John Wick Sells 7th Sea to Chaosium

A couple of years ago, game designer John Wick acquired the rights to his 1999 roleplaying game, 7th Sea from publisher AEG, and launched a record-breaking Kickstarter for a 2nd Edition which sailed past a million dollars. Last year, the company ran into financial difficulties and laid off most of its staff. Now, Wick has sold the property to Chaosium, who will be fulfilling the remainder of the struggling Kickstarter. Here’s the press release.

A couple of years ago, game designer John Wick acquired the rights to his 1999 roleplaying game, 7th Sea from publisher AEG, and launched a record-breaking Kickstarter for a 2nd Edition which sailed past a million dollars. Last year, the company ran into financial difficulties and laid off most of its staff. Now, Wick has sold the property to Chaosium, who will be fulfilling the remainder of the struggling Kickstarter. Here’s the press release.


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Chaosium, publishers of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying games Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and King Arthur Pendragon, has acquired John Wick’s acclaimed 7th Sea RPG , it was announced today.

7th Sea is John’s Wick’s swashbuckling and sorcery roleplaying game set set in the fictional world of Théah. The second edition of 7th Sea was crowdfunded by John Wick’s own company, John Wick Presents in 2016, setting a then-record on Kickstarter for a tabletop RPG, raising over $1.3 million dollars.

John Wick himself will be joining Chaosium as creative director for 7th Sea. He will continue to have creative oversight of his game, and will remain a principal author of 7th Sea material going forward. Beyond that, John Wick will also write for other Chaosium game lines, for which he has great affection.

“John is an extraordinarily talented designer and highly regarded figure in the world of tabletop rpgs. We are delighted to have him join our team”, said Chaosium President Rick Meints.

Following the death of Chaosium founder Greg Stafford in November last year, John’s memorial piece about Greg's titanic influence on the landscape of tabletop games was shared and quoted widely (The Gray Crane).


John Wick said,"My first RPG was a Chaosium game. My second RPG was a Chaosium game. My third RPG was a Chaosium game. Saying 'I'm excited to be joining the Chaosium team' just doesn't do it. I've respected and admired the company for over thirty years. I'm joining the same company who started me on this journey and I couldn't be prouder."

Upon acquiring this new game line, Chaosium’s paramount objective for 7th Sea is the fulfilment of the outstanding rewards from the 7th Sea Second Edition and 7th Sea Khitai Kickstarters. Coinciding with this announcement, John Wick has updated all Kickstarter backers with the new arrangements, which will see Chaosium overseeing the remaining fulfilment of the campaigns.

Over coming weeks, 7th Sea products and content will begin to be migrated to Chaosium.com and Chaosium’s page at DriveThruRPG. A 7th Sea discussion board will also be set up at BRP Central, Chaosium’s forums.

For media enquires about John Wick and 7th Sea contact: Michael O'Brien.
 

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PMárk

Explorer
That is very good news. I backed both 7th Sea and Kithai. I know the system is not for everyone but I like it a lot. It is very action oriented and dynamic with a lot of stuff happening at the same time. You have to bend your brain in a different way and change your expectations of traditional rpgs.

Thing is, I don't want to. I have no beef against the kind of narrative systems 7thSe2 has, it's just very much not my cup of tea, thank you. If it's for you, then, I wish you a good time with it! I just prefer traditional/classic rpg design, in general, that's all, so it practically killed 2e for me and all my interest in it, sadly
 

ParanoydStyle

Peace Among Worlds
Well, that certainly is BIG NEWS. I am glad Mr. Wick is still involved. It's my understanding that 7th Sea is a very beloved game and setting.
 

Jonathan Tweet

Adventurer
That's good news, and I'm happy for everyone. Chaosium has plenty of experience managing and rebooting old game systems, as well as working out from under a Kickstarter mess. They already have a sprawling catalog, so there's room for 7th Sea.
 



Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Yeah, I have to agree. In its current iteration, Chaosium is not only good at fulfilling Kickstarters, they have a reputation for saving and fulfilling other company’s Kickstarters.
 

Really?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/224590870/runequest-classic-edition

This is the one Kickstarter that the new management ran. It is 3.5 years old and has not fulfilled many of the stretch goals. The book that was sent out was printed with all the typos that were crowd sourced edited and found. They vanish for months, miss new deadlines and then come back and make new promises that they miss. They have done so poorly at it that they are no longer doing kickstarters.

Can you provide any evidence that they have run and delivered a Kickstarter on time as new management? What I can find is that they have retreated from Kickstarter because of their issues in the past.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Yeah, I have to agree. In its current iteration, Chaosium is not only good at fulfilling Kickstarters, they have a reputation for saving and fulfilling other company’s Kickstarters.
 

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