Arthaus reverts rights to Ravenloft and Gamma World back to Wotc

[Angel Tarragon]

Let me rephrase. As long as Hasbro owns WotC and further as long as WotC owns the D&D brand, and finally as long as the D&D brand is owned by some person or entity who is not interested in going broke, none of these properties will ever see print again.

Sonofagun! Ravenloft is my second favorite campaign and now it too is going the way of the dinosaurs. Shiza! I guess now it is truly in the hands of the players to help support the setting with fan released material. Just great!

 

[philreed]

I'm glad I can now go and pick up all those Ravenloft 3.5e books at a discount... but it saddens me that it's gone. I loved the 2e RL, especially in the heyday of the Kargatane website... but, I never had much opportunity to get into the 3e version. Sad to see it go.

And, as an aside, I'm also one of the folks who thought Gamma World d20 wasn't half-bad.

Hey, Kesh. Please e-mail me at roninartspresident@yahoo.com to claim your prize!

 

[Buttercup]

Dragonlance and Hackmaster. The HM license in particular is very broad - apparently it allows Kenzer & Co to publish things based on anything 1e, 2e or Original/Basic D&D, as long as it's "hacked."

The details of the deal with Kenzer are not public knowledge, but we can get some idea by the stuff that they're publishing. In fact, the reason for the deal with Kenzer isn't officially public knowledge, though it seems to be an open secret. It's safe to say, though, that you shouldn't draw any conclusions about WotC's future plans for their IP based on the Kenzer deal.

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

I'm sad to see Ravenloft go. It was always my favorite setting, though I tended to pare away large chunks of it, and ignore completely the idea of other campaigns crossing over - except for that time I made "Greyvenloft".

I always wanted to write Ravenloft stuff: the idea of the domains appealed to me, and some of the original material really fired my imagination. As a teen, I used to read the domain entries over and over again, and dream of writing stuff for new domains. (Most of the modules stank though. Thoughts of Darkness, I'm looking at you here...)

Never got around to querrying Sword and Sorcery about freelancing for Ravenloft. Now I really regret that (not that they probably would have said yes, anyway. :\)

Hell, unfulfilled Ravenloft ambitions were most of the inspiration for the Visions series I wrote, but it would have been nice to see my name on the author's page of an actual Ravenloft supplement.

Ah well. A line is never dead as long as the books still exist. Maybe I'll go dredge up some of the old books and try and reconnect with the obsessive teen in me.

Or maybe I'll just watch Frankenstein again.

Patrick Y.

 

[Ranger REG]

Correct. I was responding to the idea that the reversion of these rights was evidence of WotC trying to rein in all their IP before selling the brand. I'm not sure whether the existence of the OGL adds or subtracts value from the D&D brand, but it can't help but impact it in some way.

Perhaps if they paid more royalty in the licensing agreement to use those brands, they didn't HAVE to "Open" the content and use the OGL. But I'm guessing WotC wanted it that way, to Open the rules content while keep the properties of those brands closed. It doesn't matter to the gamers and fans, what boils down to is whether the products are interesting to buy.

That begs a question. Did the company have carte blanche over the creativity of the properties or does someone in WotC have to review material and approve them before it goes to print?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

All of those books are still available though.

They are? I can go into a randomly selected FLGS and find I6? I can go in and find the 2E Ravenloft material? Eighteen months from now, I can find the 3.*E Ravenloft material?

New D&D players are unlikely to find PDFs (which is all I can assume you're referring to) in any great numbers, and fewer are going to be willing to convert them.

Maybe Ravenloft won't be updated as new editions of d20 come out, but there's still a goldmine of material to last DMs for a long, long time already out there.

No, people who already have Ravenloft material have a goldmine. But new people pick up the game every day, and they count too. Ravenloft is worth having around for them, whatever quibbles one might have with different versions of it along the way.

 

[TiQuinn]

They are? I can go into a randomly selected FLGS and find I6? I can go in and find the 2E Ravenloft material? Eighteen months from now, I can find the 3.*E Ravenloft material?

New D&D players are unlikely to find PDFs (which is all I can assume you're referring to) in any great numbers, and fewer are going to be willing to convert them.

If they can't find it at their FLGS, they can find several copies of I6 (and pretty much any Ravenloft book) on Ebay and other sites for about $5.

 

[Drew]

So...no recommendations, then?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hell, unfulfilled Ravenloft ambitions were most of the inspiration for the Visions series I wrote, but it would have been nice to see my name on the author's page of an actual Ravenloft supplement.

Speaking of Visions, when you've got your mystery Rose project done, I'd love to see more of these, whether that's a sequel to the Pumpkin Patch or something new. Great, great series.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If they can't find it at their FLGS, they can find several copies of I6 (and pretty much any Ravenloft book) on Ebay and other sites for about $5.

Today. I went through this a few years ago gobbling up Mystara stuff off of eBay. I assure you that what's available five years later from eBay is in no way comparable.

People will start playing D&D in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. It is absolutely untrue that they will have full access to Ravenloft material.

And what's more, you're telling people to go to eBay instead of a shop. Ravenloft will simply not be found by much of the audience that would have loved it.

So...no recommendations, then?

"Denizens of Dread." Thought I mentioned it a page or two ago. One-size-fits-all-races vampire templates are WRONG! And the Ghoul Lord and Zombie Lord alone are cooler than any new undead created for 3*.