RPG WTF 8: The Primal Order
7 Jun, 2020
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Peter Adkinson’s 1992 The Primal Order, was Adkinson’s basement publishing company Wizards of the Coast debut product. The supplement was a fairly comprehensive take on integrating god-level entities into roleplaying campaigns. In fact, it was a bit too comprehensive.
To ensure utility to as broad a swath of gaming as possible, the product included conversion stats for the following systems.
- Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (both 1st and 2nd edition)
- Arduin Grimoire
- Ars Magica
- Chivalry & Sorcery
- Dungeons & Dragons
- GURPS
- HârnMaster
- Hero System
- Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game
- Pendragon RPG
- RoleMaster
- RuneQuest
- Shadowrun
- Synnibarr
- Talislanta
- Torg
- Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
- WarpWorld
The process by which WOTC consulted with the IP owners was somewhat flawed. To quote Adkinson:
We never specifically excluded Palladium from such discussions, it’s
just that we only *included* game companies in such discussions if a
gaming rep was online, the company was local, or some other
convenience arose.
Palladium Games was and is famously protective of their IP, even in circumstances where one might not expect extraordinary diligence to come into play. Silence is consent is not the way to bet with Palladium Games. In fact, Palladium objected quite strongly to WOTC’s use of their IP and sued the infant game company.
It could have been the end of WOTC! Although it wasn’t, thanks in part to a collectable card game they’ve had some success with.