Marvel Phile

I thought Grubb quit over the OGL (Open Gaming Liscence)?



DG X(

Marvel > DC

I just learned of it the other day through the owner of Lost Worlds of Wonder. I've only received a couple of email from Jeff over the past three years and have no idea what he's up to now.

Um, Grubb's still with WotC -- he did the Manual of the Planes and Monster Manual II for D&D 3E, The Power of the Jedi and the Star Wars Arms & Equipment Guide for Star Wars D20, and most recently the D20 Modern Roleplaying Game.



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Be Ex/20 to one another!

Like I said, third hand information.

Glad to hear he's still working for them. He may be freelance now, though.

I for one would be very dubious of Mr Grubb comming here unless someone informs me that not going to pilfer our hard work and make a $$$ from it. It would be good to see it in print. However I would be somewhat miffed if this did happen.



Fangs
>>| |-- ::!o --||<<
"Yes it the Game has bugs"
"I like mine squished"
"Bon Appetite!"

I have e-mailed Jeff Grubb a total of three times. The most recent time I gave this site's address and told him to check out what his game design hath wrought.
For all we know Father Grubb has been here as a Guest and is either flattered or horrified with the postings.
Perhaps he is affraid to comment or engage in any of the topics or maybe he is mentally preparing to open a new topic letting us know that he is interested in answering some questions that have sparked great debates.
Then again, he might realize that even if he provides those answers that unequivocally ends certain debates, perhaps he fears alienating those he proves to be wrong in their interpretation or stand and suddenly find himself debating to defend his own creation or simply never post again at this site.
David has the confidence and personality to post comments at this site and to graciously accept both the praise and criticism for his work on the MSH rpg. We don't know if this can also be said of Jeff Grubb, although I suspect that he is a cool character. I base that upon how he presented and wrote all of the rulebooks , from the Origianal Set in 84 to the Basic in 92. To me , his writing is reflects his passion for the Marvel Universe. If he had thin skin he would have never opted for the Advanced Set because of the harsh reviews that the Original Set endured.
For those of you who were not roleplaying in the mid-80s, Champions was king of the Superhero rpgs (and to many still is) and shortly after the MSH Orginal Set came out two other things occurred: Mayfair Games answered TSR with the DC Heroes rpg and Hero Games (Champion's publisher) released a Conversion Table for bring MSH characters over into Champions.

Critics adored Mayfair's game , there were few comments of negativity. That alone was like another jab in TSR's eye, and critics would always mention how superior the Mayfair system was in comparison to TSR's Marvel system. For example they called the MSH rpg's area movement system just slightly better than the one used in MONOPOLY and that they just "didn't get" the rank naming system of Feeble to Class 1000 (the max rank in the OS).

This is where we should all be thankful for TSR having the balls to let Jeff come out with the Advanced Set. Those who actually enjoyed the OS were thrilled to have the meatier design and it brought back players who had abandoned the OS because it was such a thin system.

Anyway, if Jeff Grubb does ever post at this site and open up for questions it will be a rewarding experience.

SDI

Yeah, unless I'm mistaken he was in charge of Etools/Mastertools (the beta patch is available at WotC web site for those interested) and quit when he got into a squabble over the OGL with the higher management.

But as I've said before, I reserve the right to be totally wrong. Although I'm pretty sure he is no longer a salaried employee at least.



DG X(

Marvel > DC

Maybe he's really WolfSpider.

...were no help whatsoever.

[www.pen-paper.net]

Pen & Paper has a big resume for him (which is strangely bereft of any Marvel products) but no bio info. The weblink they give to Alliterates, a joint site with bios of some of the guys I used to game with way back when. But that site looks a bit out of date.

[www.alliterates.com]

Jeff's wife, has an entry on Pen & paper also, but that's no help either.

[www.pen-paper.net]

Do you think he might want to distance himself from the MSH game?
I noticed that at any site that has a list of his past and most recent credits that the MSH game is conspicuous by it's absence. The game was in publication for about 7 years, you would think that he would have something like that posted along with his other accolades.
I was not going to postulate on this until I read what David had posted about lack of Marvel history.
Could Grubb be ashamed of his work? Comments?

SDI

What?! Unless he specifically says he is, I seriously doubt it.
He may however have bad memories of it. Dave seems to on occasion.

Maybe Jeff doesn't have as good a sense of humor. Unlikely considering some of the great lines he wrote in the Player's book, though.

Wow. Sometimes I guess I don't realize what I may have accidentally written into these mini-missives.

I guess I'm not too happy about the way TSR treated me in the end, just cutting me off without so much as a "Thanks But." (I didn't even get a comp copy of the last thing I wrote for them!) And if I hadn't been busy writing the FFC I might have gone off to that witch campout with Karen, where she met the guy she ran off with.

Quay Sarah Sarah.

But mostly I LIKED the work I did on the Marvel game. It was pretty fun and thank Rao for Q-Link and the people online willing and able to help me out with research on the characters I was assigned! It was nice to be working with guys I knew from Iowa City SF fandom. And there was vitually no interference with what I wrote; what little there was was only on later parts of the Gamers Handbook series and, as things truned out, was never implemented .

Compare that with the way my Legion of Superheroes module was battered by DC and rewritten by Mayfair to the point I was hard-pressed to find any paragraph I'd written!

Interesting thing you bring up, Secret. I'm ransacking 16-year-old memory files for any obeservations about Jeff and the Marvel game..... It did seem like he was distancing himself even then. He wasn't interested in working on the MU series and of course had not participated in the MA series..... (hmm, just realized I wrote 50% of the MA series.... anyway....) Mostly I remember his participation taking the form of DRAGON articles and "Choose Your Own Path" books.

Something to consider is that, at the time, everyone had one thought on their minds: "Margaret and Tracy are getting rich off of DRAGONLANCE." The lucky duo had gone from being just another couple staff writers to being millionaires. Powerful motivation to create something you could market and make a bundle off of. Marvel, being a licensed property, wasn't going to do that for Jeff. I know that Jeff was pushing F.R.E.E.America while I was working on Marvel. Maybe he saw that has his ticket to the country club? I dunno. This is solely speculation and not to be taken seriously.

:lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :hot-hot-hot: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol: :bounce: :lol:

Who knows really. I'd have to hear it from him, really.
Either way, you guys all did a great job.

Wellll, it's a long time since this thread was contributed to - but you may like to know that I'm converting some of the Marvel-Phile PDF files to webpages which can be found under the Articles section on my website.



Afadhali kufa kuliko kuaibika
(Better dead than ashamed)