Star Frontiers and WotC? Is something in the works?

[darjr]

I received an email about the Star Frontiers magazines on Drive Thru, you can read it below. This coupled with the original books on drive thru and Mike Mearls 5e Starfrontiers game at GaryCon it makes me wonder if there is some plan or another with WotC and Starfrontiers, or whishful thinking on my part.

Hello explorers!

With Wizards of the Coast now releasing the original Star Frontiers rules and modules here on DriveThruRPG, they have suspended my permissions to post those materials. As part of this process, they have asked me to remove any products that contain those rules, modules, or any republished Dragon Magazine articles. Right now this only effects 14 of the 25 Star Frontiersman issues.

However, they may also request that all the issues of both magazines come down. While we are hoping that won't be the case, it is within their rights as the copyright holders on the original IP that this material is based off of. I'll let you know when I hear more.

To that end, any affected magazine issues or other materials will be removed from the site by mid-March. If we only have to remove the original materials, the affected Star Frontiersman issues will go off-line until I can remove the Dragon articles from the issues and repost them.

Thanks for all your support over the years and as always, keep exploring!

- Tom Stephens

 

[Thomas Bowman]

They've also re-released the first four editions of Dungeons and Dragons, so maybe they plan to make all editions of that game available and they also plan to rerelease Star Frontiers, and GammaWorld, and Alternity as well! That is what I'm thinking they plan to do. They can earn extra money by selling these old games to the public. Maybe they won't make new products for these games, but they can certainly sell these old games, no reason to leave them out of print, is there? Parker Brothers still sells the old Monopoly board game after all.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Today the old RPG IPs (intellectual property) can be a gold mine for the videogames and cine industries, and we can't forget WotC is by Hasbro, a toy company who may wish to have a blockbuster franchise like Transformers o Star Wars. In the right hands these old titles could resurrect and make a lot of money. My opinion is a reboot of Star Frontiers is possible, but I wonder about the possibility of mixing the background of Star Frontiers and Star*Drive.

Let's imagine there is an agreement with Warner Brothers, and a movie about Star Frontiers could create a new blockbuster saga like Star Treck or Star Wars.

But before we should wait until to see the psionic powers in D&D 5th Ed. Even a return of Spelljammer may be a transition playtesting towards the reboot of Star Frontiers (and a new edition of d20 Modern and d20 Future).

What do you think about a reboot mixing things from different settins (races, factions, etc)? If there is a Star Frontiers reboot, I would miss my favorite races from Star*Drive.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

I'm so-o glad I splurged and bought all the Star Frontiersman e-mags in POD format. I also picked up several of the modules in POD, and about 8 or 9 POD's of both the Alpha Rules and the Knight Hawks. Oh, and...hell...I'm pretty sure I have POD's of EVERYTHING that was released as the "Remastered" system. Yes, expensive, but man-o-man am I ever so glad that I did!

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Parmandur]

I wouldn't be surprised at all; I think it's absurd that they didn't push a 3.x version 15 years ago.

 

[darjr]

Wait?! There was a 3x version in the sci-fi splat for d20 Modern.

 

[Parmandur]

Wait?! There was a 3x version in the sci-fi splat for d20 Modern.

I wouldn't call that "pushing" precisely.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

"Suspended permissions to post materials", "remove any products that contain rules, modules, or republished articles", and "request that all issues of both magazines come down"...

Yup! Business as usual for WotC; knocking down the people who look after their discarded properties (and fans!) until they're good and ready to deal with any of it for another buck. I don't mind admitting that I have not thought highly of this company in a very long time. And any speculation or news concerning them is anything but inspiring, much less hopeful.

 

[darjr]

I wouldn't call that "pushing" precisely.

Yea it wasn’t, that’s tru. I didn’t know about it until after d20 Modern was no longer being published.

 

[darjr]

"Suspended permissions to post materials", "remove any products that contain rules, modules, or republished articles", and "request that all issues of both magazines come down"...

Yup! Business as usual for WotC; knocking down the people who look after their discarded properties (and fans!) until they're good and ready to deal with any of it for another buck. I don't mind admitting that I have not thought highly of this company in a very long time. And any speculation or news concerning them is anything but inspiring, much less hopeful.

That last bit. Note it hasn’t happened. Sorry to burst your bubble but only the stuff that actually has WotC content was asked to be taken down. And not the author and publisher of the magazine also understands.

Hate if you have to but I find that kind bile is poisonous.