Quote from: Persimmon on January 17, 2023, 09:00:20 AM
In the case of Zweihander, it's really just Daniel Fox personally, right?

Yeah, he comes across as a complete buffoon. Does he own that RPG company? If not then they might actually be ok.

Quote from: Persimmon on January 16, 2023, 05:20:48 PM
I'll nominate Peterson Games for having several unfulfilled kickstarters, all of which have dragged on for years, then they send these BS announcements just stretching things out further without ever responding to actual queries about progress.  At this point, they should just declare bankruptcy and/or shut down rather than continue the sham that they will actually finish anything.  Some of these are board games so that might not count for purposes of the discussion, however.

Sandy Peterson?

I tend to avoid Kickstarters and only buy the finished product, so this hasn't affected me. I like my 5e D&D Cthulu book.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on January 17, 2023, 09:08:42 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on January 17, 2023, 09:00:20 AM
In the case of Zweihander, it's really just Daniel Fox personally, right?

Yeah, he comes across as a complete buffoon. Does he own that RPG company? If not then they might actually be ok.

It's very much just him AFAIK.

Quote from: S'mon on January 17, 2023, 10:36:42 AM

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on January 17, 2023, 09:08:42 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on January 17, 2023, 09:00:20 AM
In the case of Zweihander, it's really just Daniel Fox personally, right?

Yeah, he comes across as a complete buffoon. Does he own that RPG company? If not then they might actually be ok.

It's very much just him AFAIK.

Ah... That's what I thought. Insert 'vomit emoji' here.

I nominate the (real life) communist W.M Akers and his game, "Comrades" a game of violent communist revolution.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/260813/Comrades-A-Revolutionary-RPG

He puts a disclaimer at the end of this page that the game doesn't advocate real-life violence.  This is a lie.

In his KS campaign, he states his reason for the game is to inspire people to be activists again.  On the site, he is crestfallen that bold communist activism is dying down in recent decades.  He actually advocates on the crowdfund page that people engage is VIOLENT revolutionary acts in real life, not just the game.  advocating violence on a KS site is against their terms, but it looks like KS drew a blind eye again when it advances their agenda.

I don't understand that a person who believes in communism is trying to profit off his game, instead of give it away to the people.  I don't advocate piracy, but I know there are loose virtual copies floating around the web, and not paying for this game and giving him evil profits would be doing him a favor .  I just choose not to own it.

Quote from: Bruwulf on January 16, 2023, 04:21:57 PM

Quote from: Brad on January 16, 2023, 04:13:01 PM
What's wrong with Palladium? Kevin Siembieda might have issues running a business, but he doesn't actively despise anyone who buys his games.

No, he just hates his writers. Because they all suffer from the crime of "Not being Kevin Seimbieda" as far as I can tell.

Still a big Palladium fan, but...

HAHAHA so true.

I hate going through the older books and seeing Kevin talk about "This book started as a great idea by <X> but when I got the manuscript, I had to tell <X> it wasn't up to Palladium Standards(tm), so I cracked my knuckles and wrote it myself. And finally, with great fanfare... HERE IT IS!"

I'm glad that Sean Roberson joined Palladium and is taking over a lot of the face-to-face with the public. His handling of Savage Worlds Rifts has been been excellent. It shocked me to see Kevin to be on board too. Now Sean seems to be getting Palladium itself up and rolling with their own kickstarters. I'm looking forward to Palladium's ship steaming forward again.

Yeah, I was flabbergasted that anyone managed to pry RIFTS out of Kevin's still-living hands to put it on a different system.  But I suppose Palladium hasn't been doing great sales in recent years and he needed the cash.

Well he got a partner that has done a bang-up job of energizing Palladium fans (and think of the *HARD SELL* it took to get Palladium fan to even *look* at Savage Worlds), the Savage Worlds Rifts announcement made my head do a couple of 360's.

Now that SWRifts is rolling right along - he's turn Palladium back to actually shipping product. Sean and Kevin said they have like 13-projects in the pipe and most of them are 70%+ completed.

