Mongoose doing Star Trek d20?

[Ghostwind]

I mean, last I checked Hasbro owned all the rights to the Trek license.

Decipher owns the Star Trek license until the year 2011. What they have been doing is investigating the option to sublicense the RPG to a third party, hence the Mongoose rumor. Again, I will say that the rumor is false. This comes directly from the person in charge of Decipher's marketing and from the person in charge of their legal matters, both of whom I have been negotiating with these past months regarding the license.

Ghostwind - any new stuff on the Decipher boards about the LotR license too?

The LotR license is not available. Decipher has said it wasn't on the table and that is all that has been said about it. My discussions have always been about the Star Trek license.

 

[RFisher]

I seem to recall more than one WotC employee saying their RPG business was going to stay away from licenses after the initial spurt of Diablo, Wheel of Time, CoC, &c. A license is more trouble than its worth, with the possible exception of Star Wars.

I wouldn't mind seeing another company take up the CODA banner. Although I wasn't entirely happy with the CODA LotR game, I thought the system had potential.

Who really cares about who is publishing the licensed game, though? Don't most people just adapt the setting to a system they like that fits the setting?

The only Star Trek RPG that really interested me was Prime Directive, but I don't think GURPS would be my first choice for a ST game.

 

[Razuur]

Mongoose isn't getting out of the D20 business. They are just diversifying and strengthening their business model. Mongoose relied heavily in the early days. now that they are established they are finding that they can succeed in other markets as well: mintaures, minature games, other RPG systems...

Mongoose is going to be around for a long time. I am excited to hear what their new license is! I have my hopes... (go DUNE!!!)

Razuur

 

[Arkham]

I wish that Steve Long and Christian Moore still worked on the games with Decipher.

Mike

Oh nonono. I like Steve Long right where he is.
Cranking out Hero books like a caffeine powered robot.

 

[Fyrestryke]

Maybe instead of Dechipher doing their own RPG stuff, they're "sub-contracting" that work to the guys at Mongoose?

Wars RPG was announced recently. Perhaps the partnership goes deeper than that?

More Wars:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1905176201/qid=1105045619/sr=1-30/ref=sr_1_30/104-4182115-1999129?v=glance&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1905176074/qid=1105045649/sr=1-33/ref=sr_1_33/104-4182115-1999129?v=glance&s=books
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1905176104/qid=1105045680/sr=1-41/ref=sr_1_41/104-4182115-1999129?v=glance&s=books

Then, there's this and this. Anybody ever heard of those two games before?

 

[Ghostwind]

Mongoose only has the license for WARS. I can't say anything else because of the NDA. Sorry.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Mongoose only has the license for WARS. I can't say anything else because of the NDA. Sorry.

Which is all well and good to hear...thing is, though, it doesn't explain the now three things connected to Star Trek with Mongoose labelled as a published. Sure, they could be wrong, but that's still something to have those all pop up...

 

[Acid_crash]

WARS is a sci-fi setting I am so very wanting to come out in rpg format, I am glad I clicked into this thread to hear the great news.

 

[jeffh]

Guys, an ISBN means WAY less than people seem to think it does. It means somebody has applied for a number, and that's it. It does not mean the book has been or will be published, or even that the supposed publisher has the necessary legal rights to EVER make it a reality. Mongoose could have applied for one at a time when negotiations for the licence looked good only to have those negotiations fall through. As for the isbndb site that was also referred to, it looks to me like they got their information from Amazon, not the other way 'round.

Neither an Amazon entry nor an ISBN is particularly strong evidence in the face of the supposed publisher denying the book's existence.

BTW, whoever said Mongoose is known for denying rumors that turn out to be true... examples, please? Heaven knows Mongoose is not my favorite D20 company (or even in the top ten), but I know of exactly zero clear examples of them being anything less than honest with their customers.

 

[Ranger REG]

Okay if there is any truth to this whatsoever, how on earth would Hasbro let Mongoose get the rights to do a Trek D20. I mean, last I checked Hasbro owned all the rights to the Trek license.

Man, you must have been in a coma all through Year 2000. Just kidding.

July 2000: Hasbro acquired Last Unicorm Games and the assets including the license to publish Star Trek RPG (license to be expired December 31, 2000) and Dune RPG.

August 2000: GenCon. In the midst of Third Edition debut, Decipher made a surprise announcement that they acquired the license to publish Star Trek RPG from Paramount. Said license to be effective January 1, 2001.

January 2001: former Last Unicorn Games staff were given the option to move to Washington state as WotC announced the shut down of WotC South (formerly the LUG office in LA). Charles Ryan is among a handful that took the offer; others like Steven Long took the severance package.

Spring 2001: Decipher announced the creation of Decipher RPG Studio. Later they hired the ex-LUG, ex-WotC staff to man the in-house game design studio which located, oddly enough at the same LA office building.

Now: Decipher RPG studio is reduced to two people, big names like Steve Long, Kenneth Hite, and Christian Moore have left (as in no longer employees of Decipher, just contracting freelanced writers).