Eric J. Gibson
Eric J. Gibson is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Eric J. Gibson | |
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Nationality | American |
Occupation | Game designer |
Career
Eric J. Gibson's Purgatory Publishing became the new owner of the West End Games, and the deal was announced by previous owner Humanoids Publishing on November 14, 2003.[1]:195 Gibson's purchase of West End involved the Masterbook, D6 System and derivative D6 Legend rules systems, plus the Bloodshadows, Shatterzone and Torg settings, and the West End trademark itself.[1]:195 Gibson's contribution to West End included turning d6 classic into a more generic system.[1]:195 Gibson intended to publish Torg in a new edition and revitalize the line, but he ended up producing only two PDFs for the Torg line.[1]:195–196
When West End was having difficulty financing their publications, Gibson turned to Bill Coffin to publish his Septimus role-playing game, but even with preorders was unable to raise the money to print the book; in 2008, Gibson announced that he was cancelling Septimus, that he could not refund preorders, that he could not afford to ship books to people who wanted to take product instead of a refund, that none of his D6 lines had ever made money, that he had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that he was would be dissolving West End Games.[1]:196 Gibson claimed that he had decided not to sell off his properties, and did end up refunding Septimus preorders a year later - he also eventually released Bill Coffin's Septimus (2009) as a PDF, West End Games' last product.[1]:196 Gibson released his core genre books under the OGL, so that the D6 system could be used by other publishers.[1]:196 Gibson sold off West End's remaining properties: Torg went to German publisher Ulisses Spiele, and the Masterbook system and the Bloodshadows and Shatterzone settings both went to small US publisher Precis Intermedia.[1]:196
In April 2016, he sold the rest of West End Games and the D6 System to Nocturnal Media.[2]
References
- Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702- 58-7.
- "Nocturnal Media Acquires West End Games" (Press Release). Nocturnal Media. 2016-05-13. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
External links
- "Eric Gibson :: Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original on 19 May 2007.