"Lovecraft....2014 Kickstarter" Topic

How many time have you chaps played Call of Cthulhu rpg?…..how about losing your sanity in a more agreeable time frame :)

Lovecraft the card game….

Howard Phillips "H. P." Lovecraft was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction.
Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity.

Lovecraft the card game allows you to rewrite the Cthulu Mythos hopefully without you losing your sanity!

Goat the Keeper of Souls

As much as I love Lovecraft/Call of Cthulhu the proliferation of folks trying to make bank on it is quickly burning me out.
Similar to the zombie fad.

Lovecraft will be a very different project for Kickstarter…Lovecraft will give gamers the tools to create and share their own game.

Goat

Isn't there a Cthulhu card game already ? Who owns the game license these days?

Genuinely interested in this.

Everything related cthulhu mythos is public domain now, thats why everybody is trying something related

And that it is perceived as being popular… thereby giving us a glut of Cthulhu products… which maybe be playing right into its tentacled plans.

Lovecraft will be a very different project for Kickstarter…Lovecraft will give gamers the tools to create and share their own game.

That's… kinda vague.

Everything related cthulhu mythos is public domain now

Didn't realise…better jump on it quick

Too late.

I shall release jelly teaspoons that dissolve rapidly leaving folk gasping in horror at amorphous blob now inhabiting their tea…….

Really? You put jelly in your tea?

Cthulhu's already spreading the loss of sanity….Lovecraft has awakened the sleeping one….now you chaps need the tools and inspiration to defeat the nameless ones!

Goat, The Keeper of Souls

>>Everything related cthulhu mythos is public domain now, thats why everybody is trying something related<<

Captain Cthulhu breakfast cereal?

Go "Snap, crackle and pop" as Chthulu eats you slowly…..

Everything related cthulhu mythos is public domain now

It _should_ be, but there is a lot of legal mud thanks to shifting US copyright law, questions around renewals, and several other issues. Most of the archivists (e.g. Project Gutenburg) aren't touching anything post 1923 as a result.

Also, "Call of Cthulhu" is still a trademark of Chaosium for RPGs. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm guessing they'd likely win in court to defend against any type of use of the phrase withing broader gaming.

Captain Cthulhu breakfast cereal?

There are cereals man was not meant to eat! Snaup Chraukel Ptaup

I just wish you US could keep your copyright laws to yourself.

Your try and make other countries fit in with your rules, but when other countries try and enforce copyright in yours, you wipe them out.

shame America Shame

*sniff, sniff* We're sorry.

It's all Walt's fault.

>>shame America Shame<<

I didn't do nuthin'. I was just standin' there.

As a point, "The Call of Cthulhu" was the title of a short story Lovecraft wrote in 1926. "Call of Cthulhu" as a title and trademark is definitely the property of Chaosium, within the terms of whatever arrangement they have or may have had with the Lovecraft estate.

Pretty sure they only claim copyright on their own publications. They'd potentially go after you if you were bootlegging their text and rules, but not for using Lovecraftian names, characters or creatures.

>>They'd potentially go after you if you were bootlegging their text and rules, but not for using Lovecraftian names, characters or creatures.<<

I don't know if they have the right to go after someone for using the "Lovecraftian names, characters or creatures". If anybody has the right it would be the Derleth family. Right after Lovecraft died August Derleth, a writer for Weird tales who revered Lovecraft, formed Arkham House with another writer. They secured the rights to *all* of Lovecraft's written material from Lovecraft's family and from Weird Tales, including notes and letters, and published them. To my knowledge they are still publishing today, only they now they include other writers beside Lovecraft.

Thanks for all the info guys….more information as regarding "Lovecraft" will be posted shortly….

Have fun and may the Great Cthulhu always be close at hand.

Goat

Each participant in the game of Lovecraft has a story board…the story board has a number of chapters depending on the number of players….

Goat "the keeper of Souls"

This is the current gameplay, but as always in the world of Cthulu, many things change.

Goat "The Keeper Of Souls"

Shadow, normal copyright law applies – after a certain amount of time from the author's death the works move into the public domain. There does appear to be some dispute regarding Lovecraft:

link

What is NOT in dispute is that Chaosium hold copyright on their own IP – i.e. the products they have created. Plus they do hold several registered trademarks (such as "Call of Cthulhu") that they retain the rights to as long as they are actively using and defending them. Keep in mind Copyright and Trademark law are related but separate things.

This game doesn't seem to be infringing on any of Chaosium's trademarks or publications.

>>This game doesn't seem to be infringing on any of Chaosium's trademarks or publications.<<

Unless this game uses one of the several trademarked "Lovecraftian phrases and creations, including "The Call of Cthulhu", for use in game products" as mentioned in the article. But "phrases and creations" sounds pretty broad, and it's possible that the writer doesn't realize how nebulous the phrase "creations" is. Maybe he's all wet?

If everything else that the writer states in the article is true, since Ethel Phillips Morrish and Edna Lewis never signed over the rights to the Lovecraft material to August Derleth, but only gave him permission to publish Lovecraft's stories, and never renewed the copyrights, then yep, they should be in the public domain.

The old ones anyway. Due to changes in US copyright laws, there is still some uncertainty about exactly when the public domain cut-off is for works published after I think 1923.

Varies from country to country, too. Any works published in Australia before 1955 are public domain 50 years from death of author, any after that have to wait 70 years.

A Deep one….a lesser ranked minion.

would it be more favourable to add him to your storyboard or or let him feed elsewhere?

Goat, The Keeper of Souls

I wish Howard could return and collect on the royalties owed him.

>>would it be more favourable to add him to your storyboard or or let him feed elsewhere?<<

I have absolutely no idea what you're asking.

The Shadow is right about the Derleth estate. Depending on whether or not they can show continuity, specific properties may still belong to them. And while AD did a lot after HPL croaked (he is really dead … right?), there were a lot of other authors involved in the circle prior to the founding of Arkham House, among them Robert E. Howard.

I don't recall offhand, but I belive one of the "big" Cthonic deities is actually a REH creation, and not mentioned by HPL (though possibly picked up by AD in one of his "litanies" later on). Hastur, maybe?

Anyway, there's a lovely (not a particularly HPL adjective) special collection in the library at Brown University that has all (?) the works and many handwritten original manuscripts and letters from "the circle", as well as a stellar collection of pulps from back in the day.

I do wonder at times why the Cthulhu Mythos seems to draw people in….I suppose its a bit like the X files…mystery, horror and imagination are the staple diet of man kind.

Goat the Keeper of Souls

Hastur came from Robert W. Chambers King In Yellow and HPL picked it up as did some others in his circle I believe.

HPL stuff is a major phenom. 70+ years of writers, games, miniatures. The brilliance of the original stuff. HPL himself is a story he could have written, lol. Anyway the monsters are cool as hell.

A few details about gameplay….

Each player takes on the roll of H.P. Lovecraft….all players have a story board and then you play cards from your hand to either your own story board or an opponents….the tricky bit is that if you play a card to your own story board you lose sanity….if you play cards on a opponents board you don't….certain cards have variable powers….especially the beasties…..the main thing that is slowing the release down is that the playtesters want more cards ….thats the trouble with the Cthulhu Mythos….lots of theme and a rich tapestry to work owith.

Goat "the Keeper of Souls"

its no use having a Cthulhu story without a location to investigate….

Goat

Things I'm bored of:

Zombie
Vampires
Cthulhu

I mean I get the appeal but surely we're treading over old ground here

is there anything new in the world of gaming?….last year for me introduced the microgame….Love Letter, Coup…hopefully Lovecraft will follow in the same vein:)

Goat the Keeper of Souls:)