Reply To: [unofficiall weekender] The 90ies called…. they want their games back.

[limburger 21714xp 2]

It’s the *wheeeeee*kender 😉

1) What miniature game is the oldest you have? And by that I mean what has been sitting in you closet, on you shelves the longest.
In rules that would be ’40k:Rogue Trader’ and Warhammer Fantasy Battle (2nd? edition).
I had the original metal Harlequins, but I’m not sure where they are in my big pile of metal/resin.

2) Selling old stuff or gifting it away? Do you sell them at reasonable prices or will you take as much as you can get?
I haven’t gifted or sold any of the old stuff I own.
However if I had to I’d probably gift it to someone or sell it for a reasonable price.

3a) Going public domain. After how many years should a rule set (not an IP!) be considered public domain?
Death of the author or 5 years since 1st publication.
Why ?
If you haven’t made profits in 5 years it’s not going to happen in 10 or 20 years.
The last thing we need is for a company to sit on rules and copyright law preventing a re-release/update simply because the company who owns the copyright refuses to do anything.

It might suck for systems that take 5+ years to become mainstream, but mainstream recognition is based on luck and thus highly overrated.

I’d apply this to both the rules as well as the IP, because once something becomes popular enough there’s nothing to be gained by limiting use to a select group of creators as it does not guarantee quality of the material (Star Wars itself is proof of that).

*ahem* Death to the mouse! *ahem*

3b) Is it possible to keep a perfect rule system or does the hobby change so much, that a once perfect set of rules become broken?

No rule set is ever perfect or unbreakable.
However I do believe that rulesets can have their own little niche in which they just work for people who play by the spirit/intent of the system.
The things that tend to break systems are things that were never meant to be designed to be part of it to begin with or things that never made sense (like vehicles in 28mm skirmish games).

When that happens rules need to be redesigned from scratch to comply with the new intent/design philosophy.
Trying anything else is like using a hammer to smash in screws. It might work, but it’s not going to be pretty.

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Music to inspire …