In early July, Evil Hat Productions filed to register a trademark for Star Frontiers, an abandoned trademark previously held by Wizards of the Coast as part of their purchase of TSR.
TSR’s Star Frontiers published between 1982 and 1985. A remake of the setting with a different name was published in 2004 as part of Wizards of the Coasts’ d20 Modern sourcebook, d20 Future. The United States Patent and Trademark Office lists Wizard of the Coasts’ claim on the trademark as “dead” as of April 17, 2004.
The TSR version of Star Frontiers was the company’s space-faring science-fiction roleplaying game, set in a relatively unknown region of space where humans and a group of other alien species had formed a “United Planetary Federation”. Evil Hat’s filing for the trademark lists a roleplaying game and a series of fiction works including novels.
This article has been edited as mentioned in the comments below.
21 Jan
Posted by Thomas Deeny as Miniatures, Modern Board Games, Other, RPGs
Wizards of the Coast announced the latest Dungeons & Dragons storyline, Elemental Evil, which includes offerings across multiple project lines. The Elemental Evil storyline begins in March with a free download for the tabletop roleplaying game that includes new races and the player content for Princes of the Apocalypse, an epic adventure for characters levels 1-15. The storyline continues in a season of play with the D&D Adventurers League, WotC’s organized play program.
In addition to the tabletop RPG, Wizards of the Coast and WizKids Games will also release a Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame on April 30th (MSRP $64.99), compatable with the Adventure System boardgames The Legend of Drizzt and Castle Ravenloft. WizKids will also produce pre-painted collectable miniatures for the Icons of the Realms line. Miniatures that tie into the Princes of the Apocalypse product and an Elemental Evil-themed Dungeon Master’s screen will be coming from Gale Force Nine in March.
Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment’s D&D MMORPG, Neverwinter, will also have a new module added that adds a Paladin class and increases the level cap from 60 to 70 with an Elemental Evil storyline that will “compliment the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons tabletop adventure, Princes of the Apocalypse.”
Elemental Evil is loosely based upon TSR’s 1979 and 1985 adventure modules The Village of Hommlet and The Temple of Elemental Evil. While the TSR products featured a single temple for heroic adventurers to cleanse and destroy, the Princes of the Apocalypse adventure features “four corrupt prophets …[calling] a cadre of cultists and creatures to serve them in the construction of four elemental temples of lethal design.” The Princes of the Apocalypse adventure has an MSRP of $49.95 and will be released on April 7th.
From the author of Playing at the World, a history of events and artifacts leading up to the publication of the first rules for Dungeons & Dragons: