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Author Topic: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....  (Read 3662 times)

Tyndale

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Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« on: October 19, 2020, 01:14:11 PM »
Guess WOTC doesn't think DL is PC enough...

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7245020-Weis.html
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mightybrain

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2020, 01:58:27 PM »
I hope they win a sizeable settlement and use it to self publish their original vision.

Abraxus

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2020, 02:01:53 PM »
I'm on vacation can anyone give the cliffs notes version of the lawsuit. Who is to blame Wotc? Or Margaret Weis?

Mishihari

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2020, 02:02:11 PM »
Wow.  The most interesting part is #9 under "nature of the action."  I suppose the best outcome would be for the authors to win big, and use some part of the money to give us new Dragonlance material despite WOTC's perifidy.

Armchair Gamer

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #4 on: October 19, 2020, 02:03:45 PM »
I'm on vacation can anyone give the cliffs notes version of the lawsuit. Who is to blame Wotc? Or Margaret Weis?

  WotC and W&H made arrangements to produce a new DL trilogy, and shortly after the first book was mostly finished, WotC cancelled the contract without explanation or recourse, according to the lawsuit.

Mishihari

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2020, 02:04:58 PM »
I'm on vacation can anyone give the cliffs notes version of the lawsuit. Who is to blame Wotc? Or Margaret Weis?

WOTC commisioned new Dragonlance material 3 years ago and they just cancelled out of the blue.  The authors believe that it's because WOTC has had various not-PC-enough allegations against them and Hasbro told them to ditch anything that would that would support this view.  And they're asking for a minimum of $10M.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2020, 02:37:43 PM by Mishihari »

Arkansan

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2020, 02:07:49 PM »
I'm on vacation can anyone give the cliffs notes version of the lawsuit. Who is to blame Wotc? Or Margaret Weis?

From the looks of it WoTC fucked up. They tried to sidestep contract by simply refusing to approve further drafts of novels thereby ducking payment without explicitly withdrawing. From the looks of it they had issues with how "inclusive" earlier drafts were, which as Wizards has accepted them Weis believed had been sufficiently remedied in newer drafts. Afterward Wizards caught flak from the woke crowd for various reasons they pulled this stunt.

Armchair Gamer

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2020, 02:44:00 PM »
WOTC commisioned new Dragonlance material 3 years ago and they just cancelled out of the blue.  The authors believe that it's because WOTC has had various not-PC-enough allegations against them and Hasbro told them to ditch anything that would that would support this view.  And they're asking for a minimum of $10M.

  I don't recall any mention of Hasbro in the filing. I know people want to believe that the big corporation is the villain, and are grateful to WotC for Magic and/or saving D&D, but the fact is, WotC has always been progressive and 'woke', and has gleefully followed along as that definition has spiraled down further.

VisionStorm

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2020, 03:13:53 PM »
I hope they win a sizeable settlement and use it to self publish their original vision.

Wow.  The most interesting part is #9 under "nature of the action."  I suppose the best outcome would be for the authors to win big, and use some part of the money to give us new Dragonlance material despite WOTC's perifidy.

Yeah, hope they win publish their books, along with their own Dragonlance RPG using the OGL/SRD. Even make it 5e, so it will be an official old D&D 5e setting not owned by WotC! ;D

Shasarak

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #9 on: October 19, 2020, 03:37:45 PM »
New Dragonlance novels would hit me right in my nostalgia bone.

Now I just need Viva Frei to read through the court documents.
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Mishihari

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2020, 03:45:21 PM »
WOTC commisioned new Dragonlance material 3 years ago and they just cancelled out of the blue.  The authors believe that it's because WOTC has had various not-PC-enough allegations against them and Hasbro told them to ditch anything that would that would support this view.  And they're asking for a minimum of $10M.

  I don't recall any mention of Hasbro in the filing. I know people want to believe that the big corporation is the villain, and are grateful to WotC for Magic and/or saving D&D, but the fact is, WotC has always been progressive and 'woke', and has gleefully followed along as that definition has spiraled down further.

Here ...

(attached rather than inline because inline insertion doesn't seem to be working)
« Last Edit: October 19, 2020, 03:52:41 PM by Mishihari »

GameDaddy
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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2020, 03:58:50 PM »
Just have to say I'm amazed at WOTC. Every time they start doing something right, ...they manage to screw it up royally.

According to Margaret Weis WOTC replaced her editor Liz Schuh (Who has been with WOTC since 1995, and has been the head of publishing and licensing for about as long as anyone can remember) and replaced her with uhhh...  Nic Kelman.

"In or about June 2020, Defendant changed the editorial and oversight team assigned to the new Dragonlance trilogy, removing Liz Schuh and Hilary Ross and replacing them with Nic Kelman and Paul Morrissey. Mr. Kelman, who was and remains Defendant’s Head of Story and Entertainment, was a controversial choice. As recently as 2019, his own publication as author of the sexually explicit novel, “Girls: A Paean” was subject to ongoing public discussions of whether his work contained or promoted misogyny and pedophilia."

