DCC Goodman Losing Lankhmar License

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Lost, or expired?

My assumption is that the amount of revenue Lankhmar brings in is now pretty low (they haven't produced anything new for it for a while, so all the big money came in long ago) and the cost for renewing the license doesn't make financial sense.

Not sure who else would scoop up Lankhmar nowadays. It's a property whose core audience is pretty old and dwindling. Maybe another OSR publisher, but anyone big enough to pay for the license has other stuff going on. Necrotic Gnome has its hands full with Dolmenwood and the core OSE line, for instance.

 

[Some Dude]

My assumption is that the amount of revenue Lankhmar brings in is now pretty low (they haven't produced anything new for it for a while, so all the big money came in long ago) and the cost for renewing the license doesn't make financial sense.

Not sure who else would scoop up Lankhmar nowadays. It's a property whose core audience is pretty old and dwindling. Maybe another OSR publisher, but anyone big enough to pay for the license has other stuff going on. Necrotic Gnome has its hands full with Dolmenwood and the core OSE line, for instance.

There were 17 modules proper in the line, counting the Greatest Thieves In Lankhmar box set. Over ten years. There are three more adventures in various Goodman products, I believe. By comparison, the Dying Earth setting for DCC has 10 modules so far, and it hasn't even been two years since it was released.

As someone who bought DCC specifically to run Lankhmar, this is kind of a bummer. But DCC's focus on gonzo adventures and unique monsters doesn't put it very far off from Nehwon. I backed the DCC 100 box set, fully intending to use it in the Lankhmar setting. I imagine plenty of other adventures would work very well.

My biggest problem with the loss of the license is that I had REALLY been hoping we'd get a big Quarmall supplement at some point.

Still, this is the inevitable end for licensed IPs, unless you're Star Fleet Battles. And Goodman did the setting proud. I don't think there was a bad adventure in the bunch.

What I find interesting is the number of comments I've read from DCC players who've adopted Lankhmar's Fleeting Luck mechanic for use in their regular DCC campaigns.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What I find interesting is the number of comments I've read from DCC players who've adopted Lankhmar's Fleeting Luck mechanic for use in their regular DCC campaigns.

I do think that Goodman is eventually going to have to crack on their goal of never having a new edition of DCC. All of their licensed settings, I believe, introduce new ideas and there are almost certainly things in each line that they will want to fold back in.

 

[schneeland]

My biggest problem with the loss of the license is that I had REALLY been hoping we'd get a big Quarmall supplement at some point.

Still, this is the inevitable end for licensed IPs, unless you're Star Fleet Battles. And Goodman did the setting proud. I don't think there was a bad adventure in the bunch.

Quarmall would have been great indeed! And while I haven't read all of the adventures, I do think they did good work with the line and especially the box that kicked it off (I really feel Goodman should have such a box for the main line, too).

Unfortunately, the loss of the license also means the end of the German translation. This is often the case, but it's doubly sad, because I think the German publisher (System Matters) also did a great job.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

As someone who bought DCC specifically to run Lankhmar, this is kind of a bummer. But DCC's focus on gonzo adventures and unique monsters doesn't put it very far off from Nehwon. I backed the DCC 100 box set, fully intending to use it in the Lankhmar setting. I imagine plenty of other adventures would work very well.

Yeah, it's a bummer. Wherever the license goes, I feel like they're going to have a hard time even matching the bar set by DCC Lankhmar. Out of all the RPG adaptations to-date, it felt like the best fit and most true to the source.

My biggest problem with the loss of the license is that I had REALLY been hoping we'd get a big Quarmall supplement at some point.

That would have been amazing.