rust

If Chaosium is unable to publish and distribute those new products itself, maybe third-party publications like BRP Rome can fill the bill.

On a certain level, they doubtless can. I know of a few people who bought

Rome after I told them about it, and also told them that they could easily

adapt it to the Call of Cthulhu system (which is well known over here).

Thinking of it, perhaps a slim BRP version could be sold as a Call of Cthulhu

supplement ... - but this is not what this thread is about.

Would electronic product in the local lingo help?

Only if there were also supplements, adventures, a web site and all that in

the local language, otherwise it would probably not make much of a diffe-

rence.

Does that make sense to any German-speakers?

Ah, well, you know ... it does not mention whether the car has a refrigera-

tor ... :D:D

But even with a translation that is better than gibberish, one would still need

a publisher and distribution channels.

This is not exactly easy over here, where there are several small publishers,

but not a single big one with enough resources to take a serious risk, and

where the experiences with translations have recently been quite bad - even

D&D 4 fizzled and was discontinued.

Sorry to say, but I do not see much of a success chance for a German trans-

lation.

But what german RPG's are there ? and which do you feel are the best and why ?

Oops, that would be a long list with several dozen titles ...

In the Fantasy genre I would mention Arcane Codex for those who like a ga-

me that feels similar to D&D, and Midgard for something more gritty (and a

bit "math-heavy", unfortunately).

For Science Fiction my choice would be Lodland (underwater, very realistic)

or Perry Rhodan (far future space opera).

Since Dark Future / Post-Apocalyptic is currently the fashion, there is a lot

of choice for every taste. Frostzone is somewhat like the old Gamma World,

Heredium is rather more sinister.

These are just a few examples of genres and titles, there are lots more.

I've been trying to help generate marketing campaign ideas, but not getting much support. I mean, if we can't get you d100 die-hards and experts excited about BRP, how will we attract newbies?

Well, it is a bit of an unexciting "academic thought experiment" for me, be-

cause without a German version of BRP and the BRP material the chances to

recruit new gamers over here are very, very slim. There are now so many

good roleplaying games available in German that one which is only available in

English will remain a fringe thing, no matter how good the marketing.

@ Rurik & Atgxtg:

You misunderstood my post.

If you use common words, there is of course no problem. However, if you use

names that are used only by one other game, and nowhere else, for example

"Kenser's Gloating Disc", you have used the other author's IP.

@ Atgxtg:

I still think that Mongoose bought a lot more than just a name, they bought

an entire setting with all the names and descriptions of people, places, crea-

tures, and so on - the result of decades of creative effort.

I can't see how anybody could prevent you from publishing a 'd100' game that would be compatible with most BRP/MRQ/OQ/GORE rulebooks even though it doesn't mention any of them.

I can even imagine a setting or adventure book with a short rules-introductory chapter that explains that all NPCs in this setting/adventure have their skills expressed on a 1-100 scale, and all their spells fuelled by magic points.

Of course, provided you take care that neither the skills nor the spells have

names that are used only by one other game.

It is extremely confusing.

In most European countries the "creative depth" of a work of art or of a part

of it decides whether it is an intellectual property worthy of protection.

Unfortunately it is rather difficult to measure "creative depth", and therefore

different lawyers - and different judges - can come to very different opinions

about the creative depth and IP protection of something.

Moreover, it is still unclear how far "backwards" the protection does extend.

In the extreme case, could Tolkien's heirs today sue the publishers who use

obviously "Tolkienesque" material, even when this material meanwhile has

been copied so often that it seems to have become public domain ?

And there are lots and lots of similar strange questions that are likely to keep

lawyers and courts busy for decades ...

So, what sort of things are IP that we might not expect to be IP?

I do not know your expectations, but everything that has a unique proper

name that is not commonly used anywhere else would be "off limits".

Surely all they bought was the name "RuneQuest"?

I am not aware of the details of the license deal, but I think it included the

entire setting, with all the terms like "Glorantha" or "Pavis", and so on ?

Rules mechanisms are not protected, only their expressions are.

Chaosium; meet Mongoose.

Mongoose bought their Runequest license from the IP owner, they did not

just copy it without asking ...

Ask Chaosium politely, supplying them with some idea of what you plan to do.

Besides, apart from being the polite thing and the right thing to do, it is also

the safe thing to do.

Otherwise it could happen that one day someone decides that "IP borrowing"

happened one time too often, "too much is too much", and you could get a

letter from a lawyer.

No matter whether this could stand in a court, the consequences could prove

quite detrimental to your bank account, your business credit, your reputation

and some other things you need when producing and trying to sell stuff.

So, if you want to use a system that looks like BRP, smells like BRP and beha-

ves like BRP, you really better talk to the people who own BRP.

