BRP Poll at Chaosium.com

[Jason Durall]

Is Call of Cthulhu a licensed setting? I had the impression H.P. Lovecraft was in the public domain.

It's vaguely on topic, so I don't see any problem with continuing to discuss it here. (If not, the thread police can come in and shut us down...)

Chaosium began by licensing the Cthulhu IP from Arkham House, which presented itself as owning the rights to the Lovecraft estate. Royalties were paid to AH, and early CoC editions had the blessing of Arkham House (and I think even their logo).

By any estimation, that's a licensed property.

Later, when it became apparent that HPL's works were public domain and that AH didn't actually own them and had no exclusive rights to them, the licensing arrangement ended.

Chaosium now publishes CoC based off the public domain of HPL's works, and has developed enough of the property on its own that it has in effect become a new IP. (Other authors' works have been utilized in CoC, but it's not really germane to the point.)

Anyone else using Cthulhu stuff is either based off the public domain Lovecraft material, or is licensing it from Chaosium.

So I guess it's technically a "once was licensed, now based on public domain, now being licensed as a semi-original IP" game.

The point was that after years of trouble with Moorcock (which I think parties are somewhat at fault in), the snafus with the Niven Ringworld/Known Space IP, and the underperformance of other licensed settings like Prince Valiant and ElfQuest, they're likely done with the "spend a bunch of money to utilize an existing IP" process.

But I'm just speculating, and for all I know, they may still be open to it.

[Dredj]

I'd rather see a fantasy world that got a reasonable distance away from D&D, one with its own character. Glorantha was a little too strange and convoluted, but maybe something with its own distinct flavor ... or maybe a neglected sub-genre, like:
[*]Non-european fantasy (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Arabian Nights, Ancient Greek, Indian, African, Central/South American)

I just get tired of pseudo-medieval Europe with elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.

Maybe you would like to check this setting out:
Precis Intermedia :: Steampunk Musha (PDF)

I was considering porting this setting over to BRP.

[NickMiddleton]

Is Call of Cthulhu a licensed setting? I had the impression H.P. Lovecraft was in the public domain.

From wikipedia: ((SNIPPAGE))

If it's from wiki its probably wrong... :rolleyes: Or at least, if it's from wiki and involves any significant amount of opinion, it's probably wrong. The HPL copyright situation is complex and I'd be wary of assuming stuff was public domain...

But even if Chaosium were to follow Marcus L Rowland's example and do a setting based entirely on intellectual property entirely in the public domain, would that be a good thing? From a commercial point of view IP is a valuable asset, and is worth defending. If it's not PD it costs to use someone else's IP (both in raw fees and time to publication for approvals etc) and if it IS PD, there is no easy way to defend your particular IP.

I remain firmly convinced that unless an RPG company is set up to deal with licensed IP (as Mongoose clearly are, and Green Ronin) it's really not worth tangling with, and given how many RPG publisher's have had grief from licensed IP (FASA, ICE, AEG, SJG, Mongoose, Chaosium off the top of my head) I'm sceptical that, especially for Chaosium these days, they are worth it. YMMV.

Cheers,

Nick

[Jason Durall]

I hadn't noticed earlier, but Dustin's recent blog entry discusses the poll:

Chaosium.com: News - Decisions Decisions

[Lord Twig]

It seems to me that some of the most successful games have been unique creations. Vampire/World of Darkness, Fading Suns, Ebberon, Champions, ShadowRun, etc.

[Jason Durall]

It seems to me that some of the most successful games have been unique creations.

Vampire/World of Darkness > Anne Rice novels

Fading Suns > Dune

Champions > Marvel/DC superheroes

ShadowRun > Cyberpunk with fantasy races

To its credit, though, at least Ebberon is a vaguely original take on D&D-style fantasy.

[Lord Twig]

Vampire/World of Darkness > Anne Rice novels

Fading Suns > Dune

Champions > Marvel/DC superheroes

ShadowRun > Cyberpunk with fantasy races

To its credit, though, at least Ebberon is a vaguely original take on D&D-style fantasy.

Absolutely right on all of those, but they did not license IP. They are systems that are inspired by popular sources, but are custom made with the needs of a Role-Playing Game in mind.

Marvel and DC both had RPGs I seem to recall, and I believe neither has done as well as Champions. So go ahead and take the inspiration, but don't worry about the specific setting.

Edit: Ah, I just got it. I'm slow sometimes. The problem was my use of the word "unique". Sorry, they are not unique. I guess the word "custom", as I used above, would have been a better way to say it.

[RosenMcStern]

Marvel and DC both had RPGs I seem to recall, and I believe neither has done as well as Champions.

A common mistake in the gaming industry (computer games, too). You have a license that guarantees you will sell something, and so you design crappy rules.

Still, Marvel SuperHeroes wasn't that bad (for a TSR product >:->)

[Jason Durall]

Edit: Ah, I just got it. I'm slow sometimes. The problem was my use of the word "unique". Sorry, they are not unique. I guess the word "custom", as I used above, would have been a better way to say it.

Yeah... that was what I was responding to.

I'm of the belief that there's not much new under the sun, but those were admittedly the first (or among the first) to bring those genres to the game arena.

I wonder if Champions really has done better than Marvel (the TSR edition). I know it's still in print, but I'd suspect that the reason it's more of a success is that there were no licensing costs, whereas I'm sure that Marvel took a good chunk of TSR's profits from MSH.

Oh well... off topic wanderings.

[Jason Durall]

A common mistake in the gaming industry (computer games, too). You have a license that guarantees you will sell something, and so you design crappy rules.

Another mistake is thinking that because a license sells well in one medium, it will translate to another and be equally successful.