nclarke

MW is not a priority because they have all their resources committed to getting the CoC 7e KS completed. The coffers are virtually empty and until they clear the cloud of the 7e KS nothing or virtually nothing is going to happen. I don't know how many times they have to tell people that but it doesn't seem to sink in. Chaosium fans are lucky they have anything to look forward to based on the state the company was in after Sandy and Gregg took a look at it. The MD folks have said that the actual state of the company finances was even worse than G&S had thought when they originally stepped in, 10K in the bank and a 7e printing bill for 100K is a hole that isn't easy to climb out of so a lack of a concrete statement on the future of MW is small beans. Be thankful you actually have material already out there to play.

The problem with RP books is that they have to be designed to do two things. They have to be laid out to accommodate learning the rules and they have to be laid out to allow use as a reference during play. Very often these two things are incompatible in terms of layout. What works for one does not work for the other. Character generation si often placed first so that someone reading the rules can work out how a character should look before reading the combat and magic chapters. However once a character has been generated then that chunk of text becomes an impediment to using the rules in play as teh GM has to flick past those rules to find the relevant sections for use in play. This is probably why authors go for a Player's book and a GM's book as the relevant sections can be placed in a different order to suit the reader.

+Nick Middleton, Your guess is how I interpreted the mention made of the future Basic BRP rues regarding their use of it in 3rd party books as laid down during The Kraken seminar/discussion when the topic of Mythic Iceland v2 came up.

I blame swapping the forum software and the system not gracefully upgrading the titles.

Note the new Chaosium announcement that they are teaming up with a noted boardgame designer to produce two boardgames next year. Turn your thousands of pages of RPG work into a boardgame and you might get it published.

I think that it is important for everyone putting their twopenny-worth into the discussion is that Chaosium is five guys only four of which appear to be doing it as a full time thing and their full time includes writing the material for the new Glorantha material as well as running the company and doing everything for marketing the product lines, product design, distribution etc etc. If you want to promote Chaosium products then join the program that Mike Mason is starting out with which does a sort of D&D Encounters but for Chaosium. Getting games being run at Conventions and in game stores is what some of you appear to want so put your money where your mouth is and get with the program. If I don't see each of the complainers posting that they are running a game and a con or game store with support from Chaosium and Mike then I'll know who I can switch off as a bag of wind.

Clearing up some of the confusion. Making BRP a 32 page booklet that is free or very cheap as a stand-alone product is Chaosium having an entry-level basic ruleset (they can see what WotC have done). This set of rules is effectively part of the licence for a BRP setting book i.e. Mythic Iceland ver 2 will have those rules incorporated in the book. I didn't get that Chaosium will have a EU printer I believe it was more that POD printing will be done for EU product avoiding the international shipping issue (Lulu seemed to be the option with most positive feedback from customers). The CoC 7e and Glorantha lines diverging rules-wise are not seen as an issue at present. Chaosium specifically said that RQ2 and RQ3 players form a large part of the fan-base and they intend to tap into that market with future product. Specifically for Smiorgan - A lot of F&D is being put about by folks who don't like the direction CoC7e took and don't like MW being put on the back burner and whine and complain here and on other fora. It does no good to whine and the sort of speculation being pushed with the agenda of those people here and on other sites raises concerns in fence sitters who may now not choose to go the Chaosium route. Provocative thread titles like 'Has Chaosium died' do not engender a feeling of positive action being taken as a response to the notice of the company going virtual. Not sure why SDLeary is speculating on future directions for CoC it seemed to me that the Chaosium team had no qualms about the current 7e version other than the issues with getting the KS fulfilled. Although Mike Mason wasn't present the Chaosium were full of praise for the direction he's taking with fresh material , organised game play and similar things with CoC 7e. The Chaosium team at The Kraken were more focused on Glorantha as that is the main focus of the convention but had no difficulty in covering concerns about MW and CoC even if lot's of participants didn't appear that concerned. As a quick aside Glorathan material is moving on to 1628 and the team are happy to accept material and to see it being posted on-line. The Guide is the core material that needs to be followed for major events etc when writing material for them with a view to being published.

Telling folks won't stop them posting passive-aggressive negative material that doesn't help a struggling company get back on an even keel does it. The internet never lets truth get in the way of a good post that keeps a thread at the top of the list.

