I have selected a old established German game company for the next Age of Steam reprint. The game will have better bits and new artwork. I project a release date of Nuremberg 2008. In the meantime, the game is selling on Ebay for $30. There are plenty available right now, folks.

John
Pittsburgh

Hi John,

I already own AoS, and I'm happy with the presentation as is. However, in order to offset an assured storm of speculation, perhaps you could explain what you mean by "better bits". The only bits are the link markers, goods cubes, dice, and money. The only change that would make sense to me is the money. So perhaps you're planning a switch to miniature crossing stations, goods barrels, a set of 6 spinners, and paper money?

Thanks, and good luck with the reprint.

We need a reprint of the first two expansions!!!

Forget the first two expansions: is there any word yet on Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands?

I was depressed that the usual Warfrog reprint(s) failed to occur this year

no.

I would like to inform the public that John Bohrer has not consulted with either the designer or the publisher of Age of Steam about licensing AoS to another company. As far as I am concerned Warfrog still has the rights to reprint AoS, and retains all intellectual property rights to the name, artwork, rules, and system.

Neither Winsome Games nor John Bohrer own any of the intellectual property rights to Age of Steam, (or any other game designed using the 'Early Rails' system), and have not sought nor received permission from myself or anyone connected with Warfrog to ammounce a reprint or revision.

Martin Wallace

Ooops.

Look at my avatar. Look into my eyes.


OOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOO


There is nothing to see here.

You didn't read anything. In fact you are still not reading anything. Your memory of reading this is just the result of a deranged imagination.

You will visit the thread complaining about the BattleLore Hill Giant promotion and write a scathing rebuttal to what has been posted. You will not remember what has transpired here.


MENTOK WILLS IT SO!!!!!




(See? That's TAKING the mind.)

Indeed.

Martin,

Since you own the IPR to the rules, do you mind if someone types up the rules to Age os Steam and posts them on the geek? Before I got my copy, I found it frustrating not being able to read the rules although I was able to reasonably understand the game from the excellent Strategy Articles posted.

Thanks,
JD

Please go ahead and type the rules of AoS up. You have the permission of the designer and publisher to do so.

Martin Wallace

Yeouch.

*chirp*



*chirp*

Sorry, but the rules are Copyright J. Bohrer 2002, 2004 and I do not give my permission for dissemination. I refer you to over 6000 copies of AoS games with this copyright, and that these same games also state on the back of the AoS box that "The license for Age of Steam has been kindly granted to Warfrog by Winsome Games". As Warfrog can no longer print their own games, I have chosen another publisher. Don't worry, Martin, you will still get your 1 Euro/map royalty, as will I. And you can still print Brummie Rails, your original submission, as I have it on my shelf. All the Winsome development is still Winsome's IP, though. Use your Brummie map!

Sorry about your company, but when you can no longer print your own games, it is time to move on.

John Bohrer

Let's be careful here. This copyright covers the verbatim expression of those rules in text and explicitly does not cover re-expression of those rules, such as translation into another language, or an interpretation or restatement of those rules by a third party.



Might I suggest that this is not an ideal forum for resolving this dispute?

I'm rather surprised that any notable game publisher would touch reprinting Age of Steam if there's any level of doubt or acrimony surrounding the rights (such as we've seen here). The market is so small (and cheap and founded on 1:1 personal relationships) to muck about like that.



Gahhh, I really don't want to encourage this public spat, however surely Age of Steam is a shared rights item with IP owned and controlled by both Martin and Winsome? Or did Martin grant unrestrained publication rights to Winsome? Typically there are specific clauses in publication contracts which cover these eventualities, clauses with very well defined termination and expiration constraints.

I know that John Bohrer doesn't usually like publishing documents on the 'net, but I think it would be very informative to see a copy of this publication contract.

As far as I was aware, Martin had designed Age of Steam in 2001 (though it went by a different name then; and I remember telling Martin that he'd be insane to publish a boardgame that could be described as a combination of his Volledampf mechanics with 18xx hexagonal tiles, there was clearly no market for such a game).

on a side note, I also remember when Warfrog printed their own games. Nasty, scruffy things in white boxes they were. Things improved immeasurably when they started paying a German company to print and assemble them. As far as I know, that same German company has printed every game since Way Out West, including the latest, Perikles.

This ends here. I believe that I've made my opinions of the parties involved quite evident in the past, so I won't belabor this any longer...