Elite: Dangerous pen-and-paper RPG stymied by intellectual property dispute

Late Friday evenings, backers of the Elite: Dangerous tabletop role playing game received a cryptic e-mail from Kickstarter explaining that the almost-complete crowdfunding campaign had been suspended, pending the resolution of an intellectual property dispute. The message read:

Hello,
This is a message from Kickstarter’s Integrity team. We're writing to inform you that a project you backed, Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game (ED RPG), is the subject of an intellectual property dispute.

The project has been removed from public view until the dispute is resolved, which can take up to 30 days. The project’s funding and the countdown to its deadline have been stopped. If the project becomes available again, the countdown will continue and the new deadline will extend past the original deadline for as much time as the project was unavailable. You can find out more by reading our Copyright Policy and our Trademark Policy.

Original deadline
Wed, Feb 15 2017 6:46 am EST

Time remaining if project becomes available
4 days

Your pledge is currently still active. If you’d like to manage your pledge or reach out to the creator directly, you can still do so through the project page.

We reached out to designer Spidermind Games for comment. Spidermind informed Ars that the complaint was lodged by Chris Jordan, apparently acting for Ian Bell, or at least on behalf of a LLP bearing Bell's name. Bell is the co-creator of the original 1984 Elite.

Ars obtained a copy of a statement issued by Jordan to Spidermind Games, which reads as follows:

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

Looking at your EDRPG kickstarter page, I'm sad to see you commercially exploiting the work of the one man without which Elite would never have existed, without permission, credit or even mention. Given you say you are an Elite player and fan, I'm assuming your omission isn't through mere ignorance.

Just to let you know, I'm reporting your project's infringement of Ian Bell's Elite copyright (now held by me) to Kickstarter.

And if you believed Frontier Development's claim to own all the rights to the Elite game (e.g. page 101 https://frontier.co.uk/docs/files/FrontierDevelopments_plc_Admission_Document.pdf), you should know this claim is false and was recently retracted https://frontier.co.uk/investor_relations/aimrule26/admission_document/ .

Chris Jordan, for Ian Bell Elite Rights LLP

Elite: Dangerous creator David Braben created the original Elite in 1984 with Bell, working as a two-person team and dividing up various aspects of the design and coding. The pair had a falling out prior to the publication of the game’s sequel, Frontier. Bell was not involved in the creation of the subsequent Elite sequels, including 2014's Elite: Dangerous.

Bell maintains an Elite-related home page, but has not been active in game design since the 1980s. Jordan's name is mentioned on Bell's Elite site as part of a list of people have "provided data and/or assistance" for the site.

Rights left

Jordan's complaint appears to hinge on whether or not the Elite: Dangerous Role Playing Game uses intellectual property from the original 1984 Elite—some of which Chris Jordan states he owns on behalf of Ian Bell and Ian Bell Elite Rights LLP. The UK Companies House site indicates the Ian Bell Elite Rights limited liability partnership was incorporated on February 8, 2017.

“There was no way to verify his claims and he certainly didn’t include any copyright documentation that he claims to be in possession of,” Spidermind manager Jonathon Lunn told Ars in an e-mailed statement late Friday evening.

“We are not making an Elite RPG,” he continued, “we are making an Elite: Dangerous RPG and have a license from Frontier Developments to use the Elite: Dangerous name and to create the RPG game.”

Prior to the dispute filing, the RPG had collected £65,407 (about $81,700) in pledges, surpassing its funding goal of £45,000 (about $56,200). The campaign was set to close on this coming Wednesday, February 15.

“We are sure that once Kickstarter looks at our contract they will be satisfied and unlock the campaign,” finished Lunn. “As we have artists and designers waiting for payment at the end of the campaign, I hope that this is resolved swiftly.”

Ars has reached out to Ian Bell, Chris Jordan, and Frontier Developments for comment. At press time, none had responded. We will update this piece if we receive any statements or responses.

Disclosure: The author of this piece is a backer of the Elite: Dangerous RPG Kickstarter.