West End Games
Encyclopedia
West End Games was a company that made board
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

, role-playing
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

, and war
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...

 games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania
Honesdale, Pennsylvania
Honesdale is a borough in and the county seat of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located northeast of Scranton. The population was 4,874 at the 2000 census....

. Its current and past product lines include Paranoia, Torg
Torg
Torg is a cinematic multi-genre role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek and released by West End Games in 1990, which uses several innovative techniques...

, Shatterzone
Shatterzone
Shatterzone is a space opera role-playing game by West End Games. The game went out of print in 1997 after the company went bankrupt. It is now back in print, owned and published by Precis Intermedia....

, Men In Black
Men in Black (film)
Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'Onofrio. The film was based on the Men in Black comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, originally published by Marvel Comics. The film featured the creature effects...

, DC Universe
DC Universe Roleplaying Game
The DC Universe Roleplaying Game is a Legend System-based role-playing game from West End Games, and set in the DC Comics universe.-History:The game system had several supplementary publications in print during the 1999–2002 timeframe, including:...

, Star Wars, The World of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...

, Junta
Junta (game)
Junta is a board game designed by Vincent Tsao originally published by Capri in 1975, and later published, as of 1985, by West End Games. Players compete as the corrupt power elite families of a fictional parody of a stereotypical banana republic trying to get as much money as possible into their...

, Necroscope, Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...

, Bloodshadows, and Metabarons
The Metabarons Roleplaying Game
The Metabarons Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game set within the mystically-inclined and oppressive space opera setting, the Jodoverse created by Alexandro Jodorowsky originally in the form of French language comic books. In the game, players play, not the Metabarons themselves, but common...

.

Development

Previously a producer of board wargame
Board wargame
A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer, or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The hobby around this type of game got its start in 1954 with the publication of Tactics, and saw its greatest popularity in the...

s, the company began producing roleplaying games in 1984 with Paranoia. The high production values demanded by the wargames industry made them one of the few companies who could compete with TSR, and they were able to acquire the license from Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

 to produce an RPG based on the film Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...

. This game, Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game
Ghostbusters (role-playing game)
Ghostbusters is a comedy role-playing game designed by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford and published by West End Games in 1986. It is based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters....

, formed the basis of the D6 System
D6 System
The D6 System is a role-playing game system published by West End Games and licensees. While the system is primarily intended for pen-and-paper role-playing games, variations of the system have also been used in live action role-playing games and miniature battle games...

 which was to be heavily used in many of their licensed products.

Around 1987, the company acquired the license to produce a Star Wars RPG. Since the films had been released some years previously, and there was (at the time) no new media forthcoming, the success of these books came as a surprise. Their early work on the Star Wars Roleplaying Game established much of the groundwork of what later became the Star Wars Expanded Universe
Star Wars Expanded Universe
The Star Wars Expanded Universe encompasses all of the officially licensed, fictional background of the Star Wars universe, outside of the six feature films produced by George Lucas. The expanded universe includes books, comic books, video games, spin-off films like Star Wars: The Clone Wars,...

, and their sourcebooks are still frequently cited by Star Wars fans as reference material. Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm Limited is an American film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco, California. Lucas is the company's current chairman and CEO, and Micheline Chau is the president and COO....

 considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn
Timothy Zahn is a writer of science fiction short stories and novels. His novella Cascade Point won the 1984 Hugo award. He is the author of nine Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, including seven novels featuring Grand Admiral Thrawn: the Thrawn Trilogy, the Hand of Thrawn duology, Outbound...

 was hired to write what became the Thrawn trilogy, he was sent a box of West End Games Star Wars books and directed to base his novel on the background material presented within. Zahn's trilogy, in turn, renewed interest in the franchise and provided many sales for West End Games. In the early 1990s, the FidoNet Star Wars Echo
FidoNet Star Wars Echo
The FidoNet Star Wars Echo was a FidoNet "echomail" message forum distributed on bulletin board systems in the 1990s. Discussing George Lucas' Star Wars saga and pre-dating the modern Internet, it was one of the earliest influential forms of Star Wars on-line fandom.-Contributors:Noteworthy...

 hosted a message forum for playing the Star Wars RPG on computer bulletin board system
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...

s, and some current and future West End Games freelancers took part.

