Re: (TFT) Open Source TFT

[David Miller <djmiller@i-2000.com>]

This thread lends a totally new meaning to the term "Rules Lawyer". 
(Sorry, I just had to work that bad joke in.)   ;^)

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First of all Ty, thanks for brining this up. I was beginning to think 
everyone had given up on this list. It is an important subject to all 
of us.

I have a question. All of us could go on for a very long while about 
the legalities of whether or not we could redo TFT and this thread so 
far has done just that. My question is simply this: What's the point?

1.) Is it to raise awareness of TFT? Is it to attempt to get more 
people introduced to TFT?

If the end product is to be freely distributed via a pdf file on a few 
web sites I really don't see how that helps TFT. The rule books to TFT 
are already available to download as a pdf file. (See: 
http://www.deiker.net/tft.html) Is Ted doing that legally? That site 
has been up for a while, has anyone asked him to take it down? Anyone 
looking for TFT can get them there. So, what exactly would a reworked, 
downloadable version of the rules do for TFT? How would they raise 
awareness for the game?

2.) Is it to generate income? That's out.

3.) Here's a tough question: Is this a possible way to try to finally 
flush out the copyright owner? As far as I know (and I spoke to Steve 
Jackson about this a few years back at GenCon) HT still owns this game. 
At least that was Steve's understanding at the time. Doing something 
like this might bring him forward. Is that the point? (As an aside I 
too have looked into finding the owner of the copyright with no 
success. I've even looked hard for HT but everyone who I know that knew 
him has no idea whatever happened to him.)

4.) And finally, there is something to be said about having all of our 
names on a new version of TFT. Who of us hasn't thought of that? (If I 
could win the lottery tomorrow one of the things I would attempt to do 
is to republish this game.) But is this a reason to redo TFT? Not a 
good one if this is the case. And how would you credit the design of 
this new game? Would you say it was by SJ? Based on an original idea by 
SJ? Original rules by SJ? Or would you just leave his name completely 
off of the project.

Ty, I know you are a lawyer. I also think you've had some experience 
with the publishing industry but I'm not sure. I happen to make my 
living in publishing and understand somewhat what it takes to market a 
game successfully. For the past 20 years I've worked for most of the 
major RPG game companies as an illustrator and as a graphic designer. 
I've art directed a few well known games and I know many people who 
have written and self published their own games. So I know a few things 
about copyright laws as well.

You are absolutely correct in stating that you can not copyright a 
"gaming system". You can not copyright things like text, images, place 
names, etc. But let me think about a reworded version of TFT for a 
moment. You would definitely have to change the terminology to avoid 
copyright infringement. Would any of you be happy to play a version of 
TFT where a character who has picked preference Number 1 (stood still 
or traversed one hex unit up to one half of his total hex unit 
capability) has to stop when entering another figures forward 
zone-of-control? Or choose preference Number 4 to dodge back to escape 
your opponents attack radius? Does this rewording help clarify TFT to 
new people or confuse them?

Wouldn't it be better if, instead of wasting energy and talent on 
redoing the core rules, we focused on promoting and exposing this game 
to a larger audience? Maybe we should pool our talents and concentrate 
on publishing new scenarios and rules somewhat like the group in Texas 
is trying to do. (See http://www.thefantasytrip.org/) Maybe this could 
be done through the formation of a national organization devoted to TFT 
and it's preservation. This could include a very extensive master web 
site of ideas, rules, local clubs, etc. Many of us could also run demos 
at local cons and game conventions as well as start TFT clubs in their 
area. This would go a lot farther to  expose TFT to a new and larger 
audience than rewriting rules.

But let me get back to publishing a new, reworked version of TFT.

To bring a game to the market and raise awareness among your target 
audience requires many things: advertising, web site promotion, 
articles in gaming publications, etc. All of this costs money. Plus the 
gaming climate has changed since TFT first premiered. I don't think a 
cardboard counter style game could survive against the GamesWorkshop 
miniature gaming Goliath. Who would be interested?

To bring a reworked version of TFT back to the forefront of gaming and 
give it a wide audience would require a slick, 4 color, printed core 
rule book followed by regularly published supplements. It would have to 
be widely distributed and you would have to pay a warehouse to store 
your inventory. (For those of you not familiar with publishing, most of 
your money, in the way of profits, goes to the distributor.) It would 
also have to be updated to current industry standards and include rules 
for miniature gaming. Otherwise it's just going to wind up as another 
free download on http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ where it will be 
soon forgotten.

Obviously I'm talking about a lot more work than what Ty is proposing. 
To do this thing right requires more than a word document with a static 
style sheet look. (By the way, designers use sidebars to break up the 
grey space on a page generated by the body copy. Pictures do the same 
thing.) It also would require an investment of several thousand dollars 
to do right.

Look, currently I know some of gamings top talent who would love to 
work on re-imaging TFT Melee and Wizards, most of them would even do it 
for free (they've told me as such). There are a lot of creative people 
out there that have fond memories of TFT and love this little game. But 
all of them (I included) would only touch it if it was legitimate, saw 
print, and was widely distributed. A reworked knock off would be just 
that, a reworked knock off.

Anyway, please don't take offense at these comments. We are talking 
about serious matters here and I wanted to lay some thoughts out on the 
table. Maybe it's the New Yorker in me. Or maybe I'm stewing over the 
fact that no one other than Dan responded to my Heroscape 3D Melee 
rules. I really thought that would generate more discussion than it 
did. Oh well, 3 months of work down the tubes.

--David O. Miller
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