DGP IP status

[McPerth]

Some years ago I read in this same board DGP IP rights were close to return to MWM/FFE due to lack of pubications (if I understood it right).

As I have stated several times, MT was my favorite version of the game (jsut a matter of taste, not intending to start a version war here ), so I'd like to see them published again, even as facsimiles as CT was some years ago (and if the errta could be added, so the better)

As now Traveller rights have passed to Mongoose, what's the status of DGP products IP?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Do you mean DGP?

If so, discussions are being had...

 

[McPerth]

Do you mean DGP?

Of course, my fault (I guess playng a game where the GDP of the countries is important has cvonfused my fingers ).

I'll fix it.

 

[Commander Truestar]

Back a number of years, I built up a huge amount of cash and approached Mr. Sanger.
At the time, I was in the early stages of discussions when MM said he was also involved, and further along that I was
He asked me to back out, and I did.

As I understand, the issue is not on the "buy side". It is on the "sell side", and you'd have to ask MM more about that.

But the DGP IP all belongs to a single owner who has, disappointingly, not budged.
It is my opinion that time will resolve this because nothing else yet has.

 

[Marcatlas]

Back a number of years, I built up a huge amount of cash and approached Mr. Sanger.
At the time, I was in the early stages of discussions when MM said he was also involved, and further along that I was
He asked me to back out, and I did.

As I understand, the issue is not on the "buy side". It is on the "sell side", and you'd have to ask MM more about that.

But the DGP IP all belongs to a single owner who has, disappointingly, not budged.
It is my opinion that time will resolve this because nothing else yet has.

If nothing else a missed aging roll might take care of the problem.

 

[Commander Truestar]

If nothing else a missed aging roll might take care of the problem.

Well, I don't wish ill for anyone.
But, I do wish he'd shift his position.

It's not money, because he's refused piles of it (within reason) to my knowledge.

 

[Marcatlas]

Well, I don't wish ill for anyone.

Neither do I. Merely an observation.

 

[aramis]

Its almost at the timeframe when Joe and Gary could apply the Copyright Recovery Act (CRA). (Which is pretty unique to the US.)
But it would need to be Joe and Gary, not Marc nor Mongoose, since only the authors can do it.

(based upon having read the law and how Steve Jackson used it.)

Note that Joe and Gary using the CRA to recover their copyrights would still not get them back in print; that would need negotiation between Mongoose and the Fugates; they're derivative works released under license that is well and truly expired.

 

[Jame]

I wonder why the DGP guy won't sell, if it's not money.

 

[casquilho]

I remember wanting the DGP stuff so much at one point. But now, I could not care less if I ever own it. He lost his real window of value in my opinion. :-(

 

[Commander Truestar]

I remember wanting the DGP stuff so much at one point. But now, I could not care less if I ever own it. He lost his real window of value in my opinion. :-(

To be honest, even if I'm not "using" a variant of Traveller, I buy it for ideas and universe data.
I even collect other RPG data because it can be used with Traveller for settings in that tech level.

I will add, the work DGP did was excellent quality and I was sad when the license changes came

 

[casquilho]

Commander, while I get the "Collect them all" as an overall comment, the idea I have to fight so hard to get what is no longer useful is just outside my personal level of effort. I have so many games, books, sources, reference materials, etcetera at this point, the idea I "need" to re-read any DGP content to mine for ideas or some small nugget of data is just not working for me. I used their stuff at one point, but that point in time is long past and is no longer for me.

I hope, at some point their stuff is made available for you and those who do want it still. I would never wish to stop you and others from getting your hands on it. I mean, in the end, we are all brothers and sisters in the Traveller hobby.

 

[Swiftbrook]

Just my 2 credits. I see the DGP material as some of the best Traveller material published. In addition to the written words, the style, layout, trade dressing - whatever you call it - is great. The artwork, considering most is black and white, is also some of the best and is used as the basis for some of today's artists.

 

[FreeTrav]

I am piecing together a whole bunch of bits from what passes as my memory, and I don't guarantee that there was no bit-rot involved in retrieval. Take the following with appropriate quantities of halides of Group I and II elements...

I seem to recall some hearsay that the DGP Traveller IP was ... I guess the phrase I'd use when in a less-than-charitable mood would be "held hostage" ...to a pet project of the IP holder (as in, "you don't get the Traveller stuff unless you guarantee publication and promotion of Pet Project"). A truce of sorts was alleged between MWM and the holder by which the material from the DGP imprint could be used and referred to but not reprinted, or some such obfuscated statement of that nature - which meant that (for example) the excellent task system could be used, but you'd have to write the description/rules for implementing it from scratch, or state that you were using the task rules from such-and-such-DGP-folio.

If the material on the CT and MT CD-ROMs is "canon", and the material put out by e.g., FASA, Judges Guild, etc., is "apocrypha", then I considered the DGP material as somewhere between "deuterocanonical" and "borderline apocryphal". Another phrase that was heard at the time was "forbidden canon".

I would welcome the return of the DGP material to "print", and would hope that some of what would be in the "haul" if an agreement were to be reached would included mostly-completed-but-unpublished sequels or "co-quels" to some of the released materials.

 

[casquilho]

Just my 2 credits. I see the DGP material as some of the best Traveller material published. In addition to the written words, the style, layout, trade dressing - whatever you call it - is great. The artwork, considering most is black and white, is also some of the best and is used as the basis for some of today's artists.

I agree, over time they got better and better. I remember buying the first couple of issues of The Traveller's Digest with their dot matrix pixel art and loving the effect. So much fun.

My favorite of their efforts will always be the 101 Robots and 101 Vehicles books, OMG loved them. Fun books I used a lot from.

So to be clear, I am not trying to put down DGP. Just saying if the person holding the IP today does not want to share, I accept it and can use the 100s of other books and sources I own to play long into the future without new copies of the DGP books.

 

[mike wightman]

Mongoose has the reigns to the Third Imperium. For good or ill their setting is now canon, and it is very different to the OOTU.

They have a different take on the Aslan the Solomani - so Rats and Cats has been overwritten.
They have a different technology paradigm, their SOM is about to see print and will overwrite the DGP version.
The MgT World Builders handbook is better than the DGP version.
Sectors have been overwritten, the FFW has a new beginning.
Ion weapons from Star Wars are now common and always have been, and at TL15 you can get a Dune/Foundation personal screen.

 

[Commander Truestar]

@mike wightman
I'll admit it will be interesting integrating things into MTU.
But there is a lot of history my players never worried about.
Mostly, the tech changes will have an impact as I align "what exists" with the new paradigm.

But, I will also admit I've been collecting and updating MTU since I started.
I do have a habit of doing a squeegee for Canon data to integrate into a historic timeline that goes back to -15 Billion years

So, there will be a lot of "ok, they changed that" which is not at all helped by the quality control issues I've mentioned elsewhere from Mongoose.

So, change is constant and extends to Traveller....and, we will do what we must.
That includes either collecting and borrowing from the MgT timeline or not.

 

[casquilho]

So, change is constant and extends to Traveller....

Oh so much truth in so few words.

 

[mike wightman]

I don't object to change, I object to Bobby Ewing in the shower...

 

[Condottiere]

That wasn't Bobby, that was his doppelganger.

The clue was the shower.

He was an Atlantean.