D20 Radio just released this bombshell :
" We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed that, in the long term, Fantasy Flight Games will be discontinuing the production of its roleplaying game lines. "
I guess all the doom-and-gloom talk since the RPG layoffs last month wasn't too far off. Dämn.
I'm really concerned what this will mean for the Genesys Foundry. While it seems obvious to leave it in the background to generate money; it seems like big changes in the company could mean its end.
10 minutes ago, Noahjam325 said:I'm really concerned what this will mean for the Genesys Foundry. While it seems obvious to leave it in the background to generate money; it seems like big changes in the company could mean its end.
I'll be honest with you, I am also concerned. For the foreseeable future I'm going to be concentrating on non-Foundry publications so if it does go down, not all of my stuff will go down with it.
I've got a couple hundred pages of rough draft Foundry stuff I was just working on before taking a glance at this post.
So, what happens to the Genesys IP and Foundry?
Any chance FFG can be convinced to put Genesys on the Foundry in PDF form and keep the Foundry running to continue the line? Free money it seems. If they are still making boardgames, it seems easy enough to keep making the dice.
What are the legal ramifications of someone self-publishing Genesys material after it is defunct? Free vs. profit? Could a group of Genesys-lovers team together and buy out the Genesys IP on-the-cheap to keep it going?
Can we even do an OSR type of game using the Genesys dice system?
Game mechanisms aren't copywriteable but because they use their own symbols can those be copyrighted?
I also think this is an Asmodee decision and not a FFG decision.
14 minutes ago, Stacie_GmrGrl said:Game mechanisms aren't copywriteable but because they use their own symbols can those be copyrighted?
The symbols are unique enough that they're probably copyright FFG, yeah.
Which is why I created my own, non-FFG copyright symbols !
8 minutes ago, Stacie_GmrGrl said:I also think this is an Asmodee decision and not a FFG decision.
Oh, yeah, for sure it is. FFG is a tabletop company who has always had RPGs. The removal of the RPGs comes after rumor has it that Asmodee is looking to sell FFG is not a coincidence…
1 hour ago, Sturn said:Any chance FFG can be convinced to put Genesys on the Foundry in PDF form
Well, it’s been on DriveThru as a PDF since around its launch. The question is in line with what you followed with: will they keep it up there for sale?
And if so, will they continue dice production through the board game side of the business?
Hopefully the foundry can stay open. Whilst this definitely sucks, with the quality of some of the foundry content I've seen, i think there's potential for big foundry setting books to sort-of replace the official ones. As long as people are willing to pay for it, of course...
2 hours ago, Sturn said:I've got a couple hundred pages of rough draft Foundry stuff I was just working on before taking a glance at this post.
It's not too late to publish it! Nothing has been said about the future of the Foundry. And honestly, the more money the Foundry makes the more it'll be seen as a boon to FFG.
2 hours ago, Sturn said:So, what happens to the Genesys IP and Foundry?
No one who knows is talking, so we can only speculate.
2 hours ago, Sturn said:Any chance FFG can be convinced to put Genesys on the Foundry in PDF form and keep the Foundry running to continue the line? Free money it seems
All Genesys products are already up on DTRPG for sale, so I don't understand the question.
2 hours ago, Sturn said:What are the legal ramifications of someone self-publishing Genesys material after it is defunct? Free vs. profit?
It all depends on how tightly any new owner cracks down on fan-works. Free stuff has never been an issue, as long as you still needed the core book to play—meaning no providing basic dice mechanics, etc.
2 hours ago, Sturn said:Could a group of Genesys-lovers team together and buy out the Genesys IP on-the-cheap to keep it going?
Could a group do so? Maybe. Depends on if the license holder is willing to sell. It also depends on how much anyone is willing to pay for it.
2 hours ago, c__beck said:The symbols are unique enough that they're probably copyright FFG, yeah.
Which is why I created my own, non-FFG copyright symbols !
Oh, yeah, for sure it is. FFG is a tabletop company who has always had RPGs. The removal of the RPGs comes after rumor has it that Asmodee is looking to sell FFG is not a coincidence…
I see what you did there...looks nice.
17 minutes ago, shamp said:I see what you did there...looks nice.
I'm trying to upload a video of me making them that includes my thought process…but YouTube is being a butt about it 🙄
And thanks for the kind words!
This sucks. Maybe somebody can get the rights and moved to crowdfunding some stuff and show Asmodee where they can stick it. I knew this acquisition was not going to end well.
1 hour ago, hellrazoromega said:Maybe somebody can get the rights
Our best hope is that FFG just opens up the licencing OGL/SRD style.
