Penta

I don't mean to be condescending, but insurance is extremely complex subject. Email, blogs, etc. cannot convey tone, etc. I hope I was educational rather than infuriating.

Nah, twas fine.

I know this question is possibly unlikely to be answered...

But do you guys have any idea (that you can tell us about) how much this will impact upon things, and what any changes/problems are likely to be?


(I appreciate you probably can't tell us much detail about this - and thankyou for giving us so much information so far, it's yet another reason why I love Catalyst so much. I hope you guys get through this and continue releasing more insanely awesome stuff )

It's too early right now for me to tell what the impact on the release schedule will be. With the loss of important personnel, we'll need to reorganize and try to find a way to get things done. Things will still proceed--while I was posting to forums and such yesterday, I was also moving ahead on a very exciting product. And products like the Almanac and Corp Guide were to a point where I hope there will not be significant delays in their release. But we're still figuring out just what the effects of this week will be, so I can't offer any more definitive information than that.

I'd also like to thank all of the people who have offered supportive and kind comments--it's very much appreciated. The loyalty and dedication of the fans has been a definite bright spot, and you guys definitely deserve to be kept abreast of things affecting Shadowrun and CGL.

Jason H.

You're definitely a lot closer and more in the know about this than I am, so I'll take your word on it. Thanks for clarifying. Obviously we hope the best for anyone who may end up in a difficult financial or job situation over something that wasn't their fault.

hey, i am awake . . if barely <.<

Okay

So there shouldn't be any major problems like "Oh my God we can't afford to print ANYTHING" or anything that extreme? Just significant (or if we're lucky, insignificant!) delays at this point?


(You know how the Internet Drama rumour-mill is, everything has been suggesting it's the apocalypse for CGL... *sigh* )


That is awesome to hear about the Almanac and Corp Guide. Is the second Dawn of the Artifacts supplement still set to be printed fairly soon? (Since I noticed a PDF up)


Also, is there anything we can do to help? Should we buy more PDFs?

Buy Missions. Lots and lots of them

(In the middle of yesterday's... stuff, I accepted the role of Missions Coordinator for CGL. And if you guys buy lots of them, I may be able to weasel a little bit more than the shoe-string budget I'm on now to produce them, which means even better and cooler Missions )

Bull

The press release is nice to see. It's sad to hear about the situation, but I'm sure CGL will work through whatever they can, and it sounds as if that's the plan. I'm sure there may be going on behind the scenes as well, but in the end, that really isn't my business. This isn't a public company responsible to shareholders.

The loss of personnel is disappointing to me and possible loss of other revenue streams (Matt Grau and Wildfire crew saying they terminated their contract, Rob Boyle and EP Crew saying they are no longer freelancing). I'd be glad to see both those games land on their feet, but along with the CGL folks and freelancers who left, that's always tough to see long-term faces and project potentially gone. But again, their reasons for doing so, not my business. That's between them and CGL.

The biggest question at this point, is will this impact anything in terms of renewing the licenses with Topps? And that's all going to be a wait and see issue. The licenses will continue somewhere, and I'd really like it to be with CGL. Either way, they seem to be handling the situation well, and that's what matters right now.

To all the folks leaving, good luck. To all the folks remaing, good luck. Here's hoping for the best all around, and for everybody to land on their feet.

Congratulations Bully O.o

Unfortunately I already picked up all of the Missions last week

They are awesome though - especially Ready, Set, Gogh! and Knight at the Opera - (what can I say, the funkier ideas appeal)

I'd love to see a print copy collecting all the missions together - that'd be pretty awesome!

Such as betting that the economy will collapse (that premium was almost free).

From the tone both have taken, it sounds like resuming business with Catalyst is not completely out of the question, as long as CGL gets its house in order quickly.

Well, "everything" may be a little bit exaggerated, given the fact that "everything" is ONE post.

So far, we have two position: Frank says its Armaggeddon, Catalyst says everything will work out. And although one could say that that's just the stuff CGL HAS to say, that doesn't make Frank's doomsday scenario any more valid.

