Guardians of Order's death-a confirmation

[wingsandsword]

I loved the first edition of BESM, the best rules-light RPG I ever saw. They did some pretty good RPGs. Their d20 stuff wasn't always excellent, but it's a damn shame about them folding, especially when it wasn't even really their fault, as much as it was getting hosed by fluctuations in the relative value in Canadian and American dollars.

 

[Banshee16]

Personally, I paid $9 for their Trigun d20 book, and I feel ripped off. If I had paid the MSRP (which I think was $40?) I would have been steaming mad. If all their products are like that, the real question is, how did they stay in business so long...

The D20 Game of Thrones RPG was one of the best OGL games I've seen. Very high production values in the book, and very well thought-out rules. It's quite disappointing to see GOO go under, as it makes it unlikely that the excellent core book will ever be folllowed up with supplements..

Banshee

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's my dose of sweet & sour...

I never bought a single one of their products. I knew some of their fans who would recoomend them. Based upon those recs, I'd peruse the books, but never found their games to be all that appealing to me.

That said, I'm sad to see them go. Even if I didn't care for their games, it was manifestly clear that THEY did. Nobilis and A Game of Thrones had some of the best production values I've seen on any game book- EVER. I respect that. Too often, game books- heck, even some of my recently purchased novels and textbooks- have glaring errors or poor binding or bad layouts... I never saw that as a problem with one of their books.

I also respect that they continued to do their own thing for the most part rather than riding the coattails of others.

Hopefully, those who love their products will be rewarded for their loyalty by having the better stuff picked up by other publishers...who sure as heck better maintain the standard of quality GoO set, even if it means the products cost more.

 

[Agamon]

The D20 Game of Thrones RPG was one of the best OGL games I've seen. Very high production values in the book, and very well thought-out rules. It's quite disappointing to see GOO go under, as it makes it unlikely that the excellent core book will ever be folllowed up with supplements..

I agree. However, GRRM is looking into getting a new home for the game. He says he found someone to take on the license, but not the debt along with it. Here's hoping he finds a company he can make a deal with.

If not, the game is still pretty darn good even without supplements.

 

[OptionalRule]

Official word finnally from GoO

My gods, I have no idea where to begin.

Yes ... effective more-or-less immediately, Guardians Of Order has ceased operations.

First, an apology. I am terribly sorry that George Martin broke the news about our situation. That is certainly not how I wanted the information to be released, and I had thought that my frank conversation with him about A Game of Thrones-specific issues was in confidence. This is the second time now that someone other than me releases very important news about Guardians Of Order, which leaves me frantically trying to patch the holes. The polite and proper thing for me -- as President of the company -- to do would be to contact all of our creditors (which includes some great freelancers and industry associates) FIRST and explain the situation to them. I was working on that process when my efforts were derailed by one simple website post. So I am very sorry that someone else took it upon himself to release this information. It's not how I was proceeding to handle things.

But yes, the end result is the same. GoO is no longer.

You can read the whole announcement here.

 

[Ian Sturrock]

What a shame -- Game of Thrones was fantastic, and I was really looking forward to Tekumel d20, which was slated to be released this summer.

I was really looking forward to seeing it come out too -- not just because I'd written it, and was hoping to get paid for my ten weeks of work on it, but also because I genuinely felt it had some top-notch material in it that could have brought the Tekumel setting to a wider audience than it previously enjoyed. Ah, well....

 

[Banshee16]

Offician word finnally from GoO


You can read the whole announcement here.

It's good that at last there's been an announcement. It's just unfortunate that it took so long for this to be resolved, and for an announcement to be made. I think a lot of the public frustration came from the fact that it had been so long with no word....especially when there were customers who still hadn't received product they paid for.

Hopefully the game finds a new home. It's quite good. I'm not sure if GRR Martin will ever get that money back though.....I'd almost think that it's best to work out a deal where he profits off the license going forward, but forgets about what GOO can't pay him. If it's a lot of money, I doubt any company would pick up the license, since it would just doom them before they start book#2.

Banshee

 

[Jdvn1]

I was really looking forward to seeing it come out too -- not just because I'd written it, and was hoping to get paid for my ten weeks of work on it, but also because I genuinely felt it had some top-notch material in it that could have brought the Tekumel setting to a wider audience than it previously enjoyed. Ah, well....

Sorry to hear it... does that mean you can still use that material for other products/other companies in the future? It'd be a shame for it to just be lost.

 

[OptionalRule]

Hopefully the game finds a new home. It's quite good. I'm not sure if GRR Martin will ever get that money back though.....I'd almost think that it's best to work out a deal where he profits off the license going forward, but forgets about what GOO can't pay him. If it's a lot of money, I doubt any company would pick up the license, since it would just doom them before they start book#2.

I too hope GRRM lets things go forward as an RPG. Personally I think the AGoT system doesn't have much hope of being picked up as a system or making much more money as is. The product has had it's release and first run so the lion share of money from that particular form has been made. I think commercially it would make more sense for some to take the setting materials and merg it witn another system. If they were to use the written material for the setting published in the book and adapt it to a True20 version or something I think it has better potential of generating money than someone just buying it up and trying to publish expansions. I can't really see this happening either though. Green Ronin is already in a world of hurt as are many other publishers.

 

[Ghostwind]

It is unfortunate that GoO had to shut down. They made some really good books. I still need to pick up copies of Ex Machina and Tekumel.