[Skortched Urf' Studios] Announcing S.C.A.R.E. Vol. 1

mcathro

Mongoose
63707.jpg


S.C.A.R.E. - Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals and Enemies. They are part and parcel of the character generation process, and provide endless opportunities for adventure, intrigue and complication. The S.C.A.R.E. line NPC's are designed to provide maximum flexibility for the Referee as they can be used in several ways; either as a valuable Contact or Ally, or as a dangerous Rival or Enemy. Secrets can be exploited for profit, patriotism or career advancement; and each could lead to danger, wealth or fantastic new discoveries. Multiple plot hooks and adventure ideas are also presented in each release, allowing easy integration into your game.

The first volume of this series details Hamnett Yamazaki, Admiral and commander of all Imperial Naval Forces within the Sub-Sector . Hamnett is a study in contrast; he is a career Naval Officer that takes his duty seriously. He also employs means well outside the accepted code of conduct for Naval Officers. He views his job as overseeing the Sub-Sector as the main priority, and applies that motivation to all his actions. He'll take credits to look the other way while a container of fermented Anshevaax Milk passes through, or give a careless crew intercepted with illicit goods a pass so he can know more about a new syndicate setting up shop in "his" Sub-Sector. He will not let crimes like kidnapping, arms shipments or certain types of espionage go un-punished. While he considers himself an upstanding officer and would never do something directly harmful to the Imperium or his home system, like knowingly allow terrorists or prohibited weapons to pass unmolested; he sees other infractions of the Imperial code to be lesser sins. Indeed, sometimes "greasing the wheels" of commerce does more to avoid hostilities than a dozen peace negotiators. Hamnett learned long ago that it is impossible to prevent illicit goods from travelling the stars. "Profit finds a way" is one of his personal sayings. Hamnett is a realist, and he also realizes that if the goods are going to flow anyway, he might as well get a small piece of the profits. His current position as head of the sub-sector fleet facilitates this nicely.

This PDF release includes information on Hamnett including his background, personality and how he treats people he conciders Allies, Contacts, Rivals or Enemies. There are also dozens of adventure hooks and ideas for using Hamnett in each of these roles.

Written by Mark Cathro.
Artwork by Anthony Cournoyer.

For sale now at OBS.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=63707

***This is the first release by Skortched Urf' Studios for the Traveller system. Look for more soon. Thanks!***

-Mark
 
Posted to two threads on the Mongoose Traveller boards...

I hope I am not about to see products for Traveller embroiled in legal battles...

On June 5, Spica Publishing announced Allies, Contacts, Enemies, and Rivals, characterizing it as a compilation of NPCs.

On August 1, Skortched Urf' Studios announced Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals, and Enemies, Volume 1, with the series implicitly being a compilation of NPCs (although each volume appears to be an in-depth focus on one NPC).

I am disturbed by the similarity in names and theme, in combination. Epic lawsuits have been made from far less.

I do not want to see my favorite game embroiled in legal battles; I do not want to see companies producing material for my favorite game wasting time and money in the courtroom and on lawyers instead of in their own offices and on editing, printing, and distribution.

Reassure me, please?
 
If Spica's product is as good as their Career book, and SCARE is as good as some of Skortched Urf's other products I'll be buying both. :)
 
Oh, I'm quite willing to buy them both, if they are of appropriate quality!

But if one or both products get blocked because of a restraining order because of a lawsuit because of the similarities, well, I won't be able to.

I'm selfish, I am - I want as much good Traveller product as I can get my hands on. I want more than that, really, but I'm realistic enough to be willing to (grudgingly) settle.

Lawsuits are not conducive to me getting what I want.

That's why I'm concerned.
 
Well, lets be honest about what we're talking about here; OGL releases for the Traveller game. Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals and Enemies are all terms in the core rulebook, so I really don't think there is any basis for legal action. Neither company "owns" the terms. I chalk it up to great minds thinking alike. I actually hadn't seen Spica's notice until today.

With a small handful of publishers supporting the Traveller system there is bound to be a certain amount of overlap. The main difference is how you handle an NPC product, not that two (or more) companies have them. But I suspect you comment is more related to the names of, rather than the type of release.

