SDLeary Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 58 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said: I'm a huge Goodies fan. But we've spent all our money on securing the rights to Metal Mickey and Rentaghost, so there's sadly nothing left for Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie. Don't worry though - we do have a couple of fondly remembered British TV shows quite well represented in an upcoming release. WOO! Dad's Army for the win! SDLeary 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenwheeldancer Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 15 hours ago, lawrence.whitaker said: Don't worry though - we do have a couple of fondly remembered British TV shows quite well represented in an upcoming release. Robin Of Sherwood confirmed!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Questbird Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 19 hours ago, TrippyHippy said: I'm sure it's been said lots before, but a licence has got to be worth it to the company. Big license deals can quickly bog down as companies have to get canon checked and the fanbase can have all sorts of awkward expectations. On top of this the bottom line of market distribution has to get levied up against the actual overhead cost of the licence itself. If TDM got the Star Trek licence, they'd probably have to drop everything else to write it rapidly, print it with full colour stills from the show on glossy paper, and distribute it to a wider chain of retail outlets. Licences like this only seem to last a few years anyway. In many ways, Call of Cthulhu was the greatest licence ever because not many people had ever heard of it and the game's market actually enhanced awareness of Lovecraft's writings - allowing it to build in the long term against any disruption from pop culture trends. Weren't Lovecraft's writings mostly public domain by the time Chaosium started writing Call of Cthulhu? I'm sure that interesting genres or settings could be similarly revived from past works without necessarily requiring licences. Except perhaps in the USA where there hasn't been any public domain releases for some years due to copyright extensions -- now standing at author's death + 70 years. Maybe something from two centuries ago could serve... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippyHippy Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 5 hours ago, Questbird said: Weren't Lovecraft's writings mostly public domain by the time Chaosium started writing Call of Cthulhu? I'm sure that interesting genres or settings could be similarly revived from past works without necessarily requiring licences. Except perhaps in the USA where there hasn't been any public domain releases for some years due to copyright extensions -- now standing at author's death + 70 years. Maybe something from two centuries ago could serve... I'm not sure they were public domain back in 1981, and I'm pretty sure that I've read that the license was obtained from Arkham House or some such. In more recent years, Lovecraft's work has become public domain - which is why Delta Green went independent amongst other things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soltakss Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 On 1/15/2017 at 8:29 PM, goldenwheeldancer said: Robin Of Sherwood confirmed!!!!!!!!!!! You can do that with Merrie England:Robyn Hode, or you will do soon. 1 Quote Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. www.soltakss.com/index.html Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime Evil Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 6 hours ago, soltakss said: You can do that with Merrie England:Robyn Hode, or you will do soon. Please...tell us more. How far away is this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prime Evil Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 On 15/01/2017 at 3:42 PM, lawrence.whitaker said: I'm a huge Goodies fan. But we've spent all our money on securing the rights to Metal Mickey and Rentaghost, so there's sadly nothing left for Brooke-Taylor, Garden and Oddie. Don't worry though - we do have a couple of fondly remembered British TV shows quite well represented in an upcoming release. I don't know that many people refer to Metal Mickey as "fondly remembered". How about a setting based on Press Gang - it was written by Steven Moffat before he worked his way up to Sherlock and Doctor Who, so there's some instant street cred there.... But personally I'd love to see a Max Headroom sourcebook with Edison Carter and Theora Jones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence.whitaker Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Quote I don't know that many people refer to Metal Mickey as "fondly remembered". Neither would I. So what makes you think I was talking about Metal Mickey there.... ;-) Quote The Design Mechanism: Publishers of Mythras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippyHippy Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Actually, regarding characters in Luther Arkwright, you did a few PreGen characters from TV shows and literature before (including Jerry Cornelius, Doctor Who, etc). These were really cool and really accentuates the multiverse qualities of the game. Could I make a request/suggestion of