chaosium</strong>, and <strong>Chaosium</strong> collects royalties from the third party’s sales. This system usually works well, producing some innovate extensions to the <strong>CoC</strong> franchise; however, some companies have obtained a license, crowdfunded revenue, but failed to deliver the agreed upon products to their backers.</p><p> </p><p>In a move that might reflect concerns about these delays, <strong>Choasium</strong> <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/chaosium-launches-new-licensing-policies-/" target="_blank">updated their licensing policies</a> in June to address commercial licenses. The revised language canonizes “release and revenue targets” and requires “regular reporting, and close work with our line editors”.</p><p> </p><p>What was late? Per <strong>Chaosium’s</strong> website, they cite four <strong>Call of Cthulhu</strong> products by three different third party publishers that collected money through <strong>Kickstarter</strong> between 2012 and 2014.</p><p> </p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-punk-town-kickstarter/" target="_blank"><strong>Punktown</strong></a><strong>: An RPG Setting for Call of Cthulhu and BRP Gaming</strong> by <strong>Miskatonic River Press</strong>. Launched 2012-11-19 and collected $13,564 from 280 backers. Their original promised delivery date was August 2013.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-writhing-dark-kickstarters/" target="_blank"><strong>Call of Cthulhu: The Writhing Dark</strong></a><strong> - Playing Cards and Tarot</strong> and <strong>Call of Cthulhu: The Writhing Dark - Extended Edition </strong>by Shane Tyree. Launched 2013-11-12 and 2014-05-02 respectively. They collected a total of $131,304 from 2,027 backers. Their original promised delivery dates were April 2014 and August 2014.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-horrors-of-war-kickstarter/" target="_blank"><strong>Horrors of War Kickstarter</strong></a><strong>: A Covenant with Death</strong> by Scott Glancy of <strong>Pagan Publishing</strong>. Launched 2014-08-01 and collected $26,823 from 525 backers. Their original promised delivery date was February 2015.</li> </ul><p></p><p>What are the third party publishers doing to fulfill these products? Per posts on the <strong>Chaosium</strong> website and the individual <strong>Kickstarter</strong> campaigns, each of these projects is moving forward at a slow pace. <strong>Miskatonic River Press</strong>, who collected revenue for <strong>Punktown</strong>, have ceased operations and hired <strong>Chronicle City</strong> to complete this project. Shane Tyree campaigned for both <strong>CoC: The Writing Dark</strong> projects and, “he has taken delivery of the core rewards (the card sets) and is actually in the process of fulfilling, albeit very slowly as his constrained finances permit.” The <strong>Horrors of War Kickstarter</strong> revised their delivery projection to 2018.</p><p> </p><p>What has <strong>Chaosium</strong> done to address these undelivered products? As <strong>Chaosium</strong> stated on their site about <strong>The Writing Dark</strong> campaigns, “We are well within our rights to terminate Shane's agreement. But we don't want backers to be prevented by <strong>Chaosium</strong> from getting what they paid Shane to produce. Because he has the actual product in hand and sincerely states that he still wishes to deliver, we have instead issued Shane a special license extension. ...” Based on the press releases, this appears to be <strong>Chaosium’s</strong> direction, to allow the third party publishers more time to fulfill these <strong>Kickstarters</strong> so the backers get what they’ve paid for.</p><p> </p><p>What’s occurred since these updates from <strong>Chaosium</strong>? For <strong>Punktown</strong>, there was “a Beta PDF of the entire book” sent to backers on October 20[SUP]th[/SUP]. I spoke to Angus Abranson of <strong>Chronicle City</strong> (and <strong>EN World</strong>) and he shared his timeline for completing <strong>Punktown</strong>, "all feedback is due back by 20th November. Hopefully we'll be getting the final PDF to backers in early December and have a print proof back back early-mid December. If all is good with the print proof then physical copies will start being ordered and shipped to backers." Shane Tyree of <strong>The Writing Dark</strong> posted an update on <strong>Kickstarter</strong> and in the comments his wife, Christina, added, “I'm trying to fit a little bit into the budget to send some [backer rewards] out every month now that we're starting to get our heads back above water. I can't promise it will be a lot going out, but we're trying to keep doing what we can.” The <strong>Horrors of War Kickstarter</strong> states that <strong>Pagan Publishing</strong> should have a sneak peak PDF ready by Christmas and “the full <strong>Horrors of War</strong> manuscript can, I believe be done by <strong>GenCon</strong> 2018.” However, the next update was promised by the end of September, but there is no additional information on the campaign page as of this writing.</p><p> </p><p>Will these projects deliver and will <strong>Chaosium’s</strong> policy change prevent this from occurring in the future? Unfortunately, there’s no way to know at this point, but we will continue to report on these situations.