Everytime I make a post, you then take it as a starting point to pretend I've said something I didn't. I've never played BattleTech and know very little about it, but I don't wish it any ill. But Shadowrun players or freelancers are not responsible for BattleTech being at risk. If it is at risk - I don't know anything about it - presumably it is just in the same situation as Shadowrun in that it would need the licence to be sold on to another party. If it's a profitable line then that could happen the same as with Shadowrun.

K.

Considering that the licences for SR and BT are bound together, and your comment about "Line Developer(singular)" when I was referring to both Jason and the Herb Beas(and his Asst. Line Developer, Ben Rome) commenting on projects they are working on(including stuff planned for next year!), it made it rather clear to me that you thought anyone other then Jason did not count as a Line Developer. If the Shadowrun license gets pulled, the Battletech License also goes. Thus, I pay attention equally to what is going on with Battletech, since what is going on with them and what is going on with Shadowrun will tell us the liklihood of CGL keeping the license. Also, remember: Topps never really valued the SR License(look at how they made a game worse then Mechwarrior for the Shadowrun game, and then killed it quietly, after not really even promoting it).

Ahem?
The Ego-shooter Shadowrun was done by Microsoft, not by Topps, right?

Topps/WizKids had roughly diddly-fuck-nothing to do with the SR PC/XBox game.

there was Shadowrun Clix line that did not very well (though whether that was to do with WizKids not valuing it, or just endemic of the troubles that were pulling the company apart)

I think they mean Shadowrun Duels. Remember the name of Wizkid's collectable mini-game was called Mechwarrior in an attempt to cash in on the familiarity of the name garned from the computer game series.

PSI warehouses books, sells them to retailers and other distributors and into the book chain, invoices those companies, collects money, and passes along the money to their publishers after taking a portion of it.

I can't speak to how Catalyst's previous situation with Alliance worked.

Duels was in production before Topps bought WizKids, and the people working on it included Mike Mulvihill, the last SR developer at FASA. WizKids was doing a lot of "different" things that year using former FASA IPs to try and expand their market.

I actually have 2 of the Shadowrun Hero-Clix Figurines . .
Also, the Mechwarrior: Dark Age thing did not really fly with the Battletech Crowd either . .
I guess both the SR and the BT Crowd are kinda conservative about our hobbies ^^

You mean the name "Clickymech" and "Pokemech" weren't a tip-off? Actually I don't have any problems with MWDA except, um, let's see... they hurriedly wrapped up the storylines that had been going for about 15 years at that point so they could write a completely new almost unrecognizable storyline where all the recognizable players were absent, replaced by new factions with only obscure connections to previous factions (And those factions eventually got scrubbed in favor of traditional ones), it was a collectible miniatures game, and the rules were basically mage-knight with only a brief nod to Btech in the way of heat.

So I guess the only thing I was fine with was the fact that clicky base health could abstract the Btech system of shit being blown off and make the game faster.. and.. that was it.

I guess I had lots of problems with it.

Oh yeah, they promised everying MWDA would get stats in Classic Battletech. That didn't happen. There was only one lame attempt at conversion, which is completely invalid now.

Anyway, for the record, I play both Battletech and Shadowrun, but Battletech was my first game to get me into the hobby, ever. So needless to say, I've got a pretty vested interest in seeing it stick around. Also, the game's a bit of a unique animal as far as games go. There aren't a whole lot of games like out there.

Well, if they ever do give everything in Clicky Tech CBT Stats, then at least i get some shiney new miniatures . .

This is my take on it from my past as a retailer who did inquire about setting up a publishing account a few years ago. Typically a distributor like Alliance buys product from publishers and then offers it for sale to retailers at a 10% mark up. Alliance doesn't push sales of product except through pre-orders. A lot of distributors seem to want to pay for the product 30 to 60 days after it is delivered, but I imagine that a bigger publisher with a very hot product could force the issue and get payed upon delivery.

Companies like PSI handle a lot of the logistics that come with publishing such as advertising and warehousing. That is a major boon to small press publishers. The fact they also does sales does intrigue me. Though they fact that they advertise that they have 75+ years of experience also turns me off. I hate it when companies pool experience like that.

Is this a good sign for CGL retaining the license? I have no idea. In many ways it would cut overhead since they would not have to deal with storing printed materiel. It also has the advantage of a one stop solution for storage, distribution and advertising. In that respect it is a good sign.

Ah...see..I found the figures at my FLGS after Topps bought WK. I figured they had just been released..
And, you know, honestly: while the game had some interesting concepts, it was not that good. Maybe if they
had done something more like Heroclix...

