Modiphius' Conan TTRPG Is Ending

At the end of this year, Modiphius' license to publish the 2d20-powered Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of is coming to an end. Taking over with a new roleplaying game will be French publisher Monolith Edition, which already produces the official boardgame.

While the license ends on December 31st, you will still be able to buy existing stock until the end of June 2023.

Other Conan games include Mongoose Publishing's Conan: The Roleplaying Game, which used the d20 System back in 2004, TSR's Conan Roleplaying Game in 1985, and even 1984 D&D adventure modules called Conan Unchained! and Conan Against Darkness!

MONOLITH HANDED THE CONAN ROLEPLAYING GAME LINE FROM MODIPHIUS FOR NEW EXCITING ROLEPLAYING STORIES IN THE HYBORIAN AGE!

“When we first started exploring Robert E. Howard’s world of Conan, little did we imagine the full expanse of what was to come. It’s been an incredible journey working with top Conan scholars, talented writers and artists who gave their all to dig deep into the Conan stories and bring them to life in a truly authentic way.” Said Chris Birch, Chief Creative Officer of Modiphius Entertainment. “Now with twenty beautiful hardback books to our name and numerous beautiful accessories, we are ready to call time on our journeys across Hyboria. We’ve reached the point where we feel like we have done justice to REH’s words, delivered some incredible Conan swords & sorcery gaming, and reached the ends of the Hyborian world in every direction we could imagine. It’s time to pass on the mantle to new hands who can tell a new story in the Hyborian age!”

The roleplaying game line, under licence from Heroic Signatures (Formally Cabinet Entertainment), will end on Dec 31st, no more re-stocks are being ordered, and all stock will be sold by June 30th 2023.

If you’ve been waiting to pick up one of the books, now is your chance, either from retail or from the US or UK-based webstores. Get them while you can!

Matthew John, Conan Board Game Developer for Monolith added “For 8 years now, Conan, Heroic Signatures and Monolith have been treading the lands of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age, finding grand inspiration for our products. Our board game, which rallied tens of thousands of players, was soon joined by a great role-playing game, thanks to Modiphius, who did a fantastic job diving deep into this exciting setting. As fans, we’ll be forever grateful to Modiphius for their work and our collaborations on Conan.

We’ve said it before, Howard's stories are part of Monolith’s DNA, and so we happily accepted Heroic Signatures’ offer to develop our own Conan roleplaying game–one we can infuse with our passion and unique creative vision. While we prepare our next Conan board game project, which will offer new, long-awaited features next year, we wanted to let fans know it is not the only Conan game we’re bringing to the table–or rather, your tables.

So…Monolith will bring back the Conan board game, then an all-new role-playing game! And who knows–it’s certainly possible that our admiration for Robert E.Howard's work will lead us beyond the borders of the Hyborian Age.

Stay tuned, Conan fans; we’re just getting started”.

 

[agrayday]

Regarding the 2d20 system, I hear many say they hate it but then happily play Star Trek 2d20. Strange.

If i recall correctly the two 2D20 systems are different enough to not be the same. I am willing to bet more people are willing to put up with 2d20 for star trek (how many options are there?), than a dark sun combat oriented game.

 

[Staffan]

If i recall correctly the two 2D20 systems are different enough to not be the same. I am willing to bet more people are willing to put up with 2d20 for star trek (how many options are there?), than a dark sun combat oriented game.

I've only looked briefly at Conan (I think I bought it at a Bundle of Holding or something like that), and it seems significantly more crunchy than Star Trek Adventures. There are far more skills, and there's a second skill value that determines how often you get a crit, rather than it being the result of a skill specialization/focus. And that's just the core mechanic, the rest seemed much more crunchy as well.

 

[Skywalker]

I've only looked briefly at Conan (I think I bought it at a Bundle of Holding or something like that), and it seems significantly more crunchy than Star Trek Adventures. There are far more skills, and there's a second skill value that determines how often you get a crit, rather than it being the result of a skill specialization/focus. And that's just the core mechanic, the rest seemed much more crunchy as well.

2d20 differs significantly from iteration to iteration. It has also been almost uniformly been more and more streamlined and simplified with each iteration. Conan, Infinity and Mutant Chronicles are quite different beast to Star Trek, John Carter and Dune.

 

[Jaeger]

Other companies could buy the IPs of Conan's clones. WotC doesn't need Conan when they have got Dark Sun.

I may be a minority opinion on this - but I wouldn't want the current crew at WotC to touch Dark Sun with a ten foot pole.

WotC owned IP like Dark Sun, Gamma world, and Star Frontiers would be better off sold to someone who cares about their legacy.

