|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
 Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:46 am Post subject: |
 |
|
| Troll_Bait wrote: |
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| No no... these were myths from modern works of fiction. It's like using the Tolkein creation story, gods, demons, etc. The Tolkein estate will quickly sue you. |
 Oops, sorry, I should have read what you wrote a few posts before more carefully.
Now I remember. It had deities from the worlds of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Elric, and Cthulhu.
But the new edition also cut out a lot of traditional pantheons (such as the Babylonian and Celtic ones) as well, which is probably what I was thinking about.
Actually, I found the full story here.
| Quote: |
TSR, Inc. obtained permission from Michael Moorcock for inclusion of the Melnibon�an material (from his Elric series of books). The Cthulhu Mythos was believed to be in the public domain, so TSR assumed they could legally use it without any special permission. However, Arkham House, who had the copyright on most Cthulhu books had already licensed the Cthulhu property to the game company Chaosium to create a Mythos-based game. Furthermore, Chaosium had also licensed the Melnibon�an copyright from Moorcock. Chaosium became upset that TSR was apparently violating its license. The first printing was halted and the two companies agreed on a compromise: TSR could use the Cthulhu material, but needed to include a special "thank you" note to Chaosium for both the Cthulhu mythos and Melnibon�an information. TSR added the special thank you note and the printing continued.
When the time came for a third printing of the book, TSR felt its material should not contain such an overt reference to one of its competitors in the "Special Thank You" note. So they removed the Cthulhu and Melnibon�an pantheons, thus negating the need for the "Thank you" note. For this reason, the first and second editions were (and are, among collectors) in greater demand than later printings. (Paradoxically, the "Thank you" note was still included in the first printing to contain the shortened list of pantheons � though this oversight was remedied in subsequent printings.) |
|
Ah very cool. I know at some point Gary Gygax was ousted by the horrible woman named Lorraine Williams or something. Many people believe Gygax lost control of the company because of a divorce settlement with his wife. Its more complicated than that. In 1973, Gygax, Don Kaye, and Brian Blume formed TSR to sell their fantasy role playing expansion to Chainmail. TSR was set up as an equal partnership between Gygax, Blume, and Kaye. Kaye died of a heart attack and Gygax bought his shares from Kaye's widow. Unfortunately, Gygax over extended himself in purchasing Kaye's shares and he was forced to sell nearly half his holdings to Brian Blume and Blame's father Kevin. Gygax held 30% of TSR's shares. Brian and Kevin Blume controlled 60%. TSR, under Gygax, had its best year ever. In 1981, the company posted sales of $16.5 million dollars, with a profit of $4.25 million. Gygax was a big believer in acquiring only short-term debt. His rule of thumb was debt should be no higher than a single month of sales.
The Blumes used their majority to reorganize the company. Gygax was nominally president but the Blumes controlled the actual operations. Under the Blumes, primarily Kevin Blume, TSR ran up larger and larger debts (amounting to $15 million). Gygax managed to get the entire TSR board to oust Kevin Blume for mismanagement. The Blumes eventually sold their shares to board member Lorraine Williams. Previous to TSR Williams owned the licensing rights to the Buck Rogers name. She inherited the rights from her grandfather, a newspaper man who controlled the original rights.
Williams never made a secret of her general hatred for her customers (ie gamers). She didn't feel they were her social equal. Williams, despite claims she would show the gaming industry how it was done, managed to doubled the company's debt to $30 million. Facing bankruptcy, she sold out to Wizards of the Coast. There's a rumor that Planescape's Lady of Pain is patterned after Williams. There's also another rumor that Gygax lost control of TSR via divorce: his wife got half his shares and sold them to Williams. Not true.
Williams had this brilliant idea that she'd bring role playing to the masses. She would create games based on TV shows. Her first game was a role playing game based on Rocky and Bullwinkle. This game has the distinction of being the first and only RPG to come with hand puppets.
The game failed miserably. No one, even at a role playing gaming convention, was ever drunk enough to want to role play with hand puppets.
The most bonehead move TSR ever made, besides chasing away their few remaining customers by threatening to sue them if they shared their campaign material over the internet, was removing the demons and devils from the Monster Manual based on pressure from the religious right... who weren't even their customers. Lord. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
|
| Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mindmetoo wrote: |
Williams had this brilliant idea that she'd bring role playing to the masses. She would create games based on TV shows. Her first game was a role playing game based on Rocky and Bullwinkle. This game has the distinction of being the first and only RPG to come with hand puppets.
The game failed miserably. No one, even at a role playing gaming convention, was ever drunk enough to want to role play with hand puppets.
|
When you've made up a game that makes people who play Dungeons & DragonsTM say, "That's sooo geeky," then you have well and truly furked up.
| mindmetoo wrote: |
The most bonehead move TSR ever made, besides chasing away their few remaining customers by threatening to sue them if they shared their campaign material over the internet, was removing the demons and devils from the Monster Manual based on pressure from the religious right... who weren't even their customers. Lord. |
If the Christian fundamentalists had had their way, none of us would have ever enjoyed Dungeons & DragonsTM, Harry Potter, trick-or-treating on Halloween, most TV shows except for "The Waltons" and "Leave it to Beaver," Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin/etc. and a whole host of other things.
As Delirium's Brother said in another thread, "The Moral Majority is neither." |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