I didnt mean to make it sound like I was blaming everyone. I made mention of the two most outstanding ones namely ancient history and frank trolmen. Their behavior has been embarrising and shameful and how either of them can expect another company to take them seriously is beyond me. Theyve proven that they are untrustworthy, have no problem releasing confidential material, do whatever they can to bring down a company they are angry about, and publically mock and cajole everyone assocaited with their former employers. If anyone in the world deserves to be blacklisted its people like that regardless of the industry, regardless of the income of that industry, and regardless of how small a pool of employers is. The latter of which is kind of a joke as theres hordes of roleplaying fans out there whod love to get a chance to freelance just for the fun of it alone.


This is again two different subjects. Competing for the license is fine. The way one goes about it, as made evident by the actions of such people, is not. It is disgraceful to them, the license, and the hobby as a whole.


True enough. I have just chosen to keep an open mind to the side that's at least trying to turn their act around and improve things, rather than the side thats done nothing and continue to do nothing but horrible, petty, small minded actions.

Nibelungentreue is not a good idea.

And I find it morally wrong to support a side "that is trying to turn around" after doing a lot of wrong things, yet condemning those who fault the wrongs done (to them even, in some cases).

Again it comes down to what level of wrongs do you continue to excuse and what reparations can be made. As long as the freelancers get paid for their work and the company continues to make good products I have no offense and I won't get too hung up on claims that all the talent is gone! Because frankly every single team that's worked on SR has put out stuff that I liked and stuff I couldn't stand. Anything beyond that is frankly none of my concern, I have stuff closer to home to be concerned about..

I'd have to agree with the idea of there being hordes of fans out there that would be willing to write freelance on an SR project. Now I am not saying that everything would be perfect day one, but sometimes a shakeup like this gets new blood and ideas on a project. Fans are going to latch on to what they like and reject what they don't and really, a good writer, whether s/he's got all the SR experience or not, is going to put out good content as long as they take the time to check their facts and setting.

This is true for the fiction portion. The rules portion may be another matter. What sold me on SR1 was its unique rule system and the fact that the fiction was *mostly* bound by the same rules. Familiarity with Shadowrun rules is a requirement. Not to mention familiarity with the current fan gripes and their respective validity.

I don't care much for fiction thickening my rule books but I would pay happily for continued refinement of the core rules.

BlueMax

Or if you were less keen to try and cast me as an uncaring BattleTech hater, it might mean I was talking about Shadowrun and when you made a comment about line developers plural I thought you might have meant freelancers, hence my follow up comment clarifying that I was replying on the basis that you meant freelancers. Which is more likely? That when someone says "there's only one line developer" they mean that they're talking about a single line, or that they think it's sane to appoint themselves as a higher authority about what someone's job is than what it says on their contract of employment. You, for some reason, chose to attack me on the grounds that you thought I imagined myself in charge of what people's job titles are.

It would have been more constructive, as well as friendlier, to actually just address the points I have made (which you skipped over entirely).

Can we drop this now, seeing as it entirely hinges on you putting a prejudicial spin on words which I have already clarified for you (twice)?

K.

Yeah, I agree on both points and I lumped that in with the writer doing their research. Obviously, having that knowledge garnered over time and experience is preferred, but I could see a newb with a lot of ambition being able to read past books and fan gripes and come up with some pretty solid content. I mean, we kind of go through this every time there's an edition change...key things stay the same and key things change, but as long as its moving forward, the line sells.

I'm in the same boat, I enjoy rules and refinement thereof. Granted, I am much more open to adopting solid rules in my games from unpublished sources. At my table, fun rules the day, so regardless of me bringing a pretty book or a bunch of photocopies of some open source game, if its fun and works, we are going to run with it.

That's what I was thinking. If PSI is warehousing the stock, then Topps would probably be able to get a report from them saying exactly how many books have been sold. This could well be a way of injecting an accountability measure to reassure Topps.