Bankruptcy

Despite the company's early phenomenal success, in July 1998 West End Games went into bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....

. Various reasons for this decline have been debated, ranging from the general deleterious effect the growth of the collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...

 hobby was having on the entire role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 market at the time to poor financial management to a series of extravagant but failed game lines which West End Games had launched in an attempt to match Star Wars' success (the Masterbook family of games in particular, including Torg
Torg
Torg is a cinematic multi-genre role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek and released by West End Games in 1990, which uses several innovative techniques...

, Shatterzone, and Masterbook
Masterbook
Masterbook is a generic role-playing game that was created by West End Games as a follow-up to the multi-genre role-playing game Torg and the science fiction game Shatterzone, which used a modified version of the Torg system...

itself) and continued to support well after it was clear that they had failed to find audiences. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that many of the failed lines were based on various high-profile licences, including Men In Black
Men in Black (series)
The Men in Black are a fictional secret organization which monitors and suppresses paranormal activity on Earth, including aliens, demons and mutants, while keeping the public ignorant of such occurrences. They were created by Lowell Cunningham, which were based on the Men in Black myths...

, Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess is an American–New Zealand supernatural fantasy adventure series that aired in syndication from September 4, 1995 until June 18, 2001....

, Hercules: the Legendary Journeys
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys is a television series, filmed in New Zealand and the United States. It was produced from 1995, and was very loosely based on the tales of the classical Greek culture hero Heracles...

, Necroscope and Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...

. None of these licences performed as well as the Ghostbusters or Star Wars RPGs had, and the additional cost of acquiring such licences in the first place meant that the failed licences were even more financially damaging to the company than they would otherwise have been; furthermore, the reliance on licences meant that when West End ran into financial difficulties it had to give up the licences, decimating the West End product line. By the mid-1990s there was also a perceived decline in the quality of West End's homegrown RPG lines; the "Fifth Edition" of Paranoia, and the later supplements for the second edition, were so badly received (critically and commercially) that when a new edition of Paranoia was produced by Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing
Mongoose Publishing is a prolific British manufacturer of role-playing games, miniatures, and card games, actively publishing material since 2001...

 the designers jokingly declared that the products in question were "unproducts", and simply didn't exist for the purpose of the setting's continuity.

Another contributing factor to the failure of West End Games may have been the company's failure to establish an internet presence even after most other game companies had done so years earlier; the company's only acknowledgment of the web-based community was a contact e-mail address through America Online. Although these might have played a part in weakening their market position, the culminating event involves mismanagement between West End Games and its then parent company, shoe importer Bucci Retail Group. When the parent company filed for bankruptcy, West End Games could not survive the process and had to go under as well.
No longer considered stable, all of West End's licenses to produce work based upon various settings were terminated, most significantly the Star Wars license which had produced most of the company's business. West End was forced to liquidate most of its assets, including a large backstock of unsold books. Ironically, the company finally created a web-site while in bankruptcy proceedings in order to facilitate the liquidating of their stock.

To add to the company's issues, court proceedings began between Palter and the original designers of Paranoia concerning the rights to the game; although in interviews at the time Palter considered the case to have little merit, it is notable that despite planning to release a new edition of Paranoia in the summer of 1999, West End Games would never have the opportunity to, and eventually the rights to the game returned to its original authors.

However, despite appearances West End Games did not disappear. A European company invested in them, and produced a game using the D6 mechanics for the Metabarons
Metabarons
The Metabarons or The Saga of The Meta-Barons is a science fantasy comic series relating the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors known as the Metabarons. The Metabarons series was written by creator Alejandro Jodorowsky and illustrated by Argentinian artist Juan Gimenez...

setting, a popular French comic story. Unfortunately the game (The Metabarons Roleplaying Game
The Metabarons Roleplaying Game
The Metabarons Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game set within the mystically-inclined and oppressive space opera setting, the Jodoverse created by Alexandro Jodorowsky originally in the form of French language comic books. In the game, players play, not the Metabarons themselves, but common...

