Moon Design Publications transfers ownership of the HeroQuest trademark to Hasbro

[Ian Cooper]

It's worth bearing in mind that we have never been able to get the HeroQuest entry on Wikipedia, because Wikipedia regards the boardgame as what everyone knows the brand applies to. That brand confusion is not a great position for us.

If we change the generic name to QuestWorlds then, because outside of Glorantha our use of HeroQuest has no brand recognition, we are faced with the question of what to do with HeroQuest Glorantha.

It remains likely that we will want to bring QuestWorlds players to Glorantha to grow our numbers, over bringing existing BRP Glorantha fans to QuestWorlds. They have RQG and it's going to be a low number that look over the fence to see what their neighbour is up to. So I don't think the HeroQuest branding really helps us grow our base. Better to bring them via QuestWorlds to Glorantha. And that means the brand identity works in our favour. "Oh look another QuestWorlds genre pack. Oh and it is set in the world of Glorantha that I heard about," is more likely than "HeroQuest is just another name for QuestWorlds, and not the MB boardgame, so I will pick that up."

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Ian Cooper

[Oracle]

So if I read this correctly, HeroQuest Glorantha will be republished (and possibly re-worked) as QuestWorld Glorantha?

Similar approach for The Coming Storm and The Eleven Lights?

What about Sartar:Kingdom of Heroes, the Sartar Companion and Pavis:Gateway to Adventure?

Or is it more likely, that the PDFs of these product will be moved the HeroQuest and Glorantha Vault, and only new Glorantha products for QuestWorlds will get the new brand?

Edited September 27, 2020 by Oracle

[David Scott]

1 hour ago, Ian Cooper said:

It's worth bearing in mind that we have never been able to get the HeroQuest entry on Wikipedia

Sorted ages ago...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroQuest_(disambiguation)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeroQuest_(role-playing_game)

[JonL]

Well, sort-of. Ideally the current trademark holder and going concern for over a decade would have been "HeroQuest" while the defunct-for-20-years entity would have been "HeroQuest_(board_game)." Not that it matters now.

[Akhôrahil]

On 9/23/2020 at 12:32 AM, David Scott said:

Many companies trademark a word for branding purposes, but it doesn't stop anyone from using the word in a sentence. Think Amazon, apple, coke (a form of coal), etc. You copyright intellectual or creative works not single words.

Famously, DC Comics hold a trademark for "Death".

(Slightly less well-known, DC and Marvel hold a joint trademark for "super-hero", which actually does have consequences when other companies are forced to use terms like "meta-human" or suchlike.)

Edited November 20, 2020 by Akhôrahil

[PhilHibbs]

On 9/27/2020 at 5:07 PM, JonL said:

Well, sort-of. Ideally the current trademark holder and going concern for over a decade would have been "HeroQuest" while the defunct-for-20-years entity would have been "HeroQuest_(board_game)." Not that it matters now.

Wikipedia isn't an up to date trademark catalogue, and is not limited to representing the world as-it-is-now. It's an encyclopedia that covers the present and the past on an equal footing with each other, and the past actually seems to have priority a lot of the time as it is better understood. The trump card goes to the widest held view of a subject, the most common public usage of a term. And whether we like it or not that that is, was, and always will be the board game. Who happens to hold the trademark at any moment in time is irrelevant to that.

Edited February 11, 2021 by PhilHibbs

[David Weihe]

Ian Cooper> It's worth bearing in mind that we have never been able to get the HeroQuest entry on Wikipedia, because Wikipedia regards the boardgame as what everyone knows the brand applies to. That brand confusion is not a great position for us.

There is a QuestWorlds entry on Wikipedia for a Jonny Quest related game.  Maybe we (you) should resume the terms SociologyQuest or AnthropologyQuest, as was the derisive description of it back in the late 1990s, when the Glorantha Digest was having fun with Oscar Wilde or a Lunar Flower Arranger vs a Great Troll.

[David Scott]

5 hours ago, David Weihe said:

There is a QuestWorlds entry on Wikipedia for a Jonny Quest related game.

