Why no official game?

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Last I heard, working with Paramount was a bit of a pain in the ass for FASA. The wikipedia article says Paramount disapproved of some of FASA's treatment of Next Generation stuff and pulled the license. If true, I can see Paramount deciding that going into the depth of treatment that would be needed for an RPG isn't worth their time and I can see just about any RPG company deciding that Paramount's level of management would be too restrictive on interesting content.

Yeah. One word explains why no Trek RPG: Paramount. Way back in... mid or late '80's I participated in chat-room simulation of Star Trek on AOL. It was reasonably popular. Different ships and their "crew" would rotate through the chat room every hour. Paramount came in and said, "NOT ALLOWED." It all had to be divested of any reference to Trek ships, characters, anything about the fictional world of Star Trek had to be genericized out of it or it would't be permitted at all.

Perfectly within their rights. It IS their IP. But it's just one example of how draconian they were and almost certainly still are about Trek. If they won't let a bunch of geeks casually "play Star Trek" in a public chat room then what must it be like to be even a large and reputable RPG company wanting to do something outrageous like, say, create some new ships, new technology, new alien races, new characters... create new CANON for the Star Trek universe? "There's not enough beer in the world Spleen." They tried it once or twice and just decided they'd rather CONTROL it than risk seeing anyone actually having fun with it, being creative with it in new ways, or worst of all (God forbid) making profit off of it that didn't go to them.

Has always been my impression anyway.

 

[Morrus]

Last I heard, working with Paramount was a bit of a pain in the ass for FASA. The wikipedia article says Paramount disapproved of some of FASA's treatment of Next Generation stuff and pulled the license. If true, I can see Paramount deciding that going into the depth of treatment that would be needed for an RPG isn't worth their time and I can see just about any RPG company deciding that Paramount's level of management would be too restrictive on interesting content.

And yet two RPG companies (LUG and Decipher) have both published licensed Star Trek RPGs since then. So that's clearly not the case!

 

[Morrus]

Yeah. One word explains why no Trek RPG: Paramount. Way back in... mid or late '80's I participated in chat-room simulation of Star Trek on AOL. It was reasonably popular. Different ships and their "crew" would rotate through the chat room every hour. Paramount came in and said, "NOT ALLOWED." It all had to be divested of any reference to Trek ships, characters, anything about the fictional world of Star Trek had to be genericized out of it or it would't be permitted at all.

Really? How did they come in? They entered the chat room? Why didn't everyone in the chat room just say no?

Paramount can't stop you playing Star Trek themed games. It might be able to stop you publishing them, but you can play what you want. Nobody can prevent that.

Perfectly within their rights. It IS their IP.

Well, no. That isn't within their rights. Society has decided - by enacting laws, or by not enacting laws - that such behaviour is completely condoned. IP rights aren't absolute.

 

[Morrus]

I don't know if it's the "technical" part of it that's the issue, per se.

Wrong word, maybe. And one which I see has prompted two detailed posts!

Maybe not "technical". Maybe "slightly more simulationist than narrativist". I don't know what the right words are.

 

[aramis erak]

Really? How did they come in? They entered the chat room? Why didn't everyone in the chat room just say no?

Paramount can't stop you playing Star Trek themed games. It might be able to stop you publishing them, but you can play what you want. Nobody can prevent that.



Well, no. That isn't within their rights. Society has decided - by enacting laws, or by not enacting laws - that such behaviour is completely condoned. IP rights aren't absolute.

They can, however, bar one from using their trademark terms in public media, at least in the US. They've done so in several cases; I don't know if any ever got to litigation stage, but the US Code allows them to deny public use of the trademark terms. And, if a chatroom maintains a log, it gets into copyright issues, too.

See, thanks to Palladium, BBS's are a form of publication (at least until an appelate court judges otherwise), and the rules for print, not speech, apply. Lots of things that fly in the spoken word don't online. I expect the UK to differ, a lot.

 

[Morrus]

They can, however, bar one from using their trademark terms in public media, at least in the US. They've done so in several cases; I don't know if any ever got to litigation stage, but the US Code allows them to deny public use of the trademark terms.

You can't stop someone talking about your products, excepting libel. You might be able to intimidate someone into thinking you can.

We can talk about Star Trek as much as we like., quite publicly.

 

[amerigoV]

LOL, dangit!! Come on, I've long since sacrificed my soul to Supreme Overlords Pinnacle, Triple Ace, Evil Beagle, and Gun Metal Games...... What else DO YOU WANT FROM ME, @amerigoV????



Okay, the Mass Effect vibe I totally got from the Sci-Fi companion. More like a Mass Effect/Aliens/Serenity mash-up, but almost no Trek vibe for me. I guess part of me thinks no Star Trek RPG should assume miniatures/grid-based combat as its default play mode.

I got the Star Trek vibe from the Last Parsec vs. the SciFi Companion itself.

 

[Lwaxy]

But there's WOIN already. And SaWo does the job well, too as mentioned.

 

[Beleriphon]

You can't stop someone talking about your products, excepting libel. You might be able to intimidate someone into thinking you can.

We can talk about Star Trek as much as we like., quite publicly.

Chatting about Star Trek, and a free form game (on a service one pays for) might be an issue. Because as the game you're using the IP to create content of said IP. A discussion generally falls under fair use. For example I can say Captain Kirk is the worst captain ever and Picard is the most awesomest captain ever. That's fair use as I'm engaging in analaysis and such. But if I'm pretending to be Lt Beleriphone hang with Spock and Bones, using AOLs servers which I pay to use then we have a problem for AOL (not so much for me), since in theory AOL is making money off of my copyright violation.

Is it stupid? Probably. Is it the way the law works? Unfortunately.

 

[Morrus]

Is it stupid? Probably. Is it the way the law works?

Nope. It isn't. You can play any game you like on a chat server. I can play my FASA 1980s Star Trek game at home, in public, at a convention, online, anywhere I want to. The impediment would be the venue's own policies, whether physical or virtual. There is no IP basis in preventing me playing a game I bought.