There are plenty of people out there who would be / are keen to write. Even as was said, for the fun of it. But Frank Trollman made a few good points about this before he was banned. First and foremost was that when people are writing in return for fun or praise, you get a lot of problems. Firstly, they feel much less obligation toward the publisher. In fact, because they feel they're contributing their time and imagination as a gift, they expect the obligation to flow the other way. Frank talked about this causing problems when it came to criticising people's work. I can also see it causing problems with commitment. Until you've actually worked on something like Running Wild or Vice or one of the core books, you're probably unprepared for just how much effort is involved. I can tell you from my fairly substantial fan-work that it can really be a slog to get things delivered, and my work is minor in comparison to a lot of the freelancer work. And we haven't even got to the point of the back and forth of editing and re-writing which, as a fan, I don't have to deal with. Basically, Frank's point was that whilst all these things can be overcome and there are exceptions amongst the "write for fun", fun and praise are fickle motivations. What happens when people (editors or fans) don't like your work or have different ideas of what you should do? What happens when it turns, even temporarily, from fun jaunt to hard slog? What happens when writers start arguing with each other and things get personal? What happens when a new game is released and their enthusiasm is fired up by something else? Find a different fan to write might be your answer, but that's not so easy mid-project. If you're not paying for work (and paying an amount that is fair) with all the implied commitment that brings, then you have a lot less means to drag work out of your writers in a timely fashion. Frank said that of two people with similar talent, he'd far rather have someone writing for money than writing for fun or praise. What you lose in wages, you more than gain in commitment and reliable motivations. Personally, I see where he's coming from and would say that you need someone who works for money, treating it as a proper job, whilst also loving what they're working on.

And even if you have fans writing your material and an endless supply of them, you still need a knowledgeable and energetic line developer who can co-ordinate, veto and chase, etc. And you need reliable people as editors. You'll find people keen to write up some new fiction. You'll find substantially fewer keen to develop, test and write up rules systems (but you'll find them). People like myself who actually would enjoy editing material, I can't imagine there are many of us invisible workers out there doing it for love of the game.

There is a wealth of talent out there and being someone who has several times banged on CGL's door in frustration trying to get them to look at what people are longing to give them for free (chiefly on the fiction side in my case), I well know it. But turning that energy into a co-ordinated and reliable production schedule cannot be easy. I have some idea of how much effort is required to produce some of this work. I'd welcome comments from, e.g. Patrick Goodman who I think wrote vast chunks of Running Wild (correct?). Maybe I'm wrong. But I think people like him, AH, Jennifer Harding, the Adam AI, Peter Taylor... they don't grow on trees and the level of commitment you get from people like this (apologies to those missed) is a whole level above what you'd get from most fans. And you need a core of people with that level of commitment.

It's a shame CGL lost the whole lot of them.

K.

No argument there.

Knasser brings up a lot of good points. The one I'd primarily like to point out is:


I know quite a few people IRL who are like this. In fact one of these people contributed a piece to some older (now defunct) RPGs, then got all twisted out of shape when they weren't treated like gods for doing one book.

And then there's the critiquing / editing bit. You *must* have a thick skin when it comes to this sort of stuff. As has been mentioned earlier in these threads, different writers have different styles. This translates to liking different things when they read as well. In earlier threads, Bobby himself mentioned that he could tell who edited what in his stuff because of certain predictable patterns that *all* writers have. And we blind ourselves to these patterns simply through repetition of use. It takes other people to jostle us out of our complacency and tell us that something needs re-worked. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But you'd be amazed at the number of writers who are sold on the belief that "my baby is perfect and even changing an to and will kill it."

People who write for fun, and not money, can afford to ignore criticisms and edits. But they'll also find themselves on other people's Do Not Call list if they can't play well with a shared world or a team work. People who write for money, especially those writing in licensed properties, learn to make the compromises necessary or they end up with no work at all. And when you have bills to pay, that's not a fun place to be.

This last statement has nothing to do with the current IMR/CGL issue, BTW. It's a general statement of fact for media tie-in work.

I speculate that no matter who has the license in the future, the audience will only get smaller unless Missions or something akin to Missions is well supported. That is to say, there are new adventures to run at Memorial Day Cons for example. And for Missions to take off, the game must run smoothly with the base ruleset.

I also speculate that if CGL is not the licensee, Missions support would take a hit. Simply from the cost in changing administrations.

BlueMax



BlueMax

Yes there are a lot of people like that. There are also a lot of people not like that. The point is that there is no infinately tiny pool of freelancers available. The game had great content before any ofthe current batch showed up. Heck if you ask me the game has lost a lot of its SOUL because of the current batch of writers. Its been slowly dying since 2e. The rules certinly arent masterful or above reproch. Just look at any of the threads here that discuss the meat of the game and youll see that mentioned time and again.

I really dont see how you can argue that the current game is above reproach and everyone who left and burnt all their bridges, which as far as I can tell is only a very vocal few. And even the ones getting all this praise have admitted and been called out on how bad some of their work has been in even this incarrnation of the topic as well as others.

