Dragonlance authors file lawsuit against wizards of the coast -

[mindlessobserver]

This one looks like it may be fun. Two authors who have written fantasy literature for Dungeons and Dragons for almost 4 decades get shoved out the door for being insufficiently woke. By male editors at WoTC rumored to be involved in "pedo" behavior.

Grab the popcorn.

Dragonlance Authors File Suit Against Wizards of the Coast

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, authors and creators of Dragonlance, have filed suit against Wizards of the Coast for breach of contract.

www.cbr.com

authors and creators of Dragonlance, have filed suit against Wizards of the Coast for breach of contract.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, co-authors and creators of the world of Dragonlance, have filed suit against Wizards of the Coast for unlawfully terminating their contract for a trilogy of novels to be published by Penguin Random House. The complaint, filed in Seattle, WA on Oct. 16, recounts the process the authors went through beginning in 2017, during which time they met with WotC representatives and ultimately signed a publishing deal for a new trilogy of novels that were to be the duo's "capstone to their life's work." By November 2019, the filing claims, Weis and Hickman had a deal in place with Penguin Random House and a complete manuscript of "Book 1," which bears the provisional title Dragons of Deceit.

However, by August 2020, during a meeting with WotC's "highest-level executives," the authors were told that no further drafts "or any subsequent works in the trilogy" would be approved. Further, the authors claim, "The termination was wholly arbitrary and without contractual basis," and Wizards acted "in stunning and brazen bad faith." The authors tie the termination of their contract to events around the same time when the company was suffering from poor public relations. Over the summer, stories emerged that alleged issues in the WotC's hiring practices and other "forms of cultural insensitivity." In order to defend themselves from further criticism, the authors allege, Wizards and its parent company Hasbro killed the Dragonlance deal


Dragonlance emerged as the most well-known of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings in large part, the complaint alleges, because of Weis' and Hickman's Chronicles Trilogy, starting in 1984 with Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

The complaint notes that Wizards changed the editorial team for the Dragonlance trilogy in June 2020, adding Nic Kelman, whom the complaint alleges "was a controversial choice" due to questions of "misogyny and pedophilia" raised about his 2019 Girls: A Paean. After Kelman was assigned, the authors had a series of conversations surrounding "sensitivity issues" in the works in progress by Weis and Hickman, who rewrote dozens of pages to comply with Wizard's requests. The complaint goes on to note that Wizards went behind the backs of Weis and Hickman to interfere with their relationship with Penguin Random House. The Aug. 13 meeting followed thereafter, during which Wizard's attorney Nick Mitchell argued that "We are not moving toward breach, but we will not approve any further drafts," a decision that Weis and Hickman argue effectively terminates their contract. The authors are seeking compensation for damages in "excess of $10 million."

Link to the complaint.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7245020-Weis.html

 

[ZombiefiedFerret]

Hickman kinda look like DSP...

 

[The Shadow]

Sounds to me like the Hickmans were resisting going woke.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Sounds to me like the Hickmans were resisting going woke.

Reading through the complaint that seems to be the issue. After WoTC started getting sandbagged by Joirnalists for being insufficiently pure, they started demanding changes to the new dragonlance trilogy. New editors were brought in, one of whome apparently authored a book with graphic rape scenes in it, who made even more onerous demands to make dragonlance more "diverse and inclusive".

I think the subtext here is the dragonlance authors told their new overlords to shove it. And in a fit of petty rage WoTCs new masters axed the deal. Of course this was after almost 2 years of work on the authors part, and WoTCs contract does not have an clause for them to axe the deal entirely. I am sure they will try and argue that Weis and Hickman were not faithfully discharging their end of the bargain. Discovery on this end may be fun. What did WoTC demand get put in the story that caused the authors to balk. Gay Drow Trannies in a wheel chair maybe?

 

[FatalTater]

Only about 6 of the Dragonlance books were good, and the animated movie they did should be considered a war crime.
That said, the books were like, totally diverse you guise. They had Elves and Dwarves and Humans and Dragons and Gully Dwarves and Gnomes and stuff.

 

[The Shadow]

graphic rape scenes in it, who made even more onerous demands to make dragonlance more "diverse and inclusive".

The way I choose to read this, WOTC wanted rape scenes AND they wanted them to be diverse and inclusive rape scenes.

 

[ZombiefiedFerret]

Reading through the complaint that seems to be the issue. After WoTC started getting sandbagged by Joirnalists for being insufficiently pure, they started demanding changes to the new dragonlance trilogy. New editors were brought in, one of whome apparently authored a book with graphic rape scenes in it, who made even more onerous demands to make dragonlance more "diverse and inclusive".

I think the subtext here is the dragonlance authors told their new overlords to shove it. And in a fit of petty rage WoTCs new masters axed the deal. Of course this was after almost 2 years of work on the authors part, and WoTCs contract does not have an clause for them to axe the deal entirely. I am sure they will try and argue that Weis and Hickman were not faithfully discharging their end of the bargain. Discovery on this end may be fun. What did WoTC demand get put in the story that caused the authors to balk. Gay Drow Trannies in a wheel chair maybe?

Trans dragons with afros that burn all the white males.

