Press The Arneson Estate views The Age of the Wolf as a fake Blackmoor Publication

[Gradine]

Here is the full design team behind the product:
The Design Team Behind Blackmoor Age of the Wolf

What's absolutely shocking is seeing Ari Marmell's name attached to this. It's difficult to believe someone like him would be roped in to such a dubious production...

 

[Dire Bare]

Here is the full design team behind the product:
The Design Team Behind Blackmoor Age of the Wolf

What's absolutely shocking is seeing Ari Marmell's name attached to this. It's difficult to believe someone like him would be roped in to such a dubious production...

Don't blame the contributing authors for the actions of the publishing company.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Here is the full design team behind the product:
The Design Team Behind Blackmoor Age of the Wolf

What's absolutely shocking is seeing Ari Marmell's name attached to this. It's difficult to believe someone like him would be roped in to such a dubious production...

Seems very likely that Ari did some freelance writing and is not behind-the-curtains involved. I would hope so, at least. I really can't imagine it.

 

[borringman]

Why does EVERYTHING involving the estates of Gygax or Arneson end up with these ridiculous amateurish public IP feuds? Whether it's Gygax's widow feuding with his sons, or whatever this is, what is it about those 1970s people that this is just... constant?

I don't own the place but I ask you refrain from talking like it's "those people". There's nothing at all unusual about what's going on here. The explanation is very simple: Con artists trying to ride dead people's coattails.

TTRPG publishing has very low cost of entry; there's more content published every year than there are atoms in the universe. While I'm typing this, 947,843 new 5E 3PP products have been released.* With consumers so overwhelmed with product, everyone's scrambling to get attention. To some that means blazing a new path, to others, it's modifying existing product like 5E. But then there are particularly odious folk that will use names like TSR or Gygax or Arneson to gain instant recognition. And in this case, it worked.

Every estate and brand with name recognition has to defend itself from this kind of fraud. Like, constantly. As a (former) engineer I've personally seen knock-offs and products of corporate espionage; this business model is so common it usually doesn't make the news. The reasons this is a story are A) it started as a PR stunt about a "lost Arneson work" and B) gaming nerds tend to have very strong feelings (I'm no exception) so it was guaranteed to get a rise out of us.

*mild exaggeration. Mild.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Every estate and brand with name recognition has to defend itself from this kind of fraud. Like, constantly. As a (former) engineer I've personally seen knock-offs and products of corporate espionage; this business model is so common it usually doesn't make the news. The reasons this is a story are A) it started as a PR stunt about a "lost Arneson work" and B) gaming nerds tend to have very strong feelings (I'm no exception) so it was guaranteed to get a rise out of us.

Yeah. I looked at the letter from the Arneson estate, and I thought that there were two possible scenarios:

1. Grifters using Arneson's name to advance themselves.

2. A well-meaning attempt to get a work out that ended up in a miscommunication when the company realized that, oh no, there might be trademark and licensing issues that they hadn't considered.

The more I see, the more I am inclined to believe (1). Guess we will find out for sure soon enough.

 

[Distracted DM]

And — we discovered they are not giving the "Age of the Wolf" away for free, but instead "shadow selling" their book at GenCon 2024. The admission fee for their 14 paid events at GenCon is $48 per person and comes with a "free Age of the Wolf book." Do you think an unknown company's first publication could sell out all 14 events at GenCon for $48 a head if they weren't using Dave Arneson's name and the Blackmoor trademark to promote it? We don't believe so. They are using the Arneson and Blackmoor names to sell a publication we can only believe is a fake.

Even if they were giving the copies away at a free admission event or simply handing them out gratis to people on the street, it still infringes on the Arneson family's rights. Infringement does not have to involve money changing hands — the law is about publication and distribution. One would think that in this situation, ethics demand transparency and cooperation at the very least.

This is messed up. And yeah, incredibly ignorant of intellectual property law. "We're giving it away for free so we don't need your permission!" ... Yeah, that's not how it works.

 

[Nylanfs]

You could also talk to W. Robert Reed from Code Monkey Publishing, who has the original receipts from 2009.