New blood tempered with old is a good thing as far as Im concirned. And despite the wailing of those vocal few it seems to me that cgl is trying like heck to get their act together. Is it sad that things got so bad that the situation came to such a hold??? Yes but that doesnt mean they cant learn from those mistakes. No matter what those not in the know repeat ad nausium in the hopes of making it fact........ so that their side schemes and petty hearted actions can come to fruition.

There's some very loaded language in there that doesn't really stand up. First you say that the people who left are only a "very vocal few" and then go on to talk about the "wailing of those vocal few" for example. The "few" people CGL has lost are people like Adam Jury, who has been the very model of professionalism, Peter Taylor, whose presence on these threads is conspicuous by its absence, Jennifer Harding who was extremely discreet until repeated accusations and misinformation provoked her into making a few clarifying posts. Bobby Derie who, given how he's been treated, could have legitimately exploded like a rocket on these threads but has kept it together, his worst crime being publically critical of an unpublished draft which he later apologised for. And there are others, discrete, but who nontheless have said they either wont work with CGL again, or wont work with it whilst Loren Coleman is there. It's pretty low to start casting their behaviour as wailing. Wailing is a word you use to belittle people's concerns. When a company doesn't pay you what it owes you for your work for over a year, when you're kicked out from your community for standing up for yourself, when you see a game you love put at risk by someone running off with all the cash and people with serious gaps in their knowledge taking over development, I don't think you should dismiss any objection as "wailing" in such an off-hand way.

You don't like 4th and think it lost a lot of its soul. But the RPG market is a fraction of what it was when Shadowrun was released and for 4th to have done so very well (shown by sales figures and house purchases) shows that a lot of people disagree with you. If you're going to talk about "petty hearted" (your words), then I think an attitude of "good riddance, your work didn't suit my personal tastes" is closer than people being upset at the game they've invested so much into being threatened.

You say: "No matter what those not in the know repeat ad nausium in the hopes of making it fact........ so that their side schemes and petty hearted actions can come to fruition." Which I take to mean you think all this "wailing" is a plot to try and undermine CGL and seize the licence. I think Dumpshock should be flattered that you think this thread will influence Topps' decisions or court cases about bankrupcy or soothe printers that weren't paid. Anyone can bid for the licence. Deriding anyone who does so as "petty hearted" shows a perculiar bias toward the existing holders. You should take a look at the names of "those few" and check out the credits of any 4th edition book (and some 3rd). You'll find that the people recently jettisoned from CGL are the people that pretty much made 4th edition. Quite honestly, I don't see why you'd credit CGL for Shadowrun higher than the people actually writing it.

K.

Wow. As a fervent SR4 hater myself I have to say I absolutely despise the latest edition. That being said, I think that the writing, fiction, and fluff has been VASTLY superior to any edition that came before this. The funny thing is that the writing is good in spite of the rules. The rules create a version of SR that I hate but the writing has not panned that out. The writing shows what the RAI was supposed to be, and it shows a world that is still very much one that interests me. My hope is that one day SR will grow up and finally decide what sort of game it wants to be -- gamist, narrative, or simulationist, or hopefully some awesome combination of all three -- but right now we are saddled with rules that are no better or worse than older editions (just different flavor). But the world and style is still very much the same as older editions.

As much as I'd prefer a better ruleset I'm perfectly happy with continued, high-quality content like we have been seeing. Whether CGL can do that with a new batch remains to be seen. From respected opinions I have heard here and elsewhere that does NOT appear to be the case. Add to that the fact that IMR is not a going concern right now and will need to pump out products ASAP means we can likely expect quality to take a nose-dive. On the whole, the future of SR seems safer in another company's hands. That may not be the case for BT (which LLC and RB seem to love).

Damnit, Knasser, why you always gotta go speaking so good?

I agree wholeheartedly with knasser and Catadmin. You would be surprised how small the freelancer pool is. Yes, there are lots of fans out there who would love to write for Shadowrun. But there are remarkably few who are consistently good writers, open to criticism, reliable on deadlines, have a solid grasp and depth of Shadowrun history and mechanics, and are in it for the long-haul. I know it's easy to look at a forum like Dumpshock and think there should be plenty of Shadowrun freelancers, but I'm here to tell you that in the time I wrote for Shadowrun, it really wasn't that large of a group. I wish it had been larger and I know Peter did too while he was the line developer and we spent a lot of time talking about how we could grow the freelancer pool. New blood is good, I totally agree. Hell, most of the people everyone is talking about here, like Jennifer and Bobby, were new blood from my perspective! And very good additions, in my opinion. But a mix of experienced veterans and enthusiastic new blood is really important. Also, never underestimate how much these writers are a team. Shadowrun is a collaborative writing environment, it's not like writing a novel.