AAS

Like I said in my post, the Internet Rumour Mill as a whole. Not just this one thread.

I might have missed this in reading through the thread, but who has resigned? Also, I'm curious what is meant by "Rob Boyle and EP Crew saying they are no longer freelancing". Does that mean they are no longer working on EP, or does it mean they are no longer freelancers and have been hired on?

Adam Jury has resigned, as has Jennifer Harding and uhm, one more person I think.


Also, afaik Rob Boyle owns Posthuman Studios (I think?) so that likely means he's going to do his Eclipse Phase stuff, but not do any products Catalyst is handling, like Shadowrun (I'd guess)

Posthuman Studios is owned by Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, and myself.

Thanks. That helps clear the air. For some reason, Eclipse Phase forum is blocked at my work, but dumpshock is ok. For all that is going on, I wish everyone the best, and appreciate everyone's hard work over the years.

Huh. That I wasn't aware of. Thanks for that info.

As a side bar, this seems like an eerily appropriate parallel...

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dreamwave
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Dreamwave#Trouble_on_the_horizon
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Pat_Lee

Dreamwave had a popular property with Transformers but mysteriously didn't have the money to pay freelancers and eventually lost the license because it couldn't pay licensing fees.

Working in CGL's favor is that it has multiple owners and even the rumors seem to indicate that only a single individual was in the wrong. Hopefully CGL caught the problem early enough that it can recover, get upcoming fees paid, and possibly patch things up, or at least do the right thing for their freelancers and partners. We'll see!

That also helps some of the resignations make more sense. If someone has to choose between working for an employer who they feel has betrayed them or their friends, or working for their own company with those friends, the choice is pretty obvious!

I'm owed money. And contracts.

At this point, and unless there are better news fast, I see no point in holding back all the SoLA stuff.

Well, three countries of SoLA are already out there. It really would be nice seeing it (mostly) complete – and the final word was that this won't happen officially.

Or.... Shadowtalk? ;P

Sorry, SoLA?

I believe that it stands for Shadows of Latin America.

So much good stuff in the pipeline, keeping fingers crossed. SoLA still causing a ruckus imagine if SR license lapsed with a dozen good projects in limbo....

ShimmerGeek - Dawn of the Artifacts - Midnight has been printed already and I believe is set to have a street date of March 22. There are several pre-packaged orders in the office waiting to be mailed.

Ah that's great, thank you very much I appreciate it!

My 2 cents

As long as Catalyst did nothing to piss off Tops and Tops got there money they will probably keep the license. If payment is delayed Tops can renegotiate and if Catalyst has been good about payments up to this point they would rather renegotiate on a sure thing than go to an unknown.

baring that
Weisman may have a good shot at buying it back at a good price. I think he would be interested if the price is right and the whole experience with Catalyst may sour Tops to staying in the RPG buisness.

White-Wolf could bid but honestly most of the guys at White-Wolf now had nothing to do with Shadowrun and now that they merged with CCP you have to see if CCP really wants to get another RPG or not. I think while it could happen its pretty unlikely it will go this way.

Steve Jackson is more likely to license the product from Tops or give Catalyst a loan in exchange for converting their stuff to GURPS.

Cubical 7, Mongoose, Etc the price would have to be right. I think in this case its more likely Weisman gets it back because he an Tops already have a working relationship.

WOTC. Never happen, Hasbro is already wondering what to do with this D&D thing. The minis game is being merged into Heroscape and they let Star Wars go. I wouldnt be surprised if you see them trying to offload D&D at some point. From their point of view RPG are not profitable.

From the sounds of it, that is precisely why they decided to do an accounting review of their books. Sounds like they were having a good year with the phenomenal sales of the 20th annaversery edition of SR and decided that with this they should do a review of the books (or something wasn't adding up right). I assume Catalyst is a either Sub chapter S company, or a Partnership with limited liability as their public statement refers to multiple owners. As such, they do not have to do such reviews for tax or investor reasons. SHould they do it? That depends on how much everyone involved in the company trusts each other.


