What actually occured between TSR and Role Aids?

[Marius Delphus]

Because one of the arcane matters in trademark law has to do with what *sort* of thing has the name splashed on it.

An over-the-counter medicine is not a line of roleplaying books.

Also not a lawyer, but someone with a passing familiarity with the topic.

 

[WayneLigon]

Good to find out the exact nature of what happened, there. I always liked Role-Aids. I seem to remember them being one of the first companies to pay for having some nice art on their covers, much of which originally appears on novel covers.

 

[thalmin]

I had several discussions with various Mayfair people about this, back in the day. Mayfair and TSr had several legal disputes over Roleaids, and Mayfair nearly always won out. But in the end, Mayfair sold the Roleaids line to TSR and agreed to get out of RPGs. It was cheaper for TSR to buy off Mayfair than keep paying the lawyers.

 

[amethal]

I would suggest that you first check this out if you are interested in the old Role-Aids products:
http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop-special/roleaids/mfg-ra.html

The prices are incredible.

Check out the Demons campaign setting, 7 products for only $13:
http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop-special/roleaids/qps/mfg-rapack5.html

You can find Elves in this bundle, with 10 products for $15:
http://www.mayfairgames.com/shop-special/roleaids/qps/mfg-rapack3.html

Hope You Enjoy,
Flynn

Looks like they want 40 dollars to ship a 6 lb package to the UK.

Oh well, it was a nice idea.

 

[RFisher]

My rule of thumb is that--unless I've investigated a case myself--it is almost always about a minor technical point rather than what I thought (i.e. wanted) it was about, & it was most likely settled out of court instead of resulting in an actual precedence-setting ruling.

The Mayfair/TSR case is one of the few cases in which one of those turned out not to be true. Since the other one was true, however, it kinds of makes the second one moot. (i.e. I didn't really care about any precedent that came out of the case after I learned what the real dispute was.)

I would like to find out what the deal is with the RoleAids IP.

I though Wizards got the rights via the TSR buyout.

They do have the Mythus rights that TSR got from GDW, as some of those books are available through the remnants of the ESD program.

 

[WizarDru]

Me, I was just surprised that any product, back in the '80s, featured the word "AIDS" prominently in its name.

Mainstream media coverage of AIDS was very sparse early-on. It was relatively unknown for years, even though it had been identified as early as 1978. This transcript is of a white-house press conference where they joke about the 'gay plague'...and it's clear that no one's even paying attention at this point to a disease that had, at that point, only killed a few hundred people. The president wouldn't even mention the word AIDS in public until 1985, and didn't really focus much on the topic until 1987. By the late 80s, the AIDS epidemic had started to get more coverage, but it wasn't really considered a mainstream topic during the ROLE-AIDS days.

 

[Valiant]

They really should sell Role Aids either individual PDFs or a bundle CD, I'd buy either. I wonder if they'd consider it (I don't think it'd cost much for them to set that up)?

 

[Flynn]

They really should sell Role Aids either individual PDFs or a bundle CD, I'd buy either. I wonder if they'd consider it (I don't think it'd cost much for them to set that up)?

They probably don't have permission. The material mentioned above is old stock from the warehouse, that kind of thing. Other than that, they probably have no desire to be in the RPG business. The stuff should work with limited translations for 1st Edition, 2nd Edition, C&C, and those kinds of things, and with some moderate work, for 3E/v3.5. That's how I use it currently.

But I don't think we'll ever see the stuff on PDF or on CD, at least not legally.

Enjoy,
Flynn

 

[T. Foster]

WotC could presumably release it on pdf, if they thought there was sufficient demand.

 

[Flynn]

WotC could presumably release it on pdf, if they thought there was sufficient demand.

Now that's a thought...

With Regards,
Flynn