West End Games (WEG) was a company that made

board Board or Boards may refer to: Flat surface * Lumber, or other rigid material, milled or sawn flat ** Plank (wood) ** Cutting board ** Sounding board, of a musical instrument * Cardboard (paper product) * Paperboard * Fiberboard ** Hardboard, a ty ...

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing a ...

, and

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but later moved to

Honesdale, Pennsylvania Honesdale is a borough in and the county seat of Wayne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The borough's population was 4,458 at the time of the 2020 census. Honesdale is located northeast of Scranton in a rural area that provides many recrea ...

. Its product lines included ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'', ''

Paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

'', ''

Torg ''Torg'' is a cinematic cross-genre tabletop role-playing game created by Greg Gorden and Bill Slavicsek, with art by Daniel Horne. It was first published by West End Games (WEG) in 1990. Game resolution uses a single twenty-sided die, ''drama ...

'', ''

DC Universe The DC Universe (DCU) is the fictional shared universe where most stories in American comic book titles published by DC Comics take place. Superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Martian Manhunter, The Flash, Green Lant ...

'', and ''

Junta Junta may refer to: Government and military * Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones ** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...

''.

History

Scott Palter received a JD from

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in 1972 and joined the

New York State Bar The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice; ...

before he began work at the family firm, Bucci Imports. Drawing on this financial connection, Palter was able to found West End Games, named after the bar in which the meeting that finalized its founding occurred: the West End Bar near Columbia University. Initially a producer of

board wargame A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby (as distinct from military exercises, o ...

s, In 1983, Palter hired

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game (pen and paper), role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. In February 2007, he elected to join th ...

, Eric Goldberg and

Greg Costikyan Greg Costikyan (born July 22, 1959, in New York City), sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wa ...

as game designers, and WEG's focus turned away from traditional wargames. Costikyan's 1983 game '' Bug-Eyed Monsters'' brought WEG into the science-fiction and fantasy genres. Then Costikyan and Goldberg brought Palter a manuscript for a role-playing game that originally had been conceived by their friend

Dan Gelber Daniel Saul Gelber (born November 26, 1960) is an American politician and former prosecutor serving as the Mayor of Miami Beach, Florida. He served in the Florida Legislature from 2000 to 2010 and was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General ...

. Palter agreed to buy the rights to the game, and after some editing and polishing by Rolston, it was released at

Gencon Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

in 1984 as WEG's first role-playing game, ''

''. In 1985, ''Paranoia'' won WEG an Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Rules of 1984". The high production values demanded by the wargames industry made them one of the few companies who could compete with TSR, and they were able to acquire the license from

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

to produce an RPG based on the film ''

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American Supernatural fiction, supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and ...

''. This game, '' Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game'', formed the basis of the

D6 System The ''D6 System'' is a role-playing game system published by West End Games (WEG) and licensees. While the system is primarily intended for pen-and-paper role-playing games, variations of the system have also been used in live action role-playi ...

which was to be heavily used in many of their licensed products. In 1987, the company released their ''Star Wars'' role-playing game. Since the films had been released some years previously, and there was (at the time) no new media forthcoming, the success of these books came as a surprise. The game established much of the groundwork of what later became the ''Star Wars'' expanded universe.

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

considered their sourcebooks so authoritative that when

Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn (born September 1, 1951) is an American writer of science fiction and fantasy. He is known best for his prolific collection of ''Star Wars'' List of Star Wars books, books, chiefly the Thrawn trilogy, ''Thrawn'' series, and has publis ...

was hired to write what became the

Thrawn trilogy The ''Thrawn'' trilogy, also known as the ''Heir to the Empire'' trilogy, is a trilogy of novels set in the ''Star Wars'' universe, written by Timothy Zahn between 1991 and 1993. The first book marked the end of what ''Star Wars'' fandom calls "Th ...

