New Conan RPG

[Bedrockgames]

The issues with Conan are not that cut and dried.
The last of REH's released-in-his-lifetime works are not in the public domain in the US. The copyrights were extended, so, being post Steamboat willy, it's life + 95 years. He died in 1936, so.. 1941... 2031. 7 more years for the last of them. (Note that Australia has a shorter copuyright term, so many things are on Gutenberg.net.au that are not yet on gutenberg.org. Including certain Howard and Borroughs works.)

But Howard actually isn't the most prolific of the Conan authors. Lin Carter, L. Sprague deCamp, Donald M. Grant, and others have written as much or more each, and those works are all still in copyright.

The estate, I don't know if it's a corporate entity, or just IP ownership, also owns the Trademarks.

I guess the trademark would be quite a hurdle. How would that work though if a story itself enters the public domain but has Conan in the title ?

 

[MGibster]

I guess the trademark would be quite a hurdle. How would that work though if a story itself enters the public domain but has Conan in the title ?

Here in the United States, trademark can't be used to extend copyright. The purpose of a trademark is to represent a company and avoid confusion among consumers. i.e. If I'm buying flour with King Arthur on it then I know I'm buying King Arthur flour and not General Mills or Gold Medal flour. So it's kind of complicated I think and I'm not a lawyer. Practicially speaking, if I were a game company, I sure wouldn't risk litigation by drawing the ire of whomever owns the Conan trademark.

I'm not a lawyer, but you can lose a trademark for a variety of reasons. If the purpose of a trademark is to avoid confusion among consumers, does the Conan trademark do that? You can license a trademark, every Coca-Cola t-shirt you see was licensed from Coca-Cola, but since Coca-Cola isn't in the t-shirt business there's no confusion among consumers. Presumably the games from Modiphius, TSR, Monolith, and Mongoose all licensed the trademark for their Conan games. What value to the consumer is there in the trademarking of the word Conan? It doesn't tell me which company is producing the game. Licensing it out to multiple gaming companies only makes things confusing.

 

[aramis erak]

I guess the trademark would be quite a hurdle. How would that work though if a story itself enters the public domain but has Conan in the title ?

Under US law, my understanding is you can use the text, but not the tradmark term, so you have to rename the protagonist.

 

[Reynard]

Under US law, my understanding is you can use the text, but not the tradmark term, so you have to rename the protagonist.

That doesn't track with the recent Pooh and Mickey horror films.

Steamboat Willy starring Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, so that version of Mickey can be used. But certain elements of the trademarked Mickey are off limits, or at least liable to get you sued by Disney.

In the case of Conan, I guess you'd have to be careful about your depiction compared to how Conan appeared in Frzetta covers, Marvel comics, and various films.

 

[Ulfgeir]

The issues with Conan are not that cut and dried.
The last of REH's released-in-his-lifetime works are not in the public domain in the US. The copyrights were extended, so, being post Steamboat willy, it's life + 95 years. He died in 1936, so.. 1941... 2031. 7 more years for the last of them. (Note that Australia has a shorter copuyright term, so many things are on Gutenberg.net.au that are not yet on gutenberg.org. Including certain Howard and Borroughs works.)

But Howard actually isn't the most prolific of the Conan authors. Lin Carter, L. Sprague deCamp, Donald M. Grant, and others have written as much or more each, and those works are all still in copyright.

The estate, I don't know if it's a corporate entity, or just IP ownership, also owns the Trademarks.

Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers, for all it's derivation from Howard's work, and legit being able to do so under copyright, can't use "Conan" in the name, because it's a trademark owned by the estate's ownership.


In Howard's time, it was a proposed name for a lost continent in the then recently (1912) introduced theory of Continental Drift. That Howard may have been the inspiration for that cannot be ruled out, and Howard is partly why it was rejected.

If I recall correctly Cabinet Entertainment owns the IP for some stuff for Conan.

Wikipedia link: Cabinet Entertainment - Wikipedia

 

[aramis erak]

That doesn't track with the recent Pooh and Mickey horror films.

Steamboat Willy starring Mickey Mouse is in the public domain, so that version of Mickey can be used. But certain elements of the trademarked Mickey are off limits, or at least liable to get you sued by Disney.

In the case of Conan, I guess you'd have to be careful about your depiction compared to how Conan appeared in Frzetta covers, Marvel comics, and various films.

If you retain the protagonist's name, you still violate the trademarks on said name.

 

[xoth.publishing]

Astonishing Swordsman & Sorcerers of Hyperborea could make the list. From the reviews it strikes the perfect balance between BX and AD&D1.

Source:

Review of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Second Edition - RPGnet RPG Game Index

Well "ackshually"....

While ASSH is a cool game in the same genre, the following terms are often confused due to similarity in spelling:

Conan's adventures, as written by Robert E. Howard, take place in the HYBORIAN AGE ( Hyborian Age - Wikipedia ) , sometime between the sinking of Atlantis and the start of our own recorded history. The Hyborian tribes of the north established several kingdoms, the first of them being HYPERBOREA. Conan is from neighbouring Cimmeria. This is the setting for all "Conan RPGs". Note that people sometimes mis-spell this as the "Hyborean Age" or "Hyperborean Age".

Then there is the HYPERBOREA ( Hyperborean cycle - Wikipedia ) described by Clark Ashton Smith in his stories about the thief Zatampra Zeiros, the sorcerer Eibon, the toad-god Tsathoggua, etc. This is obviously its own separate thing and has nothing to do with Howard's Hyborian Age or the kingdom called Hyperborea in the Conan stories. The "Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea" (or just "Hyperborea" in its third edition) is an RPG loosely based on Smith's Hyperborea, but with lots of additional stuff (from Lovecraft and yes also Howard, etc) thrown into the mix.

So if you like Conan RPGs, definitely check out ASSH as well, but they do not share the same setting.