You could still make and sell copies of the book that has "Space Pilot of Planet X" written on the cover and the name Buck Rogers appear all throughout the text.
But I think you might not be allowed to have the title of the book say:

BUCK ROGERS:
Volume 375: Space Pilot of Planet X​

Nor could you write a new book with the title "Buck Rogers and the Space Babes", because Buck Rogers is still a trademark of an entity that is using it to identify its own products.

That is a pure lawfare extortion racket.

If Buck Rogers is in the public domain then you should be able to have "Buck Rogers" in the title of your book!

I hate to be that guy but water isn't wet. Wetness is the condition of liquid adhering to a solid.

Wow. I feel ashamed at my level of pedantry. And I'm posting about D&D on the internet.

You have become the thing you hate. Over elfgames.

Be ashamed. Be very ashamed.

There was a case some years back where a Edgar Rice Burroughs estate went after a comic for using Tarzan, not based on copyright, but based on trademark. I think the comic book folks were on firm legal standing, however they settled out of court and got the approval of the ERB estate.

The trademark Lawfare extortion racket in action.

ERB estate came to a deal because they didn't want to risk a court ruling going against them.

However, because of the legitimate jungle of grey murkiness of copyright law, and because the "license holder" has more money that you do, they've been able to more or less bully anyone with the threat of court.

^THIS^

Once an IP becomes public domain; Any trademarks derived from, or in any way similar to: words, phrases, images or titles from the public domain IP should be rendered invalid and unenforceable.

 

[Staffan]

Once an IP becomes public domain; Any trademarks derived from, or in any way similar to: words, phrases, images or titles from the public domain IP should be rendered invalid and unenforceable.

Sort of agree, but not entirely.

The thing is that trademarks is, at least in theory, about customer protection. If you buy a can of Coca Cola, you should get a can of Coke and not some cheap knock-off. So I'm in favor of having some way of denoting that this is the "real" IP. Perhaps by using some reference to the original creator or company. So there could be a difference between "Conan" and "Robert E. Howard's Conan" or something like that.

 

[Jaeger]

The thing is that trademarks is, at least in theory, about customer protection. If you buy a can of Coca Cola, you should get a can of Coke and not some cheap knock-off. So I'm in favor of having some way of denoting that this is the "real" IP. Perhaps by using some reference to the original creator or company. So there could be a difference between "Conan" and "Robert E. Howard's Conan" or something like that.

Once something hits public domain, it should be in public domain.

Anyone faithful to Howards stories is just as real as anything else.

We've certainly have seen several licensed IP "adaptations" that took characters and stories and dragged them through the gutter due to lack of faithfulness to the source material.

The copyright/Trademark grifting needs to stop at some point. Let the fans decide what is real vs. the cheap knock off...

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hasbro realises the potential value of the IPs. They aren't going to sell them, but maybe licence them. The alien species from Star-Frontiers or Star*Drive can be recycled or reskinned for Spelljammer. Gamma World could be adedd to the D&D multiverse, but the high-tech and firearms can break the power balance too easily. Hasbro doesn't want to touch Star Frontiers because they are too focused into Star War toys and Disney doesn't want a rival brand. Disney broke with Mattel when this launched Ever After High, a potential rival for Disney princesses.

There was some new about the law wanted to be changed, from 75 to 56, but big entertaiment companies wouldn't be happy with the idea, because they are making money with old IPs.

 

[antiwesley]

If you want to talk Buck Rogers and copyright, I can easily cast "Summon Flint Dille" to chip in, but that would take us majorly off-topic.
To summarize though:
"Buck Rogers" is trade dress.
"Buck Rogers" in his Gil Gerard regeneration is a trademark, AND copyrighted.
The original story may be out of copyright, but because the estate has continually kept up the TM on the name, it's not likely you'd be able to claim fair use. (and to be honest, would you really want to use that very stereotypical and... backwards world, please feel free to do, IMHO)

 

[Skywalker]

Monolith just acquired rights to Solomon Kane from Mythic Games. The announcements doesn’t confirm plans for a Solomon Kane RPG but it certainly seems to hint something along those lines in time.

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗞𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 !
Monolith is pleased to announce the acquisition of Reichbusters brand and Solomon Kane games from their former owner custodian Mythic Games. Reichbusters is a universe we loved since day one. Here, players cooperatively fight against an alternative nazi reich full of occult, weird, and alien technology. This board game will be back, but with a different, fresh and streamlined set of rules, enhanced with additional content.
Concerning Solomon Kane … it is way too soon to talk about it in details, but as you saw on our last Conan RPG announcement, we have many, many plans going on in the Robert E. Howard universe.
Note that Monolith has no connection with the Solomon Kane pre-orders made on Mythic Games store.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I’m surprised there’s this much competition for the license simply because most of the source material is on the public domain.