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Monday, March 25, 2013

Good News about Flashing Blades

Just heard from a friend two very fine pieces of news about Flashing Blades (a game I have desperately wanted to play after a half year in an En Garde play-by-post)  from the game's author Mark Pettigrew. 

As some may know that game has been in a legal limbo for a very long time. Though its original publisher, FGU, brought the game back into print, much like Villains & Vigilantes the creators had neither received royalties nor control back over their games. That changed last week with Jeff Dee and Jack Herman regaining their rights with this resounding victory

And now we learn from Pettigrew:
"FGU already agrees that I own the rights to Flashing Blades. I'm even receiving (very small) royalties checks again, after a 20-some year hiatus. I think I mentioned this before, but again, all of you are free to write, publish, etc. whatever you want for FB without worrying about copyright. I'm happy that people are still enjoying the game."

That's a real two-fer: a win for the designer and a refreshing "open source" direction for the game. Perhaps time to move this up on the "games I can run finally" Google-plus queue?

7 comments:

  1. I don't think I can recognize any change in status that didn't occur at the point of a sword. It's a Matter of Honour!

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  2. Flashing Blades is a wonderful game, among my favorites of all time. The game and all its supplements can still be obtained at FGU's web site at crazy low prices, too. Love this game!

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  3. That is spectacularly good news, indeed. Where did Mr. Pettigrew make this known?

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  4. I, like faoladh, would love to know where the statement about copyright was made. Thanks for the tip

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    1. The point of origin is an email to the Flashing Blades Yahoo group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/flashing_blades/

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    2. First, I am happy to learn that there is an email list dedicated to FB, which I didn't know (though of course it should have been obvious).

      Second, thank you very much!

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