From: [s--s] at [oz.plymouth.edu] (Steffan O'Sullivan)
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf,rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: SJ's character (was: An Open Letter from Stephan Wieck...)
Date: 6 Aug 1994 16:18:08 -0400

[r--ab--h] at [netcom.com] writes:
>
>I cannot help but add the request that you do the same inquiries 
>about Steve Jackson. Talk to people whose works he has previously 
>licensed for GURPs and see how many of them are happy. Are the 
>French creators of In Nomine happy with Steve Jackson? Is Ral 
>Partha happy with their business dealings with Steve Jackson? Talk 
>to distributors and other people in the industry, talk to his 
>employees confidentially.
>Stephan Wieck
>President
>White Wolf

I'll happily discuss SJ's character, especially now while he's out of
the country.  :-)

Steve is human, of course, and so has his bad points.  Nonetheless,
after dealing with him as a freelance writer since 1987, I can honestly
say that Steve Jackson has gone out of his way to be not only nice to
me, but super.

I had a contract with SJG to write GURPS Faerie.  I worked on it for
over a year, and came to the conclusion that what was in my contract
was not what I wanted to write.  I talked to Steve, and he wasn't
willing to change what he wanted.  Fair enough, he had his vision of
GURPS Faerie (the version in the contract) but mine had changed.  So I
asked to break the contract.  Steve said okay, could he buy my research
and turn it over to another writer who would write the rules the way SJ
wanted them?  I said no, I didn't want to do that.  I'd rather publish
it generic my way than see my research (which was intensive and
extensive) be used to publish a product I could not support.

Steve didn't yell at me.  He didn't flame me.  He didn't try to pull
legal blather about owning what I had written since I wrote it under
contract.  Instead he sighed, and said, "All right, then: what *do* you
want to write that we can agree on?"

I said the thing I most wanted to do wasn't possible: GURPS Bunnies &
Burrows.  Steve had already tried twice in the previous three years to
get the license for this, but been turned down.  To my surprise, he
said, "Okay, I'll try again."  Later that week I got a call from Steve
saying, "It's a go!  Dennis Sustare agreed to do it!"  GURPS B&B came
out about a year later, and is, I believe, my best book.  Even Dennis
Sustare praised it highly, after admitting to me on the phone he was
very nervous about licensing his baby to an unknown writer.  I don't
blame him!

Yes, Steve Jackson can have a temper.  Yes, he can mutter angrily about
someone not in the room, and chew them out quite nicely to their
faces.  I imagine he's been working on In Nomine every night before his
current trip to Finland, trying to get as much done as possible, and
getting by on three hours sleep.  He does that - he works as hard as
anyone in the industry, and harder than most.  So when this phone call
with Mr.  Wieck went very poorly after months of frustration, I can see
him lashing out in a flame to the net.

But if you ever ask me about his character, I'll remember that I broke
a contract with him, and he didn't blow up.  Instead he went out of his
way to get me a license I wanted.  If he blew up at Mr. Wieck, I'll
frankly believe that Mr. Wieck was behaving worse than I was - which
was pretty bad.  I was definitely the bad guy in our scenario, and yet
SJ didn't flame me, even in private.

So I'm glad Mr. Wieck publically asked for notes on SJ's character from
those who have had dealings with him.  Frankly, I don't know too many
people in the industry who would have behaved toward me with half the
class and restraint that SJ showed.

-- 
    -Steffan O'Sullivan     [s--s] at [oz.plymouth.edu]     Plymouth, NH 
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    Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you
    have tried to make it precise.            -Bertrand Russell