6 minutes ago, jan-michael-vincent said:Our best hope is that FFG just opens up the licencing OGL/SRD style.
I'm hoping for this along with the Foundry staying open. Then, they decide to keep making the dice for future new customers. They already make tons of custom dice for their boardgames.
Now my second hope is they realize they still have IP's for the Genesys core books and all of their boardgame settings. Thus, perhaps once a year they put out a new PDF at the Foundry regarding a new setting...all done by freelancers perhaps? Then, I wouldn't mind investing in a Genesys 2.0 every 5-10 years especially at the cost of a PDF versus a book (although I still prefer hard copies for everything).
There's still a ton of money in this for them at a very low overhead if they are (apparently) worried about staff costs.
Another thought may be that whomever buys FFG notices us screaming about still wanting the RPG's and decides to higher a small number of staff to at least coordinate freelancers?
4 hours ago, c__beck said:It's not too late to publish it! Nothing has been said about the future of the Foundry. And honestly, the more money the Foundry makes the more it'll be seen as a boon to FFG.
Well, "rough draft" is exaggerating. All the content is there, but it's a mess and thus months away from being ready for publishing.
14 hours ago, c__beck said:I'm trying to upload a video of me making them that includes my thought process…but YouTube is being a butt about it 🙄
And thanks for the kind words!
The symbols are close enough to that of FFG's that you would likely get a cease and decist. So if you want that potential heat, you go right ahead.
13 hours ago, jan-michael-vincent said:Our best hope is that FFG just opens up the licencing OGL/SRD style.
First off, the OGL is horribly outdated technology and should die in a fire: Creative Commons is a much better license.
Second…why in the **** would FFG/Asmodee do that? It’s not a smart business move in the slightest. The second they rel ease Genesys under any open license the profit potential of it becomes zero . Any potential benefit the game might have had in a sale of FFG goes out the window.
I get it, the community wants it to be given to us, but it’s not gonna happen. It’s a poor business move, especially if the rumours of Asmodee trying to sell off FFG are true.
10 minutes ago, GM Hooly said:The symbols are close enough to that of FFG's that you would likely get a cease and decist. So if you want that potential heat, you go right ahead.
Nah, "close enough" is also "different enough" in the art world. The inspiration is obviously there but it's a different symbol. You can copyright specific symbols, but you can't copyright all symbols that look close . Hecks, that was one of my secondary reasons for having the success symbol be fully-filled in. No inner circle makes it even less "alike" to the FFG success.
Also, with everything else the community has put out—not the least of which are dice bots and online dice rollers that use their copyright symbols exactly—
I'm still counting on them maintaining the Foundry, as it's a relatively hassle-free revenue stream for the company, and they can keep producing the dice (which remain within the scope of their core business).
Doesn't Foundry content still need to be scrutinized for legal reasons? I can't imagine Asmodee wanting to spend expensive litigation resources for content that they no longer produce and in many ways, support.
1 hour ago, kaosoe said:Doesn't Foundry content still need to be scrutinized for legal reasons? I can't imagine Asmodee wanting to spend expensive litigation resources for content that they no longer produce and in many ways, support.
DTRPG takes care of all of that, not FFG/Asmodee. That's why they get a 30% cut and FFG only gets 20%.
Folks are forgetting that this is "long term" plan. Of course, whether that means 6 months, a year, two years, five? Who knows?
But, at least for the foreseeable future, the Foundry is still up. Though you may want to go ahead and get anything there that interested you. I know I did.
I for one am still going as if this news didn't come out. I'm nearly ready to publish my 3rd, and looking forward to doing more long as the Foundry exists. When it no longer does, I'll likely still put together things for free, and still have my own personal site up with all kinds of info for the setting (Terrinoth).
1 hour ago, c__beck said:DTRPG takes care of all of that, not FFG/Asmodee. That's why they get a 30% cut and FFG only gets 20%.
Good to know. That makes sense.
On 2/18/2020 at 9:34 AM, c__beck said:D20 Radio just released this bombshell :
" We at d20Radio are sad to announce that we have independently confirmed that, in the long term, Fantasy Flight Games will be discontinuing the production of its roleplaying game lines. "
I guess all the doom-and-gloom talk since the RPG layoffs last month wasn't too far off. Dämn.
2 hours ago, IamGazrok said:I for one am still going as if this news didn't come out. I'm nearly ready to publish my 3rd, and looking forward to doing more long as the Foundry exists. When it no longer does, I'll likely still put together things for free, and still have my own personal site up with all kinds of info for the setting (Terrinoth).
That's a good point. This could actually get me spurned into action on stuff I've been working on. But, I'm at least months away. If I had a crystal ball I would have known to dive in full force a year ago?