doing an entire book of these - or maybe a freebie source, if there are copyright/trademark issues. Or maybe just historical figures. Having Paul Muad'Dib, Doctor Strange, Rasputin and the Kemp twins from Spandau Ballet in the same party would be cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence.whitaker Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 7 hours ago, TrippyHippy said: Actually, regarding characters in Luther Arkwright, you did a few PreGen characters from TV shows and literature before (including Jerry Cornelius, Doctor Who, etc). These were really cool and really accentuates the multiverse qualities of the game. Could I make a request/suggestion of doing an entire book of these - or maybe a freebie source, if there are copyright/trademark issues. Or maybe just historical figures. Having Paul Muad'Dib, Doctor Strange, Rasputin and the Kemp twins from Spandau Ballet in the same party would be cool. It's too fraught with trademark and ownership issues, even for a freebie. For a convention scenario with limited distribution of the character sheets its fine, but the moment we release something - even free - as a public resource, we stray into all kinds of minefields. I agree its fun, but I'm afraid we can't produce an entire book of such NPCs. Even if we confined it to historical figures, it would require a lot of research and production effort for something that's likely to have very limited appeal. Quote The Design Mechanism: Publishers of Mythras Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deleriad Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 10 minutes ago, lawrence.whitaker said: It's too fraught with trademark and ownership issues, even for a freebie. For a convention scenario with limited distribution of the character sheets its fine, but the moment we release something - even free - as a public resource, we stray into all kinds of minefields. I agree its fun, but I'm afraid we can't produce an entire book of such NPCs. Even if we confined it to historical figures, it would require a lot of research and production effort for something that's likely to have very limited appeal. I think a fan-written collection stored in the downloads here would be good fun. Or at least a thread of them. The Goodies as valhalla agents would be quite awesome. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soltakss Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 11 hours ago, Prime Evil said: Please...tell us more. How far away is this? Summer, June, hopefully. I don't want to steal Paolo's thunder, though. Quote Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. www.soltakss.com/index.html Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosenMcStern Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 12 hours ago, Prime Evil said: Please...tell us more. How far away is this? Not much. Simon and I are currently working on the text to finalise it. The problem is that the last time I triumphally announced "WE RELEASE ON THAT DATE"... we missed the date So no announcements this time. You will find the books available at a given moment in timespace, but it will take Dr. Who to guess which moment. Speaking of which, I really loved the characters that Loz wrote for his Luther Arkwright convention game, and I must find a way to play that John Steed at some moment, but he (Loz, not Steed) is right in saying that diffusing that kind of stuff is dangerous and potentially negative for the interest of the customers themselves. You can find six Marvel/Disney characters I have done on these boards, and it would be a great fun for me to make more, but I have already done too much. Have a look at what we have done with our favourite TV, movie and comic book heroes and proceed similarly to create your own. This is the only legitimate way of proceeding. Quote Proud member of the Evil CompetitionTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
g33k Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 7 hours ago, RosenMcStern said: ... but he (Loz, not Steed) is right in saying that diffusing that kind of stuff is dangerous and potentially negative for the interest of the customers themselves. You can find six Marvel/Disney characters I have done on these boards, and it would be a great fun for me to make more, but I have already done too much. Have a look at what we have done with our favourite TV, movie and comic book heroes and proceed similarly to create your own. This is the only legitimate way of proceeding. Yeah; I think that MOST settings' IP-holders will let MOST fan-work pass largely-unchallenged; particularly 1-off "tribute" pieces like individual characters, named spell effects, etc. But when an effort approaches "complete setting" status, it may get a bit dicey. If there's an existing, licensed game (on the market, or coming to market)... even dicier. And for the actual PUBLISHER of a rival-RPG to release a "freebie" port of such an IP into their own game... yeahNO. That, I think, is something that virtually every IP-owner will object to. That's my biggest qualm at the "official" status various publishers place upon BRPCentral: we no longer get the "it's just a fan-site" free pass. :-( I don't believe that anything currently hosted here will get any Official Ire from anyone, and I hope it stays that way! Quote C'es ne pas un .sig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simlasa Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Sometimes the 'wink and a nod' versions of popular IP are just as fun. Like some of classic Traveller's who's who sample character profiles or parody NPCs in WFRP and Rogue Trader (such as the Inquisitor (in)famously named Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau). It's the specific names that draw fire... so a write-up of an adventurous archeologist named Nevada Smith oughtta fly under the radar. