As Jon and a couple of the other Athas.org folks know (and have been wonderfully quiet about! Thanks, guys!), Troy Denning and I have been negotiating with Wizards of the Coast for quite some time regarding our purchasing the rights to the Dark Sun campaign setting from them.
While I can not say much about the particulars behind the purchase, for obvious reaons involving various contractual legal promises and evil lawsuits, here's what I can tell you:
Wizards retains the right produce a movie based on the Dark Sun material, and has the rights to produce Dark Sun material of their own. I can't tell you what their actual plans are, if they really will do anything with the product line (particularly regarding the movie), so don't ask. I likely wouldn't be able to tell you even if I did know.
Did you catch that hint, though? Ownership of all Dark Sun material, past and present, has been transferred to us! (Obviously, all future Dark Sun material also falls under our ownership.) Part of the transfer agreement with Wizards was that ownership of all setting material and approval of setting-based material in all Dark Sun products would remain with us, but they can sell and profit from their own products based on the line.
Anyways, we will have a company website set up soon with some goodies on the future Dark Sun product line! (There's talk of just transferring ownership of the athas.org domain and making it the official official company site, but I don't know yet.)
And for those of you who might be concerned about the future of athas.org in all this, don't worry, we are going to keep them in the loop being that they have done such an outstanding job maintaining the setting through the years. (Not to mention, we do not want their progress on the previously 'unreleased' material to go to waste.) Obviously, athas.org won't be the "official" DS outlet any more, but you might see some members of the AO team on staff with us! (Nope, I can't say who.)
Also, since we now own Dark Sun, its status with Paizo has to be renegotiated regarding any DS material to be put into their magazines. I'm talking to them right now about the upcoming "Campaign Classics" articles someone recently mentioned on the board.
*ahem* Unfortunately, that particular issue may not happen now. Basically, while I'm hoping I can get Troy to write some material for it he's very busy at the moment and may not have the time in his current schedule to fit the writing in.
Sorry folks! We'll see what we can do! Besides, I would think you'd rather have us working on the expanded HARDCOVER 3.5 Edition DarkSun campaign setting book! (Yay! You may cheer!) There's the distinct possiblity this product could be available by GenCon '06!
That's all I really have to report right now, I'm still very excited about this! The "official" press release should be up on various sites sometime soon; but in the meantime, if you have any questions about anything I haven't covered here I'll do my best to answer them (if I can).
;)
Hey everyone! This is some great news I can finally let public!
You saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico?:D
You saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico?:D
Still nice dreaming, though.
-sighs-
:D
Unfortunately, it also bit me in the butt. Earlier tonight I recieved the following e-mail from Wizards legal department.
Subject: Notice of False Claims to Ownership of Dark Sun RPG Properties
Dear Sirs:
We appreciate your enthusiasm and support for Dungeons & Dragons and Dark Sun. It has been brought to our attention, however, that you have made misleading statements indicating your ownership of the Dark Sun campaign setting and all related products. The statements in question can be found on Wizards of the Coast's ("Wizards") own Wizards.COMmunity Boards, under the Other Roleplaying Worlds HQ: Dark Sun section of that site, and specifically located in the message post Really Great News.
As you know, Wizards owns all copyrights and trademarks to the Dark Sun game and related products, including but not limited to artwork, flavor text, game mechanics, trademarked symbols and logos. It is important to us and our fans to protect those rights so that we may continue to make great games.
Pursuant to Section 501.4 of federal and state copyright laws, trademark law, and other statutes, you are hereby notified that your actions constitute infringement of Wizards' rights. Therefore, we must respectfully ask you to cease and desist from all further claims to ownership of the Dark Sun RPG setting and all associated products. We demand that you post a public retraction of your statements regarding the ownership of the Dark Sun line of role-playing game products on both the above named message board and in any other location you may have made the same announcement.
You must provide written assurance that you will comply with this demand immediately. Please provide a written response to this request by April 14, 2005. If we do not hear from you, or if you refuse to comply with our request by that date, we will authorize our counsel to take the appropriate legal action to protect our intellectual property rights.
Wizards is the exclusive owner of all relevant rights to Dark Sun. Pursuant to the indicated laws, we have a good faith belief that any items falling into the categories identified above are owned by Wizards' as copyrighted material, and your ownership or transfer of ownership from Wizards to you were not and are not authorized by Wizards or its agents.
I am authorized to act on Wizards' behalf regarding these matters. The information provided in this communication is accurate to the best of my knowledge and is provided under penalty of perjury.
Respectfully,
{removed}
So, sorry, folks. Yes, the whole "me and Troy owning Dark Sun" thing was an April Fool's day joke thought up by me alone.
Unfortunately, they sent a copy of this letter to Troy Denning as well, which I hope doesn't land him in any legal trouble or interfere with his real, on-going attempts to purchase the rights to Dark Sun.
Again, sorry, the whole thing was just an April Fools' joke!
But I have a tinfoil hat to keep them from reading my thoughts...
It looked legit, till the .4 started bugging me, then a friend and I started looking up copyright law, and of course copyright law doesn't go Section blah.numberblah, it goes section blah.letter blah.
