December 26, 2017: The Fantasy Trip Returns Home

[stefanj]

RE miniatures, I seem to recall that there were licensed Melee / Wizard / TFT miniatures. 15mm, and not very good. Perhaps by Martian Miniatures?

[Groknard]

Yes, there were a number of packs released. Many on cards with the familiar TFT wizard, as shown. Later, in smaller plastic bags with a simple yellow banner. Google "tft microture" to see more. I have most of them, and they're really not that bad for 15mm and for the time. IIRC, many were re-used for MM's 15mm Dragon Slayers and Fantasy 15s lines before the MM factory fire.

[Mod: Image removed - we don't allow image uploads by regular users.]

[marctabyanan]

I’m still stunned by this news. We got word something was up about a month ago, but I am still shocked it actually happened. I never thought I would live to see the person who should have TFT get the rights to it back.

TFT made a huge influence on me. Melee and Ogre were the first 2 games I bought—and I never looked back. I’ve been playing with TFT ever since, and still am.

I would plunk down a huge chunk of cash on a Kickstarter for all of the modules. I can’t wait to see TFT in print again. And that is the thing a lot of us have been wishing for—seeing the game again so we could get new players to see what we already knew...

As my desires for TFT... others have said this: a monster manual; tweak the advancement rules; cleaner magic item creation rules; and some additions for ceremonial magic and religion.

One thing I do have to say, too: please keep the artwork! Those original images in ITL, AW and AM made a huge impression on me, and set the tone for the game. I hate to say it, but the art in GURPS just does not have the same impact for me...

I’m excited, and can’t wait!!!

[JLV]

Originally Posted by marctabyanan

I never thought I would live to see the person who should have TFT get the rights to it back.

Amen on this about a hundred times! There IS justice in the world! Even if you do have to wait 35 years to see it sometimes...

[Skarg]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

I'm a fan of Heroes and Other Worlds and think the work Brandon did on the monster and spell volumes is pretty remarkable. That said, it has to be pointed out that he chose to change the core rules pretty substantially, and the NPC's in published HoW modules are quite different from those in old TFT materials or newer Dark City adventures. A new stat was added, sort of similar to Health points in GURPS, but only PC's and a few monsters get them; everyone else just as ST. Also, for some reason NPC's tend to get really low stat scores. The end result is that even a starting character in HoW will walk all over most NPC's, whereas the same PC would have his head handed to him by common encounters in TFT. On the other hand, Brandon's ideas for parry rules in a TFT-like game are quite good.

I agree. I would adapt those if trying to run them for TFT, losing the extra hero hitpoints and gimpy mooks, and balancing in other ways (starting by making maps with more tactical potential, and other consistent in-world ways to help the PCs have a chance).

I think the programmed adventure content is great (and many great counters), but I'm less a fan of their rules, which are too Lite for my taste, and the combat maps and tactical situations they afford seem weak to me in the cases I've seen (which admittedly is only a fraction). To me, TFT combat is about tactical situations and the map layout is a vital part of that, as are the details of the rules that give them appropriate effects, and both seemed underdeveloped. I can easily add them in when I play, but for less experienced players, they may rightly wonder why they're bothering with a map when they keep fighting in the same mostly featureless (EDIT: rooms) without many effects of terrain.

Originally Posted by marctabyanan

... One thing I do have to say, too: please keep the artwork! Those original images in ITL, AW and AM made a huge impression on me, and set the tone for the game. I hate to say it, but the art in GURPS just does not have the same impact for me...

Absolutely. The TFT art was outstanding, and offhand I can't think of any GURPS art I like as much.

[Steve Jackson]

Uh-oh. I better break this gently, as it's turning into a FAQ:

• Will you re-use the art from the original publications? Unfortunately, no. I don’t know what its original contract status was with Metagaming. I never had any rights in the art, so I could not re-acquire them. When the game is republished, we will need new art, even though so much of the original art was excellent. Insert sad face here . . .

[Carnifex]

I would like to vote for Melee and Wizard reprinted in the original Micro Game format, similar to the Ogre Pocket Edition you guys did a few years ago.

[ak_aramis]

Originally Posted by Steve Jackson

A fair question, because the Dark City situation doesn't really have a precedent in the hobby AFAIK. It would not have been right to talk ABOUT Dark City until I had talked TO them, but I just finished a very pleasant call with George Dew. So the executive summary is, we are talking :) In my perfect Year 2019 or 2020, there would be no "clone rules" on the market, but there would be a wide variety of "new" fan-written adventures available under the TFT banner. I should not say "fan," because if these guys sell me a dozen adventures, they are pros.

It's got a similar one happening with Wizards and Evil Hat. Evil Hat just registered the trademark "Star Frontiers", and Wizards just put it into the D&D classics portion of One Bookshelf (DBA RPGNow.com, DrivethruRPG.com, D&DClassics.com)... and no announcements by either about it, but someone found it on the Trademark search and noted it.

I expect more will go that way, given that the recovery law is relatively new, not well known, and only now reaching the effective time for a bunch of things.

I'm hoping you encouraged the other authors to recover their part of the derivative works so you can get them into reprint...

I do hope Joe and Gary of DGP see this thread...

[stefanj]

It would be too much to hope for the original artwork.

But almost-the-same thing from the original artists would be cool. Especially the counters!

[larsdangly]

Dark City and the various people with different levels of non- or semi-profitable home cooked knock offs will have to adapt to having a real company back in the mix, but I don't think this should be seen as a problem. For starters, if anyone has the right to do something new with this system, it's the guy who invented it and then had to wait 35 years to get access to it. And, luckily SJ has the resources and experience to do something properly.

I was a month or two away from circulating another iteration of my big OSR-like version of TFT but now won't do so (actually, if any of you happen to still have a copy of the 'TFT-JME' files kicking around your hard drive, I'll ask you not to redistribute them!). If I were trying to earn money on this system, I would just accept that the business model has now changed and I should think about becoming something like Judges Guild to early D+D rather than selling my own off-brand version of the core system. It is a different business, but could be a better one because your customer base is likely to grow. In any event, no one has really invested significant effort in writing and marketing a commercial version of TFT's core system. Dark City's 'legends' system is highly condensed and simple and hasn't grown significantly over time. They honestly didn't invest much in it - all their work is in the adventures. HoW put more effort into its core system, although that seems to have been a project that is more or less over at this point. And much, much more work was put into the monster and spell books, which I suspect could be sold legally anyway. Anyone who wants to continue doing this as a business will be fine.