 

[Maskull]

New editors were brought in, one of whome apparently authored a book with graphic rape scenes in it, who made even more onerous demands to make dragonlance more "diverse and inclusive".

Aren't Dragonlance ostensibly children's books? I wouldn't include graphic depictions of rape even if I was marketing to a teenage audience.

 

[Autumnal Equinox]

Not sure who I side with here. Weiss and Hickman are batshit crazy Mormons who write junk food fantasy for middle schoolers, and WotC are a bunch of pandering woketards who helped ruin D&D.

They're both equally retarded.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Aren't Dragonlance ostensibly children's books? I wouldn't include graphic depictions of rape even if I was marketing to a teenage audience.

I think they fall into the "young adult" category. Reading the lawsuit I dont think WoTC told them to put a rape scene in. The thrust of the argument is WoTC illegally breached the contract in order to morally grandstand, and yet this same company that wants to tell us, the authors, what we are morally required to write, makes a dude who wrote rape fanfic our editor in chief.

 

[Stoneheart]

Sounds to me like the Hickmans were resisting going woke.

well lets channel the ghost of truth to see if it is real...

 

[Fromtheblackdepths]

New editors were brought in, one of whome apparently authored a book with graphic rape scenes in it, who made even more onerous demands to make dragonlance more "diverse and inclusive".

Linkara works at WoTC?

 

[The Shadow]

I think they fall into the "young adult" category. Reading the lawsuit I dont think WoTC told them to put a rape scene in. The thrust of the argument is WoTC illegally breached the contract in order to morally grandstand, and yet this same company that wants to tell us, the authors, what we are morally required to write, makes a dude who wrote rape fanfic our editor in chief.

I don't think they were asked to either, I just took someone's words and intentionally misinterpreted them for the sake of having a laugh.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

I think it’s funny how Paizo is more progressive but less annoying than WotC.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

This one looks like it may be fun. Two authors who have written fantasy literature for Dungeons and Dragons for almost 4 decades get shoved out the door for being insufficiently woke. By male editors at WoTC rumored to be involved in "pedo" behavior.

Imagine being successful and keeping your nose clean for four decades only to have your career sabotaged by a pedo because the morals expressed in your books don't meet said pedo's high standards.

 

[Safir]

Not sure who I side with here. Weiss and Hickman are batshit crazy Mormons who write junk food fantasy for middle schoolers

HIckman is a Mormon. Weis isn't. Hickman is also vastly less crazy than the average Mormon, if at all - he served as a missionary in a shithole.

I think they fall into the "young adult" category.

TSR wanted them to be young adult but they were written and edited as classic fantasy. When an editor told Weis to drop grown-up words in Dragons of Autumn Twilight because the intended readers were too dumb for them, she told that editor, essentially, "no, you are". Wizards actually published a dumbed-down young adult version of the main trilogy in the early oughts.

That said, the books were like, totally diverse you guise. They had Elves and Dwarves and Humans and Dragons and Gully Dwarves and Gnomes and stuff.

They actually were. Two of the nine leads are Feather Indians and the only real prophets of the true god, they found the golden plates. The guy who made the dragonlances (demon-dragon-killing weapons) is black, so is a stronk wamen captain (they weren't leads in the main trilogy but each got a novel). The civilized island nation of blacks is the only place that has never been conquered by evil and is now the most powerful nation in the world.

Only about 6 of the Dragonlance books were good, and the animated movie they did should be considered a war crime.

Of the main storyline, seven if you count Summer Flame. However, many other books set in the world were from good to excellent.

In or about June 2020, Defendant changed the editorial and oversight team assigned to the new Dragonlance trilogy, removing Liz Schuh and Hilary Ross and replacing them with Nic Kelman and Paul Morrissey

Diversity and inclusion!

 

[Syaoran Li]

I'm gonna be totally honest here, I always knew Dragonlance would get axed by the woke WOTC eventually but I also thought Ravenloft would get axed first.

Shame, because Ravenloft is my favorite D&D setting and Dragonlance is pretty good too. My Dad always was a huge fan of old-school Dragonlance back in the 80's.

 

[Horus]

Only about 6 of the Dragonlance books were good, and the animated movie they did should be considered a war crime.
That said, the books were like, totally diverse you guise. They had Elves and Dwarves and Humans and Dragons and Gully Dwarves and Gnomes and stuff.

I spent several years trying to forget that abortion of a movie existed...thanks.

 

[JektheDumbass]

Dragonlance is gay.

 

[Safir]

I'm gonna be totally honest here, I always knew Dragonlance would get axed by the woke WOTC eventually but I also thought Ravenloft would get axed first.

I coudn't even imagine they would. Dragonlance the setting with all its autistic detail is not woke, not trendy, kind of awkward, and too different from the highly popular books. With the book characters leaving traditional player characters not much to do in the storyline and a fuck-you catastrophic event happening every generation and wiping everyone's accomplishments, it was pointless to revive outside of a couple sourcebooks per D&D edition (stamp a seal of approval on some fan's homebrew War of the Lance rules and collect the money).

But the novels still sell, and despite not being woke, they aren't all too "problematic" either. So why not sell more novels?