03-21-2011, 09:38 AM
Quote:Thanks Chirine! In the meanwhile I'll ask about something you will know. What were Dave and Phils "Tekumel publishing efforts" that you were working on?
Well, to start at the beginning, Phil had staked Dave to some money to get Dave's lawsuit against TSR over the AD&D royalty situation; Phil sent Dave to his lawyers, the firm of Moss and Barnet, here in Minneapolis and they took on Dave's case. Dave won, after some extended litigation, and with the initial settlement for back royalties founded Adventure Games. He called in most of his friends as staff, and started publishing their games.
To repay Phil, Dave took over the books and map set formerly published by Gary Rudolph and Craig Smith as Imperium Publishing: "Book of Ebon Bindings", "The Tsolyani Langauage, Books One and Two", "Armies of Tekumel, Volume One: Tsolyanu" the "Northwest Frontier Map Set", and the left-over copies of Imperium's fanzine "The Imperial Courier" and Gary's miniatures game "Missum". I was the guy who did all the pick and carry work; I also got sent down to Lake Geneva to collect the remaining copies of "Empire of the Petal Throne" and Dave Sutherland's miniatures rules "Legions of the Petal Throne. I also personally bought all 1,500 of the remaining "Declaration of War" posters that TSR had in stock. There were about a dozen copies of "War of Wizards" left, and I bought those as well.
Once AGI got rolling, I put "Deeds of the Ever-Glorious" together from work that Brian Murphy had done; I also did new editions of all of the previous items as the very short Imperium print runs were exhausted in short order. I also did "Armies of Tekumel, Volume Two: Yan Kor" and got the remaining three in the series (Mu'uglavya, Salarvya, and Livyanu) started. We also started the two fanzines / newsletters as 'lunchtime projects', the "Imperial Military Journal" to report on events in Phil's campaigns and the "Journal of Tekumel Affairs" for more in-depth material. There was also a lot of marketing and promotional stuff we did, like the handouts we gave to people at conventions while showing them the huge model of the Temple of Vimuhla that Phil had done; there were photos of that in "Dragon" #4, if I recall.
Somewhere along in there I wound up buying the line of Tekumel miniatures that Bill Murray and Old Guard had begun producing under a license from TSR, and which was later sold to Ral Partha just as TSR discontinued their production of EPT. Ral Partha discontinued the miniatures shortly after that, due to a lack of sales, and I got them when I called Ral Partha to see if they's run the figures for me. They made me an offer ($2,500 for the lot, masters, molds, inventory) and I bought the line. Dave bought the casting equipment as a personal venture, but I did most of the casting out in the garage at Adventure Games' 1278 Selby Avenue address - the building was known as the 'Great Stucco Fortress', due to it's forbidding look, and it still stands. (Must get some photos; the infamous garage is gone, but the rest is still there.) I did my own version of a set of miniatures rules for Tekumel, "Qadardalikoi", when the stocks of "Missum" and "Legions" started to run out, but it wound up being published by myself after AGI closed.
Effectively, I'd brought all the scattered Tekumel product lines in under one roof; at the last, we were doing the second volume of "Swords and Glory" for Lou Zocchi / Gamescience. We Tekumel folks lived in the very wet basement; Ken Fletcher, being part of the 'regular staff' and not one of the 'boat people', got to have a desk upstairs on the ground level with the other AGI staffers. When Dave closed AGI down, everything Tekumel came to me and everything else went to Flying Buffalo as Dave was a part-owner of that company. We on went from there as a separate business entity, and once we'd incorporated Dave got shares of stock in the new company to pay for all of the back inventory of publications we'd gotten from him.
Does that help?
yours, Chirine