Dragon Turtle Games will no longer publish the cyberpunk tabletop RPG and 5e-powered Carbon 2185. The game is a Platinum bestseller on DriveThruRPG, and in true “Goodbye to the game” style, Dragon Turtle is running a sale on their web store and are also in DTRPG’s Christmas in July Sale.
However, unlike most “Goodbye to the game” stories and an end of license, Dragon Turtle isn’t losing the game to a rival. This is not like the dispute that cost Cubicle 7 The One Ring RPG before it went to Free League and is more like Edge picking up Star Wars after their parent company moved the license from sibling Fantasy Flight.
The Carbon 2185 designer founded Dragon Turtle Games. The game’s license is a paperwork and structure decision.
Geek Native understands that a new company is being set up as an independently funded start-up to publish Carbon 2185 in the future and that Dragon Turtle Games will continue with a fantasy 5e focus.
Carbon 2185 seems to have been looking for options for a while. In August last year, Bancroft Publishing signed on. A spokesperson from DTG told Geek Native that the license deal did not come to completion.
A similar deal with Dead Channe Studios started this year but has concluded.
Those license deals aren’t the only choppy waters Carbon 2185 has faced. There’s been significant frustration with the delayed Terminal Overdrive campaign, with some backers clearly angry.
The 2021 Dragonmeet, a large convention in London, was marred when fans harassed a vendor for stocking some content, despite the vendor and the publisher being unrelated.
Moving Carbon 2185 from Dragon Turtle Games to a new company might separate brands, perhaps moving the game away from the company’s Kickstarter record.
A spokesperson from Dragon Turtle told Geek Native that Terminal Overdrive backers now have their PDF copies and that 85% of backers have been sent the codes to get their rewards at the base price of printing and shipping. Additionally, we’re told the other 15% should get their outstanding rewards within the next month.
On Facebook, where Dragon Turtle broke the news, there was sympathy and questions about the sale. One fan said;
I hate to hear this news, I’ve been a fan of the game since the original Kickstarter. Will you be having a sale on the PDFs as well? I haven’t gotten around to picking up the Chow’s Request 1-6 book yet.
Dragon Turtle were stalwart, although it’s not clear whether or not the same behind-the-scenes people will be involved, and said on their channel;
We are sad not to be a part of Carbon 2185’s future, but we know that it has a strong and dystopian future ahead
Quick Links
- Carbon 2185: Dragon Turtle Games’ Store | DTRPG.
- Dragon Turtle Games’ statement.
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