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Chaosium announces end of Magic World product line


MOB

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3 hours ago, MOB said:

 

We are still working on a new fan policy for Chaosium, along with submissions and licensing guidelines. They will be similar to the policies Moon Design had on glorantha.com, which seemed to work well for everyone.

That's good news. Back in the day, Chaosium had a reputation as one of the best and most professional companies for freelancers to work with. It also had a reputation as a company that was very friendly to fan activities - at a time when other industry players such as TSR were increasingly litigious. This paid off when the Gloranthan mailing list krpt the flame alive during the dark times. It would be great if the new improved Chaosium can recapture some of that lustre.

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That's a shame, as his enthusiasm was quite infectious at times.

Best of luck to his pursuits, I'll check that thread out.

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1 hour ago, nDervish said:

He recently popped up in a related thread on Big Purple and said that he's "moved on from BRP games", with a pretty clear implication that he wouldn't be interested in doing any further work on MW-related projects.

Not surprised as he was almost hired and fired within the same breath of each other. As was said, it's a shame because he truly cared about the MW line.

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On 8/18/2016 at 8:50 PM, auyl said:

Not surprised as he was almost hired and fired within the same breath of each other. As was said, it's a shame because he truly cared about the MW line.

Note, Ben was brought on to help manage the Hayward office/warehouse, not as line editor for MW. While he happily took on the mantle of BRP/MW editor while he was there, 99% of his and the rest of the team’s energy was focused on sorting out the kickstarters, office problems, finances, and the warehouse. 

After the Hayward warehouse was closed we were happy for Ben to stay involved with Chaosium, but no one could argue a MW-led recovery would save the company. (In fact MW sales were actually not enough even to pay for the minimal costs the old Chaosium invested in the line - although we know the setting has its passionate fans, that passion never translated into sales figures.)

We teed up with Sandy for Ben to be the editor of the new "Tales of Sandy Petersen" line of books for Call of Cthulhu ("The Derelict" etc) if Ben was interested. However Ben said he had other non-Chaosium stuff he wanted to go on to and declined the offer (and so Mike Mason is now looking after that project.)

Edited by MOB
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Any chance Chaosium would be willing to release the "Chronicler's Companion" (as is) as a consolation prize? 

I realize it isn't a finished product; I don't care. I've been waiting two years for it. Seems like a waste to just never release it or rework it for some other product line. It was written for Magic World and the Southern Reaches. 

It would really be awesome if Chaosium made it available to Magic World fans somehow. 

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Just now, Nakana said:

Any chance Chaosium would be willing to release the "Chronicler's Companion" (as is) as a consolation prize? 

I realize it isn't a finished product; I don't care. I've been waiting two years for it. Seems like a waste to just never release it or rework it for some other product line. It was written for Magic World and the Southern Reaches. 

It would really be awesome if Chaosium made it available to Magic World fans somehow. 

If anything as a discounted pdf.

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1 hour ago, Nakana said:

Any chance Chaosium would be willing to release the "Chronicler's Companion" (as is) as a consolation prize? 

I realize it isn't a finished product; I don't care. I've been waiting two years for it. Seems like a waste to just never release it or rework it for some other product line. It was written for Magic World and the Southern Reaches. 

It would really be awesome if Chaosium made it available to Magic World fans somehow. 

Sorry, we won't be bringing out any more Magic World stuff under the Chaosium logo. But, as we have noted, we have no problem with the Chronicler Companion material or other MW stuff that was in the works coming out under license, whether as a fan work or by another publisher. We have written to the various authors we are aware were working on speculative MW material advising them about this.

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Ah, I was under the impression that Chronicler's Companion was to be an official Chaosium product  and Chaosium owned the rights to it. Am I correct to understand the rights will now belong solely to the author who will have the opportunity to release the material how they see fit? Either as a licensed product of their own or as fan fiction?

If CC wasn't written by Chaosium or an employee, who was the author(s)?

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2 hours ago, Nakana said:

Any chance Chaosium would be willing to release the "Chronicler's Companion" (as is) as a consolation prize? 

I realize it isn't a finished product; I don't care. I've been waiting two years for it. Seems like a waste to just never release it or rework it for some other product line. It was written for Magic World and the Southern Reaches. 

It would really be awesome if Chaosium made it available to Magic World fans somehow. 

The one of the main "original" components (i.e. written specifically for it) of the Chronicler's Companion (on Religion, by Charles Green) he chose to withdraw and he has re-purposed it for Classic Fantasy I believe, so would NOT be available.

The rest of the draft of the CC I was aware of consisted of a lot of material Ben had revised from the RQIII Game Masters book - which is copyright to Chaosium; some excellent stuff on campaigning in the Southern Reaches (by Dave Ackerman) and some fantastic setting /scenario material by Richard LeDuc.

So a straight "issue" of that draft simply cannot be done, and it would be a non-trivial task to revise it so it could be released (both in terms of negotiating suitable permissions / licenses AND in terms of the layout work required). HOWEVER, the draft I know of was ~116 - in that the religion / expanded allegiance chapter was ~22 pages, so there's a potential ~96p supplement there. So there's the viable basis for a book that COULD Be released: I alas have neither the time, resources nor the complete set of skills required to achieve it but I will publicly state that I am more than willing to help if I can if there is a serious attempt to get the material released in a respectable format.

The other project I'd love to see go somewhere was the bestiary / creatures collection various of us had submitted stuff for (Ben was unofficially referring to it as  All the Worlds Monsters, Volume 1). There was rather a nice blend of classical stuff (converted from the old Gateway Bestiary), some more obscure stuff culled from mythology and given a slightly different spin and some entirely new creations. As a contributor I'm biased - but I thought it had a LOT of potential and was far more interesting than the typical cookie-cutter bags of hit points for PC's to beat  up that creatures books often are.

