Rick Meints

Items listed individually will be sold individually. Some items listed collectively as a single bullet point may be sold individually. Examples: Prax is a single bullet point but it may turn out to be two books that will be sold individually. Same might be true for the bullet point about Pavis and Big Rubble. They might turn out to be two books, and those 2 books would be sold individually.

NOTE: Slipcase sets are problematic right now, no matter how cool they may be. They add cost, increase likelihood of damage, and there is currently an ongoing cardboard shortage which means long wait times in many countries if you want something in a box or slipcase. For the RuneQuest line, I suggest just buying an extra empty RQ slipcase if slipcases are that big a deal for you..

I made some updates to the glorantha publications thread.

On 8/5/2022 at 8:16 AM, Shiningbrow said:

Actually, I'm pretty sure that if you said "Hey, that looks a bit like MRQ on page 82", it'd be instantly scrapped and back to the drawing board... even if it bore very little resemblance to it... such is the hatred.

There is no hatred. Depending on the material, it ranges from agreement to disagreement, or from interesting to not interesting. If we don't use specific swaths of text it is simply because we do not own that copyrighted text, even though we do own the IP.

1 hour ago, Jason Farrell said:

About this last item:
"PDF first also raised questions about its effect on total sales. Does getting the PDF early make someone more OR less likely to buy the printed book later?"

I'm almost certain it would, though I couldn't guess as to the percentage of purchasers for whom that would be true.

However, if a purchaser buys the printed book for the printed book price, that doesn't remove the desire to have the .pdf earlier than one would be able to receive the physical book.  At least, I know that's true for me.  I plan to buy the Cults of Glorantha slipcase set, all 200 or whatever dollars of it, but I would also like to have the .pdf as soon as possible.  No possible loss of sales dollars would result.

We absolutely know that most people if given the choice of "PDF first sooner" or "print and pdf together later" will choose PDF first. If nothing else there is basically no advantage to the second choice. Nobody who mainly wants the PDF would ever want to wait longer, and there is no down side to those who don't care about the PDF as they are just waiting for the printed book anyway. The thing is, there's a LOT more to this from the Chaosium side of the situation. In essence, doing split releases via PDF first is MORE work for us, more time consuming, and ultimately more expensive. Unless "PDF First" causes a substantial increase in sales, it is basically costing us money. We'll have more data to make that cost analysis over the next 6-12 months, and then we can decide what the dollars and cents show which is the best way forward.  

TLDR: If we see that sales do not drop for books we release via PDF and Printed book at the same time, we are not likely to go back to PDF first.

Chaosium did a fairly detailed analysis on releasing the PDF first, followed by selling the printed version later (with PDF discount coupon). Please note, if your primary or main desire is to get the material (albeit in PDF) as quickly as possible, then there really is no debate about preferring PDF first. We get that, and respect that desire. Before I get into some of the results of our research, please be assured that we will still offer free PDFs with printed books purchased directly from Chaosium (plus Bits & Mortar). That also goes for purchasing a PDF first and then wanting to buy the printed book later. You will still get a discount coupon.

Here are some things we concluded or discovered during our look into "PDF first" or "PDF and Print at the same time":

• PDF first currently relies on crowdsourced editing. While that sounds nifty to some, it actually pointed out that we shouldn't be relying on such volunteer efforts to get us a fully edited/correct final book. That's not what professional publishers do. Our development process must produce books that are edited completely. It showed we need more professional editing. In no way should this be seen as a derogatory comment about all of the people who volunteer to help with crowdsourced edits, or the quality of what they do. We really appreciate all the volunteers.
• PDF first forces us to announce and market the book twice (PDF release and then printed book release), which makes each announcement have less impact as opposed to having a larger single campaign. The printed book needs to make the biggest splash when announced.
• PDF first means creating and processing a lot of PDF discount coupons, including combo coupons, when the printed book is sold. This is more time consuming than you think.
• PDF first means two versions of the "final" PDF are out in circulation, plus the inevitable desire to know specifically what the differences are, which is time consuming to explain and detail. Some even worry that all of the changes made might not make it into the printed version.
• PDF first also raised questions about its effect on total sales. Does getting the PDF early make someone more OR less likely to buy the printed book later?

So what does all that mean? It means we are seeing how things go with doing the next new releases as "PDF and Printed book at the same time". We've done plenty of "PDF first" releases to know what those are like. Once we have enough of both approaches to more fully compare, we'll see what we do going forward. 

