Freelancing (or hobbylancing as I like calling it) has been a real pleasure over the years. Is it really 2007? Have I been published now for 6 years? It's almost been like a dream and I've been enjoying every moment (even though I'll never be paid for all of those moments). Despite the fair number of print books my name has been attached to, I'm also grateful to have carved a little niche in the pdf community. Sales of gaming pdfs can only be on the rise with the advent of newer and faster technologies to download, transport, and read them. Guess I'll be sticking around to give gamers something to read.
Which leads nicely into more discussion of Scot's and my new company venture--Tricky Owlbear Productions. I just emailed WotC to see if using the owlbear name in our company's name would be OK. I'm sure it will take a few days to reply, knowing Wizards. In the meantime, we downloaded the publishing start-up package available from RPGNow and Scot has been perusing its contents. He plans on retaining a lawyer's services to incorporate our little venture once a name is decided upon (or cleared for use). I'm looking forward to putting out products my way (although, admittedly, I did that with my Ronin Arts stuff as there was little, if any, interference from Phil). Certainly, the whole thing will be a learning experience if nothing else. Does the pdf world need yet another company in the already muddy waters. Nah, but there has never been a better time to jump in and give it a go!
In writing news, my pdf for Skortched 'Urf has been accepted and my payment already delivered (a sure-fire reason to write more for them). Adventurer Essentials: Torch will hopefully be ready for sale before too long. I've been given the go-ahead for another one. Now I'm working on the locales project for Highmoon with all due diligence. The "Museum of Infamous Histories" will, at this point, be a multi-system pdf, featuring stats for d20, True20, Castles & Crusades, and perhaps even OSRIC. A fine looking map of the museum was done by Lonnie Ezell of the Dragons Landing podcast fame: http://www.dragonslanding.com/dli/
It seems where the latter part of 2006 was on a steady decline, work-wise, that was only a slope before the next hill. I've built up plenty of steam during the descent. Whether or not I shoot over the next rise triumphantly, I've sure as hell been enjoying the ride.
3 comments:
I don't know why you checked with WotC about Owlbear. It's not a trademarked name, and it's in the SRD, so it's not even product identity. But since you asked, you're more likely to be told no, because lawyers do that, if you ever get an anwer.
You can incorporate without a lawyer's assistance, btw. I'm fairly certain Neal didn't use one, and he's an LLC. Nor did my friend who's setting up a crafting business.
ACtually, I received an answer (sort of) from Rich Redman already...see my new post for the response.
Owlbear is tricky since there is not inidication of a source before TSR created it. But EverQuest used the image and things like Nethack used the name over the years, so it is probably likely not something they would have grounds to go after.
And as for the lawyer, I used a service for the creation and they act as the agent on file. Which means they get any legal documents from anyone trying to contact me on paperwork, but otherwise all they do is forward it. However I take use of the ones at my day job for any research I need (I fix their computers after all, they can't do any work without it.) :)
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