From: drew@snow.geology.wisc.edu (Drew Novick)
Subject: Re: SJG licenses White Wolf's Vampire
Keywords: Vampire, SJG
Organization: Dept. of Geology & Geophysics, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 22:04:53 GMT

Just a few words at the top.... this discussion probably should get moved
to .advocacy.  After all, it seems to be moving in the direction of GURPS
Vampire:  good or bad.  

In article <Bxtorp.6x5@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> durrant@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (unknown) writes:
>
>	I'll admit, as you can probably tell from my previous posts, I'm
>pretty much opposed to the idea of GURPS Vampire.  But having read a few of

Yes, we can tell.  It is nothing to be ashamed of.  My only question is
_WHY_ you are opposed to GURPS Vampire.  I find it hard to believe that you
value the rules system so highly.  

>	There was a great post earlier about the logistics problems in converting Vampire to GURPS (sorry I couldn't remember the number of the article, or I
>would have quoted it).  I just don't see how feasible converting the system
>would be--who's products would be canon for the game, would every NPC have
>two sets of stats, in short, how could this be done?

I think this misses the point.  GURPS Vampire is not meant to replace it.
It simply allows the Vampire background to be used with the GURPS system.
I'd also guess that quite a lot of cross-genre bits would be included.

You wouldn't need two sets of stats unless you were playing a GURPS Vampire
game as well as Vampire: The Masquerade.  As for how the conversion works,
that's precisely SJG's problem now that they have this liscensing
agreement.

>	Secondly, if I remember correctly, and I asked at a gaming store 
>yesterday to confirm this, Steve Jackson Games almost went bankrupt last year.
>Their sales are way down, and I don't know if they would have the money or
>credit after their past problems to pull this off.

I am sure others on the Net are far more knowlegeable than myself on this
topic.  But an important idea is size.  SJG is significantly larger than
White Wolf is terms of annual sales.  And the size of a company is directly
related to how much bad economic news they can take.  Also, you might be
surprised at how little such a liscensing agreement would go for.  

>	Thirdly, having met Mark Rein-Hegan, Andrew Greenberg, and Tom Dowd
>(of Shadowrun fame, but he did have a significant role in designing the 
>Storyteller system and I'm sure he still owns a piece of it) I don't feel they
>would give their baby up.  If White Wolf would license to *anyone* it would
>be FASA--a company they are actually on good terms with.

Something about strange bedfellows....  I've also met Rein-Hegan and
Greenberg but obviously I got a much different feel out of it.  And it is
easily possible that FASA wasn't interested.  But it is far more likely
that SJG came to White Wolf with the idea.  In fact, another book in the
GURPS system (especially with the hype and initial sales of Vampire {as
well as all the vampire junkies out there}) is just what would help SJG out
of their financial problems.

>
>	I'm taking GURPS Vampire with a wait and see attitude--I really hate  
>the idea, but I won't believe it until I see the books on the shelves.
>
>Christine
>		Until you've played Vampire the Masquerade,
>		all you've been doing is rolling the dice.
>

I'm glad about the wait and see attitude.  But the .sig is certainly flame
bait.  And it doesn't answer a simple question:  What if you don't want to
play in a vampire genre?  
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc