For various reasons, chief amongst which the fact that I have been directly impacted [my book
The Celestial Empire cannot be sold any longer, see below], and yet I strive to remain impartial on my blogs, I haven't blogged much about the latest news in the small world of D100-based role playing games. For those of you who are unaware of the latest developments, here is a short summary of what has happened during this eventful summer.
- Moon Design has taken control of Chaosium and announced that they wouldn't publish the 404-page Big Gold Book any longer. Instead they will publish a 32-page booklet called BRP Essentials. 32 pages? That's tantamount to setting the clock back to the 80s and the slim Chaosium BRP booklet :-(
- Ben Monroe, who was the driving force behind Magic World, has left Chaosium.
- The Design Mechanism's RuneQuest licence — which has made gateway (i.e., non-Gloranthan) RQ products such as Luther Arkwright possible — has expired and will not be renewed. Loz and Pete will now work on an upcoming fully Gloranthan version of RuneQuest for Chaosium (ETA mid-2016).
- Third party licences (e.g., Alephtar Games') have also been rescinded. As a result, celebrated historical RPGs such as Rome (which had won a silver ENnie) aren't available any longer.
Except for
D101 Games' OpenQuest, this doesn't leave us with much non-Gloranthan D100-based gaming left. Is D100 gaming dead?
I would not say so. OpenQuest is very much alive.
ReplyDeleteWhat happens at Chaosium is both good and bad. I feel CoC is now on more solid ground, but setting the clock back and making RQ only another way to play Glorantha is narrow minded.
Sure, BRP was never going to succeed as a generic game system. It was released 20 years too late. But, I'm still not sure turning the clock to 1980 is the way to go.
Whatever. OpenQuest is around.
So many changes... I hope these are for the good!
ReplyDeleteTambién queda Legend, que afortunadamente es OGL.
ReplyDeleteNo sabía lo de Ben Monroe, parece que esto certifica también la cancelación de la línea Magic World. Y acabar con la licencia Gateway es la guinda. De verdad, no pensaba que podría llegar a lamentar eso de que Greg Stafford regresase a Chaosium...
Well, Cronista. I think Greg and the Moon Design guys probably mostly cares about Glorantha. They will keep CoC alive since it's what has been Chaosium around all these years, but all else will probably go away.
ReplyDeleteI can't say I like it, but it seems likely.
Thanks for reminding about Legend as well. I think I prefer OpenQuest, but it's good to know it's there.