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Nocturnal Media acquires West End Games
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Whill
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 6:31 pm    Post subject: Nocturnal Media acquires West End Games Reply with quote

http://www.nocturnal-media.com/blog/2016/4/13/nocturnal-media-acquires-west-end-games

This doesn't really effect us directly, but I thought some of you may be interested in this. Although there is still an OGL Open D6, the new company can and likely will publish new D6 games.

And who know? If the company is successful maybe they will even eventually get the Star Wars RPG license some day and publish a new WEG Star Wars D6 RPG? Here's to wishing on a star!
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cheshire
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'd love to see WEG back in the hands of this system. I don't fancy most of the changes that Purgatory Publishing made to the system. But if they have a good head on their shoulders and they listen to fans about what makes the system good, then I'm modestly hopeful. Though really I don't find myself excited at the prospect of some sort of D6 resurgence. If they have a new D6 product I may take a look at it, but I won't support something just because it has the D6 label, like I probably would have done five years ago.
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Whill
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 13, 2016 11:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cheshire wrote:
If they have a new D6 product I may take a look at it, but I won't support something just because it has the D6 label, like I probably would have done five years ago.

Yeah I have every WEG D6 game and some other WEG games from the era. I ended up getting the entire Purgatory line of D6 books. I bought the Septimus PDF just before it was released for free. I wish any game with the D6 system success, but now I don't feel the need to buy something just because it's a D6 game.

For me, now it would mainly depend on the setting/genre of the game. Perhaps it's a pipe dream, but I admit I would love for the current Star Wars RPG to be D6 again.
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Treefrog
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 3:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

OOC, how much longer does FFG have the rights to the SWRPG? Wouldn't it be great if the new WEG got SW back?
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garhkal
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 5:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, we can certainly hope they get the ok to re-start D6 Starwars.. Especialy with TFA, R1 and the other 2 films coming out!
Would be nice to see official stats for some of the new stuff..
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Treefrog wrote:
OOC, how much longer does FFG have the rights to the SWRPG? Wouldn't it be great if the new WEG got SW back?

It could be great. The terms of FFG's license are not public information. It may be indefinite in that it includes periodic options to renew. If they're smart they won't give it up any time soon.

garhkal wrote:
Well, we can certainly hope they get the ok to re-start D6 Starwars.. Especialy with TFA, R1 and the other 2 films coming out!
Would be nice to see official stats for some of the new stuff..

FFG's game can't deal with the new films because it is technically set in the EU which already had their own versions of events leading up to ANH and 30 years + after RotJ. I'm guessing the Lucasfilm story group is just making it easier on themselves and the authors to not have to heed to RPG continuity. So even if WEG got the game license and put out a new SW D6 RPG, they may be under the same restriction and we still wouldn't have official stuff for the new movies. I'd still love to see Star Wars come back to D6.

And you meant TFA, RO and 3 other films coming out. Don't forget about the young Han Solo prequel coming out next year!
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
And you meant TFA, RO and 3 other films coming out. Don't forget about the young Han Solo prequel coming out next year!


I recently found out that Emilia Clarke (Danerys Targaryen of Game of Thones) is part of the cast for the new Han Solo movie. I'm really curious to see what role she's gonna play.
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Treefrog
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 12:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Whill wrote:
Treefrog wrote:
OOC, how much longer does FFG have the rights to the SWRPG? Wouldn't it be great if the new WEG got SW back?

It could be great. The terms of FFG's license are not public information. It may be indefinite in that it includes periodic options to renew. If they're smart they won't give it up any time soon.

garhkal wrote:
Well, we can certainly hope they get the ok to re-start D6 Starwars.. Especialy with TFA, R1 and the other 2 films coming out!
Would be nice to see official stats for some of the new stuff..

FFG's game can't deal with the new films because it is technically set in the EU which already had their own versions of events leading up to ANH and 30 years + after RotJ. I'm guessing the Lucasfilm story group is just making it easier on themselves and the authors to not have to heed to RPG continuity. So even if WEG got the game license and put out a new SW D6 RPG, they may be under the same restriction and we still wouldn't have official stuff for the new movies. I'd still love to see Star Wars come back to D6.

And you meant TFA, RO and 3 other films coming out. Don't forget about the young Han Solo prequel coming out next year!


Unfortunately, its not going to happen. I tweeted Pablo Hidalgo if WEG would ever be considered again for the SWRPG, and he answered that because WEG declared bankruptcy in 1998, and that FFG has the rights.
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cheshire
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 7:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Treefrog wrote:


Unfortunately, its not going to happen. I tweeted Pablo Hidalgo if WEG would ever be considered again for the SWRPG, and he answered that because WEG declared bankruptcy in 1998, and that FFG has the rights.


And worse has happened since then.
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Sutehp
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 7:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cheshire wrote:
Treefrog wrote:


Unfortunately, its not going to happen. I tweeted Pablo Hidalgo if WEG would ever be considered again for the SWRPG, and he answered that because WEG declared bankruptcy in 1998, and that FFG has the rights.


