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”.

 

[Skywalker]

Amazing. A French based company has a large number of fans from France.

Who saw that coming...

I don’t think anyone is surprised by it, though it may help some understand why different decisions were reached.

 

[Yora]

This is the kind of thing that needs to be challenged in court...

Because if you "trademark" the right names, it essentially amounts to unlimited copyright.

A trademark gives you the right to use a term or logo as a trademark.

Say there is a book with the character Buck Rogers named "Space Pilot of Planet X". Copyright for the book expires but "Buck Rogers" remains as a Trade Mark.

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.

A trademark is used to identify a business or product. And as such you have the right that nobody uses that trade mark to impersonate your business or products. And I think it absolutely makes sense that Trademarks do not expire, precisely because company names and brands can continue to be in use long after the copyright expiration of their first products.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I doubt Hasbro wanted Buck Rogers RPG published by WotC when other franchises are being published by Renegade Games Studio. Today Buck Rogers is a dead brand, almost totally forgotten, and WotC would rather to start from zero but with total creative freedom, at least as a new setting for M:tG and later added to the D&D multiverse.

If somebody wants to pay for a dead brand and later to publish a retelling it may be because it is an easier option to about reports about plagiarism.

 

[eyeheartawk]

A French based company has grown a French-European fan base!?

Stay tuned for our next segment where we discuss the wetness of water...

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.

Anyway, to the topic.

I own most of the 2D20 Conan books because the feel is right, they really do capture the tone and milieu of the source material wonderfully. I don't hate 2D20 but would gladly jump ship to pretty much any other trad system if they got the tone and feel right. If it's 5e derived great, if not, that's great too.

 

[ngenius]

Not everybody who enjoys Robert E. Howards Conan is over 40. Many fans, though still a niche set, read their parent's books and comics or even just that popular collected omnibus of a book.

Modiphius did a great run in 5 years publishing about 22 sourcebooks all from just 900 pages of stories.
Drilling in more detail, only 18 books are actually inspired by authentic REH Conan story content.
Still, there is nowhere left to go if Modiphius wanted to stay REH specific only and not bring Red Sonja.

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

1. Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
2. The Book of Skelos
3. Conan Player's Guide
4. Conan the Adventurer
5. Conan the Barbarian
6. Conan the Brigand
7. Conan the King
8. Conan the Mercenary
9. Conan the Scout
10. Conan the Thief
11. Conan the Wanderer
12. Kull of Atlantis

13. Ancient Ruins and Cursed Cities (locations)
14. Horrors of the Hyborian Age (Bestiary)
15. Nameless Cults (Cthulhu Mythos-adjacent)

16. Jeweled Thrones of the Earth Adventure Compendium
17. Shadow of the Sorcerer Campign Book
18. Waves Stained Crimson Campaign Book
19. The Pit of Kutallu Free RPG Day Adventure

20. Age of Conan Sourcebook
21. The Exiles Sourcebook
22. Conan and Monolith Crossover Sourcebook

 

[Teo Twawki]

I own most of the 2D20 Conan books because the feel is right, they really do capture the tone and milieu of the source material wonderfully. I don't hate 2D20 but would gladly jump ship to pretty much any other trad system if they got the tone and feel right.

Except for where they got self-conscious to appease an audience that wasn't in the market for buying Conan books anyway. After that, the line seemed to wane a bit. I feel the complete collection is wanting with the decision to not publish Spear and Fang. Curiously, of the 4 or 5 titles we attempted, Conan is the only one of the 2d20 games our group enjoyed. The system-for-setting equation really hit the Triple-20 mark for us.

 

[halfling rogue]

Neither would I... That kind of lawfare will work until they go against someone with deep pockets. But they haven't gone after anyone in Europe that is making Conan stuff right now, so hopefully they will not be jerks about it.

But IMHO; The idea of trademarks based on public domain material remaining valid after the IP goes public domain is a question that does need to be settled though...

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.

Really the only reason to sue based on trademark is not that IP is being used at all, but that it is used in a way that is undistinguishable from the trademark holder. For instance when Mickey Mouse enters into the Public Domain to use him without violating his trademark, however you sell or market him can't be mistaken as a Disney product.

However, there is a Supreme Court case on the books about this: 20th Cent. Fox sued another company over a television documentary. The doc had slipped into Public Domain and this other company (Dastar) stripped out the original credits and presented it as their own production. Fox sued based on trademark, but the court rejected their argument noting that it would create "a species of mutant copyright law" that limits copying of public domain works.

So distinguishing is the key. I assume if Dastar did not distinguish itself from Fox, they would have lost. But things are still messy and I also think more future lawsuits will sort of carve the path of do's and don't's.

 

[halfling rogue]

Here's the crazy thing, technically nearly all of Robert E Howard's Weird Tales works (including Conan) are already in the public domain. No one renewed the license when it expired in 1964.

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. Now that the Public Domain train is rolling again (since 2019) it means all of the legal murkiness and threats will clear away for Conan beginning in 2028 because that's when the first tale "The Phoenix on the Sword" becomes PD.

 

[John R Davis]

I like the 2d20 system. I only have 1 Conan book but others in our group have quite a few.
The power level in the Conan version is quite high and with a good build up of momentum you can spank even the toughest beasties. I think we are playing it again next year
Can't see me buying into another system for it.

 

[Skywalker]

I like the 2d20 system. I only have 1 Conan book but others in our group have quite a few.
The power level in the Conan version is quite high and with a good build up of momentum you can spank even the toughest beasties. I think we are playing it again next year
Can't see me buying into another system for it.

Monolith’s Conan RPG will likely be released in 2024 so that wouldn’t even be an option next year. They are doing a long awaited Red Nails expansion for their board game, with solo and co-op rules expansion, in 2023. If the Batman RPG is anything to go by, we should see it 18 months after that in the later half of 2024.