SAGA Edition: Licensing?

[fireinthedust]

I'm looking in the Star Wars SAGA Edition books that I've got, and I'm seeing that none of the content is Open Content. So, it's 3e but not OGL, fine.

What I'm wondering is this:

1) Who owns the rights to the system: Wizards or Lucasfilm?

2) If I wanted to design some SAGA material NOT for Star Wars, would I need to clear it by Lucasfilm? Or could I just talk to WOTC and get their permission?

Obviously it would involve talking to lawyers, and I realize that there may be reluctance towards using/licensing Wizards-owned rules for non-4e material.

Still, they kept up with Star Wars after 4e came out. I assumed it was because the license from Lucasfilm was just so expensive that they didn't want to keep it up in this economy. That and/or they're moving on with those products, and want to focus on their own brands.

But what is going on with the SAGA rules? Like, could they be sold, or at least OGL'd without the Jedi content? Or case-by-case licensing?


How do I find this stuff out?

 

[fireinthedust]

Okay, so I've done some research and found nothing on the Wizards site. They basically state for licensing that they only talk to legitimate industry brokers and agents. So... no questions answered re: that?

I mean, is it too much to ask if they've got plans for SAGA edition after the last book prints?

I'm going to Snailmail them. The website won't even let me email them directly!

 

[malraux]

I mean, is it too much to ask if they've got plans for SAGA edition after the last book prints?

IIRC, the license expired, so no, they don't have any additional plans.

 

[fireinthedust]

my worry is that they're just not interested in anything non-4e. I like 4e plenty, play it all the time, sure. I'd just like to know what it would take to work on a SAGA-system product.

 

[pawsplay]

You would have to ask Wizards whether they own the rules. I suspect they do, as they were pretty explicit about using Star Wars to test some 4e concepts. Wizards does not support the OGL at this time, although most of the documents are still available on their site. It might be possible to sub-license the rules, although the cost would likely be high.

My non-lawyerly suggestion would be to identify what you like in Saga and imitate the concepts using your own words and ideas.

 

[Wicht]

It shouldn't be too much work, using the SRD and the OGL, to reskin a lot of what you like from Saga, putting it in your own words.

 

[malraux]

my worry is that they're just not interested in anything non-4e. I like 4e plenty, play it all the time, sure. I'd just like to know what it would take to work on a SAGA-system product.

If you want to build upon the SAGA rules, but not worry about specific Star Wars IP, then your best bet is to make it fit in the OGL somehow.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Interesting question. The books themselves all say Copyright Lucasfilm, but they also say that no portion can be reproduced without the permission of WotC. However, given that the latter statement references D&D, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just boilerplate.

Your best bet probably would be to check out Gary Sarli's e20 System project, which is an attempt to draw inspiration from Saga Edition for a generic, OGL-driven ruleset.