"Ex-FASA Renegade Legion games - who has the IP now?" Topic

Don't look at me. I started the thread way back when out of curiosity, not because of any plans to bid on a license.

Just wondering if there would be sufficent interest to use something like Kickstarter to 'ransom' the RL IP from Topps and release it to the public domain?
--
TAZ

I'd be willing to bet you'd need a massive runaway success on the order of OGRE (goal $20 USDk, achieved over $900 USDk).

And then you'd need Topps to agree to it. But I don't think that 'releasing it into the wild' (ie, public domain) is something that Topps would agree to. No reasonable corporation wants $500 USDk now when they can get $100 USDk for 10 years.

Cripes, this thread again? Well, certainly a valid bit of necromancy, zircher – Ogre's success has everyone scratching their heads and wondering about old OOP game titles that might manage a Kickstart revival. Getting the whole RL line is probably too much to hope for from a single project, but getting enough to license a given game (eg Centurion) from Topps might be feasible.

Of course, I might be wrong. Maybe there's even more money out there waiting for an RL Kickstarter, or maybe Topps doesn't value the IP highly and would be willing to sell it relatively cheap. Seems like the first thing to do would be to talk to Topps and see what they say. If they think RL is a million dollar a year license, it's not worth even thinking about.

Myself, I bet there are better candidates for Kickstart resurrection out there. The old Heritage Dwarfstar minigames, for ex. Kind of obscure, but they're "grail" games within their niche, they're all good solid designs, and they could easily be translated to larger "real boardgame" format with better component quality – which would help playability quite a bit too. Gad, those old counters were tiny. :)

Plenty of other possibilities too. If it had come out today, I suspect the Lensmen boardgame release would have been a Kickstarter project, and probably quite a successful one. Other candidates might be White Bear, Red Moon and Dragon Pass, or the old GDW boardgames, or hey, how about another version of Divine Right? The last one sure sold out fast enough.

I wonder if the Tekumel Club would benefit from Kickstarter? They've already got the attention of their target audience, but maybe there's more money out there that they're missing.

Hello,

I am a newbie and very interested in purchasing any promo posters from FASA's Renegade Legion series of games and this forum might be the right address to ask.

If someone here owns any poster(s) I am asking if you are willing to sell these. I'd pay a fair amount for them.

Thanks in advance

I know its an old thread, but as far as I can tell there was no resolution. I was going to attempt to contact 28mm who said he had some info, but that was a few years old and its been a couple years since he even logged in.

I've written Topps legal department. Hopefully I can get an answer, if not I'll hit up wizkids, nightshift games, CinC, FASA, and Sam Lewis in that order. Assuming none claim ownership, I'll attempt to get a written disavowing of that ownership in order to secure it myself.

All of the trademarks have expired or been cancelled for the entire line, and it really appears it has simply become abandoned by all parties.

Though its old, and nothing could really revive it in a day of declining games like this, I wouldn't mind taking this on as a pet project when I'm done with some battletech software I'm writing as the next thing to dive into.

I can probably even come up with the money to purchase it, if any of these organizations are willing to sell.

My thoughts:
- Rewrite centurion to better reflect the way weapons actually work and penetrate.
- Write a simpler version of centurion, to use with large micro-armor scaled games.
- A new skirmish game, *maybe* a tank or two on each side.
- Rewrite interceptor to move a bit faster, and have more logical armor damage
- Rewrite leviathan, adding in lots of new stuff, and ensuring better integration with interceptor.
- Rewrite Prefect
- Redo much of the history/maps/numbers of the universe to make them all make sense.
- Produce a shannendam county like sourcebook for 1000 or so counties in the universe (programatically of course).
- PC versions of all of these, including a grand strategic game.

And so forth… I have lots of free time, a reasonable amount of expendable income, and this would be fun to do as I was a huge fan of the IP.

And yes, it'd be easier to just go pay a few grand to commission 50 or so new drawings, and 50 or so articles to go along with them, and create a new ruleset based on those previous games and stuff. However, my interest there is far less :(

Thank you.

Doug

Response from Deputy General Counsel @ Topps:

"Topps is no longer involved with the Renegade Legion IP. It was sold to NECA years ago. You can feel free to contact them via necaonline.com.

Woot, wrote neca… lets get some answers! I'll keep the thread updated until I get a good conclusion.

