When I Buy The Rights To TSR From WotC

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I'd like to license Pendragon to do a 40k : Space Marine RPG, please. Here, have a bag of money. We have so much of it, I can't even give it away.

so what specifically between these. I've not a full familiar of both? Do you mind if I include Mythras combat stuff?
 
so what specifically between these. I've not a full familiar of both? Do you mind if I include Mythras combat stuff?

So...

Pendragon is a game about Arthurian knights, doing... knightly things; each year you go on an adventure, then work out how your holdings went, and how your personal life goes (One of the game's goals is to get married and have kids, because you want someone to hand all your wealth down to when your character dies...). But the most notable part of the game is the personality traits; these are sets of opposed values (Chaste / Lustful, Energetic / Lazy, Valorous / Cowardly, etc) that determine where your character's personality falls; a knight may thus need to make a trait check if they want to act against their nature. Each particular religion has a set of traits that they encourage members to embody, and they provide bonuses for doing so, so in play you're mechanically and socially encouraged to actually act like a knight.

The Space Marines in 40k are the elite of the elite; a million warriors, created from humanity's best and brightest using ancient gene therapy, trained and conditioned to be perfect soldiers, armed with the greatest technology the Imperium can provide; they hit a lot of knights-in-space tropes. Each chapter of space marines (A grouping of a thousand marines) has their own traditions and outlooks (Most, but not all, venerate the Codex Astartes, an ancient and revered guide to all forms of warfare); it is also rare, but not uncommon, for a marine to go rogue, or even turn evil, joining the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines. While marines generally fight as part of their chapter, there are some organisations in 40k which contain marines from multiple chapters (For example, the Deathwatch, alien-hunting special forces).
So the reason I'd want to use Pendragon is that the emotional traits would let me drill deeper into what makes a marine from each chapter tick; for something like a Deathwatch game, Marines of different chapters could encourage different virtues, while marines within the same chapter could still differ; it would add a layer of personality and distinction that they generally don't get in the game's fiction. It also has the added bonus of showing a marine's descent into rebellion, and their fall to the dark side; the chaos space marines would work the same way, with their own set of desired traits.

So, for example, the Ultramarines, the generic Space Marine, might reward the traits Energetic, Vengeful, Generous, Just, Proud, Prudent and Valorous, while a World Eater (Berserker chaos marine) might want Lustful, Energetic, Reckless, Arbitrary, Indulgent, Valorous, and Proud; so you could see that change, see why a character might feel they don't belong or might be tempted to rebel and leave.

The way that the system handles a character's non-adventuring life could also work well; I'd want a robust "campaigns of the previous year:" system, like Pendragon's, to show what our Marines are doing between game sessions, allow them to spend XP and to progress deeper into their traits (Or try and pull themselves back), etc.
 
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I was pretty chuffed with the edition of Basic Roleplaying Chaosium did a little while back
 
Pendragon 40k sounds awesome.

I fully agree with Tristram. Somebody should file off the serial numbers and rock that combo.
 
I was pretty chuffed with the edition of Basic Roleplaying Chaosium did a little while back
Me, too (I was on the original playtest). More's the pity that the new Chaosium have basically ditched the system in favour of RuneQuest-wedded-to-Glorantha which I have no interest in. I much prefer generic systems.
 
Me, too (I was on the original playtest). More's the pity that the new Chaosium have basically ditched the system in favour of RuneQuest-wedded-to-Glorantha which I have no interest in. I much prefer generic systems.

There was a post on this at BRP Central a few days ago. The BGB is still in print, Jason Durall is on staff as Runequest and BRP Line Editor, and proposals for new projects are being accepted. https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6594-ken-hites-2008-review-of-brp-bgb/
 
There was a post on this at BRP Central a few days ago. The BGB is still in print, Jason Durall is on staff as Runequest and BRP Line Editor, and proposals for new projects are being accepted. https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/6594-ken-hites-2008-review-of-brp-bgb/
There are still printed copies of the BGB in stock, which to me is not the same as it still being in print. "When the time comes that stocks are getting close to depletion we'll certainly look at an updated version" doesn't really mean much in business talk. The current direction seems to be the new RuneQuest (which I now see is no longer RuneQuest = Glorantha, I can't keep up) based on the discussion about bringing Mythic Iceland into line with RQ7, and a wishlist of possible Alternate Earth games. I get the impression that the RQ7 system is really the core of their RPG line going forward, though their RPG release schedule is so glacial* that there's time for lots more policy turn-arounds.

With reference to my original post about using BRP as the basis of my new Universal System when I buy Judges Guild, I was talking about the earlier Worlds of Wonder iteration which could have been a universal system, but was not developed apart from Superworld. I like the BGB, but it's a big toolbox of not necessarily compatible Chaosium rules rather than a true universal system.

* Even the RQ2 Kickstarter PDFs are now over a year behind schedule, never mind new releases.
 
