Call of Cthulhu, Cthulhu Wars and The Gods War designer files lawsuit against PayPal over withheld Kickstarter money

Sandy Petersen, the author of Lovecraftian RPG Call of Cthulhu and designer of board games including Cthulhu Wars, The Gods War and the tabletop spin-off to video game Orcs Must Die, has filed a lawsuit against PayPal and claimed that the payment company is withholding tens of thousands of dollars in Kickstarter pledges.

Petersen is perhaps best known in the tabletop world for writing the original Call of Cthulhu in 1981, working on many other Chaosium games until the late ‘80s, when he transitioned to co-developing video games including Doom, Quake, Civilization and Age of Empires, returning to tabletop design in 2009.

Among the various projects by Petersen and his eponymous publishing house funded on Kickstarter is Lovecraftian strategy board game Cthulhu Wars, which raised more than $1.4 million and went on to gather another $1 million for its second wave, Onslaught Two.

Most recently, Petersen attracted over half a million dollars for mythical strategy title The Gods War last September, which is due for release this August.

Petersen’s lawsuit against PayPal actually concerns a game that he funded and sold back in 2013 – some of the funds from backers were collected via PayPal, which Petersen claims is still holding $57,702 owed to him and Petersen Entertainment, despite multiple attempts to convince the firm to release the money. The name and format of the game doesn't appear to have been specified.

“Defendants wrongfully refuse to release the funds that plaintiff’s customers attempted to pay and/or pledge to plaintiff, despite the fact that plaintiff has already sent the purchased/requested productions to many of these customers,” clarifies the filing (via Courthouse News).

“In fact, defendants have acknowledged in writing that the records plaintiff provided show the plaintiff has fulfilled purchase orders of PayPal customers in the amount of at least $22,675.00. Defendants still refuse, however, to release even these funds.”

Kickstarter itself is not involved in the legal proceedings, which Petersen and his lawyers hope to bring to court.