[OT] FASA is Closing

No one else has mentioned this, so I thought I would (and it does have
an "on
topic" component). 

FASA is closing its doors as of April 30, 2001. There is little in their
press
release to explain why they are going under, except to say that the
members of
the company are moving on. The "Battletech" and "Shadowrun" licenses are
moving over to WizKids, the makers of the "Mage Knight" collectible
miniatures
game. WizKids was founded by Jordan Weisman, one of FASA's founders.
They are
going to keep filling orders until the end of April, then they are
closing
shop.

The press release is here:
http://www.fasa.com/PressReleases/PRClose.html

FASA started life as a roleplaying game company, creating products for
the
Traveller science fiction RPG in particular. 

FASA thought it had hit it big in the early 80s when they managed to get
the
Star Trek license for Paramount. The "Star Trek Roleplaying Game" was
relatively successful. When the second and third movies came out, they
released a starship miniatures/board game component. With the advent of
"Star
Trek: The Next Generation", Paramount started dictating the direction of
the
game, causing a mass of red tape. FASA decided not to renew the license,
concentrating instead on their own successful RPG, "Shadowrun". 

FASA's first big in-house brand name game was a board game, with stand
up
counters, called "Battledroids". It involved combat between giant
robots,
based on the machines found in Japanese anime. Due to trademark issues
with
Lucasfilm, FASA changed the name and reissued the game as "Battletech".
The
resulting game spawned supplements, miniatures, computer games, and its
own
roleplaying game. Geo-Hex licenses the "Battletech" name for some of its
products.

There have been a number of interesting games out of FASA over the
years. Of
particular interest to the list are the Renegade Legion lines, which
followed
the "Battletech" tradition of being a board game with a supporting
miniatures
line. A lot of the people here on the list use FASA figures -- old and
new --
with GZG rules. More than one Full Thrust fleet contains "Renegade
Legion:
Interceptor", and occasionally "Renegade Legion: Leviathan" miniatures,
and I
myself have a number of the plastic "Renegade Legion: Centurion"
miniatures
for use with Dirtside II. 

More recently there was "Crimson Skies", an alternate history aircraft
combat
game that spawned a computer game by Microsoft; "VOR", a science fiction
miniatures skirmish game; "Earthdawn", a fantasy roleplaying game.

There is an implication in the press release that some of the miniatures
may
still be produced by Ral Partha.

Nothing is said about the future of "Crimson Skies" or "VOR", or whether
or
not anyone will produce "Crucible", their "mass combat" (as defined by
Warhammer") fantasy miniatures game.

It can be implied that Battletech miniatures will still be produced
(perhaps
K.R. can comment on the Battletech license), if you are using VOR
miniatures
for Stargrunt you may want to start stocking up now.

FASA follows the closure, in recent years, of Game Designer's Workshop
(GDW),
and Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE).

Allan Goodall		       awg@sympatico.ca
Goodall's Grotto:  http://www.vex.net/~agoodall

"Now, see, if you combine different colours of light,
 you get white! Try that with Play-Doh and you get
 brown! How come?" - Alan Moore & Kevin Nolan,