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Call of Cthulhu Reprints and POD


Rick Meints

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To kick off this thread I thought I would start with the latest delivery by UPS this afternoon: A hardcover Beyond the Mountains of Madness, a 432 page campaign with a poster map of Antarctica. This is a reprint of the 1999 edition, which went out of print 15+ years ago. Thus, this is a 6th edition book, with a black & white interior. The layout was updated from 3 column to 2 column. No added, changed or deleted material, although a few typos were fixed. This will go on sale soon, as will its PDF. The books are almost ready to ship to the warehouse. This is a regular print run that will not be sold from all our warehouses, but there will be a POD hardcover version as well for the rest of the world.

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Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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13 hours ago, Dr_Zarnak said:

Can you reveal what other old titles are being considered for reprint/POD? 

We reviewed all of the old, out of print CoC publications. They were divided into three main categories: 1. Let it eternal lie, 2. make it available POD, and 3. just wait for it to be updated.

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Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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Would it be hardcover or softcover POD?  Thats a big book and there could be binding issues especially if the text or illustrations are very close to the gutter (I think that's what it is called)?

In any case I am glad to see this becoming POD soon along with others as well.  I still have a copy of the original one too!

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14 hours ago, Rick Meints said:

We reviewed all of the old, out of print CoC publications. They were divided into three main categories: 1. Let it eternal lie, 2. make it available POD, and 3. just wait for it to be updated.

Any chance the 3 categories content could be divulged to the public?

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10 hours ago, TrippyHippy said:

Could you reprint Unseen Masters, by Bruce Ballon, please?

I know it's not the same thing, but last time I checked it was available as POD on DriveThru RPG. 

4 hours ago, Ejlertson said:

Any chance the 3 categories content could be divulged to the public

At least the "let it eternal lie". It'd be interesting to see what the company considers its biggest mishaps, although I understand how that could be insulting to some of the people involved.

2 hours ago, Mat Mobile said:

Would it be a good candidate to run as Pulp Cthulhu? It's my favorite variant. 🤠

Tonally, I've read this is the most Lovecraftian campaign they've published (along with Tatters of The King), so it may need some heavy homebrewing to fit as a Pulp-style campaign. Maybe someone who has ran it could give better insight, tho. At least regarding Tatters (which seems to be on a similar wavelength and which I'm currently running), I can see how maybe someone could pulp it up, but at the same time, it'll probably go against the atmosphere and psychology of the campaign. Maybe Low Pulp? 

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1 hour ago, AlonsoAguilurk said:

Tonally, I've read this is the most Lovecraftian campaign they've published (along with Tatters of The King), so it may need some heavy homebrewing to fit as a Pulp-style campaign. Maybe someone who has ran it could give better insight, tho. At least regarding Tatters (which seems to be on a similar wavelength and which I'm currently running), I can see how maybe someone could pulp it up, but at the same time, it'll probably go against the atmosphere and psychology of the campaign. Maybe Low Pulp? 

Yes... Probably "Low Pulp" would make more sense. I have to purchase the Pulp Cthulhu rulebook at the same time so I'm not sure if there are options and variants for that ruleset. I fell in love with Pulp while playing the Two-Headed Serpent campaign. It was super fun! I guess I'll find out once I start reading BtMoM. I'm certainly looking forward to it! 😃

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8 hours ago, Ejlertson said:

Any chance the 3 categories content could be divulged to the public?

There's a chance, but unfortunately doing so generates too much grief and debate over why we are or are not reprinting various books, followed by "when" questions. Suffice it to say that we mostly base it on how well we think a reprint will sell, how easy it is to reprint, whether we even have the rights to reprint it, and whether it is better off being updated first. Reprinting HotOE was mainly done due to the large volume of requests we were getting to buy it at non-collector prices now. What we got as part of that was a fair bit of "why not update it to full color, etc" grief instead of just happiness it isn't going to stay out of print while people wait 4+ years  for the an updated color edition.