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippyHippy Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Hmmm.....well maybe a databank, or maybe just a big book of Pregens from different eras/worlds without challenging anyone's IP? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simlasa Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 2 hours ago, TrippyHippy said: Hmmm.....well maybe a databank, or maybe just a big book of Pregens from different eras/worlds without challenging anyone's IP? 'The Book of Nots'... Not-Dr. Who, Not-James Bond, Not-Captain Kirk... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbraldragon Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 I'd like to see something more done with Korantia, I love that setting - I added elves, orcs and savage halflings to the mix. I'm almost done with my Mythras version of Darksun, I left out the Half Giants for several reasons, using Prana for psionics as per Luther Arkwright. I also kind of made a patch for Star Frontiers using M-Space and Luther Arkwright, it felt seamless, we left the albedo screens as is and used the skills from M-space. Oh and a Mythras version of TMNT, leaned lot on Historia Rodentia and Luther Arkwright also patchwork, but again, worked like a charm. You're right, though. It would be nice to have all this work done for you ahead of time and in one nice bound book. Darksun and Star Frontiers I'd buy as soon as it was available. Thieve's World, Elder Scrolls, and First Law would def be on the list as well. Instead of Black Company (although much respect to Glen Cook!) how about Malazan? Perhaps a SciFi setting based on The Expanse? Gamma World? The great thing about Mythras is that it is flexible and well developed enough to handle anything you throw at it. Anything from Gothic Horror to High Fantasy to Historical settings. The more you play, the easier the game mechanics get. I'm at the point where I don't have to look up as many things in the book as I used to and so are my players. I even had one Convert from one of the other "pop" fantasy rpgs. She now sees the error of her...er...um...the advantages of playing Mythras over other game systems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrippyHippy Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 2 hours ago, Simlasa said: 'The Book of Nots'... Not-Dr. Who, Not-James Bond, Not-Captain Kirk... Well, yeah - but you could also just name them by the archetype they represent. A Book of Archetypes so to speak. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raleel Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 A book if "how to tweak the system do perform a particular style of game" would be useful actually. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
umbraldragon Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 (edited) 19 hours ago, Doug nordwall said: A book if "how to tweak the system do perform a particular style of game" would be useful actually. The aforementioned "Stark Wars" supplement was an example of how to tweak the system to a particular style of game. Lots of notes in that. and it works....hehe. Edited January 19, 2017 by umbraldragon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missiletoebass Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 On 1/14/2017 at 11:42 PM, lawrence.whitaker said: I'm a huge Goodies fan. Can we at least get stats for Kitten Kong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soltakss Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 3 hours ago, Missiletoebass said: Can we at least get stats for Kitten Kong? And what are the Special Effects for Ecky Thump? 1 Quote Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. www.soltakss.com/index.html Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mankcam Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) On 22/01/2017 at 1:59 AM, soltakss said: And what are the Special Effects for Ecky Thump? Athletics roll at Formidable level (half rolls) vs Bash Effect with a Black Pudding. If fail, it's an automatic head shot and the opponent is instantly knocked out. Of course it needs goofy sound effects and a stylised Lancastrian accent to pull off, to the background of silly music heh heh Edited January 23, 2017 by Mankcam Quote " Sure it's fun, but it is also well known that a D20 roll and an AC is no match against a hefty swing of a D100% and a D20 Hit Location Table!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruprecht Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 None. Design Mechanism should learn from the licensing experience with RuneQuest and instead develop their own world(s). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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