Theres many classic RPGs from my youth that largely seem to have disappeared from store shelves, in sime cases a long time ago. Some may still be getting published just not carried by the stores I frequent, some may have switched to pdf-only, but a lot of them just seem to be gone Wondering if those in-the-know might provide some updates on the status of a few games I havent heard from in a while...

 BESM
GoO went out of business a while ago, but BESM 2e remains one of my favourite little systems. A few years ago White Wolf's now-defunct Arthouse division put out a rather disappointing 3rd ed. Does WW currently still own the rights and any plans for a new edition?

Ars Magica
The 4th edition corebook is available free on Drive-Thru, and there was a rather colourful 5th edition a few years back, but havent heard anything in a while about the game that redefined magic systems for a generation.

Pendragon
The last edition (5th also, iirc) featured the return of Stafford and the punlishing at long last of The Great Pendragon campaign, that now sells for ridiculous prices on the secondary market. Chaosium is still going strong as a company, but havent heard a peep about Pendragon in years.

DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes
Mayfairs excellent entry into the supers rpg genre lasted 3 editions with the DC lisence, managed a spin-off Batman rpg, and was apparently a huge inspiration for the rules of M&M 2nd edition (?). When Mayfair went under, the system sans DC was picked up by a small company that published it as Blood of Heroes with an original supers setting, and set a new watermark for bad rpg art. Havent heard anything since then.

Teenagers From Outer Space
The original anime rpg, though I much preferred the Westernized 2nd ed that took its inspiration largely from the classic Galaxy High cartoon of the 80s. After the 3rd ed it seems to have disappeared in the early 90s. A company called A2 published a sourcebook in 2001, with more supposed to follow, but not a peep was heard again.

The MEGS system is owned by DC Comics.

Quote from: TristramEvans;724615Teenagers From Outer Space
The original anime rpg, though I much preferred the Westernized 2nd ed that took its inspiration largely from the classic Galaxy High cartoon of the 80s. After the 3rd ed it seems to have disappeared in the early 90s. A company called A2 published a sourcebook in 2001, with more supposed to follow, but not a peep was heard again.

I think that R. Talsorian Games still owns the rights to that one.

Quote from: jeff37923;724624I think that R. Talsorian Games still owns the rights to that one.

Are they still around? What do they do nowadays?

Quote from: Endless Flight;724621The MEGS system is owned by DC Comics.

Pulsar Games lisenced it from DC? Are you sure? That seems odd, especially as Mayfair games designed the system, not DC.

Quote from: TristramEvans;724629Pulsar Games lisenced it from DC? Are you sure? That seems odd, especially as Mayfair games designed the system, not DC.

I think Mayfair mistakenly licensed it to Pulsar thinking they still owned the system. Pulsar was bought by a couple guys on the DC mailing list and they were going to release an improved edition ten years ago, but that never happened I would think because they don't actually own the system and have no rights to it, even via license.

If you look in one of the 1st edition DC Heroes RPG books it says "DC Heroes Role Playing Game is a trademark of Mayfair Games, under license from DC Comics, Inc." It also says under credits: "Copyright 1985 DC Comics, Inc."

I think even Ray Winninger, who wrote a lot of the sourcebooks, suggested as much online.

Quote from: Endless Flight;724632I think Mayfair mistakenly licensed it to Pulsar thinking they still owned the system.

If you look in one of the 1st edition DC Heroes RPG books it says "DC Heroes Role Playing Game is a trademark of Mayfair Games, under license from DC Comics, Inc." It also says under credits: "Copyright 1985 DC Comics, Inc."

I think even Ray Winninger, who wrote the books, suggested as much online.

Thats interesting. Probably also means that the system will never see print again though

Quote from: TristramEvans;724627Are they still around? What do they do nowadays?

Lisa Pondsmith is selling reprints of their old CP2020, Mekton, and a couple other games while Mike is working on the project for the Cyberpunk computer game.  Nothing new, honestly.  The slow pace makes me sad.

Quote from: TristramEvans;724633Thats interesting. Probably also means that the system will never see print again though

The funny thing is, DC Comics owns a great system, and they licensed their characters to Green Ronin for Mutants & Masterminds.

I guess somebody could get a hold of DC and ask them if they could use the system and see what happens. My guess is they probably would deny anyone or claim they have no idea what they are talking about.

Quote from: TristramEvans;724627Are they still around? What do they do nowadays?

They are still around. The last thing I remember them doing was a Mekton Zero kickstarter.

Ars Magica

Atlas is still supporting the game.

http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5/

Pendragon

Currently published POD. There are supplements in the works, but they have been in the works for a very long time.

http://www.nocturnal-media.com/games/pendragon

Quote from: Endless Flight;724632I think Mayfair mistakenly licensed it to Pulsar thinking they still owned the system. Pulsar was bought by a couple guys on the DC mailing list and they were going to release an improved edition ten years ago, but that never happened I would think because they don't actually own the system and have no rights to it, even via license.

If you look in one of the 1st edition DC Heroes RPG books it says "DC Heroes Role Playing Game is a trademark of Mayfair Games, under license from DC Comics, Inc." It also says under credits: "Copyright 1985 DC Comics, Inc."

I think even Ray Winninger, who wrote a lot of the sourcebooks, suggested as much online.

Star Wars D6 has a similar copyright notice. "R TM and Copyright (year) Lucasfilm LTD. All Rights Reserved. Trademarks of LFL used by West End Games under authorization"

And yet, the D6 system was West End Games, not LFL

You could probably change/adapt certain parts of the DC Heroes game system to make it similar in play but your own take. As mentioned it's in limbo, and even the people who bought Pulsar games seem to have forgotten about it which is a shame. Only thing is, if DC do own the game system, how come Pulsar were able to put out two editions of BoH using that system without any bother from the lawyers? Also that whole 'can't copyright mechanics, only the expression of...' thing probably applies.

I figure if you put out a retro clone, stripped of anything resembling DC and re-written (BoH is a BIG book, but it does admittedly have the best version of the rules. The art is excruciating though and the layout is page after page of eye blurring text walls) from scratch, DC (or anyone else) wouldn't bat an eyelid - so long as you weren't making any money from it.

Look at the Marvel Superheroes Game. Scanned and available on the internet for free for years now. In the grand scheme of things I guess RPGs are chump change to companies like Time Warner. It's all the IP stuff and film material they are interested in, not games played with funny dice.

That said... it's a big company with a lot of lawyers... and no one wants to be the 'test case'.

Can't there be a DC Heroes retroclone? Rewrite of the rules with the names changed and that's all?
The whole 'you can't copyright rule mechanics' thing.

Quote from: ptingler;724646Ars Magica

Atlas is still supporting the game.

http://www.atlas-games.com/arm5/

Indeed, they put out a new supplement just a few weeks back. 5th Edition's become by far the best-supported version of the game, with Atlas showing real judgement in where an entire new supplement is needed and where the same purpose can be served with an updated revision of one of the old classics.

QuotePendragon

Currently published POD. There are supplements in the works, but they have been in the works for a very long time.

http://www.nocturnal-media.com/games/pendragon

Actually, Nocturnal have been putting out the supplements on Drivethru for a while now.