In any event, it seems that they are already planning to address the freelancers that have not been paid. I asked this question, since freelancers are what drive the SR universe in the stickied thread and this was catalyst's response.

Other reasons for the review could be a response to the employees who did leave, as the CGL statement implies that what was discovered did have some impact (stress caused) in their departure. Or it could have been the upcoming license renewal, with the owners wanting to make sure things are in order and perhaps make a new pitch to Topps about buying the licenses.

Though... considering this has apparently been going on from the start, it makes me wonder about what would have happened if CGL had managed to make the deal for WizKids.

Irony: Shadowrun players offering to donate money to a corporation on news of internal corruption.

I hope it should be clear by now that the only people that should be given money are the freelancers (Even the ones I don't agree with).

But you can bet it won't be in our internal reserve of 1980's dollars!

Let's now look at the fact that metaphorically shooting people in the face for money has fallout, and while all of the names listed in the front of the SR books are "faceless" to me (I've never met them), there's still a lot of attachment felt from some - or at least the pain that loss will trickle down in the form of lost/delayed products for the less sentimental. Perhaps this needs to make it into the game for those that want more realistic SR?

Speculations of Weisman pulling a nonosecond buyout are juicy. Wouldn't it be sweet if it happens and we find out the whole ordeal was arranged through his use of deniable assets? That would be pure SR awesomeness!

I keep seeing Jordan Weisman's name cropping up; while I agree that it'd be great to have one of the originals back in control, has Mr. Weisman ever shown any interest at all in returning to Shadowrun? I mean, I've been followng Shadowrun since '92, but I'm not an "insider" by any stretch. For all I know, Weisman hates Shadowrun, and was glad to be free from it. Are there any credible statements or references to him wanting Shadowrun back?

If not, I hope Catalyst can keep making it. They've done alright by my reckoning, and I wouldn't mind seeing them keep going at it.

I'm 100% in favor of this idea! Let's set up a donation hotline. =i)

My 2nd hand knowledge is that Mr. Weisman is interested in any IP that will make a solid return. Mostly in the past he has a built his own IP and then sells it off. However if Tops was willing to let it go cheap you can bet there would be talks. I highly doubt he would get in a bidding war over the deal. The only way hes in a better position than say Cubical 7 is that he has worked with Tops before and that actually is worth quite a bit if offers were in a similar range. This isn't like WOTC buying D&D from TSR, he is not to my knowledge actively after regaining the IP, but if it were offered to him at a price he liked I believe he would take it.

[edit] I still think its more likely Tops will give Catalyst more time if needed for a marginal fee. As long as there is no bad blood between the companies theres no reason for Tops to kill a good working relationship.

Weisman's company (Smith & Tinker) licensed the electronic Shadowrun and Mechwarrior rights from Microsoft in late 2007.

Then in this revealing article last year Weisman talked about how he regretted ever selling the rights and his goals for the properties:



Acquiring the Shadowrun tabletop rights would seem to fit right in with this cohesion.

Furthermore, Smith and Tinker is not solely an electronic gaming company. That they could branch out (or create a subsidiary to handle) tabletop RPGs seems thoroughly plausible. Especially when they are pulling down scores like this to fund brand new totally unproven ideas.

Hmmm. That sucks for the freelancers. My best buddy recently untangled the snafu at the, now dissolved, game company he formed and it has been tough. Situation is eerily similar -- missing sales at cons, company money being used for personal stuff (in this case rent), etc.

While I detest the way the rules worked out under CGL and 4th edition I loved a lot of the fluff material that they were producing.

Crafty Games, to echo an earlier poster, likely won't pick up Shadowrun. They just recently announced Spycraft 3.0 so I doubt that they'd be interested. I'm also not sure that RedBrick is the right fit either. Shadowrun needs a top or mid tier company, in terms of size, to be successful and grow. Regressing back to a fairly smallish company isn't the right thing to do. (No knock on RBL, those guys are great but they have a huge back-log of material as well)

I for one would buy a D&D Shadowrun. 4th edition is great if you just want an action packed session of killing stuff and getting loot. Pink Mohawk is often quite fun and D&D does it well. At its core it is also very rules light and easily adaptable.

