Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Kickstarter Checkpoint


There's been a bit more news than normal for the Call of Cthulhu RPG. It's been over a year since I've played it so while I'm enjoying Icons, I'd be lying if I said I've no desire to return to it...

Geek and Sundry seems to be providing a lot of coverage lately. A few days ago they had an article covering how Chaosium's Horror on the Orient Express and Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition were tremendously successful - and nearly destroyed the company. The article in question is Cthulhu Company Kickstarted Itself to Death, Then This Happened. It discusses how despite making around three quarters of a million dollars between the Kickstarters, as of last June they had around ten thousand dollars in the bank and while Horror on the Orient Express had been printed and shipped, the 7th edition had not. They had massively underestimated international shipping costs. Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen pooled their shares in the company together to re-attain control of the company and had the Moon Design Publications team take control of Chaosium. In so doing they all sunk in around a hundred thousand dollars to get the Call of Cthulhu books printed and shipped. Today I received my USPS tracking information indicating my books are on their way, due to arrive next week.

Given I'm not a big Glorantha fan, I've never been a huge follower of Moon Design Publications. I greatly enjoyed the last few versions of RuneQuest and to be honest I'm a little disappointed that RuneQuest is being brought back to assuming Glorantha as a setting as opposed to it being a possible setting. Of course nothing stops one from making their own setting despite this - lots of people played 1st and 2nd edition RuneQuest in their own worlds. For me, Glorantha seems rather interesting but also incredibly intimidating. I'm hopeful that the new Glorantha products will make for a good introduction to the setting.

With all that, it is nice to see the classic Chaosium products - RuneQuest, Pendragon, and Call of Cthulhu - all back under the same umbrella. And I greatly admire the dedication the Moon Design team has shown in making good on the 7th edition Kickstarter. It's certainly something they did not have to do - given they were founded as a Glorantha company, they could have looked at Chaosium's books and regretfully announced they were liquidating the company and would not be able to make good on the 7th edition Kickstarter. While I've had some trepidation that Call of Cthulhu will take a lesser role next to RuneQuest, truthfully I can't imagine people who've sunk so much of their own money in delivering the product intend to let the line lay dormant. The Moon Design team described their decision as both a long-term investment and for personal reasons, with Chaosium being the initial creator of RuneQuest.

Now if they can actually deliver Pulp Cthulhu, I will be in awe. It was originally due in 2002. My eldest daughter was born in 2002 and is turning 14 next week.

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