, he was sent a box of West End Games Star Wars books and directed to utilize the background material presented within. Zahn's trilogy, in turn, renewed interest in the franchise and provided further sales for West End Games, which released sourcebooks for Zahn's three novels from 1992 to 1994. 1990 saw the release of the

roleplaying game, followed in 1994 by the

Masterbook ''Masterbook'' is a generic role-playing game that was published by West End Games (WEG) in 1994. Description The generic rules of ''Masterbook'', which do not have a specific campaign setting, use rules from both WEG's multi-genre role-playing ...

system, which was mostly used in licensed RPG adaptations:

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...

Necroscope ''Necroscope'' is the title of a series of horror novels by British author Brian Lumley. The term ''necroscope'', as defined in the series, describes someone who can communicate with the dead (coined Deadspeak later in the series). Unlike ...

Species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

Tank Girl ''Tank Girl'' is a British comic book character created by Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, and first appeared in print in 1988 in the British comics magazine ''Deadline''. After a period of intense popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, ...

, and World of Aden. Another licensed game, the ''Hercules & Xena Roleplaying Game'' was the last title released by the initial version of the company: in July 1998, West End Games went into bankruptcy, following mismanagement between West End Games and its then-parent company, shoe importer Bucci Retail Group. When the parent company filed for bankruptcy, West End Games was forced to go under as well, despite an attempt by Palter to perform a

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

reorganization of the company's finances. As a result, former WEG designers Costikyan and Goldberg took Palter to court over ownership of ''

'', and in 2000, the courts ruled that the license should revert to Costikyan and Goldberg.

D6 Legends

The bankrupt West End Games became WEG / Creative Design Group while a new West End Games (D6 Legends, Inc.) was formed in partnership with Yeti, a French design house and publisher and subsidiary of Humanoids Publishing, in March 1999. Under court supervision, WEG / Creative Design Group sold off product and assets to pay off debt. WEG / Creative Design Group sold to the new company intellectual property, the Paranoia licensing contracts, and the trademarks. Licensing contracts for Indiana Jones, Star Wars and Xena remained with Creative Design Group, though the Star Wars license was soon lost to

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for ga ...

, who released their own Star Wars game in 2000. At the 1999 GAMA Trade Show, the new West End Games announced a third edition of Paranoia for late June or early July of that year, followed by a Bug Sector supplement, but these were never released. The DC Universe license was acquired and a new RPG was also announced at that time, which was published in 1999. As Humanoids Publishing was the publisher of the

Metabarons ''The Metabarons'' or ''The Saga of The Meta-Barons'' is a science fiction comic series relating the history of a dynasty of perfect warriors known as the Metabarons. ''The Metabarons'' series was written by creator Alejandro Jodorowsky and illu ...

graphic novels, they utilized the D6 System to release an RPG based upon that setting. The project was a commercial failure, and Humanoids Publications decided to exit from the role-playing game market and sell off West End Games at the end of 2002. On July 1, 2002, the company made its systems—D6 Classic, D6 Legend, MasterBook, and Torg—available via license to any publisher.

Purgatory Publishing

In November 2003 West End Games was bought by

Eric J. Gibson Eric J. Gibson is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Eric J. Gibson through his company Purgatory Publishing purchased West End Games, and the deal was announced by previous owner Humanoids Publishing on Novem ...

's Purgatory Publishing. He moved the company to Downingtown, Pennsylvania, in 2004. Under his tenure, Torg received a revised edition and a generic version of the

was produced, which led to a line of irregularly produced supplements and met with general approval from fans. However, this did not translate into high sales; in a post on the official West End forums in 2008 Gibson announced that none of the D6 products produced since he acquired West End had turned a profit, and West End's other RPG lines were not performing as well as he had expected, leading to losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars. West End also expanded back into board games, beginning with a new edition of ''Junta'', which according to Gibson was one of the few products that did turn a profit. In 2007, the company announced a new science-fiction RPG by

Bill Coffin Bill Coffin (born September 17, 1970) is a writer of novels and role-playing games in the fantasy and science fiction genres. Perhaps best known for his work at Palladium Books from July 1998 through May 2002, he made significant contributions to ...

