#3: Chaosium: 1975-Present

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory3.phtml

Summary:

Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, RuneQuest, Arkham Horror, and more.

Go to the column (http://www.rpg.net/columns/briefhistory/briefhistory3.phtml) for more information.

[Ulmus]

Very thorough and interesting piece! As a sidenote, SJG also published GURPS Cthulhupunk, assumedely on license from Chaosium. It was a setting of cthuloid cyberpunk, two tastes that should taste great together considering their common dystopian mindset - I've never had a chance to play it though.

[ShannonA]

Cthulhu is a much, much licensed system. Licensees that I didn't mention include: Fantasy Flight Games (~1997), Games Workshop (1985-1987), Grenadier Models (1984), good 'ole Pagan Publishing (1992-?), Theatre of the Mind (1984-1986), and Triad (1990-1996). They're all in the Gaming Index, though most of the FFG books and a few of the late Pagan books are still missing.

After D&D/d20 I wouldn't be surprised if Cthulhu has had the most licensees.

[Mr. Analytical]

Very thorough and interesting piece! As a sidenote, SJG also published GURPS Cthulhupunk, assumedely on license from Chaosium. It was a setting of cthuloid cyberpunk, two tastes that should taste great together considering their common dystopian mindset - I've never had a chance to play it though.

Given what Pagan and more recently Chaosium have been doing, that book should be considered ahead of its time. Clearly there's a market for people who want to do Cthulhu in different settings.

[Jake]

Thanks for the excellent article Shannon. It finally explained to me how Chaosium, Wizard's Attic, Green Knight and Issaries are related.

Oh, and a suggestion for the next part: perhaps you could include some cover pictures of key games? It would break the text up a bit and enliven the article, I think.

[Mr. Analytical]

I must say, this is shaping up to be compulsory reading Shannon. Good work!

[Jackleg]

Very thorough and interesting piece! As a sidenote, SJG also published GURPS Cthulhupunk, assumedely on license from Chaosium. It was a setting of cthuloid cyberpunk, two tastes that should taste great together considering their common dystopian mindset - I've never had a chance to play it though.


Also did the publishing of 'Delta Green' by Pagan Publishing hurt or help the company?

[ShannonA]

At worst it enlivened interest in the game system, and thus Chaosium's own CoC supplements as well, but I suspect generally it had very little effect on anything but Pagan itself.

[Skiorht]

Thanks for a great article, Shannon. I started gaming just when Chaosium was at their 80's peak, and grabbed a lot of their stuff, and later wondered what happened to them. I've picked up pieces of the story from various places, but this is the most informative article I've ever read about them.

Who's next? Can't wait for the GDW & FASA installments. They're coming, right?

[grodog]

At worst it enlivened interest in the game system, and thus Chaosium's own CoC supplements as well, but I suspect generally it had very little effect on anything but Pagan itself.

Interestingly, I believe that it was Delta Green's success that caused Chaosium to begin to limit the number of books that Pagan could publish in a year, which cut down on their threat as a competitor to Chaosium's core game line (which was a very real threat: Pagan's books in the 1990s were generally out-Chaosiuming Chaosium's own publishing efforts).

Allan.
----
Allan Grohe
Different Worlds Publications
Editor and Project Manager
http://www.diffworlds.com/

grodog@gmail.com
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/
http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html for my Greyhawk site

[ShannonA]

I'm pretty sure that you can blame Pagan's extremely slow internal process, not any limit they might have had, for the speed of their releases. For the most part they were lucky to get one gamebook out a year. 1996 is the only year they got out more than one professional publication, excluding the mag.

[bkcurley]

> So, they went to Avalon Hill and arranged a deal for Avalon Hill to produce new
> versions of White Bear & Red Moon (renamed Dragon Pass) and the Elric board
> game.

A minor nit-pick:

I don't know if you meant it to read this way, but given the section it's in it sounds like WB&RM was renamed Dragon Pass on publication by Avalon Hill. I am in possession of a 1980 edition of Dragon Pass published by Chaosium. No AH logo on the box (which is much more reminiscent of the Chaosium quality of boxes as opposed to the generally sturdier boxes AH used), and the rulesbook is copyright 1980 Chaosium. The English translation which accompanied the 1993 (?) Oriflam edition (La Guerre Des Heroes) has the Avalon Hill copyright. All of which leads me to believe the name change preceeded the licensing to Avalon Hill.

[ShannonA]

You're entirely right. I forgot about that edition because it's the one I don't own.

[Luke Fleeman]

Something interesting to note:

According to Michael Moorcock, the writer of Elric, the only license he ever gave to Chaosium was for the boardgame. They then made the RPG on their own, and then sued TSR over the Deities and Demigods; he says he never had any problem with the TSR use, and that further rights to the works were assigned to Chaoisum because the court did not understand how a boardgame and RPG are different. He also claims he has never been contacted by them for approval of much fo the material, and that he receives nothing from them.

Also, many people assume that Cthulhu rights are especially or overtly Chaosium property. In fact, much of the work is public domain, and most of the rest is in questionable copyright hell. They just took the ball and ran with it.

Good column, BTW.

[ShannonA]

Chaosium actually did license Cthulhu from Arkham House originally, but dropped that license when they realized it wasn't actually necessary. But look at some of their earliest COC products for info.

As for Moorcock and the Elric license, it looks to me like Moorcock gave a "gaming" license, with the intent it be for the boardgame, but it then got expanded because the license was written to apply to all sorts of gaming. It just so happens there wasn't any sort of gaming *except* board gaming when it was written. I also believe this might have been cleared up a bit in the mid 1990s.

[Luke Fleeman]

I don't know enough details about this to explain it all- this is all based off of Moorcock's contentions. I just thought it was important or interesting to note for the history.

It isn't cleared up, not on Moorcock's end. I spoke with him in a thread on his site not 2 weeks ago and he is still quite upset and unhappy about the situation.

Good column, BTW.

[SHAMER]

Chaosium was/has been a truly major contributor to our hobby and Call of Cthulhu one of the most important games. I remeber, nostalgically, receiving my pre-ordered copy back in the 90s in my native Poland (based on the 5th edition). My first Role playing book (yes, obviously I'm biased ;) ) Interestingly CoC was one of the first (translated) rpgs that entered the fledgling Polish rpg scene and was an instant hit. Yeah, great times and great game...

Excellent column

Cheers

[Sprue Rubbles]

I got a chance to read this during the down time and it was a great read. Thanks!

[MeMeMe]

I've just read this article, and very informative it was.
There was one thing that has to be a mistake:
"(Curiously, there is no second edition of Pendragon. It was planned as a boxed set, but then the downturn and the move away from boxes nixed it before it went to press.)"

This is odd, because I bought the 2nd edition, and I still have the box.
It came with a players book, a very slim gamesmaster book, a small folder of NPC stats, a nice big map of Britain, and some dice.

[ShannonA]

This is odd, because I bought the 2nd edition, and I still have the box.
It came with a players book, a very slim gamesmaster book, a small folder of NPC stats, a nice big map of Britain, and some dice.

That's the first edition. The second edition would have had a knight's book and a squire's book and something else in the same vein.