Dragonlance Dragonlance Lawsuit Dismissed Without Prejudice

The recent lawsuit brought against D&D publishers Wizards of the Coast by Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman has been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.

When a lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice, it means that the plaintiff cannot bring the issue back to court. When -- as in this case -- it is dismissed without prejudice, the plaintiff can try again.

In this case it was voluntarily dismissed by Weis & Hickman. We can only guess why; perhaps a settlement occurred? In any case, Margaret Weis tweeted, thanking people for their support, and hinting at exciting news to come.

"Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff Margaret Weis, LLC and Tracy Hickman hereby gives notice that the above-captioned action is voluntarily dismissed as to Wizards of the Coast LLC, without prejudice. Defendant Wizards of the Coast LLC has not filed an answer or motion for summary judgment, no proceedings or discovery have been undertaken as to these claims, and this action is not subject to any federal statute which would preclude the dismissal of this action under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i)."

 

[Staffan]

Didn't work well for Dragonlance at all. S'why most people say they ignore the later stuff

... Has advancing the timeline worked for any RPG product? I know we were all metaplot crazy in the 90s, but I figured most people were just upset and annoyed with it by the end

I can't think of a setting where a timeline skip has worked out well. The closest I can come is Forgotten Realms 5e, where they advanced the timeline as a way to fix the previous timeline skip. But in most cases, changing the setting via timeline skip will turn off the previous fans (because the things they enjoyed about the setting are gone), and won't attract new ones (who still see the setting as what it used to be).

A reboot can work. Dark Sun 4e was fairly well received (by 4e standards), and ignored the developments after the original box (I don't recall off-hand if it was set before or after Tyr was freed). TORG: Eternity seems to be working out fine. In both cases, these took settings/games that had been inactive for a very long time, so the old fans weren't likely to be actively using them. They also took care to examine what worked about the old version and keep that thing around, while jettisoning things that might not have been the best ideas to begin with.

 

[Staffan]

Eberron 5e is the same starting date as Eberron 3.5.

4e moved forward, I think, a year or two.

Nope, every edition of Eberron has been set in the same year. They were considering it with 4e but decided not to.

The thing about Eberron is that a big part of the setting's attraction is the actual situation going on - the War just ended, and no-one is quite sure what actually happened. There are also a bunch of potential threats that could escalate any day now. Moving the setting forward would require that you actually resolve a bunch of those plot threads, instead of leaving them hanging for the DM to do something with. It's sort of like the Wild West - the period we think of as the Wild West was really a pretty brief period of a few decades, and moving forward from that removes a lot of the things we consider to be the Wild West.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I wouldn't be too surprised if there is a reboot...of the novels themself, adding some thing, changing others, for example a softer image of kenders and gully, or even allowing for example the seekers could be training for psionic powers. Maybe the story is about a group of characters who "travel" to the Akasha-realm, something a clone world created by the collective memory, something like the place by Tanis in th novel "Tanis the shadow years" (I read it in the public library).

A movie by Sony Pictures? Possible, but it has not to be about any title by WotC, but other TH's work.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Glad to see there was some reconciliation. I assume at minimum that a new series of Dragonlance books will be released, in some form. Considering they seem mostly written, an announcement may not be too far away.

 

[darjr]

I hope there is an announcement as a last minute gift from WotC and Margaret and Tracy

 

[Olrox17]

So it looks like Margaret and Tracy got exactly what they wanted and pretty much won the day. Happy for them!

 

[Ancalagon]

And a Harry Potter Chocolate Frog container.

Let us hope that is just a coincidence... I cannot in good conscience buy anything JK Rowling related.

 

[Mistwell]

Let us hope that is just a coincidence... I cannot in good conscience buy anything JK Rowling related.

Can we not turn this thread into that topic over a chocolate frog box joke?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Sony has got some links with Harry Potter franchise. I guess TH may colaborate with some videogame.

This is fun, because Hasbro wants to create a new IP of wizardry school, one of the future settings for Magic: the Gathering, Strixhaven.

 

[Ancalagon]

Can we not turn this thread into that topic over a chocolate frog box joke?

that is probably for the best.