Official ICE Forums
Gamer's Corner => General Discussion => Topic started by: egdcltd on April 06, 2016, 11:13:46 AM
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After casually placing my copy of Bree and the Barrow-Downs on the side, then finding out how much it's going for on Amazon, I'm starting to wonder if I should stop handling all my old supplements, whatever the system, and start shrink wrapping them for safety.
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They are much beloved, and justly.
I wonder if there is any hope of ICE ever getting the Tolkien license back? I would sure love to see versions of some of those modules-- and their gorgeous maps-- updated for RMU.
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I don't think ICE would take it back even if there was an opportunity. I know the asking price on those items can be really high but I don't know how many actually sell for those prices.
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I'm just wondering about the viability of reissues. The price is high because there is high demand and they are out of print. This seems to indicate a market for reprints, although of course the license is going to be very expensive, and I think there is a competing game that is using the Tolkien license (so it might not even be a possibility).
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Cubicle 7 is currently publishing The One Ring (and it looks like a GM in that game is called a Loremaster. Really?). They own some other licenses as well, notably Doctor Who and The Laundry Files. So I doubt Tolkien would sell it, and I really doubt that ICE would want to buy it, given what happened to them last time because of it.
I'm guessing that at least some sell for the asking prices. I'm not sure that $60 is a viable price for Bree, even new, but $25 is probably possible. You never know with collectors though (I wish I'd bought Ardor at the price it was advertised on the back of a Dragon Magazine I was looking at recently).
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Even if ICE got the license back, they would probably need to contact all the individual authors to get the rights to the individual books (possibly artists too). There are likely no original files to work with, so the best they could do would be scans. A significant headache for a significant cost. I would not expect to ever see that happen.
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Unless Volunteers came forward buying at least "good" quality material at the ...Cons, scanned them using as "best" they have, then re-sealing them. However, the "re-sealing" would be problem...
rmfr
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No owner of the gaming rights for that IP would ever license them for a bunch of scanned material or even regurgitating pre-existing books. We would need a large scale company with full-time staff of writers, artists, etc. to support that line and every product would need to be written from scratch. It is not a feasible consideration in any way.
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(Cubicle 7 appear to have a full time staff of eleven, plus freelancers; admittedly they have more than one range of products.)
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No owner of the gaming rights for that IP would ever license them for a bunch of scanned material or even regurgitating pre-existing books. We would need a large scale company with full-time staff of writers, artists, etc. to support that line and every product would need to be written from scratch. It is not a feasible consideration in any way.
Ah, ok. It is sad to hear though. We're actually starting a RMU campaign in Middle Earth, and updated versions would have been great.
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I've seen many TOR GMs use the old setting content for the maps and such. They have just use different NPCs and stuff.
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No owner of the gaming rights for that IP would ever license them for a bunch of scanned material or even regurgitating pre-existing books. We would need a large scale company with full-time staff of writers, artists, etc. to support that line and every product would need to be written from scratch. It is not a feasible consideration in any way.
I would think that with the demand for ME modules from Tolkien fans, I think there might be a market.
Thom,
On another, but related note, are the master prints still available somewhere that scans could be made from? WotC is re-issuing their old AD&D manuals & modules, why couldn't ICE do the same if they could get the rights to TE material? There is a huge market on Drive Thru RPG and people are buying scanned copies of all kinds of old RPG books, modules, etc.
Just curious. Not saying this can be done, just hoping it could be done. :)
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I have a feeling that ICE had to destroy or return to TE everything Middle-earth related.
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The archives that I have access to do not contain any Middle-Earth material.
Best wishes,
Nicholas
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No Middle Earth related material was transferred to the current organization.
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Thanks for letting us know.
Oh well. I least I still have my original stash of old ME products.