I likely wouldn't touch it if WW got their hands on it. Unless Neph, Bodhi, HLS from Exalted (plus some other newer crop) and Jon Chung from the boards were allowed to have their way with it. Those guys are doing wonderful work fixing rules in Exalted. WW has always been plagued with being good books to read but shitty games.

That made me comprehend ShadowRun with classes and levels and it boggled my mind.

Though I do enjoy having the freeform ability to define my own class (what skills and such I have), I miss the concept of leveling up. ShadowRun RAW leaves it pitifully easy to start at the "best ever" and your only growth is sideways. But I love my current character and the fact that my only skill above a 2 is Spellcasting (even then I only have 7 dice). I like being able to go "I'm actually pretty good at this, but I can be SO much better in the future."

Edit:
I should stop abusing my signature.

They pretty much did that with their urban fantasy/modern day rules [the name of the setting completely escapes me].

>shock<
Someone who actually wants a proper RPG, with character development and something more than gun/magic/gear obsession.

hi hi

With CGL hemorrhaging so many good people that made Shadowrun good, I'm not really certain I care for it to survive. The fear of something even worse is the only thing motivating me to keep buying Shadowrun books now. Indeed, what a mess.

("Throw a grenade!"... "I can't, I can only do that once per day!")

eh, the financial person who resigned (jennifer harding) has only been financial person for a very short time, as i recall.

it is much more likely, in my (admittedly rather uninformed) opinion is that she took over the financial end of things, started looking through, found something screwy, and said "hey, we should do a more thorough check of all our old books, because this looks a little fishy."

it also seems odd to me that we've got the official statement saying it was a great thing that the internal audit (which is basically what it was, afaict) was a great idea... and at the same time, their financial person is resigning (citing 'ethical' reasons), and they're acting like it's just a little mistake. which seems rather unlikely if frank's numbers are accurate (i don't imagine there's too many people who wouldn't notice they've been adding $2-300,000 a year to their income, assuming this has been happening almost from the start and frank's numbers are correct... would be even more money per year if it's a more recent development and frank's numbers are correct. though again, we don't know if frank's number is completely accurate anyways. note that CGL has only existed since 2007, afaict)

so, my speculation is that the three who resigned likely found something they didn't like (possibly found only because one of them had just recently started a job as the financial person), arranged to have a more thorough investigation done, didn't like the way the owners decided to handle the situation once there was clear proof of something wrong, and left (note: it is not exactly uncommon for whistleblowers to be unpopular with the people they're blowing the whistle on, for some unfathomable reason).

of course, that's just speculation based on rumors, and some fairly hefty assumption-making on my part... and i'm certainly no professional when it comes to this sort of thing. it's entirely possible that i'm *way* off. but that's what it looks like from my angle.

d20 modern?

Never played it.

But I think what would really do it for me is if the SR stat/skill rules were altered just slightly such that instead of 6 being the "highest possible in a stat/skill ever" (baring genetic aptitueds, etc) it was more like 12. Then your starting "one 6 or 2 fives, all else 4" means that at best you're only half as good (at a skill) as you potentially could be (baring genetic aptitueds, etc).

Edit:
An image as to why I should stop abusing my signature for those people using IE or not using UTF-8 text encoding.

d20 modern. of one mixed in d20 future, cyberscape, urban arcana and dark matter, one would have a approximation of SR with the D20 rules (and the gnoll pimp still gets me smiling).

to bad they put the product line on ice before they got d20 supers out the door. It would probably build on the mutations rules in D20 future.

d20 modern apocalypse could also provide rules that would be useful for the barrens.

Heh. I was at the Colemans' house this fall and it was amazingly free of extensions.

That definitely adds more possibilities as to why the audit was conducted, perhaps started by or because of the new bookkeeper.

It also lends a couple explanations for why she left. Either unhappy with the direction management was taking with the matter or concerned for how it might reflect on her professionally despite having no hand in what happened.