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The new Malleus Monstrorum: some Work-in-Progress


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6 hours ago, rsanford said:

Moon Design took over Chaosium from the previous management when Chaosium went into big debt and started to fail. The guys at Moon Design paid all the Chaosium debts and among other things improved Chaosium’s quality. They also brought RuneQuest and Pendragon back into the fold. They saved Chaosium.

Rpg.net has an overview of Chaosium's history, from 1975 to 2006. The article cites three periods in which Chaosium struggled to remain afloat financially.

History of Chaosium Inc

There is also a comprehensive product list for Call of Cthulhu on rpg.net, starting with the Call of Cthulhu First Edition (1981) box set (a history of the product covers are linked from this list).

Complete List of Call of Cthulhu Releases

Some releases such as the most recent published versions of Cthulhu by Gaslight, Dreamlands, and the Malleus Monstrorum look like they did have higher production budgets, but releases in the period immediately before the Moon Design takeover seemed to be increasingly shoestring.

Edited by ColoradoCthulhu
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46 minutes ago, Archivist said:

I know this is an out there recommendation, but ...

Lovecraft was inventing NEW monsters - they're way scarier.

What about having section on creating new custom monsters - how to build weird powers, bizarre weaknesses, and such.

It's in there. Done. For both monsters and gods.

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The best thing about the original MM is that it doesn't feel like another monster manual. This one does. Just an opinion, and I like the art, but the design sensibility of the original was 1000* more interesting. I feel the same way about pretty much every Chaosium book that has come out since the Great Restoration. Content-wise they are mostly great (which is a massive improvement over the preceding decade or two which was all over the place...and 90% of all of that stuff had terrible layout aesthetics), but the layout and design of this and the RQ/CoC lines since the "GR" in general seem to be aiming directly at ~2005 d20 era products as a design target.

Again, not a troll post, please don't temp ban me, fill my inbox with hate mail or spend three pages in a public display of outrage. the last thing IMO that an rpg book really needs is engaging layout. It just needs to be clearly written/edited and have good content. Just underwhelmed by the nouveau-retro Design Concrete style that the recent books have used.

121/420

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3 hours ago, tedopon said:

The best thing about the original MM is that it doesn't feel like another monster manual. This one does. Just an opinion, and I like the art, but the design sensibility of the original was 1000* more interesting. I feel the same way about pretty much every Chaosium book that has come out since the Great Restoration. Content-wise they are mostly great (which is a massive improvement over the preceding decade or two which was all over the place...and 90% of all of that stuff had terrible layout aesthetics), but the layout and design of this and the RQ/CoC lines since the "GR" in general seem to be aiming directly at ~2005 d20 era products as a design target.

Again, not a troll post, please don't temp ban me, fill my inbox with hate mail or spend three pages in a public display of outrage. the last thing IMO that an rpg book really needs is engaging layout. It just needs to be clearly written/edited and have good content. Just underwhelmed by the nouveau-retro Design Concrete style that the recent books have used.

When you post rarely, and show up and say that the entire direction of a line over six years isn't to your liking, it is really difficult to see it as anything but a troll post. You can't say "no offense, but..." as a get out of consequences for what you say.

And looking back at your comment history...yeah, you may want to practice self-restraint. You seem to be generally fastidious.

Edited by klecser
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2 hours ago, tedopon said:

The best thing about the original MM is that it doesn't feel like another monster manual. (ect.)

I actually am very excited for this one, but I understand your opinion.

Personally I like everything I've obtained from Chaosium has been top notch in terms of content as well as usability. This industry is trying to assert itself, and in order to do that more user friendly layouts and books are required. In fact, it's very important how a product looks and is laid out since it will effect whether or not one will buy it.

 And I find the way this book is turning out to be much to my liking, although I've never read the original MM. Why do you find it better?

-Voice of the Legion

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On 4/25/2020 at 12:51 PM, ColoradoCthulhu said:

What is Moon Design?

In May/June of 2015 was "the return of the Great Old Ones" -- Greg Stafford & Sandy Petersen exerted their majority-ownership and took over Chaosium.

One of the first things they did (one suspects it may have been pre-negotiated) was to bring on the Moon Design team.

 

Moon Design was a group of gamers/fans/designers/authors (largely from the Runequest sphere), with a proven track-record of good business operations (in addition to being notable as actual gamers/etc).

Moon Design brought in a major cash infusion, not just "new hires" but buying an ownership stake in Chaosium, which Chaosium (now run by Moon Design folks, mostly) in turn used to fulfill Kicktarters, pay old obligations, and regain a sound financial footing.

https://www.chaosium.com/blog/greg-stafford-sandy-petersen-rejoin-chaosium-inc/
 

Edited by g33k
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6 hours ago, klecser said:

When you post rarely, and show up and say that the entire direction of a line over six years isn't to your liking, it is really difficult to see it as anything but a troll post. You can't say "no offense, but..." as a get out of consequences for what you say.

And looking back at your comment history...yeah, you may want to practice self-restraint. You seem to be generally fastidious.

I still buy the stuff...just this month I spent ~150USD on new era Chaosium stuff...so either I'm a jerk for saying something you don't like or throwing the money I work for at the thing you do like...

