Flaming Monkey

Erick “Phage Press” Wujick has a post over on rpg.net about the current status of the Amber RPG licence.

Unfortunately, Guardians started experiencing their problems just around the same time they took on Amber (Summer of 2004). Since we’ve been friends for years (Mark is the guy who started the Amercon North in Toronto), I told him there was no hurry (it’s not as if I had been a ball of fire producing content for Amber), so we never got to creating or signing a formal agreement.

I have appointed a proxy to deal with the situation (since I’m off in Shanghai, China, I don’t have a lot of choice), and my proxy and I will deal with the situation over the next few days. It seems likely that I’ll be assigning the Amber stock, and the role of distributor, to another third party. Note that I said ‘likely’ — not certainly, because not all the facts are in.

In other words, Phage Press (with the permission of the Zelazny estate) still controls the Amber RPG rights, since they were never officially transferred over to Guardians of Order. Of course, that would seem to put things about where they were before GoO got involved, which hardly raises hopes for a revamped Amber RPG.

The word has come down that Guardians of Order is officially dead [right column, scroll down]. The fact that this news has come out via George R.R. Martin rather than being posted on front page of the company’s website is just another example of how GoO owner Mark MacKinnon has managed to make this whole situation worse than it needed to be with his stubborn refusal to communicate. I hope that at least some of GoO’s games find new homes, and that the customers who have unfulfilled orders are able to get either their merchandise or their money.

As for Amber, I’d be surprised if the license actually got picked up by anyone. I’ll freely admit that I don’t know how much GoO actually paid for the RPG rights, but I’m guessing that it’s out of the range of what an indie developer might want to pay, and it’s not like there’s some promise of big profits to lure in someone like Mongoose.

ETA: Mark McKinnon’s official GoO is dead announcement on rpg.net. Personally, I wouldn’t have chided GRRM, but I realize some people like to live dangerously.

I’ve realized that there isn’t any new indie RPG out there that’s grabbed ahold of my head since back when Jason started talking about The Shab-al-Hiri Roach last Fall. I’ve found myself feeling pretty meh about actually buying any new RPGs, and I especially noticed my lack of enthusiasm when a friend who has previously picked up indie games for me at Gencon asked if there was anything that I wanted him to get for me this year. I couldn’t come up with anything.

Now, that’s not to say that there aren’t a few games out there that have aroused some interest. For example, Don’t Rest Your Head sounds like it’s pretty cool, as does Mortal Coil. Neither one has grabbed my imagination the way Dogs, PTA, The Mountain Witch, or The Roach did before I bought them though, so I’m going to have to start working on finding and reading some actual play posts. Maybe then I’ll feel more inspired to actually part with some money and buy another game or two.

Anyone have any recent (or near-future) releases they’d like to recommend?

Some other people have also posted about their TBR 2006 experiences, so here’s a sampling of those:

Ginger: TBR after-action report

Carolyn: TBR: The Roundup

Paul: TBR 2006 Part I (Travel, Social) [plus more in later posts]

Christine: My experience at TBR

Deb: A quick writeup for TBR

Mel: Part 3: Friday 30th June 2006: The Black Road begins [plus more in later posts]

[Edited to add — ]

J.P.: TBR 2006 to Date

It’s now been a week and a half since the end of The Black Road 2006, so I figured it was about time I got a con report posted. This was my first year as con chair, and things seemed to go pretty smoothly, so I was able to concentrate on enjoying the gaming.
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