Frankly, if there is an issue, how hard would it be to change the name on a PDF anyway? If anyone has a suggestion I am certainly open to changing them. I'm not looking to step on toes or make rivals or enemies. (Let alone law-suits!) I prefer Allies and Contacts! ;-) Having said that, I also don't see there being any product identity issues between the two products.
 
mcathro said:
Well, lets be honest about what we're talking about here; OGL releases for the Traveller game. Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals and Enemies are all terms in the core rulebook, so I really don't think there is any basis for legal action. Neither company "owns" the terms. I chalk it up to great minds thinking alike. I actually hadn't seen Spica's notice until today.

I don't doubt that it's a question of GMTA. Nor am I trying to accuse anyone of infringing on anyone else's trademarks; even I can see that that's not what's potentially happening here.

mcathro said:
With a small handful of publishers supporting the Traveller system there is bound to be a certain amount of overlap. The main difference is how you handle an NPC product, not that two (or more) companies have them. But I suspect you comment is more related to the names of, rather than the type of release.

Yes, although it's the combination of the name and the nature of both products - if SCARE were, for example, an expanded rule book for handling Secrets, Contacts, yadda, I'd be less concerned, because I do know that titles can't be copyrighted - but it gets a whole lot murkier when the products become more similar. I could, for example, get into some major legal hassles - which I might ultimately win, if I could (afford to) fight them out to the end - if I were to come up with a game system with mechanics (which also can't intrinsically be copyrighted) similar to another well-known system, and titled my system Multi-Genre Unified Role-Playing System. That's the kind of legal wastage I don't want to see, so when I see a red flag raised by superficially similar titles for superficially similar products, yeah, I'm gonna worry.

mcathro said:
Frankly, if there is an issue, how hard would it be to change the name on a PDF anyway? If anyone has a suggestion I am certainly open to changing them. I'm not looking to step on toes or make rivals or enemies. (Let alone law-suits!) I prefer Allies and Contacts! ;-) Having said that, I also don't see there being any product identity issues between the two products.

At this point, I don't think there's really any one person who knows enough about both products to be able to assert that last sentence with any real confidence, though I hope you're right about it - or at least, that Spica agrees with you on it, because that's ultimately going to be what's important - that you and Spica are both OK with it, or that you and Spica can come to an agreement about who changes which to what. Honestly, based on your description, I think S.C.A.R.E. Tactics would be a workable title for the line - but that's just my warped love of puns showing through. That also leads to potential titles like "Skortched Urf' A.C.R.E.S." - but neither of those cures the potential problem.

If I'm understanding what your product will be, each number from the line will focus on ONE NPC, correct? If so, I see your products as covering the NPC in much more detail than Spica. You're also focussing on the character and his interactions in terms of Secrets, Contacts, yadda, rather than focussing on the PCs and their perception of the character, whereas Spica is essentially providing the referee with a list of characters to use as a Contact, Ally, yadda.

That suggests to me that Spica's product is more of an expanded address book, while yours is a personal dossier. So, let's get you BOTH away from the initials, and Spica's product becomes "Characters On Call", while yours becomes a series of "Cathro's Case Studies". Or, if your principal editor has a name that starts with 'D', pair THAT with "Dossiers", e.g., "Donaldson's Dossiers" or "Dick's Dossiers". Or something like; there's plenty of room out there.
 
FreeTrav said:
Posted to two threads on the Mongoose Traveller boards...

I hope I am not about to see products for Traveller embroiled in legal battles...

On June 5, Spica Publishing announced Allies, Contacts, Enemies, and Rivals, characterizing it as a compilation of NPCs.

On August 1, Skortched Urf' Studios announced Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals, and Enemies, Volume 1, with the series implicitly being a compilation of NPCs (although each volume appears to be an in-depth focus on one NPC).

I am disturbed by the similarity in names and theme, in combination. Epic lawsuits have been made from far less.

I do not want to see my favorite game embroiled in legal battles; I do not want to see companies producing material for my favorite game wasting time and money in the courtroom and on lawyers instead of in their own offices and on editing, printing, and distribution.

Reassure me, please?
I've also cross-posted this on the ACER thread in reply to your post there, FreeTrav.

