So, as many of you undoubtedly know, back in the early 90s, when the Satanic Panic ridiculously turned devils & demons into baatezu & tanar'ri hastening the decline of the once great company known as TSR, a company called Mayfair Games, which had been producing D&D compatible material for at least a decade by that point, put out a line of products known as the (gasp!) Demons line.  This included an original folder package with a couple books and a cool color map of the Pit; a Demons II boxed set; a Sentinels (Angels) boxed set; an Apocalypse boxed set; and four monster guides with various demons from their five layers of the Infernus, which were cleverly tied to various sins.  These were "Denizens of Og, Vecheron, Diannor, and Verekna," respectively.  Incidentally, the line was at least partially credited to Mike Nystul, of TSR spell fame.

There was also a related boxed set called "To Hell and Back," which detailed literary locales such as Dante's Inferno and Selene, a vampire city featured in Paul Feval's novel, Vampire City, which was published about 30 years before Dracula.  Overall, the supplements were a lot of fun, with cool player handouts, new magic items, character classes etc.  They were also explicitly designed to be used with 2e AD&D.  For example, even all their monster sheets were three-hole punched, following the awful lead of the TSR compendiums of the day.

I bought all of these (except To Hell & Back, which I just acquired last Christmas) and used them to put together a massive Hell-raising apocalyptic campaign.  However, as bad luck would have it, the last supplement, "Denizens of Thanis," was never published because TSR sued them and forced them to cancel the line due to "unfair competition" and "trademark violations," though I suspect being associated with "demonic products" played a role, given the timing. 

But I'm curious if the final supplement (Denizens of Thanis) was ever written and/or released anywhere?  I'd love to have it, both to complete my collection and because I'm revisiting that old campaign and doing a sequel to it.  With the OGL it could certainly be possible to release it now, one would think.  I haven't found anything via my own Internet searchers but I thought someone around here might know given the various industry insiders who frequent this site.

Thanks!

No I didn't know of this line and now I must have it!

FWIW...
https://www.nobleknight.com/Publisher/Mayfair-Games?SortBy=QtySoldLast180&ProductName=&plS=&SPL=2137419164&MinP=&MaxP=

Those prices aren't bad for the quality of content you're getting.

Quote from: Persimmon on March 12, 2022, 01:36:30 PM
...back in the early 90s, when the Satanic Panic ridiculously turned devils & demons into baatezu & tanar'ri hastening the decline of the once great company known as TSR...

That had next to nothing with the decline and eventual demise and sale of TSR. It was bad business practices that killed TSR.

Quote
Mike Nystul, of TSR spell fame.

To be clear, the Nystul of "Nystul's Magic Aura" and other spells were named for Mike and Bryan Nystul's father, not for Mike or Bryan.


Lou Prosperi

I'm surprised no one has contacted Asmodeus Games to look at developing a line based on these products.

Seeing this bright back a memory of when I watched this movie:

https://images.app.goo.gl/NQ2XpfJ6CtDQJwTD9

Quote from: LouProsperi on March 14, 2022, 10:51:09 AM

Quote from: Persimmon on March 12, 2022, 01:36:30 PM
...back in the early 90s, when the Satanic Panic ridiculously turned devils & demons into baatezu & tanar'ri hastening the decline of the once great company known as TSR...

That had next to nothing with the decline and eventual demise and sale of TSR. It was bad business practices that killed TSR.

You misunderstand.  Changing demons & devils to those ridiculous alternatives was a undoubtedly step in the decline of TSR from the gamers' perspective, falling right in line with the many other things that resulted in pretty much everyone I knew who had grown up playing 1e reject 2e, and by extension TSR, in the 90s.  We all switched to other games and companies and/or stuck with 1e. 

I wasn't talking about the Satanic stuff in the sense of the company failing so much as in it being another bad decision, which I guess falls under business practices.  But not was I was thinking about specifically.

Quote from: THE_Leopold on March 14, 2022, 11:51:47 AM
I'm surprised no one has contacted Asmodeus Games to look at developing a line based on these products.

  Who's got the rights? I think they belong with WotC right now, since TSR acquired the rights to Mayfair's AD&D products in the lawsuit (and wound up actually finishing and publishing two of their unfinished works, Chronomancer and Shaman).

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on March 14, 2022, 05:12:26 PM

Quote from: THE_Leopold on March 14, 2022, 11:51:47 AM
I'm surprised no one has contacted Asmodeus Games to look at developing a line based on these products.

  Who's got the rights? I think they belong with WotC right now, since TSR acquired the rights to Mayfair's AD&D products in the lawsuit (and wound up actually finishing and publishing two of their unfinished works, Chronomancer and Shaman).

Asmodeus Games has all rights to Mayfair line of products.   

Quote from: THE_Leopold on March 14, 2022, 05:15:57 PM

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on March 14, 2022, 05:12:26 PM

Quote from: THE_Leopold on March 14, 2022, 11:51:47 AM
I'm surprised no one has contacted Asmodeus Games to look at developing a line based on these products.

  Who's got the rights? I think they belong with WotC right now, since TSR acquired the rights to Mayfair's AD&D products in the lawsuit (and wound up actually finishing and publishing two of their unfinished works, Chronomancer and Shaman).

Asmodeus Games has all rights to Mayfair line of products.   

Then, damn, they need to get on this!  Reprint the whole line & finish/write Denizens of Thanis.  This needs to happen.

Some of Mayfair's Role Aids supplements were pretty good as well. I've been hunting for a copy of Undead for a while.

I wonder how hard it is to contact a company and license their back catalogue? Furthermore, is there a company who handles "purchasing" old catalogue of files/libraries?