Lorraine Williams did... what?

[AllisterH]

Dille, IMO, had as much influences on the Buck Rogers franchise as Roy Thomas and Marvel had on Red Sonja.

I still personally believe that making a Buck Rogers RPG is inherently a SOUND financial business decision (not how much was produced though if the claims of massive overprinting was true).

How many RPG companies back in the mid 80s would've killed to have a well known IP basically free of charge?

 

[(un)reason]

I still personally believe that making a Buck Rogers RPG is inherently a SOUND financial business decision (not how much was produced though if the claims of massive overprinting was true).

How many RPG companies back in the mid 80s would've killed to have a well known IP basically free of charge?

That's one of the complaints. They didn't get it for any kind of reduced price, and the money that the Dilles got for licencing was taken based on the number of units printed rather than sold. It meant she got to take large amounts of money from TSR and into their personal trust regardless of the sales. Which is pretty morally equivalent to the modern issue of bankers being paid multimillion pound bonuses regardless of the performance of the company.

 

[Ranger REG]

That's one of the complaints. They didn't get it for any kind of reduced price, and the money that the Dilles got for licencing was taken based on the number of units printed rather than sold. It meant she got to take large amounts of money from TSR and into their personal trust regardless of the sales. Which is pretty morally equivalent to the modern issue of bankers being paid multimillion pound bonuses regardless of the performance of the company.

IOW, there is always a trade-off, sometimes unfair.

Nothing is free.

 

[Jib]

All the credit for the success of TSR Under Lorraine should go to the staff. She was evil and had no interest or passion in games. Yes I am serious!

 

[ProfessorCirno]

All the credit for the success of TSR Under Lorraine should go to the staff. She was evil and had no interest or passion in games. Yes I am serious!

...If you say so, random necromancer?

 

[rounser]

(such as saying that Dave Arneson couldn't design his way out of a paper bag).

I've read (or at least attempted to read) First Fantasy Campaign. It's like a bunch of whimsical DM's notes, complete with squiggles of dragons attacking castles, and information presented in an ad hoc kind of manner.

It's not clear if Arneson and Judges Guild just wanted to publish his notes warts and all, wild and woolly with little editing and little attempt at "solid design". It might have said so in the preface, can't remember. But for the unprepared the book comes across as rather incoherent, and silly and in-jokey in a way that rarely sees publication (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). Although Gygax may have a conflict of interest, as you point out, he also may just have been being honest.

That said, I like Blackmoor, and dig Arneson's imagination and ideas (and choices of sources to plunder for derivative purposes) to a large degree. As a writer, though, if FFC was typical of him, his style was quite chaotic, and his rules design containing a lot of non sequiturs.

It makes me a bit sad to go back to change that last paragraph in past tense, just then. Thanks, Mr Arneson, for a lot of fun times, and I mean no disrespect.

 

[Jib]

...If you say so, random necromancer?

Nope, she could not speak to the dead...

I'd say she was LE.

She did often treat the staff like they were a bunch of no-talent hacks...

I believe a certain designer at TSR came up with a collectable card game long before Magic hit the bricks and Lorraine shot the idea down. Later when Magic was going hog wild she came to the design team and said "So where is OUR collectable card game?"

Lots of great games were born from the creative minds at TSR in the late 80's and 90's. Lorraine hated the industry and never understood it. She would have been better off staying out of the mix and leaving the games to the gamers.

 

[JustKim]

I believe a certain designer at TSR came up with a collectable card game long before Magic hit the bricks and Lorraine shot the idea down. Later when Magic was going hog wild she came to the design team and said "So where is OUR collectable card game?"

Based on the Spellfire card game that TSR offered in competition to Magic, I think it's safe to say they were completely surprised and not prepared to deal with the card game fad. Spellfire was an extremely crude game that became largely unplayable within the first few expansions as the nature of the basic numbers game really restricted the kind of cards that could be released to just bigger and bigger numbers.

If TSR really had a CCG on the burner, I think their offering would have been a little more impressive. They did release another one, Blood War, which was quite different. But it was just as inelegant as most of the bandwagon CCG fare of the day, if not quite as bad as Spellfire.

So no, I don't believe TSR was working on a CCG, and I don't believe Lorraine was the only one at TSR without a finger on the pulse of the industry. The entire company had stopped paying attention to its customers and the direction of gaming, and ceased to be relevant. That took a united front of ignorance.

 

[rounser]

So no, I don't believe TSR was working on a CCG

I don't see anywhere in that post where it was suggested they were. All that was said was that a staff member proposed it and it was dismissed.

I don't believe Lorraine was the only one at TSR without a finger on the pulse of the industry. The entire company had stopped paying attention to its customers and the direction of gaming, and ceased to be relevant. That took a united front of ignorance.

How do you know?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Nope, she could not speak to the dead...

I'd say she was LE.

She did often treat the staff like they were a bunch of no-talent hacks...

I believe a certain designer at TSR came up with a collectable card game long before Magic hit the bricks and Lorraine shot the idea down. Later when Magic was going hog wild she came to the design team and said "So where is OUR collectable card game?"

Lots of great games were born from the creative minds at TSR in the late 80's and 90's. Lorraine hated the industry and never understood it. She would have been better off staying out of the mix and leaving the games to the gamers.

Yeah, I was refering to you. You're a random schmuck who seems to think we should all immidiately believe everything you say despite being a random schmuck, and you revived this thread when it was more then a week old.