Fortunately it's QuestWorld. When the first QuestWorlds publication comes out, HeroQuest (role-playing game) will be changed to QuestWorlds (role-playing game). See the talk page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:HeroQuest_(role-playing_game))

[AlHazred]

Is this a sign that the old QuestWorld product will be updated and expanded? I was a huge fan of the worldbuilding involved in the product! Of the included adventures, Greenwald Tales was fun, especially the baboons who became regular antagonists. Candlefire had one or two weird bits in it that I ended up changing at my table (who put's a "2" in the middle of a name?), but was a decent setting with a couple of interesting cults that were destined to come to blows. Lord Skyppen's Manor was... a bit of a mess. It tried to be a funhouse dungeon (in the style of, say, Tegel Manor) but like a lot of funhouse dungeons it's got mixed results. I think a lot of tables that enjoyed it made a lot of changes.

[g33k]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:05 AM, AlHazred said:

Is this a sign that the old QuestWorld product will be updated and expanded?

...

Only Chaosium knows for sure (and maybe not even THEY know  for-really-sure  (they are, after all, not the Orderium!)).

I tend to think it will not (or at least, not for a long time (I believe "not currently planned" is the likely language)), because:

•  this new product is entirely different, and unrelated; I think it uses the name as merely a sort of cognoscenti's nod to the old historical product
• said new product (with old name) would be entirely too confusing, if Chaosium then produced another QW product with an incompatible mechanic
•  the original RQ Questworld was one of the Stretch Goals for the RQClassic Kickstarter.  In fact, it was the *only* Stretch Goal that failed to fund; that's got to weigh heavily as a bottom-line consideration.

But maybe time will prove me wrong.  Or maybe Somebody Official will come along with actual facts.

[AndrewTBP]

I was sad that RuneQuest Classic QuestWorlds failed to fund, but I hope they'll get around to it eventually. I still have my original print edition, so there's no hurry. I really like the convenience of having RQC PDFs on my iPad, that's all. 

I'd like to see the RQ3 & especially RQ Renaissance products too, and I expect we'd all put those before RQC QuestWorlds. 

Edited October 27, 2021 by AndrewTBP

[Oracle]

19 hours ago, g33k said:

Only Chaosium knows for sure (and maybe not even THEY know  for-really-sure  (they are, after all, not the Orderium!)).

I tend to think it will not (or at least, not for a long time (I believe "not currently planned" is the likely language)), because:

•  this new product is entirely different, and unrelated; I think it uses the name as merely a sort of cognoscenti's nod to the old historical product
• said new product (with old name) would be entirely too confusing, if Chaosium then produced another QW product with an incompatible mechanic
•  the original RQ Questworld was one of the Stretch Goals for the RQClassic Kickstarter.  In fact, it was the *only* Stretch Goal that failed to fund; that's got to weigh heavily as a bottom-line consideration.

But maybe time will prove me wrong.  Or maybe Somebody Official will come along with actual facts.

You should keep in mind, that there is difference between the names of the old and the new product (albeit only a small one):

• old: RuneQuest Questworld
• new: QuestWords (sic!)

But yes, the risk of confusing these products would be high nevertheless ...

Edited October 27, 2021 by Oracle

[g33k]

1 hour ago, Oracle said:

You should keep in mind, that there is difference between the names of the old and the new product (albeit only a small one):

• old: RuneQuest Questworld
• new: QuestWords (sic!)

But yes, the risk of confusing these products would be high nevertheless ...

waitWHAT???!?

I thought it was the new edition of their R.Laws-designed RPG... not some sort of glorified crossword puzzle!

<quickly hides>

[Ian Absentia]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:05 AM, AlHazred said:

Candlefire had one or two weird bits in it that I ended up changing at my table (who put's a "2" in the middle of a name?)

You mean Vrang 2jhomang? 

9-Jack-9 might have an opinion or two on that matter.

!i!

Edited October 28, 2021 by Ian Absentia
Typing that name was incredibly unwise of me.