Cheers,

Nick

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On 8/15/2016 at 9:17 AM, Darmath said:

I have always been a big fan of those rules myself. Now that RuneQuest is being woven tightly with Glorantha (as indeed it should be) I need to find a system that my own Bronze Age homebrew can use.

I recommend The Design Mechanism's excellent Mythras (formerly RQ6) rules as a replacement for Magic World.

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14 minutes ago, NickMiddleton said:

The one of the main "original" components (i.e. written specifically for it) of the Chronicler's Companion (on Religion, by Charles Green) he chose to withdraw and he has re-purposed it for Classic Fantasy I believe, so would NOT be available.

For Revolution D100, actually. The ETA of this supplement is however still unknown, nor can I promise automatic compatibility with the Magic World rules. This section is so good that Ben has publicly stated on rpg.net that he is happy to know that it is in a pipeline for being actually published. Needless to say, Charles and I are happy too.

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39 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

For Revolution D100, actually. The ETA of this supplement is however still unknown, nor can I promise automatic compatibility with the Magic World rules. This section is so good that Ben has publicly stated on rpg.net that he is happy to know that it is in a pipeline for being actually published. Needless to say, Charles and I are happy too.

D'Oh! My apolgies to you and Charles, I did know it was Revolution it was going to, dunno why I mixed it up!

Its a very good piece.

cheers,

Nick

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1 hour ago, ThornPlutonius said:

I recommend The Design Mechanism's excellent Mythras (formerly RQ6) rules as a replacement for Magic World.

Mythras is indeed excellent, but it's very different from Magic World in feel. Mythras is very detailed, while MW was derived from the more rules-light Elric! system.

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1 hour ago, NickMiddleton said:

The other project I'd love to see go somewhere was the bestiary / creatures collection various of us had submitted stuff for (Ben was unofficially referring to it as  All the Worlds Monsters, Volume 1). There was rather a nice blend of classical stuff (converted from the old Gateway Bestiary), some more obscure stuff culled from mythology and given a slightly different spin and some entirely new creations. As a contributor I'm biased - but I thought it had a LOT of potential and was far more interesting than the typical cookie-cutter bags of hit points for PC's to beat  up that creatures books often are.

I guess the monster book is the most viable supplement to publish as a licensed product. I'd combine it with the section on campaign in the Southern Reaches to make it more setting specific. I think that many monster descriptions should be rewritten because they were largely taken from Gateway Bestiary (at least in the very early draft that I had seen).

 

 

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On 8/19/2016 at 4:34 AM, ThornPlutonius said:

I recommend The Design Mechanism's excellent Mythras (formerly RQ6) rules as a replacement for Magic World.

When I was a d100 neophyte a couple of years ago, RQ6 was the first thing I read (got it in a Bundle of Holding deal) and it did not 'click' for me in any way shape or form. MW on the other hand was just about perfect in terms of helping grok actually running a game with it. Two years on, I think highly of Mythras/RQ6's design aesthetics, editing and nuance, but I still can't see me ever running it.

These are two very different games to me (as smiorgan mentioned above) and unless Chaosium's new RuneQuest blows my socks off I don't see any other games replacing Elric!/Stormbringer/Magic World to scratch my d100 fantasy system itch right now.

Edited by Nick J.
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It's good to know the piece on religion will be available in some way. I'll keep my eye out for that. 

Otherwise I'm mostly interested in expanded allegiances and all the material about the Southern Reaches. 

To me this is like a repeat of the Nentir Vale Gazeteer. 

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On 8/19/2016 at 9:13 PM, Nakana said:

Am I correct to understand the rights will now belong solely to the author who will have the opportunity to release the material how they see fit? 

Yes

On 8/19/2016 at 9:13 PM, Nakana said:

Either as a licensed product of their own or as fan fiction?

Yes.

Chaosium will continue selling MW releases that have already been published including the core rules etc, until they sell out (which will not be any time soon). 

We just won't be releasing anything else new for the line. But, as noted in the announcement, we are fine with stuff coming out as a fan work or under license by another publisher if there is such interest.

On 8/19/2016 at 9:13 PM, Nakana said:

If CC wasn't written by Chaosium or an employee, who was the author(s)?

Sorry, I don't know off-hand. As noted, we have written to the various authors we are aware were working on speculative MW material advising them what the state of play is. I'm sure someone here will be able to point out who the author is. 

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2 minutes ago, MOB said:

Sorry, I don't know off-hand. As noted, we have written to the various authors we are aware were working on speculative MW material advising them what the state of play is. I'm sure someone here will be able to point out who the author is. 

Ah, which I note was done in the very next reply in the thread.

On 8/19/2016 at 9:16 PM, NickMiddleton said:

The rest of the draft of the CC I was aware of consisted of a lot of material Ben had revised from the RQIII Game Masters book - which is copyright to Chaosium; some excellent stuff on campaigning in the Southern Reaches (by Dave Ackerman) and some fantastic setting /scenario material by Richard LeDuc.

Then the material from RQ3 would need to be licensed, but as noted, we're happy to do that. It's up to the other authors if they want their stuff to still come out as MW material. 

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Um....huh? :huh:

https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?788312-Plans-for-Stormbringer

 

At a recent Gencon seminar, Chaosium indicated that they were interested in the IP for Stormbringer and are in talks with Michael Moorcock (podcast found here -> http://www.mu-podcast.com/mup-special-report-whats-happening-chaosium-2016/). Assuming they are able to get the IP back what would people like to see in a new edition?

 

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