Last week, I mentioned my 'lost years' of the late 90s and how I coped through those times by finding new interests. One of those new interests was roleplaying games. Although I didn't have anyone to play with, I still wanted to check them out. Particularly one such game system and all of its individual game lines. No, it wasn't 'Dungeon and Dragons.' That system just didn't call to me, even with the dragons. No, it was from a smaller company, but one that was trying to make it big. It almost worked until multiple problems lead it to break down. Back in the late summer of 1996, I picked up my first book. A few days later, I went back to my local gaming store and picked up the first supplement to that core book. I was instantly hooked, and I would spend the next few months picking up each of the core rule books and major supplements that I could find. By the spring of 1997, I was buying the newest titles as soon as they were available. Soon, I was pre-ordering them as soon as they were announced, while still searching for older works whenever I could. When I was forced to open my own business by my mother, I chose a bookstore, just so that I could order my books on a more reliable basis than I could at the gaming store. Too bad that my main distributor didn't carry that company, but the secondary, larger one did. Things were going great until June 2003, when a flood came along and destroyed over half of all my collection. Adding insult to injury, the company announced that August that they were ending the game lines and replacing them with an updated new system the following year. I managed to replace a few of the books, as well as copying some of the best information from most of the ruined books. It was not easy going through so many water and mud-damaged books while having to wear gloves and a face mask. At least it was good practice for 2020. It took months, and I know I wound up missing some crucial parts, but at least I had something. At first, I liked the new books, even though almost all of them would be hardcover and therefore more expensive overall. I was also getting all of them new, soon after they were published. I had gotten a new distributor for the store that would carry the new system, which turned out to be a godsend as my local gaming store would wind up not getting my pre-ordered books for an entire year. Then came 2010. The company was going to change their business model. Instead of selling through retail stores, their new products would be digital, as either PDF download or print-on-demand from a partner site. As I didn't have a computer, or a credit card, at the time, I was out of luck. I would follow their releases for the next year or so, but I basically gave up the interest, just as the news came out that they would be coming out with a special twentieth anniversary edition of the rulebook for the original game line. I pretty much ignored the company after that, totally missing out on how the company got bought out by a video game company from Northern Europe and dissolved. A second company founded by one of the original creators brought many of the other game lines back for their anniversaries, with extra supplements funded through crowdsourcing, as well as continuing some of their follow-up new game lines. However, yet another video game company from Europe purchased the IP rights to all three game systems, with the intent of bring out a new, fifth edition of the 'classic' original games, with the new company being allowed to continue to produce new material for them until the new edition came out. With the video game company's approval. The other game systems were mostly left alone, for now. When I finally got my computer, and a credit card, I realized I could start enjoying these games again. I could only purchase the PDFs though, as I wanted to save money, and I doubt I get easily pick up physical copies in the mail. I even joined in on a few crowdsourcing campaigns. I joined in online groups about some of the games. I even anticipated the new edition of the first game, but it wouldn't last. While the original game stayed mostly the same, so much was changed that it divided the community, with almost half hating much of the new decisions. The company hired to produce the new edition made some bad decisions, possibly from the video game company's fiat. An entire section had to be rewritten as a preview contained possibly offensive material to some groups. While some supplements were made by the original creator's company, a second different company was chosen to make further books, only to replaced by a third company for unknown reasons. With this, new product slowed down coming out. The second game line was delayed and a new edition of a different game line came out instead. It wasn't to well received, as it totally changed to original game into something else. Then, last fall, the official announcement of the third game to get update was made. While there were a few expected changes, based on leaks, a few other changes weren't, and these didn't go over that well. Answers from an online interview explaining these changes, actually made public opinion worse. Not many of the changes went over too well with long-time fans. When the official previews started to come out this spring, more controversy erupted. The first art pieces were obviously traced by the artist from other sources, including an identifiable public figure who doesn't like to have his image reproduced without permission due to his tattoos. The art was changed, but more copied work came out. More changes from the original material were introduced, much of it seemingly counterproductive and contradictory. An entire sidebar of material appeared to have been lifted directly from a previous attempt. Online posters are wondering if the original author will be getting credit for it. People are now wondering if the book will even come out when it is supposed to next month, although many fans had already decided to skip it and stick to previous editions. I have ordered the book through my local gaming store, as the company making the book stopped going through my book distributor last year, I didn't pre-pay, so I won't be out anything if the book is delayed or if the store has a problem receiving it. At one point in my life, I seriously considered going into game design as a profession, specifically involving these game lines, as it merged both my creative and analytic interests. Nowadays, I know that it would be very, very difficult to make a living this way. Still, the idea piques me. I made a bare-boned attempt at making up a basic supplement years ago, although it barely went past a partial first draft. I've had other ideas for fan-created work, but I just don't have the skills to make a useable draft and post it for sale. Yes, there is a side-industry for this sort of thing, as well as a dedicated market base. You can't earn much, but it would be an opening to bigger things. It's just so sad to see something that has been so close to my heart begin to self-destruct due to corporate decisions. It makes me want to find a way to buy the property out, somehow. A huge pipe dream, but I remain hopeful that someone helps these games find there way back.
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