When I used to write proposals, we had a quote we left up on the wall of our proposal work rooms.



If you can not stand criticism, don't write professionally. Personally, if I didn't see red ink on something I wrote, it meant the person didn't read it, because NOTHING is ever perfect on the first draft.

-M&P

I've got a separate topic for this, but there are some things I wanted to address here.

Shadowrun, like most RPGs, is a sharecropper universe - and like sharecroppers, the freelancers don't actually own any of the material they create after they've been paid for it. It becomes a part of the property, and other writers are free to do with it or ignore it as they will. This is a tricky situation for ex-freelancers, like myself, who decide to withdraw their drafts - the material in these drafts may be original, but there is also derivative material, stuff taken from the hundred sourcebooks and dozens of novels that have come before. You can't sell it as that. The only thing you can do is change it so it's no longer derivative - removing names, dates, trademarks, that sort of thing - or you can give it away. I decided when I left that if there ever got to be a point where I couldn't sell it, I would much rather give it away.

Originally I was going to wait until the actual books were released, but recent events have tipped my hand. Specifically, I became aware that several of the drafts created to replace mine might actually contain material derivative from my original drafts. Now, this is a pretty damn awkward situation for me - after all, my drafts are by definition derivative, and a lot of my material comes from research into publicly available sources - but a couple of the drafts were leaked to me, and without putting too fine a point on it there were terrible coincidences. Putting my original draft side-by-side with the new ones, it looked in some cases like the new author had used my draft as an outline. In others, entire sections appeared to have been copied wholesale. One of the authors confirmed to me privately that their instructions for creating their drafts contained explicit instructions based on novel elements from my original drafts.

I addressed the situation to CGL in an e-mail to Jason Hardy, Randall Bills, and Topps, followed up by hardcopy letters:


I asked for a chance to review the drafts and make sure there wasn't some mistake, or at least give a chance for things to be caught before they were published. Receipt of my e-mail was confirmed. The deadline I'd suggested was approaching and I sent a polite reminder:



Randall replied:



So, as far as I know nothing was actually done about it. I don't like that. I give my time and effort fairly freely, as I think most of the freelancers (current and former) here will admit, and I don't mind seeing my work go uncredited. But I don't like to see it get stolen, or misused, even by accident. Maybe I'm a little gonzo at this point and overreacting; certainly I can understand Randall's position. I hope he can see mine. Because at this point, anyone that cares to will be able to compare my drafts and those others when they are released, and decide for themselves.

I don't want this to stop anyone from buying those books, if and when they are released. They will be canon, these won't be. They will be laid out properly, with art and better proofing and editing than I could manage on my own. The content will be different. There will be a new PACKS, or so I'm told, and it will be different. Maybe better. I don't vouchsafe that any of my stuff is perfect or even preferable. But it is free, to everybody.

QFT!

Now I think that the most important thing to impress upon anyone writing for any long term RPG is having to know the "history" of the world. If you don't you might get some new people that have heard of the IP saying maybe I should give it a try, but you will lose all the hardcores that have been there since the beginning. So the most important part of bringing on new guys is giving them all the main books and story books of the past and saying "read this you will be tested later" then letting them write. Or at the very least give them Bobby's site and say read all of it and we will test you later. The world of SR has had a few bad story arc's (any long term story will its the nature of the beast) but if you don't know all the arcs you will either repeat, or create non-continuity, both of which are a death trap to fanboys/girls. The most important thing is to get people who would stay true to the line, if we can't get those that we know are good back that is.


I have a horse in the race cause I would rather see the likes of Bobby and Jen and all the others back, but I also have a love of SR and if it does stay where it is then I will hope for the above to happen, as soon as it doesn't I'm done till its back, period.

I'm curious as to why much of this can't appear as 6th world wiki entries, not least because that's what I imagined the almanac to be - a collection of information.

I might buy that line from Randall if his company had any credibility left.

I'm sorry things had to shake out this way, it certainly doesn't look good for the line. On that note I'm really liking what I'm reading from the other thread. We'll be using PACKS for sure starting this Sunday. Excellent work there. I also enjoyed the '29 fiction and sections on the CAS and Japan. We'll have to see if Dragon Force X shows up in 6WA...

