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Avalon Hill:
In the early 1980's Chaosium was in serious financial trouble. While many of their releases were
critically acclaimed, the production costs for boxed sets ate away at their profit margin and every successful new product seemed to be destined to be accompanied by another that was a failure. The solution to the
financial crisis presented itself when Avalon Hill made an offer to purchase the rights to the name RuneQuest.
The successful wargaming company had been seeking a strong product for its first entry into the roleplaying business. Chaosium made the decision to accept the offer for RuneQuest and secure its own future. In many ways, it sacrificed one game to save all of its others. In 1983 the deal was done and the announcements were made. Chaosium let all of its RQ2 material go out-of-print.
After a brief interim, Avalon Hill released 3rd edition RuneQuest.
The core rule mechanics were basically the same, but virtually every topic had been revised and expanded. Questionable additions, like sorcery, and the shift of the game's focus away from Glorantha changed the structure and appeal of the game dramatically. Sales were never what Avalon Hill hoped.
As the first products for RQ3 were released, many players became unwilling participants in a waiting game for new additions to Glorantha.
Between 1985 and 1988, most of the releases were generic alternate earth based supplements that players had little interest in. It wasn't until Genertela: CotHW was published that the topical trend shifted back to Glorantha. The product line hit its stride during the RQ Renaissance, but market forces made the effect short lived. I tip my hat to people like Rune Czar Ken Rolston for keeping it going as long as he did.
By the early 1990's, collectable card games wiped out much of the market for RPG's. Most of the small game companies went out of business and TSR lost its biggest game company crown to Wizards of the Coast.
For Avalon Hill, the problem was intensified by the costly failure of its girls magazine and a shrinking wargaming market.
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