Having just returned from The Kraken I've put the washing machine on so I have some clean clothes and skimmed over this thread. I can tell you from speaking with the horse's mouth that most of the speculation that fills this thread is just so much pie in the sky crap. Chaosium's primary task through the end of 2015 is to get the 800lb albatross that is the 7e KS out The layout fiasco's have finally been laid to rest and the Chinese printers have sent proofs for approval. The books will now fit in the slipcase for example. The guys are setting up worldwide international fulfillment/distribution points for that and also for future product (mention was made of the issues of dealing with VAT/TVA for European distribution by a (very small) US corporation as part of that discussion). My guess is late 2015 or early 2016 for 7e in distribution if they are approving proofs now (that's my best guess not Chaosium's) Knowing how you folks love your MW I specifically brought that topic up in at least a couple of seminars. The answer were consistent - everything is on the back burner until 7e CoC KS is cleared. A BRP booklet is going to be the way forward for the BRP line rather than the weighty tome of 4e. There is a backlog of material that is likely to see the light of day in one form or another. BRP is not going to be RQ it's going to be small, cheap (or free) booklet that is basic.No-one from TDM was present so I couldn't get a great deal of information on their direction but there was no indication that the spin offs like CF and Luther Arkwright will not continue (although I pressed the question about a non-RQ branded Loz and Pete D100 based rules only book continuing I couldn't get an answer, that will have to come from TDM). A new version of Mythic Iceland will be coming with the rules included (the basic BRP (32) pages) to make it the game complete and stand-alone. That seems to be the route the Chaosium guys are now taking for a lot of licensees. The new Chaosium folks are much more savvy when it comes to ways fo getting product into your hands. We talked of free or small dollar amount PDF's plus POD to avoid the shipping issue many of us have. I pushed the subject of better tie-ins to VTT's (including FG getting an update to 7e). I suggested that free or low dollar amount packs of maps and handouts that can be used for on-line gaming by folks who only have hard copy and the team noted that down for something in the future. We can expect to see much more from the Chaosium team on various forms of social media as the nature of Chaosium's web site is not the best option for discussion and the time and expense that it would take to do another revamp was not (like many other things very high on the schedule. Th.e guys are very big users of G+ and we can probably expect to see more there. There was a lot more talked about and some under a secret oath (and I don't want to find something nasty at the foot of my bed tonight). If you get teh chance try and make it to a Kraken as it's a fantastic experience and talking and playing with game authors is big part of that. Ken (Ralston) told me over breakfast yesterday that he was bursting with creative energy after the weekend playing and discussing games. BTW we can expect more information from Chaosium next week after/during the Essen Game Fair

Although Ben Monroe is no longer a paid employee of Chaosium I can see that he might be used on a freelance basis to work on products as he has done for a time previously. With Essen the week after next and some Moon Design folks attending The Kraken in Germany before that I can't see a lot of information coming out until late October as the effects of the relocation and restructuring settle down.

Presumably, Vile, you're referring to Ben being let go along with the other last local to CA employee.

The issue with physical product in (US) game stores is the system by which they arrive there. I believe that virtually everything goes through a distributor (and there are only one or two left). These 'distributors' act as a gate keeper in that they provide a list of upcoming material that they can supply to stores who order the numbers they think they will sell and no more. If the game store doesn't recognise a game or any blurb doesn't catch their eye then the goods don't get ordered. If someone has asked about an upcoming product a store might take notice and order such an item if the customer(s) ask enough times. Now these game distribution companies don't make it easy for a small organisation to get product into the chain (you need an ISBN at least which is not cheap in single/small quantities)) and by squeezing the producer for 40% or higher discount off retail really cut into the profitability of a print run and make it harder to make enough for a new product. Companies who have a web store can at least sell direct and retain enough of the retail price to fund future work. Some companies rely on direct sales for much of their revenue as pricing a product will be a difficult task when buyers whine about lack of colour and not enough pages and expensive retail pricing. Now returning to lack of product on store shelves we can assign blame to the store for not knowing enough about the market to order regular supplies, the buyers for not purchasing enough to turn over stock at a reasonable rate, the distributors for restricting games from reaching the marketplace or the producers for not being larger organisations and having the financial structure to wave a wand and get full colour product onto the shelves for people to get their grubby fingers on by making promotional material that causes people to flood their FLGS demanding product. Where do you think the problem lies?.

MW is no.t a replacement for BRP as it is pretty focused on fantasy and thus not an entry level product in the same way BRP is the lead-in to not only fantasy but supers, SF etc. If MW is not a viable product line and financially able to bring dollars to the bottom line then I can't see Chaosium continuing the line.