called ''Septimus'', offering preorders, but following delays it was publicly cancelled by Gibson in March 2008. Gibson stated in July 2008 that West End Games could not afford to provide refunds to customers who preordered the cancelled ''Septimus'' product, and indeed could not even afford to pay the postage to ship books to individuals who were willing to accept a refund in the form of products instead of money. Following the ''Septimus'' cancellation and fan backlash, Gibson said that he was planning on selling all of WEG's properties, although this did not occur at that time. WEG eventually released ''Septimus'' via PDF and

print on demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

. Gibson stated in a 2010 podcast interview that he was "perhaps foolishly optimistic" in assuming sales would be higher than they turned out to be because "the name West End Games would carry a lot of weight". He further stated that this led him to print more books than he could sell, books which he eventually had to destroy in order to save on storage costs. Gibson planned to release the d6 System under the terms of the

Open Gaming License The Open Game License (OGL) is a public copyright license by Wizards of the Coast that may be used by tabletop role-playing game developers to grant permission to modify, copy, and redistribute some of the content designed for their games, nota ...

(OGL) to increase sales but also "to protect it from myself", meaning that if the company had to be sold or go out of business, the system would still be available to the general public. In 2009, West End Games moved forward with these plans, with the resulting license known as OpenD6. Following the ''Septimus'' project, Purgatory Publishing sold off most of their properties. In June 2010, Torg was sold to German game company Ulisses Spiele, while in July 2010 the Masterbook system, Shatterzone, and Bloodshadows were sold to Precis Intermedia. West End Games itself and its remaining properties—which by then consisted primarily of the D6 System—was purchased in April 2016 by Nocturnal Media,

White Wolf Publishing White Wolf Publishing was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant

founder

Stewart Wieck Stewart Douglas Wieck (May 10, 1968 June 22, 2017) was one of the founders of the publishing company, White Wolf, Inc. He was also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension. Career Stewart Wieck was born in Freeport, Illinois in 1968. H ...

's gaming company.

Nocturnal Media

Nocturnal intended to keep the West End Games brand alive, and their first project using this branding was a revised edition of Greg Costikyan's 1984 WEG boardgame, ''Web and Starship''. A Kickstarter was launched in April 2016 and was successfully funded, but the death of Nocturnal owner Stewart Wieck in June 2017 ultimately resulted in the cancellation of that project. A licensing deal to publish a Second Edition of the D6 System was made with Gallant Knight Games in October 2017. Company founder Scott Palter fell ill and died on February 17, 2020.

Associated designers

Game designers previously affiliated with West End Games over its long history include: * Joe Balkoski *

Jeff Briggs Jeffery L. Briggs (born March 10, 1957) is the American founder and former President and CEO of Firaxis Games, a video game developer based in Hunt Valley, Maryland, United States. He was previously a game designer at MicroProse but left that com ...

* Eric Goldberg *

Greg Gorden Greg Gorden is an American game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Greg Gorden has worked for several gaming companies: * For Victory Games he participated, during the early 1980s, in the design of the ''James Bond ...

* Paul Murphy *

Bill Slavicsek Bill Slavicsek is a game designer who served as the Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards of the Coast. He previously worked for West End Games and TSR, Inc., and designed products for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', ''Star Wars'', '' ...

*Bill Smith *Jon Southard *Steve Gilbert

Systems developed

– Used in games like ''Star Wars'', ''Ghostbusters'', and ''Men in Black''. *

– The Masterbook system grew out of the system used in the game

. It was further developed and became the basis for games such as ''

'' and ''Tales from the Crypt''. Sold to Precis Intermedia. * ''

'' – Sold to Ulisses Spiele.

Role-playing games

* ''

'' (1984 original designed by Greg Costikyan, Dan Gelber, and Eric Goldberg; 3rd Edition 1999) * ''

'' (1986) * '' Price of Freedom'' (1986) * '' Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game'' (1987) * '' Ghostbusters International'' (1989, second edition of ''Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game'') * ''

'' (1990) * '' Shatterzone'' (1993, sold to Precis Intermedia) * ''

The World of Indiana Jones ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' (1994) * ''The World of

'' (1995) * ''The World of

'' (1995) * '' The D6 System: The Customizable Roleplaying Game'' (1996) * ''

Indiana Jones Adventures Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th st ...

