Line #10 ScrewedByTheLawyers/TabletopGames


1	!!Subpages:
2	[[index]]
3	* ''ScrewedByTheLawyers/BattleTech''
4	[[/index]]
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6	!!Other tabletop gaming examples:
7	* The owners of the ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' card game were forced to change the art on the card backs because, according to the International Olympic Committee, it was too similar to the design of the Olympic rings. (For a CollectibleCardGame, changing the card backs is pretty much a death sentence for the value of any cards made pre-change.)
8	* In ''Before I Kill You, Mister Bond...'' from Cheapass Games, the premise is that supervillains don't just shoot the captured superspy because he's worth more points if [[JustBetweenYouAndMe he's taunted a few times first]]. After a cease-and-desist letter from MGM, it was pulled off the market (2000), then reissued as ''James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game'' (2004). Later it was reissued again as ''TabletopGame/BeforeIKillYouMisterSpy'' (2016).
9	* In the 1970s, Creator/{{TSR}} narrowly avoided a lawsuit from Creator/{{Chaosium}} when they tried to incorporate the Franchise/CthulhuMythos into the nascent ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Chaosium, who had been sold the right to produce Lovecraft-related board games by copyright holder Arkham House, stipulated that TSR could keep the content if they credited Chaosium's "Call of Cthulhu" series. TSR backed down and [[WhatCouldHaveBeen removed the content instead]].
10	** A similar situation occurred with [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric material]], Chaosium owning the rights and TSR publishing some content. It didn't help that Creator/MichaelMoorcock failed to realize that two different companies were involved and approved TSR's publishing material he had licensed to Chaosium. The situation was resolved as with the Cthulhu material.
11	** TSR also produced a board game called ''The Battle of the Five Armies'' in the mid-70s based on ''Literature/TheHobbit''. They were forced to remove it from the market because they did not license it with the Tolkien estate before hand. The more Tolkien-inspired aspects of TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons disappeared soon after, or were renamed as more lawyer-friendly versions (hobbits became halflings, ents became treants, etc.).
12	* After Creator/GaryGygax was forced out of TSR he decided to create a new fantasy role-playing game with Creator/GameDesignersWorkshop. He was going to call it ''Dangerous Dimensions'', but when TSR threatened a lawsuit saying "DD" was too close to "D&D" he changed it to ''Dangerous Journeys''. The first few books were produced, then TSR sued anyway for copyright infringement, seemingly based on the idea that it was an updated version of D&D. In an out-of-court settlement they ended up buying the rights to the game, and they immediately shelved it.
13	* The ''Franchise/JamesBond 007'' RPG published by Victory Games (part of Avalon Hill) starting in 1983 got it twice. The first was that because of Kevin [=McClory=]'s lawsuit, Victory Games was not allowed to make any mention of SPECTRE or Ernst Stavro Blofeld [[note]]apart from a single line mentioning that Blofeld was behind the murder of James Bond's wife, Teresa di Vicenzo, in the Q Manual entry for the Lancia Zagato[[/note]], so they created an {{Expy}} of the same organization named TAROT, led by Karl Ferenc Skorpios, for the game's background. The second was that Victory Games and Danjaq LLC got into arguments over licensing payments that resulted in the game being forced to cease publication in 1987.
14	* The ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' trading card game: The franchise's owners were sued by self-proclaimed psychic Uri Geller, who claimed they used his persona in a negative way as Kadabra. The company won, saying it didn't base Pokemon on people (although Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan and Wobbuffet may beg to differ, and, in all fairness, the Japanese name for the mon, "Yungerer", and said mon's use of bending spoons to demonstrate psychic powers are clear references), but there still hasn't been a release since then of a Kadabra card in the game. Oddly, Abra and Alakazam do show up, even though (since older cards, including all printed Kadabra cards, are disallowed in tournaments) Alakazam can only be played nowadays with special cards allowing the playing of evolved Pokemon, or in the case of a few Japanese releases, as special variants that don't count as evolved at all. Eventually, Geller decided to give permission to The Pokemon Company to print cards of Kadabra again in 2020.
15	* When Creator/WhiteWolf released their sci-fi game ''TabletopGame/{{Aeon}}'', they ran afoul of MTV, who saw it as challenging their trademarks for ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux''. WW settled things by renaming ''[=Æ=]on'' to ''Trinity''; as a result, copies of the original corebook with the ''[=Æ=]on'' name are much sought after. The new edition gets around the issue by making the full title ''Trinity Continuum: [=Æ=]on'', which is apparently different enough for the lawyers.
16	* Creator/GamesWorkshop loves this trope, as seen under "Damnatus" in the Fan Works section, among others. However, one case ultimately resulted in HoistByHisOwnPetard, which was a legal battle with Chapterhouse Studios, a third-party that creates bits and models that aren't available from either GW or their subsidiary Forge World. Chapterhouse Studios '''won''' the battle because the judge in question had done extensive research into both companies and the subject, then ruled that he saw in no sensible way how Games Workshop had created their own "style" which in turn could be legally copyrighted (only having ShouldersOfDoom and skull iconography doesn't cut it). He also judged that Games Workshop cannot copyright models they don't produce (Chapterhouse Studios for example offered full kits that could be used for ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' since Games Workshop had no actual models released in these cases, only rules). GW, spiteful, then proceeded to pull ''everything'' they did not have a model for from their later rule books. HoistByHisOwnPetard finally kicked in when the fans of the game, upset about the removal of beloved units and heroes, dialed down shopping which contributed to GW's long string of failing sales.
17	** They later did it again when they released ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'', renaming their Orc, Elf and Dwarf factions with trademarkable but ridiculous names "Orruk", "Aelf" and "Duardin", among others.
18	** This trend would continue with 40K when GW tried but failed to trademark the name "Space Marine." This resulted in the Imperial Guard being officially renamed to the Astra Militarum, and would continue with the release of the ''Gathering Storm'' supplements and the 8th edition rules by changing the Eldar race to the Aeldari (as the word 'Eldar' was coined by Creator/JRRTolkien to describe the elves), the Craftworld Eldar to the Asuryani or simply Craftworlders, the Dark Eldar to the Drukhari, and the Tau race to the name of their homeworld, T'au.
19	* Due to an "uncommon legal issue", the DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation of ''TabletopGame/PointSalad'' had to be removed from Board Game Arena and made "private": only players who have played it before can see it.
20	* Due to "difficulties regarding the intellectual property rights status about this game", the DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation of ''[[TabletopGame/{{Koryo}} Koryŏ]]'' was removed from Board Game Arena and made "private" so that you can only see it if you've played it before.
21	* In 2023, Creator/{{Paizo}} went on a massive spree of {{Orwellian Retcon}}s to clear the ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' IP of potentially copyrightable materials borrowed from ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', following the [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2023/01/19/dungeons-and-dragons-open-game-license-wizards-of-the-coast-explained/ Open Game License controversy]] at their competitor Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast in January of that year. The drow in particular got it in the shorts and were ejected from the setting entirely in favor of expanding the role of the serpentfolk.

Context ScrewedByTheLawyers / TabletopGames