Why...

From: Rick Meints <rjmeints_at_6PzIOCtcAMjQJAtNwTcll5v_LNPEiVDB2_XzWKPxliLJwCxa3oz5i0mRsN_lYnlXz5M>
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 16:54:18 -0000

I wasn't asked to keep it in confidence, and others were present when I was told this, so here's a piece of info on why the publication policy came about. They probably haven't said much about this for a variety of reasons, many of which I will probably never know.

Issaries and Chaosium both had a desire to reprint Runequest. No surprise there. Chaosium felt they were entitled to because of its direct development history with the BRP system and the fact that for the first part of its life Runequest was a Chaosium game. Issaries wanted to reprint it because it is the primary entry point for most people, at least historically, for gaming in Glorantha. In many respects, both companies are right.

Things got interesting when Issaries and Chaosium discussed who had the "rights" to the trademarks for Runequest and Glorantha. It was all settled amicably. Both are getting on with what they wanted to do. Chaosium has BRP back in print, and it looks remarkably like RQ3 without anything Gloranthan, and Issaries carries on with Glorantha, but no Runequest reprint.

What would have happened if the two groups weren't old business partners and friends? Who can say, but it could have all gotten very ugly and very legal very fast.

Most, if not all companies don't like to air their potentially dirty laundry in public, especially if they are privately held. Such laundry airing is most likely to only expose your weaknesses and failures. What good does that really do them in the end?

Issaries had a simple choice to make:

  1. Control what EVERYONE publishes/sells about Glorantha or
  2. Control NOBODY.

There isn't an easy, casual middle ground, no matter how much we want one, or feel we deserve one. I don't LIKE it either, but I resepct the distinction and its necessity from a BUSINESS point of view. As Jeff and I like to joke, who better to agree than a pair of Republicans like us.

Issaries is trying to make a legal middle ground for their friends, also known as fans, through licensing. This is not easy to do legally, and even harder to do when we are resisting it.

One thing I can guarantee you: Greg has about as much desire to spend time on legal things as you or I do getting our head sawn off on a webcam broadcast.

Rick
Arrogant Republican            

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