Chaosium Names New CEO, Mike Mearls Departs Company

Chaosium has announced several personnel moves, including the hiring of a new CEO. A recent press release announced a bevy of moves at the company, with former COO Neil Robinson becoming the new CEO. Brian Holland, the marketing director of Chaosium, is becoming the Executive Producer for RPGs. He takes over from Mike Mearls, who is leaving Chaosium for a full-time role at Asmodee. Mearls will remain involved at Chaosium on select projects moving forward, including the new edition of RuneQuest.

Other moves announced include:

• Jason Durall becoming the full-time creative director for the Basic Roleplaying line.
• Michael O'Brien taking on the producer role for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha
• Bridgett Jeffries becoming the Chaosium Community Manager
• Maciej Gorkowski becoming production manager
• Dan Zappone joining the company as assistant editor and graphic design specialist.

 

[Stormonu]

Forget the ducks, I fear the Canadian Goose PCs/NPCs.

 

[The Soloist]

FFG is already selling Arkham board games and LCG. Why would they let another company cash in on the RPG segment since they have Edge Studios? It makes perfect sense to me. Being a board game player or an LCG player is not mutually exclusive from playing RPGs. We've been doing that since 1974.

Also, young players may not necessarily be aware of CoC. If they are FFG customers and they see an FFG/Edge Studio Arkham RPG, they are likely to buy it because the brand recognition is already established with them.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

Very curious to see what Mearls gets up to.

 

[mamba]

Very curious to see what Mearls gets up to.

I’ll keep an eye out for what he is doing where he lands, but I am more interested in what he does on his patreon than with his employer, doesn’t look like they have much going on in the TTRPG space, so either it won’t be that, or it is a game system I am not that interested in - unless they come up with something new entirely, which I am not expecting

 

[Reynard]

I’ll keep an eye out for what he is doing where he lands, but I am more interested in what he does on his patreon than with his employer, doesn’t look like they have much going on in the TTRPG space, so either it won’t be that, or it is a game system I am not that interested in - unless they come up with something new entirely, which I am not expecting

They hired a RPG luminary. I think it is reasonable to infer that they want to delve back into the RPG space. I mean, you wouldn't hire Mearls to get Clank! out of early access.

 

[mamba]

They hired a RPG luminary. I think it is reasonable to infer that they want to delve back into the RPG space. I mean, you wouldn't hire Mearls to get Clank! out of early access.

he has been working on MtG too, I am not sure it has to be TTRPGs at all… it also still leaves the ‘which game system and am I interested in it’ part wide open

 

[griffon8]

Dragonstar was my favorite FFG property. I'd love to see a revival of that.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

FFG+Edge are too busy with the main lines to be working with the TTRPGs. I suspect the Star Wars RPG hasn't sold so good like the d20 version, and in the future Disney will publish its own Star Wars RPG like the last edition of Marvel Superheroes RPG.

Asmodee is a board-game distributor and they have worked with Hasbro in the past, for example in the distribution of the new edition of Hero Quest.