SCAM WARNING: An eBay seller has recently appeared selling illegally reproduced copies of classic RPG books. Among these are some never-legal collections of tournament and/or magazine adventures for Call of Cthulhu, labeled as being published by "Crypt Quest Games" in 1998 and "Copyrighted" by notorious IP thief James L. Shipman II though apparently printed by someone else quite recently, as Shipman himself died in early 2018.
These supposedly 'vintage' works are bogus, and use stolen IP. They were not authorised by the original authors or artists, who gain no benefit from their sale. EBAY has been notified about the seller, one 'heracleides' (although the fraudulent works are currently still up and available).
We informed Shannon Appelcline of Designers of Dragons, who reported on the earlier scams of Shipman, and he has posted a warning on Facebook too.
Note -
These supposedly 'vintage' works are bogus, and use stolen IP. They were not authorised by the original authors or artists, who gain no benefit from their sale. EBAY has been notified about the seller, one 'heracleides' (although the fraudulent works are currently still up and available).
We informed Shannon Appelcline of Designers of Dragons, who reported on the earlier scams of Shipman, and he has posted a warning on Facebook too.
Note -
- 'Tatterdemallion' was published as part of Fatal Experiments by Chaosium in 1990, which makes it a bizarre choice to counterfeit in "1998".
- You can buy the genuine 'Black As Coal' from Noble Knight, as part of BreakOut magazine (1987), and for the same price or cheaper than what the scammer is asking: #27Fire Brigade, Call of Cthulhu Module - Black as Coal
- Black as Coal has been extensively rewritten for inclusion in the Polish edition of Call of Cthulhu, to be published by Black Monk Games (the setting switched to Krakow in 1922). The new version will appear in English in due course too.