In my view it would depend somewhat on Mongoose's terms for a commercial

MRQ II license and their willingness to support third party products, for exam-

ple with a concept like the one they use for Traveller products in their Flaming

Cobra network.

If a MRQ II license turns out to be significantly more expensive than Chaosi-

um's model, and the support (e.g. distribution through Mongoose's channels)

not equivalent to the cost, it will hardly be and option, but otherwise I would

not count it out.

On the other hand, personally I would very much prefer to see all BRP mate-

rial and material that can easily be adapted to BRP "clustered around" Chao-

sium, where it is easier for the customer to find it and to keep aware of what

is there, than to have it scattered over a wider array of distribution chan-

nels, where it is much easier to miss interesting indie products.

For example, I might even miss something like Alephtar's Rome if it did not ap-

pear on Chaosium's website.

D100-based indie publications have now two options only: BRP and OpenQuest. Unless you want to make your homebrew from the OGL or wait for D100Rules.

There seems to be a third one. Asked about the possibility to buy a Rune-

quest II license, Matt Sprange posted in return (on the State of the Mon-

goose discussion thread):

We will certainly entertain proposals.

... whatever that does or will mean.

Kind of unusual really, most people around here started with some form of D&D.

I somehow managed to miss D&D completely, I only learned of its existence

about five years after I had started roleplaying.

The people I played with came from wargames and were into "serious" stuff,

they considered D&D a game for children, never bought it and never mentio-

ned it.

And since we had to mail order all games from England in the early years, and

could only order what we were aware of, I remained happily unaware of D&D

for several years.

I think if most of the older gamers here look at their own history would you have become interested in BRP if you had not learned the basic system through complete games like RQ, Stormbringer, CoC or Pendragon?

I had started roleplaying with Traveller, liked the concept, and looked for

other roleplaying games - and Runequest simply was the only one available

at the time. I used it to design a pseudo-medieval setting, completely ignoring

Glorantha ...

Edit.: Or did I get Empire of the Petal Throne before Runequest ... ?

Sad news, both of them.

The unavailability of the MRQ license has aggravated the problem, and I am not very willing to go the OpenQuest way.

Remembering the SNAFU with the Mongoose Traveller licensing, where it took

a couple of months before it became clear what Mongoose really meant and

intended, with lots of contradictory signals in between, I think nothing is re-

ally certain right now when it comes to the MRQ license.

Perhaps the artists among the BRP fans should consider "donating" some of

their works for the free (or at least inexpensive) use in monographs and si-

milar amateur products, and begin to collect such works in the forum's gal-

lery ?

I think the kind of player that likes historical settings prefers to write his own adventures.

I suspect that this is true for all genres, not only the historical one. Once a

campaign has started, and referee and players have made the setting their

characters' world with unique inhabitants, locations and events, commercial

adventures rarely fit in well without a lot of modification.

Therefore a setting probably needs an "entry adventure" as a part of the set-

ting book itself, to get a campaign started, but afterwards supplements with

additional "setting content" (e.g. regions, equipment, organizations, etc.)

could be more welcome and sell better than adventures.

Of course you do. Otherwise you'd be having this discussion on the HERO Games or Fusion web site.

Sorry to say, but it is probably just "tradition". I have been using BRP for

about thirty years now for almost all of my settings and campaigns, and

so I know how to make it do the tricks I want it to do.

Using any other system would mean to give up my "experience advantage",

so I stay with BRP - although I have to admit that there are other systems

that can deliver the same or equally good results in the hands of those who

know them well.

By the way, concerning additional genres for BRP, I did just see this one:

The Modern Equipment Catalog Chaosium Inc.

Who does it? A one-man band, or collaborative group?

John Ossoway, who seems to visit this forum at least now and then, and

there may also be some input from others, for example the visitors of his

website.

This is all assuming they even want to publish the Monograph. I believe that it has its problems.

Remember, all authors believe that, because they know all too well where the

hidden weak spots are. From what I have seen, I would be very surprised if

Chaosium would not publish The Green.

Cthulhu Rising comes to my mind. It exists both as a series of monographs

published by Chaosium and as an ongoing project on its own website, with

each of its forms creating support for the other one.

So, if this is possible with Cthulhu Rising, I think it should not be too diffi-

cult to convince Chaosium to handle The Green in the same or a very simi-

lar way.

So what does BRP have going for it?

It is an excellent toolbox for the design of (semi-) realistic settings and

campaigns of (almost) all genres, and as a percentile system it is easy

to comprehend and use for most referees and players ... but apart from

this, which is not exactly attractive for new players, I do not see much

that would make BRP "better" than other systems.