Good for them.  Palladium's always had great IPs, but that system is unplayable garbage.  Switching to SW is a massive improvement for it.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on January 16, 2023, 01:09:51 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on January 16, 2023, 01:02:36 PM

Really? Who publishes the Warhammer Fantasy RPG then?

Hasn't every edition since 1st been licensed out to someone else?

Yes, it has.

Quote from: Dropbear on January 17, 2023, 03:48:23 PM

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on January 16, 2023, 01:09:51 PM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on January 16, 2023, 01:02:36 PM

Really? Who publishes the Warhammer Fantasy RPG then?

Hasn't every edition since 1st been licensed out to someone else?

Yes, it has.

Even 1st Edition was taken over by Hogshead Publishing after a while.

Basically GW has very little to do directly with WFRP. And that's a Very Good Thing.

Quote from: Stephen Tannhauser on January 16, 2023, 10:07:35 PM

Quote from: jhkim on January 16, 2023, 09:42:47 PMI think there's a huge difference between "said mean things on the Internet" compared to actions like unethically taking people's money, breaking contracts, or spurious lawsuits or cease and desist letters.

This is a good point. Before you can determine which current publisher is the "worst" you have to define your criteria. Based on the posts so far I would suggest the following list:

- Poor quality of actual product delivered.
- Poor reliability and speed of releasing products on promised schedules (especially if pre-funded).
- Unethical behaviour towards employees, contractors, licensees, and competitors, including unilaterally revoking content permissions for fair use in a way that would create a de facto monopoly for yourself.
- Adoption and promulgation of public moral/cultural positions with the active intent of (or at least negligent disdain about) alienating customers, thus damaging market base.

I really like these set guidelines. I think we should try and use them from now on, so I'm going to edit the original post to have them in there

Quote from: S'mon on January 17, 2023, 10:36:14 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on January 16, 2023, 05:20:48 PM
I'll nominate Peterson Games for having several unfulfilled kickstarters, all of which have dragged on for years, then they send these BS announcements just stretching things out further without ever responding to actual queries about progress.  At this point, they should just declare bankruptcy and/or shut down rather than continue the sham that they will actually finish anything.  Some of these are board games so that might not count for purposes of the discussion, however.

Sandy Peterson?

I tend to avoid Kickstarters and only buy the finished product, so this hasn't affected me. I like my 5e D&D Cthulu book.

Yeah, Sandy Peterson.  He has the planning and money management skills of a 5 year old at a toy store.  Avoid anything he's personally in charge of like the plague.

Quote from: Yabba on January 16, 2023, 12:51:38 PM
With all this Ogl crap going on, I think it's time to think about the worst Rpg Company. So In your opinion what is the worst Rpg Company, in terms of how they treat their fans, and the quality of their products. For me Wotc is a big contender of course but, I also think that Evil Hat publishing is also up their. Anyways what are Your thoughts?

Edit: Stephan Tannhauser made a really good list for the purpose of this thread, and I'm posting it here as a sort of guideline towards more in depth discussion.

- Poor quality of actual product delivered.
- Poor reliability and speed of releasing products on promised schedules (especially if pre-funded).
- Unethical behaviour towards employees, contractors, licensees, and competitors, including unilaterally revoking content permissions for fair use in a way that would create a de facto monopoly for yourself.
- Adoption and promulgation of public moral/cultural positions with the active intent of (or at least negligent disdain about) alienating customers, thus damaging market base.

Quote from: Brad on January 16, 2023, 04:13:01 PM

Quote from: migo on January 16, 2023, 01:36:54 PM
We shouldn't forget about Palladium.

What's wrong with Palladium? Kevin Siembieda might have issues running a business, but he doesn't actively despise anyone who buys his games.

I would nominate Palladium just for the god-awful layout. I own four different Palladium core books (five if you count Rifts core and Rifts Ultimate as separate products), and I still can't grok the core system.