Anyone know more about this?
https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/17/17246766/dnd-dungeons-dragons-gary-gygax-games-unpublished-work-fig
This has been worked on for a long time, looks like the serious aspects of this are starting.
Do you know any specifics?
Quote from: Alex Gygax"I grew up playing this and I'm also a huge video gamer, so I've always wanted to see my dad's work because I thought that they were some of the greatest stories and tough adventures," Alex said. "I've always wanted to see them put out in the next level. Pen and paper is a dying art. Computer games, video games, they're the next generation, the next wave of games and I've always wanted to see them on that new medium and I've always wanted to be working with someone who's excited as I am about it."
That will go over well.
Mostly what's already been put online--this has always been Gail's primary goal--doing something bigger than Pen and Paper gaming.
Fig is a Kickstarter alternative that was founded by some of the big successful video game people. The ones that did Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, Broken Age, etc. It's a highly curated place and people actually invest in the products.
Two things not in the article: Paul Stromberg has discussed the fact that a lot of Gary's notes and stuff have been preserved, and will be part of some future project. And Alex retracted his "paper games are dying", instead he feels they have certain limitations.
As I have predicted, there's some congratulations from the casual folks and the more moderate role-players, while the die-hard "fans" who like to gripe about "Gary's Legacy" (which is code for "they are doing something I don't like, ergo it is disrespectful to him") are throwing tantrums, hoping this fails so they can bask in the schadenfreude. Which to me does nobody any good, and the people attacking Gail and Alex are probably being much more disrespectful to Gary than anything anybody does with his remaining IP.
Hopefully good things will come of it. If not, it's no big deal either, life will go on.
What exactly are they creating from his notes?
I am a Gygax fan, but not a worshiper so I'm not invested either way. However, Alex Gygax's anti-PnP screed just sounds like "PnP fans won't give us money, but this video game company will, thus video games roxxors."
If Gary had an unpublished non-Greyhawk world, I could see "Gary Gygax's XYZland of Adventure" doing fine as a cRPG if its done well.
The part about possible future projects from Gary's notes (with Paul's involvement) has some promise. I'll be curious to see where that goes.
My guess on the computer/video game project is that it will use Lejendary Adventure rules as its basis (I remember Gary mentioning this goal while he was designing LA, and it fits with what the trust owns and with Alex's comments), and perhaps Lejendary Earth as a setting (although if they include stuff from Hall of Many Panes there would be "portals" to all sorts of setting/mini-settings). I'll be curious to see if the computer project uses the LA system and combines it with some version of the Castle Greyhawk dungeons (re-named to something else since they can't use Greyhawk) and Hall of Many Panes.
Quote from: Spinachcat;1034996What exactly are they creating from his notes?
I am a Gygax fan, but not a worshiper so I'm not invested either way. However, Alex Gygax's anti-PnP screed just sounds like "PnP fans won't give us money, but this video game company will, thus video games roxxors."
If Gary had an unpublished non-Greyhawk world, I could see "Gary Gygax's XYZland of Adventure" doing fine as a cRPG if its done well.
There's a better article with some quotes from Alex here:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-04-17-unpublished-gary-gygax-work-headed-to-fig
LA was originally supposed to be a computer game for a dungeon crawl.
While there's stuff I've seen and can't comment on, Gary had discussed the following projects for LA in public in one way or another:
* Legendary AsteRouges--an alternate timeline where space battles are like submarines in space, due to discovery of "contragravity".
* Elder Worlds--S-F a bit similar to Traveller.
* Key of Sand, et al--while not the whole world, Gary had an unpublished sourcebook for a setting that was akin to Arabic middle ages...a sort of place of political intrigue. Only issue with it is it might be considered "anti-Muslim" in this day and age. (The pantheon is Babylonian but a specific sub-sect and the whole state is fanatical about it). This is probably the most fleshed out.
* Hall of Many Panes--once published by TLG in a boxed set, this is something Alex mentioned above.
And there's other things, including computer games Gary proposed but never got off the ground.
Thank you JRT!
Those sound interesting!
Legendary AsteRouges was really interesting (as far as I read, from the draft version 2.1). I would love to run this game, but in the early space exploration (Late XIX century)
Hall of Many Panes is interesting as a source for ideas. But as many adventures, I think it works better if you make some adaptations to tie the bigger NPCs to the main characters.
I don't know the state of development of Legendary AsteRouges, but I read that several books related to LA were cut a few months after Gary passed away. If they are opened to license the work for video games, I hope a license for PnP is also considered.
Thanks for the interview JRT.
Quote from: Apparition;1034959That will go over well.
It's pretty well known that computer games produce a lot more cash than tabletop.
You can also lose a lot (10s of millions) more on a full AAA electronic game too, though, but maybe one of the better companies (CD ProjectRed or 2k for win) will pick one of these up and Gail and everyone can get a nice bit of $$$$$$$. That would be nice to see happen.