Daga doesn't have any worshippers in Dragon Pass. Interest dried up decades ago...

All of our new books are off-set printed. Only a few of our older titles, mostly from pre-2015, are POD printed.

Even HotOE and BtMoM are off-set printed. In general, if it comes in a slipcase or a box it is printed in China. Single hardcover color books are printed in Poland or Lithuania, and B&W interior books are printed in the USA and Poland.

We want to do more issues.

The first "Chaosium related" convention I attended was RQ Con 1 in Baltimore back in January of 1994. That was the only convention I took some of my collection to, in the aforementioned comic book box. It was most of the RQ2 boxed sets and some of the main RQ supplements, all in clear comic book sleeves. That was the con where I met Greg Stafford who was nice enough to briefly chat with me about each item as he signed them. I was very fortunate to be able to attend all of the RQ/Glorantha cons held from 1995-2003, other than missing the second RQ Con Down Under. When I moved to the UK in 1995 I started attending European conventions as well. I managed to make it to Convulsion in Leicester in 1996, 1998, 2000, and so on until about 2010, as well as going to the Tentacles Convention in Bacharach each year from 1995 until around 2010. I was one of the main auctioneers for the games auction held at all of these events, and often purchased items at them, especially at the earlier ones. After I picked up the nickname "Mr. Suitcase" in 1998 I started getting introduced with that title at the beginning of many of those auctions. 

On 6/12/2022 at 4:38 PM, g33k said:

3.  Rick Meints, as a fan, went by the nickname "Mr. Suitcase" because he'd hit many conventions with a suitcase full of Glorantha/RQ rarities from his personal collection.  As a fan, he wrote the definitive "Meints Index to Glorantha."

In 1998 a frustrated fan from France accused me of not sharing gloranthan info with younger fans. He said i was like one of those Magic the Gathering Players who went around to events with a suitcase full of rare and powerful cards with the express purpose of beating other players. He thought I was some really old dude who just hoarded info and lorded it over others who desperately couldn't get a hold of that info. A bunch of my friends and I found the term "Mr. Suitcase" rather funny and I embraced it. Because the original "accuser" was French we also translated it to Monsieur Valise. While I did take a comic book box full of RQ stuff to RQ Con 1 in Baltimore in 1994, I have never travelled around with my collection, especially in suitcases. If I did travel with it that way I would need a set of luggage like in Joe Versus the Volcano...

I haven't spoken to or heard from that French fan for over two decades now, but I take some comfort in the thought that publishing the Gloranthan Classics went a long way towards filling some of that gap he was venting about.

5 hours ago, g33k said:

No legal source of PDFs until the QW-rebranded product comes out.

HQ-branded products are explicitly (c)-infringing now (or maybe it's (tm)-infringing, I dunno).

Hasbro purchased the HeroQuest trademark about 2 years ago. We cannot sell any product using that Trademark. We are rebranding the core material as Questworlds. That conversion has been slowly progressing. The rebranding includes the Coming Storm and Eleven Lights. If we had an ETA I would have included it in this reply.

A new edition of BRP is on our list of projects, but it is rather low priority.

8 hours ago, sadz said:

In the latest version of BRP and CoC, the San attribute can be seen.
The relationship between CoC and BRP is very close.
So I am curious to know whether the concept of San appeared first in BRP or COC?

SANdy Petersen created the Sanity game mechanic for Call of Cthulhu, 1st edition in 1981.

The material is currently being revised and updated for the 7th edition. The ballpark is 2023.

21 hours ago, Travern said:

A 7th edition version of BtMoM, like Masks of Nyarlathotep and Horror on the Orient Express, is still on the “to do list”, right?

Yes, but it's pretty far down the list. My apologies, I thought you were asking about other CoC Classics reprints, not older titles updated to the 7th edition.

The three remaining volumes (Secret Societies, Cities of Faith & Wonder, and Land of 1,000 Nations) will all be printed and shipped to our patient backers at the same time. The first two titles are finished, and the third is in the final editing and writing phase.

4 minutes ago, Travern said:

Again, thanks—simply hearing Chaosium’s priorities is useful.  You’d mentioned that after the 40th anniversary Kickstarter shipped, you’d start getting other older titles back into print. We’re all avidly looking forward to learning what exactly these will be (Beyond the Mountains of Madness maybe?).

The Beyond the Mountains of Madness reprint is currently available.