) never found a following with American audiences and did not lead to a resurgence of the company.

Eric Gibson's Ownership of West End Games

In November 2003 West End Games was bought by Eric J. Gibson, who moved the company to Downingtown, Pennsylvania, in 2004. Under his tenure, WEG's flagship line was a generic version of the D6 System
D6 System
The D6 System is a role-playing game system published by West End Games and licensees. While the system is primarily intended for pen-and-paper role-playing games, variations of the system have also been used in live action role-playing games and miniature battle games...

, which led to a line of irregularly produced supplements and met with general approval from fans. Unfortunately, this approval did not translate into high sales; in a post on the official West End forums in 2008 Eric Gibson announced that none of the D6 products produced since he acquired West End had turned a profit, and West End's other RPG lines were not performing as well as he had expected, leading to losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

West End also expanded back into board games, beginning with a new edition of Junta, which according to Eric was one of the few products that was turning a profit.

West End Games' most recent planned offering, the Septimus roleplaying game, was publicly cancelled by Eric Gibson in March 2008. Eric Gibson announced on the morning of July 16, 2008 that West End Games could not currently afford to provide refunds to customers who pre-ordered the cancelled Septimus product, and indeed could not even afford to pay the postage to ship books to individuals who expressed a willingness to accept a refund in the form of products instead of money.

On Sunday, July 19, 2008, following both an extended discussion of West End's failure to provide refunds for those who had preordered Septimus and the ensuing forum flameout, Eric Gibson announced on the West End Games forums that he was officially through with the company and was selling all of its properties; he revealed that he had already been contacted by interested parties, but felt that he should not make the facts about the offerings public. Eric Gibson later expressed that he was no longer looking to dissolve the company or sell off any of its properties.

Eric Gibson has stated in an interview that he was "perhaps naïvely optimistic" in assuming that distributors would order products products produced under his ownership of the company "just because it's West End Games." He further stated that this led him to print more books than he could sell, books which he had to destroy in order to save on storage costs. Towards the end of the company's history, Gibson had plans to release the d6 System under the terms of the Open Gaming License
Open Gaming License
The Open Game License may be used by game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, notably game mechanics.-Language of the licence:The OGL describes two forms of content:...

 "to save the d6 System from myself," meaning that if the company had to go out of business, the system would still be available to the general public.

Later years

The company has since paid off all outstanding debt, released Septimus via print-on-demand, and released several formerly commercial products for free download under the terms of the Open Game License. In 2009, West End Games moved forward with Open D6, intending to release more content from their D6 products under the Open Game License.

West End Games is currently selling off all of their properties and working to close down operations. TORG was sold to a German game company, Ulisses Spiele. The Masterbook System, Shatterzone and Bloodshadows was sold to a company Precis Intermedia. The Status of West End Games final remaining property, Junta, is unknown at this time.

The D6 System is open and the books are available for free for download.

Associated designers

Game designers previously affiliated with West End Games over its long history include:
  • Greg Costikyan
    Greg Costikyan
    Greg Costikyan, sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X" , is an American game designer and science fiction writer.Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games and mobile...

  • Paul Murphy
  • Eric Goldberg
  • Joe Balkoski
  • Jon Southard
  • Jeff Briggs
    Jeff Briggs
    Dr. Jeffery L. Briggs is founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States...

  • Ken Rolston
    Ken Rolston
    Ken Rolston is an American computer game and board game designer best known for his work with West End Games and the hit computer game series The Elder Scrolls...

  • Bill Slavicsek
    Bill Slavicsek
    Bill Slavicsek is a game designer who served as the Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast. He previously worked for West End Games and TSR, Inc., and designed products for Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, Alternity, Torg, Paranoia and Ghostbusters.-Biography:Bill...


