WotC got sued, can't remember the details

[Gundark]

Well this happened back a while ago (pre- magic) . I was reading that WotC was this struggling company that was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the fact they had lost this copyright lawsuit against palladium books. Along came Richard Garfield with a bunch of games. One of them was robo rally that WotC said no to (they did later publish it). When asked what else he was working on he was like well there is this card game that I'm working on (which was magic the gathering), and the rest is history.
Now the problem is that it's been a while since I read that article and can't remember how acurate the above details are. So I was wondering if there is anyone out there who does know the details about this lawsuit that palladium books (I'm pretty sure it was them) had with WotC. Anyone?

 

[Crothian]

It was Palladiumbooks. Wizards produced an RPG that had conversation rules to many other RPGs, but didn't get the premmision of the companies. I think that was it.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

From my hazy memory, you are pretty close.

The actual product was WoTC's first published book: Primal Order.

It was an add on system for any RPG, that dealt with gods and higher realms. It was a pretty cool book that included things like how much divine power a diety would get for having X number of worshipers on Y number of planes. It also had concepts like primal damage which was not stopped by anything but primal defense.

I've always wanted to use it, but wasn't playing FRPGs at the time it came out (most of my time was spent with Hero and CoC). When I heard that WoTC was going to do an updated version of Dieties and Demigods, I was hoping that it would be an updated version of Primal Order (rather than just and epic level monster manual). I'm sure you can guess how disappointed I was with Dieties and Demigods...

At the end they had rules for adapting the system to pretty much every major game system out at the time.

Evidently Kevin Siembieda took great offense to the fact that they did not get permission for the conversion rules and promptly sicced his lawyers on the fledgeling RPG company.

Edited for clarity

 

[Dirigible]

Now, thanks to the magic of the OtherTime Viewer (tm), we can look back in time to see what had happened if that lawsuit had suceeded...

 

[Krug]

It was Palladiumbooks. Wizards produced an RPG that had conversation rules to many other RPGs, but didn't get the premmision of the companies. I think that was it.

Of course u mean.. conversion rules...

 

[Gundark]

Now, thanks to the magic of the OtherTime Viewer (tm), we can look back in time to see what had happened if that lawsuit had suceeded...

I think it did suceed, thus why WotC was near bankruptcy. Also this maybe why Sembedia seems not to like WotC.

 

[Impeesa]

That, and Sembieda is insanely protective of his IP, having been on the receiving end of the cease-and-desist beatstick thanks to McFarlane Comics - that's why today they have Nightbane instead of Nightspawn.

--Impeesa--

 

[Gundark]

That, and Sembieda is insanely protective of his IP, having been on the receiving end of the cease-and-desist beatstick thanks to McFarlane Comics - that's why today they have Nightbane instead of Nightspawn.

--Impeesa--

was looking...your from Prince George BC? me too

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Kevin Siembieda - the man who wrote a letter to White Wolf Magazine complaining that they never had any articles supporting his games... Then when they finally received one told them 'No you can't publish it...' The man (and his company) has been relegated to my 'Not Worth Bothering With' file.

I am never buying any Palladium books beyond their Castles, Weapons, & Armor books, which I bought in the early '80s.

The Auld Grump

 

[JacktheRabbit]

That, and Sembieda is insanely protective of his IP


--Impeesa--

Which is funny as all hell when you consider what a steaming pile of donkey turds the Palladium Role Playing Games are. Sure there are some excellent ideas in the games but the mechanics themselves are absolutely horrible. One would have a hard time doing worse if they tried.