First WotC decides not to renew Paizo's license to produce Dragon/Dungeon. Now, Margaret Weis announces this: http://www.dragonlance.com/features/articles/10040.aspx
This isn't overly upsetting. These folks have produced all the d20 for Dragonlance anyone could want (OK, I really do want to see all of the classic DL mods updated; doubtful since the license expires at year's end). With this fresh news, the internet buzz can be heard even in the peaceful meadows of this blog. What does it mean? Is Wizards prepping for 4th edition? Have their corporate masters gone off the deep end? Eh, who cares really. This freelancer won't make any predictions because such time and thought is better spent on writing. (Of course, once official news is given, let the bitching or celebrating begin!)
6 comments:
It's a shame to see Dragonlance out of the hands of Margaret Weis, even though I'm not a huge fan of the setting.
It was nice seeing a setting in the hands of someone who gave birth to it (ewwww) and nurtured it for so many years.
Still, business is business and I don't see why Wizards would choose to let the license expire if they didn't think they could make more money off of Dragonlance by releasing their own products.
I find the whole Digital Initiative thing much more depressing, considering Wizards track record with E-Tools and their inability to get their own website working (an official message board without a working search function???).
WotC has been releasing some great print products, so maybe they'll surprise everyone and carry that quality over in to this here Intarweb thing.
Well, as folks are pointing out, MW's press release doesn't actually say it was WotC who didn't renew the license. Of course, with everything else that is happening, it's the likely conclusion. As for DI, I doubt I'll be getting involved unless there's a place for freelancers. You and I are from the old school--give me print or give me death (or is that liberty?)!
I still don't think 4e is coming anytime soon ... but the consolidation suggests to me that Hasbro may be considering selling D&D as a property. It's harder to sell something that massive when there's outstanding licenses with 3rd parties. Purely random speculation on my part, of course.
Monte Cook also had an excellent observation - namely, the "smart" move by Paizo would've been to immediately announce two d20/OGL magazines, say "Labyrinth" and "Wyvern" - with content similar to "Dragon" and "Dungeon". The fact that they aren't, and that Pathfinder is clearly being labelled as a product instead of a periodical, had Monte speculating why Paizo wouldn't continue pushing out magazines.
I hadn't gotten much use out of them lately, but I'll miss both Dragon and Dungeon. They were a great spot to pitch short ideas - if you got published, it was a great springboard for other things (at least it was for me!). There's pretty much no print publication left for a newbie freelancer to pitch 2,000 word gaming articles. It's all .PDF now.
The whole "it's not a magazine, just a monthly subscription-based book" was kind of odd. Paizo mentioned it often and emphatically enough that I can believe Monte's non-compete agreement theory.
Speaking of licenses, it was awesome to see Green Ronin picking up the Song of Ice and Fire!
That pick-up by Green Ronin is *awesome*. I can't wait to see how they handle GRRM's work.
It also sounds like "Song of Ice and Fire" may be a brand-new, stand alone RPG - i.e., not d20, not True20, not OGL. Curious to see what they come up with.
I'm not as excited over GR's license nab as I haven't read the books yet. I know, I should be beaten (especially since Brad bought me the first novel some time ago).
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