I think runequest is being moved into just a brand. Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a somewhat different system than Mythic Iceland.It's going to have a number of modifications to it. I'm sure it'll be compatible in some sense - probably pretty close. However, your feeling is echoed - it does seem like they are making it go by the wayside
 
I think runequest is being moved into just a brand. Runequest: Roleplaying in Glorantha is a somewhat different system than Mythic Iceland.It's going to have a number of modifications to it.
This recent post by Jason says Mythic Iceland is being made fully compatible with RQ7: https://basicroleplaying.org/topic/...-is-progressing/?do=findComment&comment=95291

Based on that I am assuming the current plan is to use RQ7 as the base system for Chaosium RPGs. Which makes sense in that it's their baby (or will be, when it finally comes out) and they clearly have very limited resources for their RPG production. Still, the unceremonious dumping of all other systems is kind of abandoning fans of BRP, Magic World, and even CoC (CoC7 being it's own thing, it'll be interesting to see if that's also going to be brought into line at some point in the very distant future). I might even be happy with this drawing in of more-or-less different sub-systems, at this point I have no opinion on RQ7 as I haven't seen it yet and I won't until something other than a Gloranthan version comes out.

So, anyway, it's a Worlds-of-Wonder-style Universal System and ownership of all Judges Guild material (including the Traveller stuff now owned FFE) for me! :cool:
 
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Many of mine have been taken, though I like Mr Brucato's Mage stuff mostly.

Since palladium and others have been taken, I'll go with Chaosium. I'd stop this fucking ridiculous Runequest = Glorantha, oh wait no, we can to what The Design Mechanism is doing exactly horseshit. I'd bring back Adventures in Glorantha. I'd not fuck with Pendragon, and in fact I would make a China wuxia version and a samurai version, and probably a couple of others. I'd hire a staff of historians just to make sure it was good. The big gold book would get a new revision with new house rules and with lots of explanation of how to use what to make that particular style you are looking for. Id make lots of sections on how to translate particular mechanics from other systems into d100 percentiles. I'd focus on making some free electronic tools to make this stuff easier. And I'd make a BRP Mythras compatible superheroes game that was most excellent.
I love it! Would you resurrect Magic World? I would love to see a cleaned up version of Magic World with greater attention placed on the Southern Reaches and done in a more quality manner (Better art, paper, layout, color, etc...)
 
I was looking back into HARP earlier this year, and I found some comments by Tim Duggar that suggest he regards it as a bit of failed experiment design-wise.

So, anyone know what happened to Tim? I noticed that the Firehawk Games website disappeared, and nothing new on the Novus. Is he out of the biz entirely, or just doing something else these days?
 
So, anyone know what happened to Tim? I noticed that the Firehawk Games website disappeared, and nothing new on the Novus. Is he out of the biz entirely, or just doing something else these days?

No idea. His own personal web site hasn't been updated in about two years, and the Firehawk Games web site hadn't been updated in a year or so before it went poof nine months ago. I suspect that it's quite dead, which is a shame but understandable. I just hope Mr. Dugger is okie.
 
Wasn't Fading Suns Pendragon 40k? Maybe a little lighter on the virtues but definitely with personality mechanics relating to powers.

Oh well, I too hope Tim is okay. I disagreed with him often and still think the game that became Novus should have been based more directly on The Lord of the Rings Adventure Game. But I suspect he's just washed his hands of the industry. I suspect Nicholas Caldwell would take him back, he wrote a lot of useful stuff for ICE but I can understand why Tim wouldn't want to have anything to do with it.
 
I love it! Would you resurrect Magic World? I would love to see a cleaned up version of Magic World with greater attention placed on the Southern Reaches and done in a more quality manner (Better art, paper, layout, color, etc...)
well clearly. no reason to not.
 
No idea. His own personal web site hasn't been updated in about two years, and the Firehawk Games web site hadn't been updated in a year or so before it went poof nine months ago. I suspect that it's quite dead, which is a shame but understandable. I just hope Mr. Dugger is okie.

I have seen him on Facebook a few times in the last few years, and I always message him when I do. He hasn't messaged me back in over three years.

Says he was active ten hours ago, and he posted something on Friday.
 
...
Based on that I am assuming the current plan is to use RQ7 as the base system for Chaosium RPGs...

So nuChaosium has gone back to what the plan was 2+ years ago, when RQ6 was going to be the core system (with a stripped-down version already in development by TDM) for use in Glorantha, Mythic Britain, Mythic Greece, etc.? Good grief. I guess either the whole "RuneQuest-is-intrinsically-tied-to-Glorantha" rationale was either a bogus cover story all along, or eventually nuChaos changed their mind for some mysterious reason...
 
Anyhow, if I could buy any RPG company, I'd buy Chaosium, dump Glorantha out of spite, and then give the company to The Design Mechanism, on condition that one of the settings that they develop is the Eternal Champion series (including Elric, Hawkmoon, and Corum).
:grin:
 
Buy GW, bring back beakies, quit shitting on fans

Buy WotC, mostly keep things the same, ramp up PoD and also make PoD wholesale to game stores that want to sell the books too. Spend $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to locate the super-duper rare tourney only modules, (Tsjoconth, Inverness monochrome, Lost Tamoachan etc.) and issue a "rare treasures folio" that contains reprint copies of those. Put myself in charge of Greyhawk because Butcher skipped me. Also bring back Star Frontiers. And 1e Gamma World.

