"FASA is back" Topic

fasagames.com

Not much of a website…so far. They apparently are taking the Fading Suns stuff from Redbrick.

Hmmm…Earthdawn, Blue Planet, and Fading Suns. Hopefully more. I'd like to see Crimson Skies and Vor the Maelstrom come back.

Much more info and discussion available here, including links to the announcement by RedBrick:

link

Significantly, this "FASA" is RedBrick under a new name.

I already posted on the FB page about Crimson Skies.
They say its a no go as Microsoft still has the rights…

Though they did have the best Star Trek rpg out there to date!
And that minis game was awesome!

They still own Renegade Legion. Maybe we'll see that revisited!

FASA to re-do Blue Planet? Interesting…

"They still own Renegade Legion"

Not if this is just Redbrick rebranded.

Would love to see their Star Trek minis re-released.

Was less than enamored with the quality control on their boardgame chits for Prefect, which were cut so badly as to make them unusable.

Those were cut so half the numbers were wiped out, and couldn't be seen.

They cannot re-release those ST ships as the license expired 20 years ago or so.

I don't think you'll see Vor from them, either. The original author has the rights to the written parts of the work, or something.

How are they rebranding themselves as FASA? Are the Weismans (sp) involved with redbrick?

Yea, I figured as much, unless they apply for a new license, which seems to me would be a good idea.

Redbrick owns the Blue Planet stuff. I am not sure if they will redo it or just rerelease it.

-Eli

The original FASA were phoning in the ST supplements near the end, and the license was terminated.

The RPG was Old School in a bad way. Dozens and dozens of numbers on a character sheet that you were going to ignore, because anything that called for rolling dice in anger was going to get you vaporized.

Some of the ship minis were nice, and some were horrible 80s mistakes.

They cannot re-release those ST ships as the license expired 20 years ago or so.

Not that a little thing like legality has stopped multiple garage casters and shapeways stores from cloning those very same minis. :)

Significantly, this "FASA" is RedBrick under a new name.

When you read the announcement on the forum and look at the naming of the company, you'll see that this isn't quite true.

FASA Corporation vs. FASA Games

Jason mentions he's working with one of the founders of FASA, so it seems FASA Gams is a wholly owned subsidiary of FASA Corporation. With Jason being hired on as the CEO of that subsidiary. He's taking most of the staff of Redbrick with him. So, it's (most of) the Redbrick crew under new management and possibly more money to invest in making products, at least no license fees for Earthdawn ;-)

The original FASA were phoning in the ST supplements near the end, and the license was terminated.

As far as I've read it, the License was terminated due to the warlike spin FASA gave the property during the Next Generation era.

It was a Tactical Battle Simulator!

Well the rules and fluff for Vor did go back to the originator, Mike 'Scuzzy' Nelson, however the artwork and images (thus the models) were not part of the package and that belongs to FASA. That made it pretty tough to launch Vor 2.0, which didn't meet the kickstarter goal (hey, I did my part). I'd love to see these two parties get back together and put a new version of Vor out. Relaunch the models and include all new stuff.

The problem with FASA is that the game mechanics were so 80's

If they update the rules, that's not the game we remember.

Vor 2.0: Vor wasn't all that successful under FASA, Mike wasn't able to self publish in all those years, and even the Kickstarter failed… Doesn't anybody get the hint? There's just not enough interest in the game, so maybe another stab at it might not be the best of ideas at the moment.

I actually thought the background was interesting, the art spectacular, but never had the opportunity to play the game. The minis were a real pain to get at the time, so I don't have any to my recollection (I have a lot of minis, so I might be wrong). I do want those Growlers eventually, maybe some of the other factions minis as well, but overall very low priority.

Maybe he messed up the Kickstarter, maybe it was to early in Kickstarter's rise in fame, maybe things are different now…

I hope FASA will test the waters with a Renegade Legion Kickstarter or something, might have some traction in the growing sci-fi 15mm scene…

Maybe he messed up the Kickstarter, maybe it was to early in Kickstarter's rise in fame, maybe things are different now…

Knowing what makes a Kickstarter campaign successful requires failures, but I do think he tried too early. Now a Kickstarter campaign is a positive sign. When the Vor 2.0 KS launched, Kickstarter was still some cockamamy scheme.