Book Title
First off, let's get something completely clear with regards to the use of the words "Contacts", "Allies", "Rivals" and "Enemies": Spica Publishing doesn't own trademarks or copyrights on those individual words, or those words in any particular order except where someone is referencing/talking about Spica Publishing's Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals book. Skortched Urf Studios are quite at liberty to use any words of their choice from the English language in their book titles. Having said that, I would have had a serious, major problem with Skortched Urf Studios product had they called their book "Allies, Contacts, Enemies and Rivals". But they haven't, so I have no concerns about their book's title.

Content
I personally haven't seen or read Skortched Urf Studios' S.C.A.R.E. book beyond what is available to see over at DTRPG. From what I *have* seen and read, there really isn't an issue - S.C.A.R.E. focuses solely on one character and it looks like Skortched Urf have provided a detailed background and information about that one character only and some neat information on how to use the character in your games. On the other hand, A.C.E.R. has 81 full NPCs (stats, skills, life events, equipment and information) and 36 basic NPCs (stats, combat only skills, only combat equipment, no descriptions) for a grand total of 117 NPCs.

My View as a Publisher
As a publisher, I see no issues between Spica Publishing and Skortched urf over the two books (A.C.E.R. and S.C.A.R.E.). I wish Skortched Urth well with their product, which I think is novel and very useful if you need a very detailed NPC for your game. I think what they have produced is a good product - well done, I say, old chaps! :D A.C.E.R. is quite clearly a very different product (when compared to S.C.A.R.E), providing as it does sets of NPCs ready for use.

In the end, our customers will decide which product they want to buy, based on the usefulness of each company's products to their games, value for money, quality of production and art, availability of product and customer service. So if your a customer and like or need both, buy both. If you only need or want one or the other book, buy whichever book meets your gaming needs.

So I hope the above reassures everyone that the lawsuits aren't going to start flying over this - really, guys, there aren't any issues that I can see.
 
FreeTrav said:
If I'm understanding what your product will be, each number from the line will focus on ONE NPC, correct? If so, I see your products as covering the NPC in much more detail than Spica. You're also focussing on the character and his interactions in terms of Secrets, Contacts, yadda, rather than focussing on the PCs and their perception of the character, whereas Spica is essentially providing the referee with a list of characters to use as a Contact, Ally, yadda.

For the most part yes, but not quite. I envision several of the S.C.A.R.E. sujects to be small groups of people rather than just a single individual. A mercenary unit, another group of Travellers or the family that runs the dive bar on Praxis III, the spouse and children of important NPC's, that kind of thing. To be sure, I am focusing on one or a small handful of NPC's. I hope that clarifies.

-Mark
 
mcathro said:
Well, lets be honest about what we're talking about here; OGL releases for the Traveller game.
Indeed.
Secrets, Contacts, Allies, Rivals and Enemies are all terms in the core rulebook, so I really don't think there is any basis for legal action.
Absolutely.
Neither company "owns" the terms.
Agreed.
I chalk it up to great minds thinking alike.
Me too :D
I actually hadn't seen Spica's notice until today.
Oddly enough, nor I yours, but hey, we're only human (well, I hang around with a dodgy Hiver at times....)
With a small handful of publishers supporting the Traveller system there is bound to be a certain amount of overlap.
Definitely and I think it's something that will happen again in the future.
The main difference is how you handle an NPC product, not that two (or more) companies have them. But I suspect you comment is more related to the names of, rather than the type of release.
I think you made a very succinct point about the two books' titles.
Frankly, if there is an issue, how hard would it be to change the name on a PDF anyway? If anyone has a suggestion I am certainly open to changing them. I'm not looking to step on toes or make rivals or enemies. (Let alone law-suits!) I prefer Allies and Contacts! ;-) Having said that, I also don't see there being any product identity issues between the two products.
Agreed: I also do not see any product identity issues.
 
Posted to both the Spica and Skortched Urf' threads...

OK. This pretty much is the sort of reassurance I was looking for, that both companies were aware of what the other was planning/saying, and that neither saw any problems, at least as far as can be determined from the information available at the present time.

I look forward to the actual availability of both products!
 
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