Sunday, 14 June 2015

I Wish I Could Publish The Lichway

Every time I think about this classic adventure, I can't help but daydream about how cool it would be to publish it as a standalone B/X module.

I'm not sure who owns the rights. It's possible that they were owned by the author, the late Albie Fiore and became part of his estate. Or they might be owned by Games Workshop/White Dwarf where Albie worked. Either way, if anyone reading this has any ideas about how the rights might be acquired, or permission gained to publish it, I'd love to hear from them.

I'd be very happy to publish it as a free PDF and an at cost print product. It's just something that shouldn't be left in old copies of White Dwarf.












Posted by at
Labels: , ,

17 comments:

  1. thekelvingreen14 June 2015 at 18:17

    Some of the old Dragon Warriors adventures from White Dwarf were re-released when that game was republished a few years ago, so Games Workshop either does not own the rights or can be persuaded to part with them.

    Graeme Davis sometimes publishes some of his old adventures and articles online; I don't remember any specific WD ones but I have seen some from other magazines. Perhaps it's worth contacting Graeme and seeing if he has any ideas on what the publication rights may be?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter Regan14 June 2015 at 18:19

      That's promising. Thanks for the tip. I'll try and get hold of Graeme.

      Delete
    2. Dave McAlister14 June 2015 at 19:55

      My understanding, albeit third party so I'll need confirming, is that Games Workshop only paid for first use rights for White Dwarf submissions - after that they reverted to the author.

      Delete
    3. Dave McAlister14 June 2015 at 19:55

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. Peter Regan14 June 2015 at 20:05

      That's promising. I've sent a note to Graeme to see if he can help. Lots of encouragement on Google+ too.

      Delete
  2. Guy Fullerton14 June 2015 at 18:23

    Halls of Tizun Thane too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter Regan14 June 2015 at 18:33

      That would be the cherry on top wouldn't it.

      Delete
  3. Zenopus Archives14 June 2015 at 22:23

    IIRC, the White Dwarf DVD archive of the first 100 issues was never officially released because White Dwarf didn't have the rights to all of the articles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Zenopus Archives14 June 2015 at 22:25

    Lewis Pulsipher would be another to ask. He had a lot of articles in the early issues of WD and has mentioned he plans on publishing a compilation of them.

    http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2015/05/why-i-only-play-1e-d-not-other-rpgs.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. Zenopus Archives14 June 2015 at 22:27

    More December 2011 miscellany

    "I've decided to self-publish in electronic formats three (or more) books that are, for the most part, reprints of material I've written for magazines and the Web.

    One will be RPG material, including everything from Dragon and White Dwarf as well as other magazines (I always sold only First World Serial Rights back then; in fact, I stopped writing for Dragon when they required all rights)."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Zenopus Archives14 June 2015 at 22:30

    One complicating issue is that Albie Fiore was on the White Dwarf staff at the time of issue #9; he's credited as a "Feature Editor", so it's possible if he was on staff that Games Workshop owns continuing rights to his work at the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Peter Regan14 June 2015 at 22:50

      Thanks for all that extra information. I've had a message back from Graeme Davis and he thinks that Games Workshop probably own the rights. I'll get in touch with them tomorrow.

      Delete
  7. otherworld17 June 2015 at 21:57

    This sounds great, I'll follow with interest, and Tizun Thane would be great too. It would be great to make miniatures of some of the iconic monsters, maybe a Sussurus and some Nandie Bears!

    ReplyDelete
  8. F. Killian24 July 2020 at 22:47

    I know I'm five years late to the party, but I'd love to know what came of this endeavour. I have a copy of Lichway in a big blue binder my dad made back in the day, and I never knew it was well-regarded (or even known) by anyone other than myself (I honestly assumed one of his friends had written it, because most of the other stuff in those binders fell into that category). It was a mediocre photocopy, so I didn't even know it was from White Dwarf.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Peter Regan2 August 2020 at 11:37

    The project has moved on a little. I've mode contact with Albie's family and they expressed interest in the project. However, that was all pre-covid. The earliest the project might get a green light now will be March 2021. The good news is that I've got a lot more publishing experience over the last 4 years so the finished product will be much better for that.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Simon16 October 2020 at 11:09

    "My understanding, albeit third party so I'll need confirming, is that Games Workshop only paid for first use rights for White Dwarf submissions - after that they reverted to the author."

    This is correct - I submitted to them in the 1980s and their contract only asked for single-reprint rights, no transfer of copyright. There is no work-for-hire doctrine in the UK, and I'm 99.9% sure Albie Fiore was not writing in course of employment for either The Lichway or Halls of Tizun Thane, although his regular gig Fiend Factory editing may have been, if he was an employee. So the Fiore estate will own the copyright in those works.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dizet9 August 2021 at 17:34

    Fingers still crossed ...

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)