A word about Age of the Wolf
Age of the Wolf was originally a work in progress in 2008/2009 by Code Monkey Publishing.
The name AotW and the concept and length of the time jump were developed by CMP.
The name by myself solely, the concept and the length of time in the time jump, and some specific actions/current situations over the course of the timeline and the preset in the timeline, were originally worked out by myself and Mr. Arneson.
C.A. Suleiman was under contract for the project. He was the lead writer, under direction.
He never had direct contact with Mr. Arneson over this project.
There was a falling out over the direction of the writing at/after GenCon 2009. The falling out was his failure to deliver on date specified in his contract.
C.A. Suleiman downloaded the works done/in progress at the time (writing and art) from the work FTP site.
He then deleted them from said site, then tried to 'renegotiate' his contract and the direction of the writing.
When denied, He spread lies about us (at the time there were 3 owners) to the other writers and the artists at the time. He then he tried to go to a few other publishers time and get them to develop the project. No one got involved back then.
I knew Mr. Arnerson. I met him for lunch or sometimes dinner down in Orlando when he was teaching at Fullsail. He told me a number of the secrets of Blackmoor over the many conversations we had over the years.
CMP got involved with Blackmoor through a mutual associate, Dustin Clingman at Zeitgeist Game. We released a a few of the final v3.5 books as well as the single 4th Edition Blackmoor book. We ran the Blackmoor MMRPG for multiple years.
I met a few members of Mr. Arneson family at GenCon 2008. I attended his funeral. I greatly respected the man, his work, and his legacy in the gaming community.
Mr. Arneson was a good man. He was a kind and funny man. I am happy that I was able to call him friend even for a few years before his passing.
Mr. Suleiman playing on Mr. Arneson's name and legacy disgusts me.
While there are some places on the internet I can find that reference AotW and CMP, and I have an email chain with one of my former partners of CMP, I personally do not wish to get involved in a fight over who owns what. I DO want people to know what happened, and not just Mr. Suleiman’s side. I see there is one person who contributed to this new project I consider a friend and respect multiple others who contributed writing and art.
The manuscript back in 2009 was outlined in detail and if memory serves, 25-30 percent complete. Given it has been 15 years and other author’s involved, I will not contest ownership of the manuscript. I would like to see them change the name, but again, I have no interest in a fight over it.
As far as I am concerned all legal right to the name ‘Age of the Wolf’ belong to the Arneson estate.
W. Robert Reed III
Code Monkey Publishing, LLC
Mynex

 

[JohnRTroy]

One of the problems however, I feel should be clarified, is that while the Estate apparently has nabbed rights to the trademark, they do not have any rights to the Blackmoor setting, anymore than the Gygax Estate has rights to the Greyhawk settings or D&D.

The Estate has nabbed the trademark, and apparently WoTC felt it prudent to change the name of Blackmoor to Arn, but there's a lot up in the air. They don't appear to have IP rights, and a lot of this stuff was done with agreements with WoTC, along with (perhaps) Dave Arneson's approval. Note the press release doesn't say anything about legality. For all we know, this could be covered in another old contract.

I'm going to provide some links for folks. Like anything else, it's always easy to look at one press release and immediately take sides, but there's probably a more complex dynamic here:

Background on some of the rights: [Blackmoor5e] Age of the Wolf to be released for free after 15 years! - The Piazza

Some thoughts on the trademarks from a few site:

Blackmoor Trademark Claimed by Arneson Estate | Original D&D Discussion

The Blackmoor Trademark has been claimed by the David Arneson Estate and has been licensed to the company called Fellowship of the Thing Ltd. The company has previously created the documentary

odd74.proboards.com

Blackmoor Trademark Claimed by Arneson Estate Documentary Makers Say

The company known as The Fellowship of the Thing, creators of the documentary Secrets of Blackmoor are looking to expand their business int...

blackmoormystara.blogspot.com

Some additional background -- a few folks have found the people who are overseeing the estate might be a little too, shall we say, "aggressive", in their claims of ownership, opinions from folks who knew Dave back in the day.

Bad Actors Slandering Tonisborg - Page 2

Bad Actors Slandering Tonisborg - Page 2

www.therpgsite.com

I don't know who's in the right, but I do believe that (a) people need to do enough independent research first before rushing to judgement, and (b) it's probably not a good idea for the fight to be done with press releases.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Even more messy -- the PDF is available for download: https://ink-bat.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IB_AOTW.pdf

But looking on page 200, it says:

Blackmoor: Age of the Wolf is copyright © C.A. Suleiman. This book was created under the auspices, and with the kind understanding but no direct involvement, of Wizards of the Coast. Published by Studio Ink Bat | 2024. All rights reserved.

That's a vague statement. Is this covered under license or not?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why does EVERYTHING involving the estates of Gygax or Arneson end up with these ridiculous amateurish public IP feuds? Whether it's Gygax's widow feuding with his sons, or whatever this is, what is it about those 1970s people that this is just... constant?

That sounds like blaming the victim in this case. These people may just be garden variety scammers who are using Arneson's name.