Well Bobby at least now you also got poor man's copywrite on it... just sayin'!

That doesn't actually exist, but thanks.

AH, what do you hope to accomplish by posting this information? None of us are in a position to evaluate whether the work is derivative or not at this point since we don't have access to CGL's drafts. That will only become possible when these books are released. And even then, why try to inflame the public instead of going through appropriate legal channels?

I was trying to explain my reasons for posting the material in greater detail, and I did it hear because my reasons for posting them are directly relevant to the events being tracked in this thread. It is, therefore, relevant. I don't think fans are going to be any more inflamed about this than they should be by any of the other announcements by any of the other ex-freelancers in this thread.

On a personal level, I wanted the material out there where the fans can appreciate it.

And I thank you for it.

Also, shrewd move to get the work out there before any derivative work could be published.

I'd like to point out to those who think that AH is just trying to tear down CGL: If that were the case, he'd have waited until these books went to press (plates made, production started) and then post these drafts. That would actually cost CGL money, not just inconvenience the developer and a few writers.

I guess we'll know whether or not they are being truthful when those books get released and people can do comparisons. If they are close enough to be as you suggest... things could get hairy.

Thanks for releasing those drafts to the fanbase. I love seeing into the background that goes into the games I play.

Well, some of my (uncredited) material is going to be in upcoming books anyway - just nothing in these drafts. I did some substantial proofing and important changes in various drafts in 6WA and Corp Guide drafts, among others. I volunteered material to fill in gaps when there was whitespace on pages, and I didn't even keep copies of half of that - neither Jason or I are going to raise up a fuss about it. I gave the art notes for a bunch of flags - which, since the art was done before I left, I can't imagine they wouldn't use them, that would be six shades of retarded - actually, somebody in another thread remind me to tell you about how I ended up giving art notes for Seattle 2072. One project I was in the middle of, I was partnered up with Mark Dynna. We'd put together first drafts of a couple different sections of our chapter/booklet together, and when I terminated my contracts I made it clear that as far as I was concerned Mark should be credited as the sole author because if I tried to take the drafts with me, that would have been a dick move. That stuff doesn't concern me; the potential that my drafts were used as an outline mislikes me. Randall says no; we'll see.

AH, you know, your recent posts kind of remind me a bit of this story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwyyJ3D3g1E

I'm shocked that a company declined to forward a series of unpublished drafts to an ex-employee that has vociferously spoken out against the company and its employees, even harshly criticising early drafts of work he received from a secret inside source. Absolutely shocked.

The fact that leaks of draft material is still occurring is hilarious.



But this...this is outright comedy. Well played.

But more to point, Ancient, I really hope they're not using your drafts. I guess we'll see eventually (possibly). Good on you for making the material available though. Can't say I totally agree with your thoughts on the situation, but it really doesn't matter much. They're your thoughts, not mine.

Why should they send him a sopy of a draft? It's a work in progress and unpublished. AH does not have a NDA any longer so the company surety ofprotection from disclosure. I expect that AH would keep anything he found private and work through the legal system if he were to have received a copy, but the company has the right to protect its property.

I think the original post was meant as sarcasm, Steelfang.

AH posting his drafts before anything is published by CGL instead of afterwards will assure one thing: No accusations that he is lieing about his drafts being so close, that he has fabricated his drafts after reading CGL's material etc. will be possible.

That alone is reason enough to post the drafts.

Well, since nobody really seems to know the timing of this stuff, i'd be carefull with that kind of statement.

No it's not. AH probably has a friend who still is working for CGL who has access to the material and is slipping him the material. Leaks happen all the time for everything, and you have to be very diligent to plug them up.

Lastly, if they are using your drafts AH, or something based on your drafts, well, it's a bummer to do all that work and not get paid or credited for it. Hate to say it though, but I think you're going to be SOL as far as doing something about it. It's really hard to remove your section from a collaborative project and 100% remove the material, and since all the work is technically work derivative of Shadowrun, it'd be something pretty difficult to impossible to fight as far as I understand it.



Yes, it's not 100%. Also, if I was CGL, and I knew that legally derivative works of something are considered to be owned by the copyright holder, and I owned the rights to Shadowrun via license, and I knew AH's work was derivative of Shadowrun, so ergo, I technically owned the copyright to AH's work, and I was sure that, legally, I had the right of it and there were no snags, and AH posted the drafts to said work, I know I would turn around and use his drafts and credit it to someone else as a big f-you to AH.

But then again, that's me, the guy who doesn't have much respect for copyrights to begin with.