The above statement also applies to doing a book as POD. It's not as easy as you would think, and it definitely takes time to do. I'm sorry if this answer disappoints you, but that doesn't make it any less true.

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Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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35 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

The above statement also applies to doing a book as POD. It's not as easy as you would think, and it definitely takes time to do. I'm sorry if this answer disappoints you, but that doesn't make it any less true.

It doesn't disappoint me at all. You all are human beings and your customers should respect that. There is a cruel tendency within the hobby for people to be "handed money and complain about how it is folded."  Or insert "never look a gift horse in the mouth," if you prefer. ;) 

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5 hours ago, AlonsoAguilurk said:

At least the "let it eternal lie". It'd be interesting to see what the company considers its biggest mishaps, although I understand how that could be insulting to some of the people involved.

Sorry, but we're not into doing that, especially if it means criticizing an author. Please note that some of the books in the "not going to reprint" category are solely there because we no longer have the rights to print them. Others won't get reprinted because they are readily available on the secondary market at a reasonable price. 

Edited by Rick Meints
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Rick Meints - Chaosium, Inc.

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35 minutes ago, Rick Meints said:

Sorry, but we're not into doing that, especially if it means criticizing an author. Please note that some of the books in the "not going to reprint" category are solely there because we no longer have the rights to print them.

You're right. Totally understandable! Merely speaking from curiosity.  

As for the general state of the POD situation, you're making available two of the most sought after products in the game's history; I think no one can say with a straight face that you aren't listening to the fans. I think I speak for many when I say that we trust how you decide to go forward with this. From what I've seen, CoC has grown a lot in the last couple of years, and making new people have the possibility to engage with the game's rich history while they're also enjoying the consistently excelent new stuff being produced shows a commitment that goes way beyond what most other game companies are willing to do. It sounds challenging, and even if a vocal minority doesn't see that, many of us deeply appreciate you going the extra mile.  

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11 minutes ago, AlonsoAguilurk said:

As for the general state of the POD situation, you're making available two of the most sought after products in the game's history; I think no one can say with a straight face that you aren't listening to the fans. I think I speak for many when I say that we trust how you decide to go forward with this. From what I've seen, CoC has grown a lot in the last couple of years, and making new people have the possibility to engage with the game's rich history while they're also enjoying the consistently excelent new stuff being produced shows a commitment that goes way beyond what most other game companies are willing to do. It sounds challenging, and even if a vocal minority doesn't see that, many of us deeply appreciate you going the extra mile.  

Well said. 👏

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Hot off the presses (quite literally!). Chaosium fan Jamie – who also happens to be a printing press operator at Bang Printing – sent us this. We're excited our new reprints of Horror on the Orient Express and Beyond the Mountains of Madness will be ready to go on sale soon!

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23 hours ago, Tranquillitas Ordinis said:

Finally, may I ask you, representing devoted and thirsty fans of Deep Ones, whether Escape from Innsmouth was put in one of the three "categories" ("let it eternal lie", "make it available POD", "wait for it to be updated")?

Escape from Innsmouth is in the pile of books I have on my desk - meaning that it is scheduled for me to work on this year....

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On 1/24/2021 at 12:33 PM, Tranquillitas Ordinis said:

Finally, may I ask you, representing devoted and thirsty fans of Deep Ones, whether Escape from Innsmouth was put in one of the three "categories" ("let it eternal lie", "make it available POD", "wait for it to be updated")?

Edit: I think I found my answer here, apologize for trouble.

 

It's not Escape from Innsmouth, but you may find our list of Deep One scenarios (and guide to all Innsmouth-set scenarios) from Arkham Gazette #2 of interest. It covered everything I could find as of time of publication in 2018. The whole issue is about Innsmouth and related topics, so ideally there would be some other articles of interest too. :)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/172264/The-Arkham-Gazette-2

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