</p><p></p><p><em>contributed by Egg Embry</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Egg Embry, post: 7727884, member: 6808965"] [B]Chaosium Inc’s Call of Cthulhu[/B] is one of the best-known RPGs in gaming with numerous official products as well as third party expansions to the franchise. While the majority of these produce outstanding products, some of those third party publishers have collected money via crowdfunding, then gone months between backer updates, and have yet to fulfill their commitments. Around [B]Gen Con 50[/B], [B]Chaosium[/B] made announcements that addressed several of these unfulfilled third party products. [CENTER][ATTACH=CONFIG]90253[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] What are third party products? The [B]Call of Cthulhu RPG[/B] is popular and [B]Chaosium [/B]cannot produce enough material to meet the demand. To fill that void, they grant other publishers licenses to produce [B]CoC[/B]-compatible materials. For most of these agreements, the third party develops their product based on [B]CoC[/B] with only limited input from [B]Chaosium[/B], and [B]Chaosium[/B] collects royalties from the third party’s sales. This system usually works well, producing some innovate extensions to the [B]CoC[/B] franchise; however, some companies have obtained a license, crowdfunded revenue, but failed to deliver the agreed upon products to their backers. In a move that might reflect concerns about these delays, [B]Choasium[/B] [URL="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/chaosium-launches-new-licensing-policies-/"]updated their licensing policies[/URL] in June to address commercial licenses. The revised language canonizes “release and revenue targets” and requires “regular reporting, and close work with our line editors”. What was late? Per [B]Chaosium’s[/B] website, they cite four [B]Call of Cthulhu[/B] products by three different third party publishers that collected money through [B]Kickstarter[/B] between 2012 and 2014. [LIST] [*][URL="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-punk-town-kickstarter/"][B]Punktown[/B][/URL][B]: An RPG Setting for Call of Cthulhu and BRP Gaming[/B] by [B]Miskatonic River Press[/B]. Launched 2012-11-19 and collected $13,564 from 280 backers. Their original promised delivery date was August 2013. [*][URL="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-writhing-dark-kickstarters/"][B]Call of Cthulhu: The Writhing Dark[/B][/URL][B] - Playing Cards and Tarot[/B] and [B]Call of Cthulhu: The Writhing Dark - Extended Edition [/B]by Shane Tyree. Launched 2013-11-12 and 2014-05-02 respectively. They collected a total of $131,304 from 2,027 backers. Their original promised delivery dates were April 2014 and August 2014. [*][URL="https://www.chaosium.com/blog/statement-about-horrors-of-war-kickstarter/"][B]Horrors of War Kickstarter[/B][/URL][B]: A Covenant with Death[/B] by Scott Glancy of [B]Pagan Publishing[/B]. Launched 2014-08-01 and collected $26,823 from 525 backers. Their original promised delivery date was February 2015. [/LIST] What are the third party publishers doing to fulfill these products? Per posts on the [B]Chaosium[/B] website and the individual [B]Kickstarter[/B] campaigns, each of these projects is moving forward at a slow pace. [B]Miskatonic River Press[/B], who collected revenue for [B]Punktown[/B], have ceased operations and hired [B]Chronicle City[/B] to complete this project. Shane Tyree campaigned for both [B]CoC: The Writing Dark[/B] projects and, “he has taken delivery of the core rewards (the card sets) and is actually in the process of fulfilling, albeit very slowly as his constrained finances permit.” The [B]Horrors of War Kickstarter[/B] revised their delivery projection to 2018. What has [B]Chaosium[/B] done to address these undelivered products? As [B]Chaosium[/B] stated on their site about [B]The Writing Dark[/B] campaigns, “We are well within our rights to terminate Shane's agreement. But we don't want backers to be prevented by [B]Chaosium[/B] from getting what they paid Shane to produce. Because he has the actual product in hand and sincerely states that he still wishes to deliver, we have instead issued Shane a special license extension. ...” Based on the press releases, this appears to be [B]Chaosium’s[/B] direction, to allow the third party publishers more time to fulfill these [B]Kickstarters[/B] so the backers get what they’ve paid for. What’s occurred since these updates from [B]Chaosium[/B]? For [B]Punktown[/B], there was “a Beta PDF of the entire book” sent to backers on October 20[SUP]th[/SUP]. I spoke to Angus Abranson of [B]Chronicle City[/B] (and [B]EN World[/B]) and he shared his timeline for completing [B]Punktown[/B], "all feedback is due back by 20th November. Hopefully we'll be getting the final PDF to backers in early December and have a print proof back back early-mid December. If all is good with the print proof then physical copies will start being ordered and shipped to backers." Shane Tyree of [B]The Writing Dark[/B] posted an update on [B]Kickstarter[/B] and in the comments his wife, Christina, added, “I'm trying to fit a little bit into the budget to send some [backer rewards] out every month now that we're starting to get our heads back above water. I can't promise it will be a lot going out, but we're trying to keep doing what we can.” The [B]Horrors of War Kickstarter[/B] states that [B]Pagan Publishing[/B] should have a sneak peak PDF ready by Christmas and “the full [B]Horrors of War[/B] manuscript can, I believe be done by [B]GenCon[/B] 2018.” However, the next update was promised by the end of September, but there is no additional information on the campaign page as of this writing. Will these projects deliver and will [B]Chaosium’s[/B] policy change prevent this from occurring in the future? Unfortunately, there’s no way to know at this point, but we will continue to report on these situations. [I]contributed by Egg Embry[/I] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Delays Of Cthulhu
Top