There's been a lot of yammering about the Gygax estate partnering with Mr. Desanto to produce legacy products from Gary Gygax's pre- and post-TSR intellectual property.
I have some insight into this, and then there's the obvious: For those in the RPG community who continue to believe that they will ever be given a true and historical treatment of said works such as I attempted to steer Trigee into for Castle Zagig back in 2004, then keep dreaming.
This is a high profile push deal aimed at movies, perhaps novelizations and definitely a computer game minus any historical trappings whatsoever. The latter, in my estimation, will be like Gygax vanilla aimed at making money and branding for his legacy sake. This is what, from what I've been lead to understand, Gail Gygax wants, so more power to her there in that enterprise and I wish her luck.
But gamers--do not get your hopes out of joint, for if the Castle or related RPG works from that time period were to be published it would have happened by now way before this deal.
Then there is the matter that a full 20 levels from that Castle are claimed as my intellectual property alone, and I have had no contact over their use from the Gygax estate, all of which in that regard, I am monitoring very closely.
So buckeroos, dream on, but just a down to earth reminder, this is Gail's show, and rightly so, so don't be looking for the low-end deals through this partnership.
http://variety.com/2016/film/news/gary-gygax-estate-dungeons-and-dragons-tom-desanto-1201824039/
You've pretty much summed up my expectations here.
ReplyDelete"If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is."
That doesn't eliminate the possibility of some interesting things arising from it. They may not be as "Gygaxian" as we've come to have known through the years etc... although I will draw the line at buying the "EXCLUSIVE Limited Edition Dungeon Master Gary Gygax Action Figure... with REAL d20 rolling action!?
The shared labors of Gygax, yourself, and others are what lay in the real heart of gamers' imaginations for decades. Nothing will EVER replace that.