'' (1996, conversion of ''

'' to the

) * ''The World of

'' * '' Shatterzone'' (1997, sold to Precis Intermedia) * ''

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses t ...

'' (1997) * '' Hercules & Xena'' (1998) * ''Stargate SG-1'' role-playing game (1999, aborted due to bankruptcy) * ''

'' (1999, published under Humanoids Inc.) * ''

'' (2001, published under Humanoids Inc.) * ''Septimus'' (2007, published via print-on-demand)

Board games

* '' Bug-Eyed Monsters'' (1983) * ''

'' (1985, third edition. The first edition was released in 1978, but not by West End Games) (1997) * ''Web and Starship'' (1984) * '' Tales of the Arabian Nights'' (1985) * '' Star Trek: The Adventure Game'' (1985) * ''Kings and Things'' (1986) * '' Star Wars: Star Warriors'' (1987) * '' Star Wars: Assault on Hoth'' (1988) * '' Star Wars: Battle for Endor'' (1989) * ''Star Wars: Escape from the Death Star'' (1990, not to be confused with the 1977 game by

Kenner Kenner Products, known simply as Kenner, was an American toy company founded in 1946. Throughout its history, the Kenner brand produced several highly recognizable toys and merchandise lines including action figures like the original series of ' ...

)

Wargames

Historical boardgames. * ''Against the Reich'' (1986) * ''Air and Armor'' (1986) * ''Air Cav'' (1985) * ''

The Battle of Shiloh ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' (1984) * ''

Chickamauga Chickamauga may refer to: Entertainment * "Chickamauga", an 1889 short story by American author Ambrose Bierce * "Chickamauga", a 1937 short story by Thomas Wolfe * "Chickamauga", a song by Uncle Tupelo from their 1993 album ''Anodyne'' * ''Chic ...

'' (1986) * ''Desert Steel'' (1989) * ''Druid'' (1984) * ''Eastern Front Tank Leader'' (1986) * ''Fire Team'' (1987) * ''Imperium Romanum II'' (1985) * ''

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

'' (1982) * '' Killer Angels'' (1984) * ''The Last Panzer Victory'' (1983) * ''

Marlborough Marlborough may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Marlborough, Wiltshire, England ** Marlborough College, public school * Marlborough School, Woodstock in Oxfordshire, England * The Marlborough Science Academy in Hertfordshire, England Austral ...

at Blenheim'' (1979) * '' Operation Badr'' (1983) * ''RAF'' (1986) * ''Salerno:

Operation Avalanche Operation Avalanche was the codename for the Allied landings near the port of Salerno, executed on 9 September 1943, part of the Allied invasion of Italy during World War II. The Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion, but ...

'' (1977) * ''Soldiers: Man-to-Man Combat in World War II'' (1987) * '' South Mountain: Prelude to Antietam'' (1984) * St. Lo (1986) * ''Western Front Tank Leader'' (1987)

Other games

* ''Social Disorder'' (2005) card game * ''

Star Wars Miniatures Battles ''Star Wars Miniatures Battles'' is a tabletop wargame produced by West End Games in 1989. Publication history The game was first produced by West End Games in 1989 and republished in a 2nd edition version in 1990. West End Games lost the license ...

'' (1989) miniatures game * ''Zoon'' (1999) card game

References

{{reflist

External links

* http://www.westendgames.com/, West End Games' official website (no longer online)
Publication list on Pen & Paper

Precis Intermedia Acquires Last WEG RPG Properties

West End Games' D6 Rulebooks
D6 System RPG rulebooks for D6 Adventures, D6 Space, and D6 Fantasy genres. Board game publishing companies Role-playing game publishing companies Wargame companies Entertainment companies established in 1974 1974 establishments in New York City