Vor 1.0 was also poorly timed, facing off against the strongest period of 40k's market dominance and fading confidence in much of anything at FASA.

Vor wasn't all that successful under FASA

Very similar to what happened to Chainmail under WotC a few years later, I think Vor 1.0 had the plug pulled just as it was showing solid growth. Miniatures gamers like stability and longevity, as well as games that are not going to go stale quickly. Vor has the last, and FASA denied it the former. If anything, Vor was the start of a trend with the folks who were and are FASA; a trend that says they have very little clue about the miniatures market.

Oooh, I'd love to see Renegade Legion relaunched!

Regards the ST license FASA had…..they didn't 'lose' the license, they chose not to renew it (as ST wasn't making as much money for them as, say, BT….), and since they knew they weren't going to do any more ST, they felt a certain 'freedom' in doing the TNG stuff at the end.

Also, they hated TNG..;)

Now if it is really a "reboot" of FASA, maybe we will see some Traveller Product again. 8-)

Isn't the Renegade Legion line still available from C-in-C?

Renegade Legion! That would be nice to see relaunched, with new materials, not just re-releasing the old stuff.

Isn't the Renegade Legion line still available from C-in-C?

The metal miniatures line for both Interceptor and Centurion is still available from C-in-C. Nothing else is though…

@evilmike:
That story directly contradicts what wikipedia is saying:
link

Wikipedia isn't infallible though, but if you had a source…

i have some vor growlers, if anyones interested? pm.

@infojunky – the old FASA Traveller stuff is available as pdfs through GDW's storefront on RPGNow or Wargame Vault.

Other than Battletech and Star Trek I don't think I played anything else by FASA. You sure there's no way to get the ST license back? Gene Roddenberry is dead now, so who is there to object to their warlike spin on it?

The Star Trek license is the most expensive license out there from what I've read.

My 'source' is Sam Lewis and numerous other ex-FASA employee's. So yeah, Wiki is wrong. Again.

Roddenberry had nothing to do with the license, he didn't own it, Paramount did.

Paramount charges an assload of money for the license and with the lone exception of Steve Cole/ADB, it is for a term of 5 years, and then you have to renew the license. Translation: You have to pay MORE money. Alot more money.

So no, Roddenberry had nothing to do with FASA 'losing' the Star Trek license; it was a purely business decision, as the Star Trek RPG was barely breaking even (if that), and FASA decided the money would be better spent on Battletech, Shadowrun, etc.

5 years? But FASA sold/published ST titles for 7 years ('82-'89)… Funny enough, they tried Renegade Legion in '89, after four years they also retired that.

Renegade Legion was rumored to be the results of FASA trying to get the Star Wars license. If the Interceptor damage chart feels like there should be an R2 unit plugged into it somewhere, that is why. When the license went to West End, FASA reportedly decided to use all their efforts anyway. Changing just enough of the details led to an interesting cypher of a setting and some amazing games, but with RL competing against Battletech for FASAs resources and sales, one was bound to go.

Oh well then if that's the case screw ST, the ADB game will be fine enough as it is then.

Be nice if FASA could revive some other license that were dropped like Starship Troopers and Babylon 5. Probably too expensive but can't be as expensive as the Star Trek license. Heck, it would even be awesome if FASA went to compete against their original property Battletech by trying to license Gundam RPG.

I suspect the license cost for Starship Troopers is going to go up with a reboot coming, and the last license run for Babylon 5 wasn't breaking even, so it doesn't matter how expensive it is.

There is a reboot of Starship Troopers coming? Cool. Who is doing it? And are they doing it in the proper scale of 15mm this time?

All I know about the Starship Troopers reboot is Sony is involved and this time powered armor is rumored to be involved.

Just remembered this, FASA had a game for the Last Starfighter didn't they. And some one recently made a miniature of a Gunstar as well.