Systems developed

  • D6 System
    D6 System
    The D6 System is a role-playing game system published by West End Games and licensees. While the system is primarily intended for pen-and-paper role-playing games, variations of the system have also been used in live action role-playing games and miniature battle games...

     - Used in games like Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and MIB.
  • Masterbook
    Masterbook
    Masterbook is a generic role-playing game that was created by West End Games as a follow-up to the multi-genre role-playing game Torg and the science fiction game Shatterzone, which used a modified version of the Torg system...

     - The Masterbook system grew out of the system used in the game Torg
    Torg
    Torg is a cinematic multi-genre role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek and released by West End Games in 1990, which uses several innovative techniques...

    . It was further developed and became the basis for games such as Necroscope and Tales from the Crypt.

Role-playing games

  • Paranoia
    Paranoia (role-playing game)
    Paranoia is a dystopian science-fiction tabletop role-playing game originally designed and written by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg, and first published in 1984 by West End Games. Since 2004 the game has been published under licence by Mongoose Publishing...

    (1984)
  • Ghostbusters
    Ghostbusters (role-playing game)
    Ghostbusters is a comedy role-playing game designed by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford and published by West End Games in 1986. It is based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters....

    (1986)
  • Star Wars (1987)
  • Ghostbusters International
    Ghostbusters (role-playing game)
    Ghostbusters is a comedy role-playing game designed by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis and Greg Stafford and published by West End Games in 1986. It is based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters....

    (1989, second edition of Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game)
  • Torg
    Torg
    Torg is a cinematic multi-genre role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek and released by West End Games in 1990, which uses several innovative techniques...

    (1990)
  • The World of Indiana Jones (1994)
  • The D6 System: The Customizable Roleplaying Game (1996)
  • Indiana Jones Adventures (1996, conversion of The World of Indiana Jones to the D6 System
    D6 System
    The D6 System is a role-playing game system published by West End Games and licensees. While the system is primarily intended for pen-and-paper role-playing games, variations of the system have also been used in live action role-playing games and miniature battle games...

    )
  • Shatterzone
    Shatterzone
    Shatterzone is a space opera role-playing game by West End Games. The game went out of print in 1997 after the company went bankrupt. It is now back in print, owned and published by Precis Intermedia....

    (1997)
  • Men in Black (1997)
  • Hercules & Xena (1998)
  • Stargate SG-1 role-playing game (1999, avorted project, due to bankruptcy)
  • DC Universe
    DC Universe Roleplaying Game
    The DC Universe Roleplaying Game is a Legend System-based role-playing game from West End Games, and set in the DC Comics universe.-History:The game system had several supplementary publications in print during the 1999–2002 timeframe, including:...

    (1999, published under Humanoids Inc.
    Les Humanoïdes Associés
    Les Humanoïdes Associés is a French publishing house specialising in comics and graphic novels. Founded in December 1974 by Mœbius, Jean-Pierre Dionnet, Philippe Druillet and Bernard Farkas in order to publish Métal Hurlant, it quickly expanded to include a variety of science fiction work...

    )
  • Metabarons
    The Metabarons Roleplaying Game
    The Metabarons Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game set within the mystically-inclined and oppressive space opera setting, the Jodoverse created by Alexandro Jodorowsky originally in the form of French language comic books. In the game, players play, not the Metabarons themselves, but common...

    (2001, published under Humanoids Inc.)
  • Septimus (2007, published via print-on-demand)

Board games

  • Bug-Eyed Monsters (1983)
  • Junta
    Junta (game)
    Junta is a board game designed by Vincent Tsao originally published by Capri in 1975, and later published, as of 1985, by West End Games. Players compete as the corrupt power elite families of a fictional parody of a stereotypical banana republic trying to get as much money as possible into their...

    (1985, third edition. The first one was released in 1978, but it wasn't from West End Games)
  • Against the Reich (1986)
  • Kings and Things (1986)
  • Star Wars: Star Warriors (1987)
  • Star Wars: Assault on Hoth (1988)
  • Star Wars: Battle for Endor (1989)
  • Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star (1990, not to be confused with the 1977 game)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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