Ooooohh. Glaurung the Golden?

[Mac V]

Would it be possible to get the rights to do a mini game based on the books rather than the movies? It’d be awesome to see this official. Guesssig no, but it’d be cool.

[Coenus Scaldingus]

Games Workshop has the license to both books and movies - although obviously taking the aesthetics from the latter, various expansions have included stuff like Dol Amroth, Arnor before the fall and Tom Bombadil. The books in this case being LotR and the Hobbit, as rights for the others I don't think were ever sold, nor would they be as long as Christopher Tolkien has anything to say about it (not a big fan of adaptations from what I gather).

[nic-e]

Games Workshop has the license to both books and movies - although obviously taking the aesthetics from the latter, various expansions have included stuff like Dol Amroth, Arnor before the fall and Tom Bombadil. The books in this case being LotR and the Hobbit, as rights for the others I don't think were ever sold, nor would they be as long as Christopher Tolkien has anything to say about it (not a big fan of adaptations from what I gather).

BUT from what i remember when GW were told they couldn't make miniatures from the extended tales they basically said "Well we can either work with you on this, or we can make miniatures exactly like the ones we want to make and call them something else ." and that's how we ended up with the ruin or arnor books and the vampire model.

[Coenus Scaldingus]

I believe the current situation is that anything mentioned in the main body of the text is fair game (at which point you might as well take further descriptions or information from the Appendices or other sources). For example, King Arvedui and Malbeth the Seer are both mentioned in the Return of the King (in relation to the prophecy of the Paths of the Dead). Must be the same reason they could have Queen Beruthiel in the War of the Ring game, as her cats are mentioned in passing reference in Fellowship. Although the vampire in Arnor was made up by GW, placement of them in Middle-earth is mostly from the Silmarillion.. although bats in the Hobbit are once said to behave vampire-like, so that may well be enough already.


As for this Glaurung, the illustrations in the Children of Húrin have too far shaped my image of him, which is rather different from this one, and indeed his descriptions make a less feral, more subtly maleficent look a better fit (although I wouldn't have any particular figure in mind perfectly fitting that - perhaps the Warploque one).

[Arthadan]

BUT from what i remember when GW were told they couldn't make miniatures from the extended tales they basically said "Well we can either work with you on this, or we can make miniatures exactly like the ones we want to make and call them something else ." and that's how we ended up with the ruin or arnor books and the vampire model.

To be precise, GW has the right to make "gaming" miniatures based on the films (not sure aboutthe books) and Mithril Miniatures has the right to make "collector" miniatires based on the books (they cannot do plastic units and they had to stop selling their metal warbands).

For example: http://www.mithril.ie/legolas-and-gimli-riding-arod-ms587-fellowship-metal-figure-c2x11779666

[Momotaro]

Tolkien issued a licence to Saul Zaentz productions in the ?early 70s, or possibly late 60s, that covered The Hobbit, the main text of LotR and some of the appendices - the timeline is definitely in there, but fewer other things than you may think.  Everything from The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales onwards is unlicensed.  Most of what we have in various "geek media" is through Zaentz.  I believe (take with a pinch of salt) that this licence will expire soon-ish, as in within a decade or two, and the Tolkien estate are reportedly keen to see the back  of it.

D&D had to remove references to Hobbits from their books in the 70s and replace them with generic "halflings", as they had no licence whatsoever.

Iron Crown Enterprises - I can't remember who was the licencor for the MERP RPG, but I do know that did a series of character books in the 80s and 90s that covered characters from both The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales.  Very naughty, and The Tolkien Estate eventually pulled the licence from them in quite an acrimonious court case.

The licence for the current Cubicle & RPG, The One Ring, is through Zaentz.

GW said in the 2000s that they went to the Tolkien Estate to ask to use the name of Khamul the Easterling (and nothing else) from Unfinished Tales. Apocryphally, their argument was that they would call him "Bob the Nazgul" if they didn't get the rights to the name.  Quite ironic really, considering GW's stance on intellectual property, but they got it.

There's enough info on the fall of Arnor in the licensed appendices to allow GW to make a supplement, but you'll notice that it's quite basic compared to the full appendices.  GW's take on the appendix material has been quite cautious - there are plenty of wars in Gondor's history that would have made amazing campaigns

Christopher Tolkien hates the movies, and while the younger member of the family are said to be more open to licensed media, I believe that the board of the Estate is made up of small-c conservative scholars.  It's unlikely they would issue a licence for a wargame (as that's not really the moral at the heart of the stories), and there was reportedly some disquiet among them when the GW game appeared.

On the other hand, Oathmark needs no licence to make generic fantasy miniatures, and appears to be doing a grand job already.

Coenus - I like the Warploque dragon too - seen it at shows, and it's a beautiful model.