[JLV]

Yes, but the OP wants to launch his via Kickstarter, and as Phil or maybe Steve pointed out, the parent company often winds up holding the bag on something published for their "system" even if it isn't officially sanctioned -- at least in public opinion, and when it comes to Kickstarters, often financially too. As just one example, look no further than the Nightfall issue with the Ogre Designer's Edition Kickstarter. More importantly, something like that could carry implications for the TFT system itself, and I think Steve is trying to retain control of the product right now, with plans to loosen up when he has it where he wants it to be. Even then, his response (as I expected it to be) was basically, "Call me and we can chat about it." Basically the OP is just doing his due diligence by asking and Steve is just doing his by asking to talk.

If the OP just wants to do a fanzine, he could do that electronically out of his home office and send it to folks who ask for it for free. In the old days, people contributed articles, ideas, artwork, letters, etc., to fanzines like that all the time. No one got paid and no one got charged, unless there was an actual printing cost involved, and even then the "editor" charged what the cost was, not anything big. As I recall, subscriptions to such things were basically the cost of mailing -- the editors typed up the thing on a few sheets of paper, maybe ran a few copies on the Public Library's Xerox machine, and folded them into an envelope, and that was about it. Nowadays, it should be free, simply because computer time on your home computer is free, no typewriter ribbons are involved, no envelopes are involved, and no postage is involved since you can e-mail them out.

But more importantly than the logistical aspects, back in those days, RPG gaming was the wild west; anyone who wanted to publish anything just went ahead and didn't worry about it and no one thought it was any kind of big deal in terms of copyright or anything else. I mean, it was only a bunch of crazy kids playing some weird game, wasn't it? Then one day, the hobby grew up and became a multi-million dollar operation and suddenly TSR was hiring lawyers and threatening people with lawsuits over their fanzines. And while that was definitely an overreaction, I think a small company like Steve Jackson Games has to take care of their rights and be concerned about something that could have a potential impact on what is rapidly becoming one of their signature product lines. And even then, Steve just mildly says, "talk to me," which is not an outright refusal, but simply an attempt to understand any issues and defuse any problems that might crop up.

I guess the bottom line is that there's a reason the many fanzines more or less died out (with a few amazing exceptions -- like Alarums and Excursions), and nowadays people tend to be more careful about things like copyright violations or trademark screw-ups; the legal costs can kill EVERYONE involved, even if it was all an innocent mistake or simple misunderstanding to start with. I worked for a defense contracting company (a BIG one, but I won't name any names) back in the early 2000's and they had to draft a policy about using their company logo on polo shirts and coffee cups, because if they did it "wrong" they would have vacated their "legal ownership" of the company logo and anyone else could have simply started using it. Believe it or not. So, in today's world, I think both Firehorse and Steve are doing things exactly right, even if we all (and I include Steve and SJG in that "all") do just want to throw up our hands and say; "You've got to be kidding me!"