57 minutes ago, Travern said:

Many thanks for the update. As there’s naturally a lot of space between “set in stone” and “ready when it’s ready”, would you be able to narrow that down for us please?

When the acquisition was announced back in August of last year, “all-new layout and art” were promised for the 7th ed. republications—is that still the case? If so, where does this series, along with the other Cubicle 7 re-publications, fit in Chaosium’s fiscal year projections (FY 2023 or FY 2024, maybe)? Or could you let us know what their slots are in Chaosium’s CoC editorial-production pipeline? (Where do they line up with respect to, say, upcoming announced projects such as the anticipated Lovecraft Country guides (Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, Innsmouth, Miskatonic University, and Miskatonic Valley), the Dreamlands, and Sci-Fi Cthulhu?)

Thanks again—everyone is eagerly waiting for more CoC news.

I don't remember Chaosium "promising" anything. We provided some info on what our plans were at that time. Plans can change but that doesn't equate to "broken promises". Fortunately, our plan hasn't changed. We intend to relaunch the WWC line with material updated for the 7th edition rules and with new color layout and art. They will be to the standard of Masks, Pulp Cthulhu, Children of Fear, etc. The WWC line relaunch won't happen this year. When after that? It's ready when it's ready.

We are not going to be discussing our fiscal projections, nor have we committed to a release date for the WWC line. We are not going to deep dive into "where all projects are in their status" either. We work with a fair number of freelancers to do various projects with us. Sometimes they are late; sometimes there are unexpected delays. Even if we did provide you with everything you desire in terms of project timelines, project release dates, financial projections and everything else, that info would all be subject to change.

I get that people LOVE to know more, but too many times in the past when we have provided more detail than we probably should have we just get endless rounds of "you promised X" with demands to know why that didn't happen. It's not productive. It creates bad feelings. It even angers some people. All for what? We make no promises. The Arkham, Dunwich, Kingsport, etc. books have a higher priority than WWC and will get completed first. If the lack of additional information disappoints you, I apologize for disappointing you, but I am not going to spend who knows how many hours trying to not disappoint you.

During numerous interviews and posts Mike Mason has explained the titles closest to being released over the next 6-12 months. If he wanted to provide more detail, he would have already provided it.

18 minutes ago, Jimbotinus said:

Would you include the 7th Ed update of Beyond the Mountains of Madness? Or is that too far off?

We haven't started work on this, nor do we have it on the schedule.

21 hours ago, OrdosMalleus said:

Yeah. I get that. But 4 months is a long time for possible US sales to be delayed.

Shipping prices are based on weight and volume. Shippings costs have gone up a LOT. Sending these empty slipcases to our other warehouses just isn't worth the money unless we really increase the price for the item so we are waiting to see what happens. We could start selling the empty slipcases from just the US, but we know with absolute certainty that MANY of our fans outside of the US will try to order them and then complain about super high shipping costs. The grief just isn't worth it.

One small ray of hope: We often sell these at US conventions. Please stop by our booth at Origins, Gen Con, Gamehole Con or PAX Unplugged. We also sold them at Chaosium Con.

21 hours ago, AlonsoAguilurk said:

That makes sense. I guess it's hardly a priority with everything else going on, but are there plans to restock some, or were this ones the last remaining? 

We probably won't make any more of them. They are nice, but they were not that cheap to make and fiddly to deal with.

On 5/15/2022 at 3:18 AM, AlonsoAguilurk said:

Is the die-cut version still available? The link doesn't seem to be working anymore. 

The link doesn't work because we sold out of the die-cut version on our website.

I've always thought Primal Chaos was the worst cult.

14 hours ago, g33k said:

To me, shopping from Chaosium, "pre-order" means putting 50% down and waiting for the coupon-code when it's ready. I understand some people also look for a PDF somewhere in the process...

😁

You are welcome to consider buying the PDF prior to purchasing the printed book a "pre-order". That's not a term we are going to adopt for the discount coupon you get if you buy a PDF though. We are sticking with the traditional use of the word "pre-order" which means paying in advance in full for a yet to be released item. Just to be crystal clear, I was trying to only say: We do not take pre-orders for printed books via the Chaosium website. 

NOTE: Kickstarter is a very different situation. Fortunately, very few people confuse the chaosium website with the Kickstarter website...

20 hours ago, Erol of Backford said:

When will these be coming out? May we pre-order?!

In general we do not take pre-orders on items. V1 of Chaosium Classics will be for sale soon.