Stalking d20?

[Maxwell's Demon]

I thought I read some time ago that there was supposed to be a d20 version of Stalking the Night Fantastic coming out. Did it ever happen? Or is it, maybe, still in the works?

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I'm on the Bureau 13 (which is the main name of it, Stalking the Night Fantastic was the subtitle) mailing list.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bureau-13/

(It's pretty low traffic, so if you're at all interested, wouldn't hurt to join)

A few months ago, it was announced by the B13 people that because of WOTC's closing of their retail stores, WOTC was going bankrupt, and d20 was doomed. Doomed! And so because of this, they no longer were going to put out a d20 version, but a generic, completely stat free version.

After biting back my first reaction several times, I finally wrote a half-way nice message saying that that was nuts, that d20 wasn't going elsewhere. And that even if they were worried about d20, they could just release it under the OGL, keeping the d20 stats in it, but not the logo. And they should joing the OGL/d20 mailings lists at the opengamingfoundation.

I don't know if I (and a couple others) convinced them, but they presumably looked at an OGL only book, because he asked for sometitles of them to get so he could see how they handled it.

But that was a couple of months ago, and haven't heard anything since. But I imagine something is coming out.

 

[trancejeremy]

Also, I believe the thing is actually written. I think the delay could be financial. B13 was never a stunning success commercially. (Which is a shame, but the rules system it used wasn't great)

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I think that Richard Tucholka tried really hard with a game that was light years ahead of itself when it was put out back in the early 80's. But the marketing was terrible for it. For such a brilliant idea that the game was I think there were some fatal flaws - such as an overly complicated combat system.

I remember him telling me a few years ago that the Magic cards crushed an already hurting fringe gaming group (games other than TSR, Chaosium, etc.)

I really hope that B13 can make something of a come back because people would probably really enjoy it. The problem is that with d20 Modern, Richard may have missed the boat.

 

[trancejeremy]

Just so people don't think I'm making this up, here's the messages themselves (you might have to belong to yahoo to read them)

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/bureau-13/message/7370

"I'm sure that you have heard the news coming from WoTC these days.
Hasbro is taking the company apart, and the status of the 'open' D20
lisence is in a state of flux.
So, Rich Tucholka and myself have decided to remove all of the D20
stats from the new B13 RPG Manual, and make the game generic, easily
playable using any game mechanics rules."

and

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/bureau-13/message/7244