Das DDM Spiel war ja mangels support von WotC im Prinzip dem Untergang geweiht. WotC wird aber jetzt einer Fan-Gruppe eine kostenlose Lizenz geben, um zukünftig Skirmish-Stat-Cards für die "neuen" Minis zu machen.
As I mentioned in D&D Podcast # 28 and in my article D&D Miniatures Changes Explained it was our hope that the D&D skirmish community would continue to carry the skirmish torch for D&D Minis even after Wizards of the Coast had stopped producing the rules themselves.
Shortly after the announcement, we received several formal requests to license the skirmish rules. Based on these requests we set out to model how we would want a community-driven effort to be structured and we came up with these general principles:
The Goal: Grant an official license to community members to continue making skirmish stat cards for future D&D Miniatures releases.
* The license would be royalty free and exclusive worldwide.
* The license would be not-for-profit although the licensee could take "donations" to help cover expenses.
* These would be the official D&D Minis skirmish rules as recognized by WotC.
* WotC would retain the right to end the license and begin to develop the skirmish rules again at their discretion.
* WotC would not review, playtest rules, or dedicate R&D resources to consult on the license but would retain the right to do so in the future.
* WotC would provide the licensee with access to the use of copyright intellectual property including:
* Miniatures character names and artwork
* Proprietary icons & fonts
* Use of D&D Miniatures trademark and logo
* D&D Miniatures card template and layout
* WotC would provide licensee early access to minis set lists and names in order to facilitate development of skirmish rules.
* WotC would maintain tournament sanctioning and players ratings and rankings through the DCI database with the understanding that:
* Licensee must use current play format nomenclature of Standard, Limited, and Vintage although they may define/redefine those formats at it’s discretion.
* Licensee will be responsible for maintaining and updating the tournament floor rules.
* WotC would preserve existing database functionality for DDM but will not put resources into expanding or adding functionality.
With these goals in mind and formal proposals in hand we decided that the group known collectively as "The Guild" had the right people, experience, enthusiasm, and most importantly the overwhelming support of the players to take on this license. We’re very excited to begin forming an official relationship with them to continue producing D&D skirmish rules moving forward.
If you don’t already know, The Guild is a group of dedicated D&D skirmish fans including Kevin “ktatroe” Tatroe, D. Garry “Tried“ Stupack and Jim “ JohnnyQuest” Ansaldo. These guys have been at the heart of the D&D Minis community since the beginning and their bios below speak to their passion for the game.
Kevin Tatroe has run the popular D&D Miniatures fansite Hordelings for five years. More recently, he took on the mantle of developing the DDM Oracle and DDM Comprehensive Rules Guide. He was co-designer of the War of the Dragon Queen restats, led the teams designing the Deathknell and Giants of Legend restats, and would have been seriously let down if the Gauth weren't tier 1. He has written numerous adventures for the RPGA, including numerous Xen'drik Expedition ones. By day (and often by night), he is a software engineer at Flying Lab Software and has written or contributed to several programming books. Kevin owns a frog hat, and he says he looks ridiculous in it.
Garry began playing D&D Miniatures in 2003 as a way to share time and a common hobby with his son, Darien. As they became entrenched in the competitive side of the game, Garry was recruited to help support the Organized Play activities, and has been judging all types of WotC miniatures games at major cons since Gen Con So Cal in 2004 (he’s also been the head judge for most of the events in the recent years after finishing in the top 8 at the constructed Championships in 2005 and 2006). Garry (and son) have both had Star Wars Miniatures scenarios and D&D Miniatures web articles published on the WotC web site, and Garry has been involved with the Wizards D&D Miniatures team since the coming of the Revised Battle Rules (check the credits inside). As the leader of several restat teams (beginning with the recently released Blood War), and a coauthor of the DDM Oracle resource, he’s shown both a knowledge of the game and a dedication to it that make him a prime pick to sustain future D&D Miniatures skirmish game development.
Jim Ansaldo has been playing D&D for thirty years and has been a D&D Miniatures enthusiast since Harbinger. In his online guise as JohnnyQuest, Jim has been a prolific contributor to the DDM community on several different forums. Jim currently serves as a Volunteer Community Lead on the WotC DDM forums and acted as the DDM Section Organizer, as well as a contest host, for this year's UnCon. Jim has judged local DDM tournaments and championship qualifiers in Bloomington, Indiana and filled the Head Judge role for the 2008 Constructed Championship Qualifier held at Origins. Most recently, Jim helped to organize the Hoosier Open -- Indiana's first statewide DDM event -- and he enjoys hosting a D&D Miniatures Club at a local school. Jim's RPG-related writing has been seen in Knowledge Arcana and Phoenix Lore, and he continues to work as a freelance designer for WotC, updating D&D Miniatures expansions to the current ruleset. In his other life, Jim works in the field of education, facilitating change efforts focused on creating inclusive school communities.
QuelleMeiner Meinung nach ein feiner Zug von WotC.
Gruß Zechi
