Robert J. Kuntz is an author and game designer who played with Gary Gygax in that fateful demonstration by Dave Arneson of Blackmoor in 1972.
A year later, Robert ran his own World of Greyhawk campaign called Castle El Raja Key for Gygax. Dungeons & Dragons was published the following year.
Wikipedia says;
Kuntz left TSR when Gygax was forced out, and was very protective of his IP, not having signed the rights to Kalibruhn over to anyone. Kuntz created his own company to hold and protect his game world and other creations, and thus formed Creations Unlimited in 1986.
EN World, this week, carried the news that Rob Kuntz has now licensed his RPG materials. In fact, the offer of more deals is on the table.
Paul Stormberg’s companies TLB Games and Legends of Role Playing have landed the license.
TLB exists in association with Kuntz to produce the El Raja Key Archive. You can buy 1,000 high-resolution scans of those Original Greyhawk, Kalibruhn and Blackmoor campaigns on DVD or USB from them.
EN World shared the press release they were sent;
The RJK Estate recently entered into an agreement with TLB Games ( TLBGames.com ) and Legends of Role Playing ( LegendsofRolePlaying.com ) –both owned and operated by Paul Stormberg–wherein the latter acquired the rights to publish and/or develop under oversight my large library of RPG published and unpublished RPG materials for OSRIC®/1st Edition. The agreement included the right to publish/develop my original Greyhawk Castle Levels, circa 1974 that were used in the play-test of the original D&D game with my mentor and co-DM, Gary Gygax.
The RJK Estate is seeking to license these titles and many of its other RPG materials not included in the above licensing agreement, to established companies interested in producing these for 5th Edition. This would include access to Original Greyhawk Castle levels and to the first rendition of Castle El Raja Key (the second castle-dungeon used for the play-test of the original D&D game, 1973-1974), among many other published and unpublished titles.
Inquiries should be e-mailed to: [email protected]
TLB already sells some remastered adventure modules such as Sunken City.
What do you think? Measured observations are welcome and you can leave them in the comment section below.