I have no additional comments on these allegations as I haven't read Girls: A Paean. I will say a cursory examination reveals he is not currently, nor has been an RPG gamer. He was a writer up until the time WOTC hired him and was previously known for his screenplay "Generis" that was sold to Steven Spielberg back in 2011. No clue what the movie is about, Generis though is a latin word for "Of another kind". His other screenplays include "The Outpost" (not the 2020 movie about Afghanistan) and  "Emergence"  which was picked up by Roland Emmerich and Centropolis Entertainment and is currently in pre-production hell meaning the movie script has been set aside as the producer and entertainment company have chosen to actively work on other projects (Midway, by Centropolis Entertainment which was released earlier this year) and Roland Emmerich is currently working on Moonfall scheduled for a 2021 release. Details of Emergence are scarce, but it is said to be a new take on the classic alien invasion story with "hot-button science elements". Roland Emmerichs' other movies that he worked on since 2013 include "Independence Day: Resurgence(2016) ", and "Stonewall" which was released in 2015.


Nic has been mired in some controversy especially over the last year, after some of the Magic:The Gathering existing storylines were retconned to omit a major Lesbian character that has been a part of the Magic universe since 2010, so he really pissed off the LGBT fans and others over at WOTC.  Then caved to a petition over on change.org

https://www.change.org/p/wizards-of-the-coast-wotc-revert-greg-weisman-and-nic-kelman-s-retcon-that-erased-chandra-s-pansexuality

Paul Morissey is the new Publishing lead for Wizards of the Coast joining WOTC just this January. Before that he was a freelance comic author for DC comics and was the co-writer for the Teen-Titans:Go comic series, and worked for Blizzard Entertainment as an Editor for a couple years from June 2018-November 2019, so Overwatch, Starcraft, Diablo, and World of Warcraft.  Before that he worked for Archaia Entertainment LLC, working Mousegard: Legends of the Guard, and in the early 2000's worked for TokyoPop in L.A. bringing Manga to the western masses. You can find him over at Twitter as @Pauliewog.

These two replaced Liz Schuh and Hilary Ross, and then proceeded to kill the planned re-release of Dragonlance, including a new novel trilogy, along with maybe some new D&D adventures and managed to piss off a pair of well established multi-million dollar earning literary and RPG award winning authors. Ooopsie.

What I'm not seeing from WOTC or Hasbro is the new shiney that would replace Dragonlance. I'll wager right now though, these two new managers don't actually have anything to offer in place of that, making this insult especially egregious. Will be very interested to see how this develops. WOTC sued for Breach of Contract, ouch!

In the meanwhile, for those of you interested, here is a downloadable pdf of the complaint filed by Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, so you can save a copy for yourself to review later and to ensure that corporate shills, shysters, other liars and backbiters are not able to later conceal the truth with like a gag order or something similar...

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/7245020/Weis.pdf

Best reading for today for me! I'd be really surprised if Hasbro had anything to do with this train wreck. They have been enjoying that MTG and D&D has been so successful since the release of 5e since about 2017 or so...



 
« Last Edit: October 19, 2020, 04:11:19 PM by GameDaddy »
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Abraxus

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #12 on: October 19, 2020, 04:26:41 PM »
The more time passes the more Wotc and any other equally Woke, SJW company make things worse. The Dragonlance novels are not diverse enough give me a damn break. For what so that they can cater to a very vocal tiny minatory who probably won't purchase the new inclusive and diverse material anyway. Look at Marvel and Dc they catered to the same demographic and are financial trouble. I hope Wotc loses big. Even if it means losing access to more 5E. I have many other versions of D&D and quite frankly if WOTC insits on sabotaging themselves those who work there deserve to be out of work.

Jaeger

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #13 on: October 19, 2020, 04:28:25 PM »
WOTC could be in a bit of trouble with the publisher as well.

According to the filing, Penguin Random House did pay out an advance, of which WOTC got a part of.

WOTC killed the deal, and still has the advance money...


They tried to treat Hickman and Weis like they were 5 cent-a-word contract writers. Not millionaires with fuck you money that can take the fight to WOTC.

So stupid.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2020, 04:40:48 PM by Jaeger »
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Omega

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Re: Woot. More Dragon Lance books....oh, maybe not....
« Reply #14 on: October 19, 2020, 04:30:49 PM »
  I don't recall any mention of Hasbro in the filing. I know people want to believe that the big corporation is the villain, and are grateful to WotC for Magic and/or saving D&D, but the fact is, WotC has always been progressive and 'woke', and has gleefully followed along as that definition has spiraled down further.

Yeah. Hasbro has overall been the ones to try and reign in WOTCs chronic stupid.

And not quite correct. WOTC was originally very open and party hearty. Then the women took over, eventually drove off Garfield and its been a mess ever since. Its just before it was more or less very low key as they had other stupid to get done. Its only in the last 10 years or so that theyve gotten increaingly more "progrssive" and then in the last 5 more openly pushing the agenda.