If you're referring to the comment about feces in that last section of your comment, I can explain that in a PM and it's definitely not what you think it is...I was making a joke that was misinterpreted (my fault 100%...I just posted the punchline with no setup, but the joke was pretty good and not in any way offensive or combative).

I don't post on here a lot because there's only so much discussion of CoC a person can engage in. My brother in law lives in Providence and I've been to the Brown collection twice, I have a couple framed rubbings I made myself of Lovecraft's tombstone, I get Lovecraft themed gifts literally once a year minimum. 

Glorantha is my favorite fictional thing ever...I have a metric ton of Glorantha crap taking up shelf space in my house and mind. I love playing games in Glorantha, but the discussions here about it are by and large not gaming discussions, they're pseudoanthropology. I got an undergraduate degree in actual anthropology, I don't want to talk about pretendland in the same way. I actually mentioned that to Greg the last time I spoke with him and he just laughed and said something like "if you're having fun, that's all that matters, and all I want to hear about."

It's A-OK for people to have different opinions and different ways of expressing them (if they're civil).

All I was saying in my original post was that the original MM had a clever "Lovecraftian" joke baked into it that was trying to pass off all the Monster Manual entries as being actual real world things, which was pretty clever. It's one of my favorite gaming books ever because of the way it winked at you on every page.

I like all this stuff and this community, I genuinely wasn't trying to offend anyone.

Edited by tedopon
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121/420

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17 minutes ago, tedopon said:

All I was saying in my original post was that the original MM had a clever "Lovecraftian" joke baked into it that was trying to pass off all the Monster Manual entries as being actual real world things, which was pretty clever. It's one of my favorite gaming books ever because of the way it winked at you on every page.

That's quite intriguing really, although it likely wasn't the most user friendly it sounds very unique. Might pick it up sometime (if I can find it).

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-Voice of the Legion

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Weighing in at 480 pages, the new Malleus Monstrorum will be coming out as a two volume hardcover slipcase set!

Volume I Monsters of the Mythos - 216 pages
Volume II Deities of the Mythos - 264 pages

You'll be sure to find this two-volume collection packed with ideas, concepts, and insights to immerse your scenarios and campaigns deep in the heart of the Cthulhu Mythos. With lore and statistics updated and revised for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, and all brought to startling life by the illustrations of expert artist Loïc Muzy.

1367621208_MMcovers.thumb.jpg.ae5d822295069d1c9e98b8fd18082f63.jpg

1096344648_MMVol1.png.6aaf5aee8938b943b0dd548e161026e4.png

446824300_MMVol2.png.86917b87bcf8b8eb0b0094038ea5b178.png

The Malleus Monstrorum will be available in PDF very soon from Chaosium.com and DriveThruRPG.

The print edition will be available in October. If you buy the PDF direct from Chaosium.com, you get the full price of the PDF off the cost of the slipcase set when it is released.

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That cover art is incredible. Eldritch to the extreme. The split into two with a slipcase makes sense given the huge amount of original material that existed in the old MM. Nightmare fuel is a huge aspect of this game. Let's do it properly.

 

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Here's what the forthcoming Malleus Monstrorum slipcase set is going to cost:
— 480 page PDF (both volumes): $39.99*
— 2 Vol Hardcover Slipcase Set: $89.99**
— 2 Vol special Leatherette Edition in slipcase: $199.99***

*remember, if you buy the PDF direct from Chaosium.com, you get the full price of the PDF off the physical product when it is released

**includes PDF in the price if you purchase direct from Chaosium.com, or from a FLGS that participates in the Bits & Mortar program

***Chaosium website exclusive!

The Malleus Monstrorum will be available from all five of our fulfilment warehouses (USA, UK, Australia, Poland, Canada). The PDF will go on sale soon, from Chaosium.com and DriveThruRPG. Here are the back covers; as you can see, we've still got to add the barcodes (and a few other final things) before its ready...

408568724_MalleusBackCovers.png.d59e7d3676e0dda5347fe7e5b8274e43.png

Edited by MOB
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3 hours ago, Dethstrok9 said:

Huge thanks to this entire thread for assisting with this project. 

*Malleus :)

Great job sharing your enthusiasm Daniel!

 

Mike asked the Forums for input on Monster Creation rules a year or so ago. So fans had a hand in contributing thoughts!

 

Edited by klecser
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38 minutes ago, klecser said:

*Malleus :)

Great job sharing your enthusiasm Daniel!

Thank you for the correction, going about fixing it:)

And yes, I may be more excited about this than anything I've tried to obtain (with the exception of the original core books)!

-Voice of the Legion

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It is noteworthy that the flavor of the "Journal of Sir Hansen Poplan" flavor text is still present in this updated version. There is a lesson here of not judging a manuscript after having only seen a few pages of it. 

Also, @Mike M, thank you for drawing from and using community inspiration for the "creating monsters" section. My gut reactions: The depth of questions to ask at the start of the section is particularly thorough. I also appreciate that you included both "inspirational" and tabulated options to hit the varying preferences.  I also like the page number references to likely monster spells in both the KRB and the GGCMM. Practical aides like that are critical to effective in-the-moment Keeping and planning.

Edited by klecser
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