IIRC Frank has mentioned (on a couple of occasions) that there were editorial changes made to some of his work (SM in particular, but I forget the specifics) that he highly disagreed with. His work is usually very internally consistent and the changes made kind of ruined that quality. If I can think of the specifics and find the posts I'll try to post them.

At any rate, I'm sure that's part of the normal editorial process that takes place for all the freelancers, but Frank often has stronger opinons on such things. I cannot say for sure if this contributed to his leaving the freelancer pool.

He did that pro bono I think.

There's also the fact to consider that some behaviour simply hits a note with people. I have a background in collecting, and I strongly dislike people who do not pay their bills, yet squander money. I seen too many creditors get burned while the "debtors" hid their money. That's enough for me to consider CGL something I don't want associated with a hobby I like unless they start kicking out the bad apples.

I recall him saying something about the Ally Spirit rules and spell sustaining in 'The thread that disappeared'.

Those problems were subsequently addressed in the SM Errata.

(or was that AH....? Hard to check I suppose.)

Send him a PM on the gaming den?

Nah, he's listed there. Frank and I talked a lot about the FAQ while it was in development, it was only fair to mention him.

Oh, if that's a reason, I should have recklessly worked to the complete and final destruction of FanPro, considering what happened to the rules I proposed to handle spy sats for SOTA: 2064.

This was put up in the stickied thread, but I thought I should put it here, too. In the interest of continual communication, Catalyst management has issued a new statement, which is quoted below in its entirety.

In a flash of inspiration I saw the future of the licenses. So I figured I'd share.

Here goes...

Catalyst loses the license.
Topps sells the license to NECA, since they bought the rest of WizKids.
Catalyst approaches NECA to sell them remaining stock and unpublished material.
NECA responds, "Nah, we don't need it."
NECA has WizKids relaunch MechWarrior!
NECA reissues Shadowrun Duels.
NECA rolls the Duels system over into a 'bonus feature' for most of their action figures. So you can play Shadowrun vs. Alien vs. Predator vs. Gears of War.

What do you think, sirs?

I think you have an excellent BTL supplier, and I would treat him right to keep him supplyin'.

- Ket

I think you forgot Freddy vs. Jason (not a J.H. reference) in that tally somewhere.

Honestly, do you think it'd sell without them? Or without D.C. vs. Marvel? X-Men vs. Teen Titans is an absolute MUST (because I just loved it the first time around).

Not sure if anyone noticed, yet, but the "Topps" logo on the Shadowrun4.com website links to Wizkids/NECA (wizkidsgames.com). I doubt that's how it's supposed to be.

D'oh! Thought I fixed that. Thanks for the heads up.

Jason H.

EDIT: Fixed now.

Glad to be of service =)

I've been hooked on Shadowrun since I "acquired" the hardcover first edition, street samurai,and seattle sourcebook from one of my players. Since then even though I've had scarce opportunity to play, I bought every edition that followed, and each one kept getting better. I'm not up on the debate over which version is the best (is there a debate?). I just know the rules seemed to become more viable with each version, but the stories and current events stayed rockin! I couldn't stop in the middle of any of them.

Throughout all that I didn't know who owned what, who was publishing, or who was distributing. I didn't get all the company name changes on the books from FASA to everything else, but what did it matter? The timeline kept going, great source material kept coming, and the game adapted fantastically to new tech and current events.

We're all intrigue junkies if we're here on a Shadowrun forum so naturally this topic has taken off running with a life of its own, and that's only made more intense by the presence of writers (employees) naturally concerned about their income which is a hell of a worry. Despite all that I'm not worried at all about the future of the game. It has transitioned through multiple hand offs and always managed to shine. There's going to be great new material written by lovers of the game who truly understand it (and will get paid for it).

And heck this crazy year is going to make for one hell of an inspiration for a Shadowrun adventure! It's already got my gears chugging.

Mesh

Round these parts it was known to as "The Edition Wars" if that tells you anything. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Shadowrun vs. Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator vs. Gears of War vs. Big Daddy vs. Freddy vs. Jason vs. the Parkers vs. Cheech and Chong vs. Conan vs. The Bride vs. Harry Potter vs. John Lennon vs. Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Spartans vs. Ninja Turtles vs. Street Fighter.

Good god NECA has a lot of action figure licenses.

Thanks for the update Jason! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/talker.gif)

I'm a much bigger fan of Battletech than Shadowrun, simply because I've never had the oppertunity to play a game of SR. Though I've always been interested in it. That'll probably change, thankfully, as I hope to run a BT campaign soon with a friend...who's run SR campagins. So... looking forward to seeing those books you keep talking about (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

That being said, I've always had a good experience with Catalyst. Hard not to when I compare some of my FASA books to Master and Minions...

So I'm probably one of those no good 'CGL supporters' that seems to be so frowned upon in these threads. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

That being said, this whole situation has had me (like everyone else) a bit worried over the past few weeks (nothing compared to freelancers and CGL employees of course...).

That recent release has finally drawn me out of lurking though... am I the only one feeling a little optimistic from that little blub at the end about the logo changes from Wizkids to Topps? I mean, if the statement is true, and CGL has been negotiating with Topps for weeks already over the licence... why would they wait until the last moment to want their name displayed if they were not going to rewew the licence? Especially considering the fact that anyone looking to pick up the SR and BT licences would already know who owns them anyway...

