Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman sue Wizards of the Coast after it abandons new Dragonlance trilogy

[C.T. Phipps]

https://boingboing.net/2020/10/19/margaret-weis-and-tracy-hickman-sue-wizards-of-the-coast-after-it-abandons-new-dragonlance-trilogy.html

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, creators of the Dragonlance fantasy mythos, are suing Wizards of the Coast after the company ditched a licensing deal for the latest books in the long-running series.

Filed in district court in Seattle, the lawsuit [Scribd, PDF] was first reported by Cecilia D'Anastasio. The lawsuit claims that WoTC breached their contract without explanation and in "stunning and brazen bad faith", despite having been intimately involved in the development of the new work, approving a trilogy's worth of characters, storylines and scenes and signing with a publisher, Penguin Random House.  The lawsuit claims damages for 10m dollars.

Weis and Hickman created Dragonlance, set within the broad ambit of WoTC's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing franchise, in the 1980s. Its lively mix of colorful heroes and epic drama was a hit with gamers and readers, growing into a sprawling shared universe fleshed out by many authors, artists and designers. According to the lawsuit, Weis and Hickman agreed with Wizards of the Coast to produce the new novels in 2017, capping off the series and giving fans a final sendoff.

But the company pulled the plug in August 2020—and Weis and Hickman blame controversies at WoTC itself.

[Werthead]

I'm not surprised Weis and Hickman are furious. It sounds like WotC had some kind of meltdown after all their recent controversies with perceived racist caricatures in the Ravenloft material and their decision to stop making "evil-only" races. It even sounds like they asked Weis and Hickman to tweak a few things, they did so, then WotC said screw it and cancelled the trilogy anyway.

Particularly grating as Dragonlance was very progressive in its day: multiple female protagonists and antagonists, a general lack of chainmail bikinis, and the "evil" races had numerous individual good members (particularly goblins and draconians). They also treated other traditionally evil races very differently, like ogres who are generally the still-honourable remnants of a much greater, higher civilisation in previous ages.

[C.T. Phipps]

The thing is all you had to do with the Vistani was make them NOT a magical bunch of Demiplane weirdos and just make them authentic to the Romani.

[Werthead]

2 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

The thing is all you had to do with the Vistani was make them NOT a magical bunch of Demiplane weirdos and just make them authentic to the Romani.

Yup, and they've done that by tweaking and re-releasing the book, and they were praised for doing that (most companies wouldn't have bothered).

[C.T. Phipps]

Just now, Mr Meeseeks said:

I wish I could say I'm shocked or even a little surprised, but I'm not. The, uh, fiction side of WotC has been a shit s how for    jeez, a long long time now. I had a really interesting conversation with an author who wrote some Ebberon and FR novels way way back in 2006 or so and it sounded horrible THEN.

Also I guess that answers my question of what Weiss/Hickman have been up to. 

Fun financial fact: RA Salvatore made more money with the Drizzt novels than all of the Editions of Dungeons and Dragons COMBINED.

The fantasy fiction of D&D has always been the most popular part of the IPs.

Hasbro has never cared about that.

[Werthead]

13 minutes ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Fun financial fact: RA Salvatore made more money with the Drizzt novels than all of the Editions of Dungeons and Dragons COMBINED.

The fantasy fiction of D&D has always been the most popular part of the IPs.

Hasbro has never cared about that.

Yup. I think Weis and Hickman have as well. They're not far behind Salvatore in sales (Salvatore is a bit over 30 million, W&H are somewhat between 25 and 30 million).

[C.T. Phipps]

32 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Yup. I think Weis and Hickman have as well. They're not far behind Salvatore in sales (Salvatore is a bit over 30 million, W&H are somewhat between 25 and 30 million).

They could have easily sold Dragonlance for a series and not the cruddy movie. Hasbro just does not know what to do with D&D.

[IlyaP]

Given that Russian fans put on a Dragonlance musical a few years ago (yes, I've seen it, and it was...strange), there's clearly some kind of market out there for Dragonlance - albeit probably not what Hasbro/WotC have in mind. 

What's interesting to me here is the title H&W chose to use: Dragons of Deceit. There was a Douglas Niles DL module/campaign with that same name. Now I can't help but wonder if there's a thematic tie or callback to that story from 1985. 

 

[Jaxom 1974]

I didn't realize they were working on a new trilogy...do we know what it was meant to cover?

[Rhom]

7 minutes ago, Jaxom 1974 said:

I didn't realize they were working on a new trilogy...do we know what it was meant to cover?