And worse has happened since then.


Ok, I'll bite. What "worse" has happened since then?
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cheshire
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A short version of the history is that it got bought by a holding company and then re-sold, along with all of its many properties, The D6 system, Masterbook, Junta, Shatterpoint, etc.

The buyer loved Junta and was primarily interested in that property. And whatever business savvy he might have had, balancing ownership of a game company wasn't really one of his primary skills. It's from this time that we got the D6 Space, D6 Adventure, D6 Fantasy, etc. And while hopes were initially high, there were some warning signs. Artists weren't getting paid in a timely fashion, and when the owner of WEG didn't reply, they'd eventually bring the matter to light in public forums. Also, the books were produced in such high quantity, that even though they sold a fair number of them, the warehousing fees were killing any profits they may have made. Eventually the move was made to pulp the excess books.

WEG went kind of dark for a while, and public response from the ownership was spotty. Planned books were halted. Then a new project came along and brought some hope back to the system. Pre-orders went out, and funding for the book was coming along. In fact, the book made it all the way to print, and was sitting on a boat on the shores in the US, waiting to go through customs. But there were a number of problems getting it to that point, and the matter came to a boiling point when it came to send a proof copy to the owner of the company. Fed up over the mounting arguments, the owner of the company said something to the effect of, "you can pulp the lot of them."

They did. An entire print run was destroyed. People eventually got their pre-order money back, but that was a journey in itself. The D6 community had lost what trust they had in the company, and more particularly the owner.

The owner made some attempt at getting some public trust back, and moving forward with a new business venture by releasing the system into an open model. The original idea was that there would be a website that you could customize rules and synthesize that into a game book that would be easy to run under the OGL, and get your own POD rulebook.

It actually was a pretty cool idea. There was some public chatter about it.

Then the owner turned into a recluse again. There wasn't any word about the product for over a year. So, the community continued talking about what it would like to see out of its own open system. That chatter came to codify itself into people wanting to run spin-off systems that were dissimilar enough to not run afoul of copyright issues. There is where systems like the Cinema6 system and the MiniSix came from.

The owner of WEG came out of hiding and was pretty upset to see that the community had started splintering off into niche interest groups and were developing their own systems based off of his plan. But he'd been out of touch for, iirc, over a year by that point.

He eventually opened up the system (which really was the best thing to do at that point), but wanted to hang on to WEG as a company. Effectively defunct, but still he wanted to hold on to the possibility that it could do something. Though that possibility didn't seem to be manifesting in much, as he even forgot to re-register the trademarks on the logos when they came due. I checked.

So, fast forward a few years, he seems to have sliced up the WEG properties and sold them off individually. Which, really probably was for the best.

Now we wait to see what Nocturnal Media is going to do with it. Whatever it is, it can't be any worse than what has happened to it.
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Last edited by cheshire on Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
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cheshire
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TLDR version:

Someone bought the bankrupt company and did this with its name:



Edit:Oh hey, I didn't realize, that's my 4,000 post, I'm a Grand Admiral. YAAAY!
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Sutehp
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cheshire wrote:
TLDR version:

Someone bought the bankrupt company and did this with its name:



Edit:Oh hey, I didn't realize, that's my 4,000 post, I'm a Grand Admiral. YAAAY!


Damn, that's a sordid history. I have to admit, I'm not interested in any of the other D6 properties; I just care about Star Wars. But yeah, that was a sh!tstorm.

And gratz on making Grand Admiral! (I should probably ask in a new thread whether or not Grand Admirals really do outrank Moffs and Grand Moffs; I get conflicting indications on that question.)
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Whill
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 26, 2017 9:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cheshire wrote:
TLDR version:

Someone bought the bankrupt company and did this with its name:



Edit:Oh hey, I didn't realize, that's my 4,000 post, I'm a Grand Admiral. YAAAY!

Those are great 3999th and 4000th posts! Thanks for the recap of the WEG Purgatory-era history. Ah, good.. er... Ah, times.

I had the original Junta and gave it to a friend in the 90s who still has it. Somewhere along the way I bought the 3rd edition. It is still in the original sealed wrapper in the closet, but I may play it someday. The original was fun.

I never heard that the Chinese Septimus run was pulped. I thought that maybe it was still sitting in a shipping container on the west coast. Or maybe it sank into the ocean. Man, I'm still just a tad bit miffed over Septimus. I held out on buying the PDF because I really wanted a physical book. Then when it was absolutely certain those books were never coming, I bought the PDF. Then almost the next day, the WEG owner released it to the author and the author released it for free. Well, the last money he ever gets from me.

I think Junta was about the only thing left with WEG, so with D6 open "WEG" isn't much more than a publishing imprint now. I'm sure they plan on publishing D6 games for old time's sake. Yeah we are not going to see Star Wars isn't coming back to "WEG", but WEG still had the original and best SW RPG. And we're still here talking about it.
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