Partner up with Ral Partha and start doing metal minis again. Partner up with Dwarven Forge and release module-specific terrain kits.
 
So nuChaosium has gone back to what the plan was 2+ years ago, when RQ6 was going to be the core system (with a stripped-down version already in development by TDM) for use in Glorantha, Mythic Britain, Mythic Greece, etc.? Good grief. I guess either the whole "RuneQuest-is-intrinsically-tied-to-Glorantha" rationale was either a bogus cover story all along, or eventually nuChaos changed their mind for some mysterious reason...
Kinda sounds like the whole thing was just part of the rationalization to kill any licenses and just bring everything back in house. But...we kinda knew that already.
 
I'm likely to look at RQ and if it adds anything I can use with Mythras then pick it up. Otherwise everything I've read and heard has said stay with with the champ.

They'll have their work cut out for their Mythic line to match the stuff released by Pete & Loz
 
Just an idea: I'd hire Zak S and James Raggi to tackle Dungeon World. I think that they'd make amazing Apocalypse-Hacked options for dice results of 7-9.
 
Put myself in charge of Greyhawk because Butcher skipped me.

I totally did. Don't be bitter. :grin:

They'll have their work cut out for their Mythic line to match the stuff released by Pete & Loz

I have very little faith in Chaosium's ability to function at all, and no reason to believe they can do anything better than TDM. TBH they make Mongoose look good.
 
I have very little faith in Chaosium's ability to function at all, and no reason to believe they can do anything better than TDM. TBH they make Mongoose look good.
Wow! It takes some extra effort in shoveling shit and incompetency to make MGP look good. They've been my low-water-mark-publisher for years.

I believe that Chaosium has more of an ability to function now than in the past. OldChaosium was pretty screwed up, and it looks like NuChaosium has more of their shit together. They just don't produce anything I want to buy anymore. The soul and evolution of BRP is in the more capable hands of third-party-publishers (like TDM, Arc Dream, Cakebread & Walton, etc.), IMO.
 
I'm likely to look at RQ and if it adds anything I can use with Mythras then pick it up. Otherwise everything I've read and heard has said stay with with the champ.

They'll have their work cut out for their Mythic line to match the stuff released by Pete & Loz
this is largely where I am. I'm not opposed, I've played Runequest 2, but their business decisions have been kind of odd from my perspective. Not that I have enough information.
 
this is largely where I am. I'm not opposed, I've played Runequest 2, but their business decisions have been kind of odd from my perspective. Not that I have enough information.
I love Glorantha from a reading perspective but I don't see me running my games there so the Guides and King of Sartar will probably be enough of an enjoyable investment for me.

The game does looks good from what I've see and heard just not as good as Mythras. I might still get it but the more I think on it I don't need a (to my impression/opinion) watered down version of a game I own.
 
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Wow! It takes some extra effort in shoveling shit and incompetency to make MGP look good. They've been my low-water-mark-publisher for years.
Yeah, much as I'm not happy with Chaosium as a customer these days... they've pretty much shelved any products I'd be interested in (Magic World, pre-7e CoC, BGB BRP)... I'm not going to say equate them with Mongoose. Chaosium is probably in better hands, business-wise, than it's been in for years... but it's new owners and I seem to have different interests.
Also, I'm no longer desperate for anything BRP-related... now that I have good alternative sources... and I think GORE might stand to pick up some of us disgruntled CoC fans if there was Lovecraftian/horror product coming out for it.
 
this is largely where I am. I'm not opposed, I've played Runequest 2, but their business decisions have been kind of odd from my perspective. Not that I have enough information.
I'm one of those people who has the GW edition of RQ 3 as their favourite. Helped by picking up a full set of the five books they did for a very reasonable price and in near perfect condition.

One day...
 
and I think GORE might stand to pick up some of us disgruntled CoC fans if there was Lovecraftian/horror product coming out for it.
GORE may be the one variation of BRP that I've never checked out. I've heard of it, but not enough to look into it.
 
GORE may be the one variation of BRP that I've never checked out. I've heard of it, but not enough to look into it.
It's free! http://www.rpgnow.com/product/28521/GORE?it=1
As far as I can tell there's only been a couple of adventures published for it, and some expansions available in the BRP Central Downloads area (if they still work...).

These days, if I wanted to post some write-up for CoC I'd probably just put it under GORE.
 
This is a fascinating thread, the more so because I honestly can't think of anything to contribute to it. Any games or companies that I might want resurrected I have modern revamps of already, or equivalents that I enjoy more than the original.

I suppose if I had to push it I'd get the rights to, say, Car Wars, Source of the Nile and Magic Realm and re-release them in cleaned up versions with updated art and graphic design. Oh, and republish Wizard Kings and Monsterpocalypse in non-collectible editions, because screw that.
 
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