So "Section 501.4 of federal and state copyright laws, trademark law, and other statutes" should be more like Title 17 U.S.C §501(a), and even more nested like 17 U.S.C §501(d)(2).
Plus, state copyright laws wouldn't all be in the same section.
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000501----000-.html
Good one Raven.
Good catch, Nyt! I was even thinking of looking up the statutes to include the real, actual numbers (or a facsimile thereof) but figured, eh, I'll leave something for someone to point at and say, "That can't be right!"
Like you said, Term, I'm a cruel, cruel man ;) But thanks for your compassion anyways!
Happy April Fools, everyone!
EDIT: Ok, spooky. I picked the number I used in my fake letter out of thin air, made it up on the spot, and yet that really is the actual section number in copyright law that covers "Infringement of copyright".
Definately added onto the unusual Friday I've had today, made the last hour of work alot more pleasant anyways, heh.
Definetely all good fun. Ok, maybe not Eternal Damnation, but at least a Hellball, or Nailed to the Sky. :D
How about Atomic Wedgie then? :D
Not to mention that it's a Friday night! Do you really think WotC's legal department is sitting around in the office at 8pm on a Friday night? Heh.
As a person who lived in Seattle and is soon to return there: yes, they are most certainly sitting at Wizards HQ, most likely having a LAN party or "working" as they call it over at Microsoft.
-Modifies the Eternal Damnation spell to have a permanent duration, then casts it on Greyorm. Twice.
that was so nice, I wanted to print it twice :-)
Can I get a copy of this spell for my birthday in a couple months??
hey if Denning writes you an angry letter can you ask him for an update on the questionaire thats in progress with him? I's can't wait for it :D
that was so nice, I wanted to print it twice :-)
Can I get a copy of this spell for my birthday in a couple months??
Here ya go-
From the Epic Level Handbook, page 76
Damnation
Enchantment(compulsion)[Teleportation][Mind-Affecting
Spellcraft DC:97
Components
,S,XPCasting Time:1 action
Target: Creature Touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Savings Throw: Will negates
Spell Resistance: Yes
To Develop: 873,000 gp;18 days;34,920 XP.Seeds:forsee(to preview likely hellscape)(DC 17) transport(DC 27), compel(to keep target in hell) (DC 19) Factors: Unwilling target(+4 DC), 1-action casting time (+20 DC), +15 to DC of subject's save (+30 DC), Mitigating Factor: burn 2000 XP (-20 DC)
You send your foe to hell. If you succeed at a melee touch attack, the target must succees at a Will saving throw (DC= the standard epic spell +15). If he fails his saving throw,he is sent straight to a layer of the Nine Hells (or the Abyss, at your option) swarming with fiends. The subject will not willingly leave the Nine Hells for 20 hours, believing his predicament is a just reward for an ill-spent life. Even after the compulsion fades, he must devise his own escape from the Nine Hells. Unless your DM devises a specific location and scenario in the Nine Hells, the subject encounters 1d4 pit fiends (or balors, if in the Abyss) every hour he spends in hell. See the Monster Manual for statistics for these creatures, as well as Chapter 5 for statistics for
Infernals, a new kind of creature
I made a mistake by calling it Eternal Damnation, but if you modify the spell with the Permanency facor, it would then be Eternal Damnation. As of right now, since I did not modify it, Greyorm still has about 6 hours left before he realizes he doesn't want to be there. :D
As of right now, since I did not modify it, Greyorm still has about 6 hours left before he realizes he doesn't want to be there. :D
Sorry, Term, I made my saving throw. Nuts to you, but hey! Don't worry, I'm sure the gold and experience points you burned up in developing and casting the spell were worth it regardless of the outcome!
Well, actually, being that it is a touch attack spell, and I'm pretty sure no one except my wife and kids have touched me in the last fourteen hours, and I'm fairly certain you are not any of those (particularly my wife, though I'm sure there are times she would like to borrow this spell for her own use so I won't be telling her about it), I haven't even had the spell cast on me yet.
However, when you do cast it, I've already made my saving throw, saving us both the time and dramatic tension involved in determining whether or not it was successfully cast against me at that later date.
BTW, as I'm sure you would have wanted, I've taken the liberty of reporting this expense of arcane development and utilization and the associated income it was borrowed from to the IRS!
(As everyone can see, I have just cast my own Eternal Damnation spell against Term, and it only cost me the price of a phone call! Well, wait, I used the toll-free number so it didn't even cost me that!)
What Greyorm does not know is that he may still be up for a trip to Baator. As soon as I found out the IRS is coming after me for back taxes on all the gold I spent to develop the spell to send him to Baator, I sent my Fiendish Praying Mantis familiar over to Greyorm's place to deliver the touch spell Damnation for me. If I'm screwed, so are you! :D
As soon as I found out the IRS is coming after me for back taxes on all the gold I spent to develop the spell to send him to Baator, I sent my Fiendish Praying Mantis familiar over to Greyorm's place to deliver the touch spell Damnation for me. If I'm screwed, so are you! :D
And I thought the cost for Epic Spells was tax-deductible...
Don't forget to throw an EXTENDED Permanency on top of your Persistent Eternal Damnation.