Flying Buffalo Being Sold?

Flying Buffalo's CEO Steve Crompton has indicated that the company is being sold to an undisclosed buyer! Flying Buffalo a tabletop gaming company founded in 1970 - published Ken St Andre's Tunnels & Trolls back in 1975 (just a year after D&D launched), and is the oldest tabletop RPG company currently in existence.

"OTHER NEWS - FLYING BUFFALO TO BE SOLD SOON Sale PENDING

I'm letting you all know now - once the new company takes over Flying Buffalo, they have told us they plan to remove many of the items that are currently on our Drive-Thru page. So get them NOW before they are gone FOREVER..."

Tunnels & Trolls was created as an alternative to D&D, with point-based magic and a d6 core mechanic. It has been through numerous editions over the decades, and is currently on its 9th edition (some of which were licensed to companies like Fiery Dragon and Grimtooth). There have been two video games based on the system.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What was your expectation? That they would break a contract with WOTC to send you the PDF? Returning your money sounds like a fair solution.

My expectation was that when they were forced to stop people accessing the product they'd return the money, not wait until I found out it wouldn't download several years later and went to find out why and then, after asking why, have to go "Are you going to give me my money back or what"? and then they still didn't give me my money, they gave me a voucher. It's not a good look to make a customer work to get $10 back off you. Also they shouldn't have signed a contract with WotC that allowed WotC to fully-retract stuff like that in the first place.

 

[Voadam]

What was your expectation? That they would break a contract with WOTC to send you the PDF? Returning your money sounds like a fair solution.

Originally rpgnow said you could always download stuff you had bought. I had bought a bunch of WotC PDFs from them. Later they merged with and sold out to dtrpg. Then later on WotC pulled their old catalog including access to redownloading prior purchased stuff.

I was quite unhappy with both WotC and dtrpg about that.

It was a jerk move on WotC's part and a contractual setup from dtrpg that was to the detriment of their customers.

 

[Michael Dean1]

I don't blame DTRPG for not exactly bending over backwards to refund money when the blame was squarely on WOTC for pulling their catalog. People rightly should have been demanding WOTC refund their money after that fiasco, not least of which because they were the deeper pockets in that situation and could have more readily absorbed the loss if they were insisting on going down that path. It was a naughty word move by WOTC (although I have a strong feeling it was Hasbro making them do it) and it certainly kept me away from buying from them for a long time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Removing items from DriveThru sounds like a fantastic way for the new owners to alienate the existing customer base. Strange way to start a business venture.

Eh. They'll be back.

All the Astro City comics disappeared when Kurt Busiek decided to go with a different, and as yet undisclosed publisher. They'll return. Same with all the Alien Dark Horse comics now that Marvel owns them. (See all the Dark Horse Buffy/Angel comics showing up as Boom comics and the Dark Horse Conan stuff being Marvel branded now. Also, a rough few years for Dark Horse.)

More importantly, please let the new owners be Goodman Games, which has already reprinted some Grimtooth stuff. They'd be a great steward for the brand and find new ways to promote it in the 21st century. (Flying Buffalo's website has looked dated since the 1990s, which is a real trick.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Color me interested.
I never heard of it before this announcement.

Ah! The"Tunnels and Trolls" people. I saw a lovely thick Compendium in my FLGS but picked up yet another D&D book instead. Will now try to get a hold of that T&T from somewhere.

The CityBook line is probably the biggest deal to D&D players. Years before TSR tried anything of the sort, they were great, modular elements that could be dropped into your campaign -- an interesting shop here, a shady guy on the docks there.

A lot of it is pretty dated, but it oozes with old school flavor.

And, like T&T, a lot of it has a sense of humor, as opposed to the late 1970s edgelord vibe of a lot of Judges Guild material.

 

[Retreater]

I hope they are bought by Buffalo Wild Wings. That would be a great partnership: Flying Buffalo Wild Wings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I hope they are bought by Buffalo Wild Wings. That would be a great partnership: Flying Buffalo Wild Wings.

Any time it was used at the table, you wouldn't be able to hear what was going on if an important sporting event was happening.

 

[Retreater]

Any time it was used at the table, you wouldn't be able to hear what was going on if an important sporting event was happening.

They could also rate Grimtooth's Traps on a spicy scale.

 

[Lidgar]

They could also rate Grimtooth's Traps on a spicy scale.

And your dice would be rolled by a disinterested college student that looks annoyed that you are there in the first place.

 

[Sunsword]

What was your expectation? That they would break a contract with WOTC to send you the PDF? Returning your money sounds like a fair solution.

The expectation is that the publisher wouldn't pull such a wrong-headed move and the site you purchased it from wouldn't allow the publisher to do that to its paying customers. It's fine if the publisher decides to shut down pdfs but people who paid them shouldn't get screwed over.