Was wondering the same.  I’d love to hear an outline.

[Lord Patrek]

Gotta feel for them. They went through hell when TSR was about to fold and stopped paying their authors royalties. Then they came back with WotC, put Dragonlance back on the NYT bestseller list. And now they were working on something new for WotC and they get it up the ass. . .

Weis and Hickman deserve better than this.

[C.T. Phipps]

2 minutes ago, Lord Patrek said:

Gotta feel for them. They went through hell when TSR was about to fold and stopped paying their authors royalties. Then they came back with WotC, put Dragonlance back on the NYT bestseller list. And now they were working on something new for WotC and they get it up the ass. . .

Weis and Hickman deserve better than this.

I fully believe the story that DRAGONS OF A SUMMER FLAME was their attempt to torch the franchise and run.

[Lord Patrek]

I just heard back from Margaret Weis and on advice of their legal counsel she and Tracy can't talk about the story that would have been covered by this new trilogy. :/

[C.T. Phipps]

1 hour ago, Lord Patrek said:

I just heard back from Margaret Weis and on advice of their legal counsel she and Tracy can't talk about the story that would have been covered by this new trilogy. :/

That's understandable. Depending on the outcome, they may want to adjust it and make it their own IP.

[Werthead]

Quote

I will never understood WTF Hasbro is thinking when it comes to the D&D Novels. They are just flushing money down the toilet at this point.

I covered this a few months back.

6 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

That's understandable. Depending on the outcome, they may want to adjust it and make it their own IP.

As it's work for hire, they probably can't do that.

 

[Werthead]

This statement from Hickman a few days ago reads a bit differently now.

It's easy to be snooty and dismissive of Dragonlance, but it's a also a hugely beloved property which has inspired millions of people. It may be cheesy to say that Sturm Brightblade's example of heroism has inspired that in real life, but it is the case. And a corporate entity disrespecting the creators of the property is now going to cause them an immense amount of blowback and reputational damage, all for no reason whatsoever.

[Lord Patrek]

10 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

That's understandable. Depending on the outcome, they may want to adjust it and make it their own IP.

Since WotC approved a trilogy's worth of ideas, characters, scenes, etc, I'm pretty sure they owned them and Weis and Hickman couldn't just tweek them and use them for another series.

The lawsuit is probably a way to just make themselves a nuisance and hopefully push WotC to go along with the trilogy. Since all the contracts were signed, it would be easy to go ahead and do it.

Otherwise they'll be in court for years. . .

[Gigei]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

This statement from Hickman a few days ago reads a bit differently now.

It's easy to be snooty and dismissive of Dragonlance, but it's a also a hugely beloved property which has inspired millions of people. It may be cheesy to say that Sturm Brightblade's example of heroism has inspired that in real life, but it is the case. And a corporate entity disrespecting the creators of the property is now going to cause them an immense amount of blowback and reputational damage, all for no reason whatsoever.

Either that page has been taken down or the traffic made it go wonky. I can't read the statement.

I hope it works out for Weis and Hickman. I still love the original trilogy.

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Lord Patrek said:

Since WotC approved a trilogy's worth of ideas, characters, scenes, etc, I'm pretty sure they owned them and Weis and Hickman couldn't just tweek them and use them for another series.

The lawsuit is probably a way to just make themselves a nuisance and hopefully push WotC to go along with the trilogy. Since all the contracts were signed, it would be easy to go ahead and do it.

Otherwise they'll be in court for years. . .

WotC's grasp of legal affairs has been seriously off-beam for a few years now. I wouldn't be surprised if they just flat-out lost. The terms of the contract seem pretty cut and dried and don't include "cancellation because WotC are terrified someone might call them names on Twitter."

I suspect things will go quiet on this and there'll be a (substantial) behind-the-scenes settlement.

[Lord Patrek]

Even if they ultimately lost, this could drag in court for a couple of years. And coming out on top after a legal battle, would the authors be interested in actually writing the series then? Probably not.

Like minority shareholders getting it up the ass, they are trying to make themselves enough of a nuisance so that WotC and Hasbro consider this too much of an annoyance and decide that it's easier to go along and let them write and publish the books. They could then cancel everything else under which they're not under contractual obligation.

Or, which can sometimes happen, especially if Hasbro's legal department gets involved, they could simply try to bleed the authors dry with countless procedures that could keep them in court for years. Then, at some point when they realize that it would cost them too much to continue to fight, Weis and Hickman might just abandon the lawsuit.

Let's hope for the former and not the latter. . . :/