Hey, this is Seth Maser. I definitely tried what you guys are doing the legal way, trying to get permission through Warren and Decipher, and I tried working with Brad DeFruiter (um... let's just say "unsuccessfully") before he was let go and then with Kendrick Summers. I had a strong relationship with Dan Bojo and Mike Girard before they moved on and was a writer, playtester, and designer (as well as a top player).
This was all back in 07/08, and obviously, you can see the results. I wish you guys well, and definitely had a structure and officers lined up but couldn't get all the wheels turning from the Decipher end. They were less than helpful.
I can tell you a few things:
1. Decipher pretty much has no product left. The last of it was sold to Nate Hill (Hill's Wholesale Gaming) a few years back, and even he bought it on the cheap end. When New Line ended their relationship with D, they had to get rid of it...quickly.
2. As for the promo foils? They sent the some to some DAgents, and many of them and the rest of the volunteers never got the last of them. They were sold off or disappeared (Riddle me which former employees sold foils, not that I blame most of them).
3. They still wanted to hold the templates at the time for some pipe dream, and wouldn't let me get my hands on them. I know people who have access to the templates, but they are lawsuit-averse.
4. The playtesting is not only far more difficult than you can imagine, but design isn't easy either. It can be done, but my group came up with a simple solution: Open up playtesting. Have the meta, but about 2 months before you go live, release the prelims for public testing. After a month of data, bring them back and finalize edited/new designs. See, people like power cards until they are on the wrong end of them. I broke the #$&*@! out of that #$&*@! troll in PTing and it still got released, and my release deck showed a broken version. And even that lasted 5 minutes until the more potent version of it came out in tournament form. Even then my group was the only one complaining about it. By then sets were starting to get pushed out by pressure from the top, and then Brad used that bs to "fire" us. The last sets were whatever busted guts Brad came up with off the top of his head and received zero testing. Anyway, don't fall into the ego trap. Testing and creating is not easy. If you are interested, I'm perfectly willing to provide feedback, and I can get you in touch with some STELLAR former testers who can help you ask the right questions. I think Florent did some testing but I dont' know how much.
5. I like your enthusiasm, but the legal loopholes were the most difficult, as it was still somewhat "fresh" and the Hobbit was supposed to be filmed/out soon. Well, it's officially stale and I hope that lets you guys get away with a lot more than what my lawyer friends told me I could.
Seriously, if you have any questions, feel free to email me at seth.maser@gmail.com
I went through this a lot, and can find a bunch of my files on it. I think if it's done right you may get back the second wave of top players (the Sullivans, Brochus, and Quebecois are long gone) including Bison Bucks, Cuse, and some of the newer Canadians/Californians back into this.
If nothing else know this: You can never get enough feedback. You will always find someone who can help refine, fix, or break your ideas. That is absolutely necessary if you want to get it right the first time.
Best of luck.
Topic: The future of LOTR TCG (Read 143386 times)
