Title: Message
I
always understood that there was a certain amount of Public
Domain with Cthulhu. Lovecraft himself enthusiastically endorsed other
writers to expand upon the mythos and write within his world. Only certain
phrases and creations have been copyrighted by Chaosium, and for the most part
the whole issue of copyright was cocked up as he never stated in his will who
should control his work. Indeed, work earlier than, I believe, 1923 is Public
Domain (last I checked).
Also,
aside from Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu (a scenario for which I'm currently in the
middle of working on even as I take time out to write, here) and related card
game, let's not forget other Cthulhu-inspired games such as Cthulhu 500,
Munchkin Cthulhu, Arkham Horror, Do You Worship Cthulhu?, etc. I've even
seen Cthulhu referenced quite blatantly in cartoons without, I'm sure, any fear
of reprisal. Such as in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy in
which there was an episode entitled "The Prank Call of
Cthulhu".
So I
don't actually think there would be a particular problem for the most part on
the copyright front (so long as the terms or phrases that *have* been
copyrighted are avoided or, at the least, paraphrased). Enough of the key
ingredients that make up the mythos are free to make use of without any real
problems. Despite that, alas, I agree that Cthulhu Fluxx may well be a pipe
dream.
Nimrod, you are twisted.
This is
not a bad thing. :)
Before everyone starts getting all up in the
"hey, let's get Andy to do a Cthulhu Fluxx deck!" remember that there are
others who hold that copyright. There was a card game (Mythos) put out
by Chaosium, as well as the RPG. Therefore, a Cthulhu Fluxx deck may be
a long time coming.
But it's nice to dream about...
"Hey, you
played a Byakhee and stole my MiGo! That means my SpaceShip does me no
good... now I'm gonna need the Arkham Asylum.... oh wait you've got the Sun on
the table, so our sanity loss is less because it's daylight...."
--
Carol Townsend
carol.townsend@xxxxxxxxx
H:
630.681.0311
C: 630.215.6027