If they are leaning towards renewing it, however, directing their logos to be put on the webpages now would make sense... as a couple months from now, new fans that find the sites will see that Topps is the owner, not Wizkids. It just doesn't make sense to me that Topps would wait until the last minute to try and advertise to the fans that they own the licences if they're about to sell them to someone else.

That's just me though... and of course, there is the fact that my Master and Minions says Wizkids on the back, and the blub says nothing about changing the logos on future products... (I don't suppose that's a question you can answer, Jason? Has Topps 'directed' CGL to put the Topps logo on future books?)


P.S: Don't worry guys, these threads aren't the only ones I've been reading at Dumpshock...other threads seem a bit more welcoming and...sane. Although augmented forehead penises was a bit...odd. And not necessarially sane. Oh, and fur augmentation. Hrm. Furries in SR. No wonder my friend campaigns it...

Now for the real world translation?



We took Coleman out back and beat the shit out of him and he's not allowed to look at the company money anymore. He's not fired and in jail yet because that would be admitting to the crimes and we might go down with him...



We didn't pay them.... and they put a stop on the books via their contracts because.... we didn't pay um.



65.... payments to Dozens of freelancers, covering a variety of projects. 65... payments to Dozens of freelancers. We finally paid them what we owed them, or enough for them to lift the hold.



Turns out... when people do work for you, and you're in contract for that work. You actually have to PAY um. Who knew!? So... we paid um what we OWED them, and have looked over our books and paid off what we could so this didn't happen with the next book we're trying to publish. Note we didn't pay all. Just what we need to get product back on shelves.



Turns out... if they do the work we DO have to pay um. "The Check's in he mail" only works for so long. So.. we're planning in the future to pay for the work we contract. So this doesn't happen again.



They had us over a barrel so we released those properties in an attempt to dodge those lawsuits...



We're still in the hole and we're being sued for the money. The gall!



If people ignore the rest of the information on hand, and even.. in this very release where we note we were behind on paying DOZENS of people 65 payments and had to let properties go due to none payment and use stock items to pay them off. Maybe they'll think we never do wrong and we actually PAID these guys. Right! Um... Look A dime!! SHiiiiiiiny!!!



Ignoring the fact that we had to be taken to court to pay and had to have books put on hold for non payment of the people that wrote them. But we'll do better in the future. Those pesky workers aren't gonna work for free any more!



Topps has taken notice that the excrement has hit the fan... and are making sure we know they own our asses on this.. so we're kissin' ass and trying to get them to give us another chance!


~~~



Now... this was done in partial jest. It's ment to make you laugh a little... but there's a good number of points above that you might want to take notice of.

Their gentle wording aside some of the things admitted to should scare the crap out of you as fans of the IP. I know it does me.

Topps would have to be insane to let these guys retain the property now.

Was it just me, or did the tone of this press release seem a bit more confrontational than the previous?

Whats sad, is that I keep hearing that people write for Catalyst, or insert whatever rpg company, for the love of the game not the money. Thats how the companies get you, by using people as fodder because behind you there multiple people wanting to take a shot at writing for Shadowrun when the previous Freelancers realize how they are being treated. I think this is the perfect opportunity for the Freelancers to change the rules on how they are paid. If you get enough people united, you can change how things are done.

Seriously how many people actually dont get paid weekly, bi-monthly, every 2 weeks or monthly. And saying this is how the industry operates is just a cop out. Make a change guys, stick up for your rights before you get shafted. Demand half payment when project is delivered. Think of how many projects over the years that dont go to print and then all that hard work is for not.

"Defensive Spin" is what I got out of it. But then I'm first to admit I'm a touch negatively bias at the moment.

Right now, almost all my money comes from freelance writing. Much of that comes from the gaming industry. A big portion of my work comes from Catalyst, so I do have a vested interest in this topic. I've also done plenty of work with White Wolf, some for Goodman, some for Paizo, some for Green Ronin, and a number of other publishers.

For a point of reference, most publishers make a point of paying shortly after a final draft is accepted. That's industry standard. It's what I do with my independent publishing ventures. Most major companies pay those invoices twice monthly, some every two weeks. A very small number pay quarterly. Catalyst is a bit odd in that they pay after publication. However, they're not alone in that. Paizo does it, as well as Green Ronin.

That said, most RPG publishers pay quicker than non-RPG counterparts. If I do work for an online magazine, I can invoice after publication, and can usually expect to see payment in the next fiscal quarter. If it's a print magazine, payment often comes six months later. While I don't really approve of their payment methods at all times, I will say the RPG industry is hardly the worst in publishing. In fact, they're often much better. Hell, I've gotten advances from one publisher.

I love that you think that calling a company on not paying it's debts (including those that it owes you) because one of the owners is engaged in fraudlent behaviour 'reckless [..] destruction'

What the hell? Frank is 'reckless' for blowing the whistle, not, say, IMR's L.L.Coleman for defrauding the company?

Are you for serious? Can you lend me some money so I can not pay it back - and presumably you won't 'recklessly' try and destory my credit.

If I had to guess, I'd say Nath meant to say "relentlessly". I'll give Frankie that, he's not been reckless. But he has been relentless.

Yeah, but with a bit of an agressive tone, it seemed. Just really seemed as if it was a different writer from prior releases.