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Words from the Wise (Guys) An Editorial Rant WelcomeTo the thirty-second issue of The Guild Companion. September 11, 20012001 should have been the year when astronauts exercised to the strains of the Blue Danube Waltz aboard space stations and explorers discovered a strange black monolith buried in a crater on the Moon. Instead real history has been more mundane and for the first eight months and ten days, 2001 - the first year of the new millennium - was not really that different to the preceding years of the twentieth century. Until Tuesday 11th September The atrocities in the United States have changed our world, bringing us much closer to the grim dystopias of cyberpunk than the optimistic visions of Golden Age science-fiction writers. But perhaps, just perhaps, the revulsion and shock felt throughout the world at the horrors committed on that fateful Tuesday will unite us all in the struggle against evil and terrorism. To all those who have lost loved ones or who have suffered physical and psychological injuries as a result of these events, the staff of The Guild Companion offer our heartfelt sympathies. The Future of RolemasterThose of you who follow the Rolemaster-related mailing lists and/or the discussion boards on this site will be aware that there have been some important developments with regard to the bidding process for ICE's remaining intellectual property rights. The combined RMIG (Rolemaster Investment Group) / Golden Oxcart Bandits placed a bid for all the rights and inventory. An unknown third party, believed to be a wealthy individual from the United Kingdom, placed a higher bid but with additional constraints. (Before anyone starts any rash speculation, that individual is not me; I have this moral problem about investing in any scheme to recover the Rolemaster rights when I'm actually owed royalties - I would be paying dollars to get cents in return.) The RMIG/Bandits consortium may counter the bid now in order to gain preferential status for their tender when the Trustee places the proposals before the court. Alternatively they may prefer to counter-bid in court. Much will depend on how far the consortium can raise their bid. So progress is being made and closure will hopefully be achieved in the near future. The Rebirth of The Silent TowerA very long time ago, the ICE-related mailing lists based at silent- tower.org and administered by the redoubtable Mario Butter were forced to close owing to a severe hacker penetration of the supporting servers. The lists moved into exile on Yahoo! Groups with the MERP mailing list finding a new home at merp@merp.com (see http://www.merp.com for more details). Unexpectedly the Silent Tower returned to life on the 28th September with the Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Bladelands, Run out the Guns!, Middle Earth Collectible Card Game and Silent Death mailing lists all reappearing. All those members who were previously subscribed to any of these communities have remained members. Details on the lists can be found at http://www.silent-tower.org Farewell (for now ...)I'll let you get on with reading the rest of this month's magazine. Our next issue will appear in November 2001, but until then,
Keep gaming and have fun! |