Interesting. Thanks!

Ben

…waiting to see how this develops…

Also fan of the IP very interested please keep us informed!!

Excellent news!

I'd love to see 15mm (aka 1/100 scale) versions of the various grav-tanks for a skirmish game. My GS-fu is not strong enough to make models of those shapes.

- Write a simpler version of centurion, to use with large micro-armor scaled games.

You mean like a company+ per side?

That does raise the question: What happens to an IP when there is no clear owner?

Lawsuits. Lots and lots of lawsuits.

Yes Lion, company+ level. Actually, a few centuries up to a cohort or so. Tanks just have a few stats, like move, armor F/S/R/T, and Shields F/S/R/T, plus the weapons. Roll a couple dice to do damage, then roll a dice or two based on weapon type, either remove the miniature or maybe place something like a mobility or firepower hit marker on it, and move along.

So, no persistent tracking aside fro maybe a counter. This would allow 100 tanks on a table and still get a game in. Plus, it'd be easier to implement interceptors and naval bombardment could be used more often.

No reply from NECA yet, if I don't hear anything by tomorrow I'll call.

Ok, an update, sorta. It took quite a bit of googling and reverse address searches but I finally found their number.

Called them, and the person I spoke with said somebody else had gotten the email from me and was putting together a better response. I'm betting they just ignored it until I was proven to be persistent, which is fine. Anyway, he said that I should be contacted soon about it.

He did confirm NECA has the IP though, which is helpful, so it seems I have the right place.

NECA looks to be a pretty small little company based on the building at their address, with Wizkids in the same building.

If I don't hear back in a couple weeks, I'll call them again.

I'll keep the thread updated.

Thanks for doing the leg work on this. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say.

BadSyntax? Still there?

Oh, no! He's been taken out by a Tog black ops unit!

Doug

Either that or the Snow Plague got him.

Sorry, I guess I don't get notifications when this thread is updated.

HOWEVER….

Just got off the phone with Alexis Mueller @ NECA Online.

When I first started querying on the RL IP, apparently I opened a can of worms. Topps *HAD* the license, and was supposed to transfer it all over to NECA, but never finished. My queries raised flags at NECA, which is now getting with Topps to finalize all the license transfers. No issues, no politics, it was just overlooked and Topps is just doing up the paperwork.

Probably no new news until May, legal stuff takes a while, and they were pretty hammered over there.

Ok, now, the good stuff. NECA (or one of its subsidiaries like wizkids) has hired "dave schefflenger"?? Apparently some big game designer (I never heard of him, and not 100% sure on the name). He is supposed to create a board game division and there is a very good chance that RL would have a new tabletop game come out.

Alexis said it was unlikely they would sell the IP, and unlikely they would license it for any tabletop sort of thing due to that new division. Granted, this isn't final, not by any means, but is probably decent information.

However, a PC version may potentially be licensed, so that is a possibility.

So, in short, the license is still being transferred from Topps to NECA, and NECA probably has plans for some tabletop version of it at some point.

I'll make an update when I get further news. Alexis said he would contact me when the licensing is finalized and the other deals set.

The old Renegade Legion computer game was awesome. I played the hell out of that game.

Thanks for the update!

Hope it didn't sound like I was doing a hissy or anything. Just curious, and, trust me, quite patiently.

Doug

Whatever happens, I'm not real interested in licensing it for any purpose. I loathe the idea of dealing with another owner like that who wouldn't let me do what I want, and all the BS that goes along with licensing.

I am hoping that they really just don't see enough interest in even doing a board game with it, and don't mind getting rid of it. Not that I can do a big come back with it, but I would like to take that IP and make a great sci-fi micro-armor game from it (lets face it, we have no comparison game with 900kph Grav Tanks dropping from orbit).

We'll see tho, but the IP is so dead it may be better to just create a new one anyway, with new art and a slightly new story (one that gives more factions, and more balance between them).

(lets face it, we have no comparison game with 900kph Grav Tanks dropping from orbit)

Amen!

Anyone got an old tube of Centurion posters, the one with the grav tanks dropping in from orbit?

I thought mine came folded. (Admittedly, a shame…)

Doug

I have a habit of rolling posters, even ones that came folded originally. Helps when you have easy access to free hard plastic shipping tubes (for expendable bathythermographs).