Looks very much like they are consolidating their business with the new senior staff's location. No doubt they will be considering every product line as part of their on-going business rationalisation. The monographs have gone in printed format (mostly) and may only be available in POD/PDF from now on if they even continue selling them. I fully expect that they will focus on the lines bringing the most to the bottom line (CoC and Runequest/Glorantha material). I suspect that the BRP line is very much up in the air, there is a hard core of fans on this board but I'm not sure how much of a profit centre BRP actually is. With Alephtar having to retrench and change much of ttheir published material I can see that Cubicle 7 and their Laundry line may have to make adjustments as well unless they get some form of exemption as they do a lot of CoC material. Not sure at all where this business plan will leave MW. I suppose it depends a lot on the person who is the champion of the line inside Chaosium and the proposals for bringing financial improvements to the line. I'm guessing that promotion is likely to be relatively low priority for MW and advertising dollars, such as they are likely to be, will be focused on CoC and Glorantha as the lines likely to contribute most to the current very sorry bottom line.

When I took my Virginia Real Estate exam I learnt that much of the US west of the Applachians was laid out in chains. No pun intended.

Tough luck Bob, go back to Math class or use a calculator, perhaps even join the 21st century. Even NASA has managed to use metric units so it isn't rocket science.

My best guess for the D&D Starter box production numbers is probably at least one order of magnitude bigger than any other product produced by another RPG company. You only have to look at Kickstarter backer numbers to get an idea of how small the TTRPG niche is. Let's look at Numenera,, a game by a well respected game designer, the Kickstater had 4658 backers so probably an initial print run of something like 10-12,000 to allow for product in actual stores. My guess is that the 5e boxed set initial print run was something like 100000 units. Take another KS, Chaosium's 7e campaign had 3668 backers. These numbers are a matter of record and show how small the market is because these KS numbers are for the techicnally astute, committed gamers who seek out product. The average KS for an OSR product is between 100 and 200 backers. The average CoC scenario pitch on KS has 300-400 backers. These aren't numbers to excite anyone who looks to volume production to get lw-cost product or boxed sets. So let's face it anyone looking for cheap, but hi-quality, boxed sets is living in a fantasy world along with the folks who want luxury full-colour product at B&W pricing. The numbers don't lie.

Seneschal, you fail to consider the volume issue. When a good run for an RPG is a thousand or two copies the unit cost of the content is huge compared to that of consumer goods made in the 10's of thousands.

All you fantasists pining for the Eighties and boxed sets are never going to see the like again (the Eighties or boxed sets). The cost of boxes is pretty high for sizes able to take US Letter/A4 books and only the Chinese printers seem to do them at lowish price points (and we all know, or should, the issues with having your printing done thousands of miles away with a huge language barrier). Generally speaking those folks wanting boxed sets and full colour are usually the ones shouting about the high cost of RPG books and seem to have little grasp on the reality of niche publishing in the 21st Century.

Speaking as someone who was involved in some of NASA's missions over the years the communications issues would prevent direct control of any lander and sophisticated self-aware driving programs would be needed to manoeuver around a planetary surface including plotting where to go and what looks like a suitable place to land any colonists. The Cassini-Huygens mission (one of my last) is probably the template for such a probe to another world with an orbiter and a separate lander just as the ESA Rosetta-Philae mission to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko show how much we can improve a design after a successful test including the Mars lander missions where the use of retro-thrusters and bouncing balloons led the way to .Curiosity's 3 years work.

This discussion is interesting in that the participants are generally pitching values that relatively speaking are much lower than the relevant products were back in the 70's and 80's. Considering that the majority of folks buying many of the old style products are in their 40's or 50's and have a lot of disposable income their parsimony is interesting. The big ticket items like Horror are almost certainly relying on a large nostalgia factor amongst the purchasers. People have become accustomed to glossy volumes laden with illustrations and demand those bt in generally are unwilling to play those prices. If we had B&W illustrations of the quality of those in teh old books folks could have the low prices but a question of cake and Queen's comes to mind.

The new rules would work for all the regular stuff but the Laundry magic system is specially crafted and would probably need a rewrite to fit.

Legend is a slightly amended version of MRQII with the Glorantha stuff removed for licensing reasons. AFAIK Loz and Pete did not provide further work on Legend as they were busy with The Design Mechanism. There may have some changes that made it into Legend that were scheduled for a errata release for MRQIi that were put into Legend.

If you kept any of those encyclopedias that were hawked around pre-Internet as necessary for your (or your child's) education then this is a good use for them.

Pete was writing AiG and so merging it with RQ with another six months added to the date of publication gives him plenty of time. A lot of the 'writing' would have been cut and paste anyway so it's hardlyy arduous and I suspect that the playtesting had been going on for some time already.