Editing Fantasy Productions

{{Short description|German publishing company}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2014}}

{{Infobox company
 | name             = Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH
 | logo             = FanPro Logo.png
 | type             = [[Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung|Private]]
 | genre            = 
 | foundation       = 1983
 | founder          = [[Ulrich Kiesow]]<br />[[Werner Fuchs (game designer)|Werner Fuchs]]<br />[[Hans Joachim Alpers]]
 | location_city    = [[Erkrath]]
 | location_country = [[Germany]]
 | location         = 
 | locations        = 
 | area_served      = [[Germany]]
 | key_people       = 
 | industry         = [[Publishing]]<br />[[Role-playing games]]
 | products         = novels
 | services         = 
 | revenue          = 
 | operating_income = 
 | net_income       = 
 | assets           = 
 | equity           = 
 | owner            = 
 | num_employees    = 
 | parent           = 
 | divisions        = 
 | subsid           = FanPro LLC
 | slogan           = 
 | homepage         = [http://www.fanpro.com/ FanPro.com]
 | footnotes        = 
 | intl             = 
}}
'''Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH''' (a.k.a. '''FanPro''') is a German publishing company based in [[Erkrath]].

==History==
The company was founded in 1983 by [[Ulrich Kiesow]], [[Werner Fuchs (game designer)|Werner Fuchs]] and [[Hans Joachim Alpers]] to produce small metal [[miniature figure (gaming)|miniature figure]]s. When the [[Droemer Knaur|Droemer Knaur Verlag]] and the [[Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH]] published Kiesow's [[role playing game]] "[[The Dark Eye (role-playing game)|Das Schwarze Auge]]", Kiesow organised the editorial work at FanPro. After the bankruptcy of the ''Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH'' in 1997, FanPro published ''Das Schwarze Auge'' by itself.

=== FanPro LLC ===
Fantasy Productions had spent years translating [[FASA Corporation|FASA]] products into German, and when FASA closed in 2001, [[WizKids]] licensed some of the FASA game rights to the Fantasy Productions principals.<ref name="designers">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7}}</ref>{{rp|433}} Fantasy Productions expressed interest in obtaining a license for ''[[Shadowrun]]'' before [[Rob Boyle]] was able to make a bid, so Fantasy Productions founder Werner Fuchs invited Boyle to visit him in Germany, and Boyle soon set up and ran the new corporation FanPro LLC, created by two Fantasy Productions principals and Boyle.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|434}} Fantasy Productions created FanPro LLC as a subsidiary in the USA to hold the FASA game line rights.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|433}} FanPro licensed ''Shadowrun'' in early 2001 with Boyle as Line Editor, and FanPro also licensed ''[[Battletech]]'' six months later and hired [[Randall N. Bills|Randall Bills]] to continue working as ''Battletech'' Line Editor; Bills became the second and only other employee of FanPro LLC.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|434}} FanPro LLC also began producing English translations of German role-playing games beginning with ''[[The Dark Eye (role-playing game)|The Dark Eye]]'' (2003), a translation of the top German fantasy RPG ''Das Schwarze Auge'' (1984) which on its fourth edition (2002) in Germany by Fantasy Productions; ''The Dark Eye'' was centered on a metaplot like the FASA game lines, which was advanced in both adventures and the magazine ''Aventurische Bote'' from Fantasy Productions.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|435}} ''The Dark Eye'' did not sell well in the US, so FanPro LLC did not further supported the game and did not publish ''Degenesis'' as intended in late 2006 as another translation of a second German RPG.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|435}}

From 2001 to 2005, FanPro LLC released over a dozen original Shadowrun titles and reprinted core titles that FASA had originally released. In 2005, FanPro LLC released [[Shadowrun]], Fourth Edition. Likewise, FanPro LLC continued to release new Classic [[BattleTech]] books in English, and in 2006 released ''Total Warfare'', the first in a series of revised full-color books for Classic [[BattleTech]]. FanPro GmbH continued to translate these books into German, along with German-only [[Shadowrun]] books.

=== Licenses selling ===
Until early in 2007 FanPro was a [[publisher]] for fantasy books and various [[role playing game]]s. The company owned licensing agreements with [[WizKids]] to produce the German-language versions of [[Classic BattleTech]], [[Shadowrun]], [[Pirates of the Spanish Main]], and the "[[Clix (miniatures)|Clix]]" games of [[Mage Knight]] and [[HeroClix]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Start {{!}} Fanpro Verlag |url=https://www.fanpro.de/ |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=Fanpro |language=de}}</ref>

FanPro maintained a small staff so they used the fulfilment company Fast Forward Entertainment for warehousing and shipping but when that company went under, they took the profits that they had not yet paid FanPro for their books.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|435}} Fantasy Productions in Germany began divesting themselves of game properties in April 2007 due to their own difficulties, first selling ''Das Schwarze Auge'' and soon all the others; Fantasy Productions needed support from the gaming stock that FanPro LLC warehoused, so while FanPro LLC needed support from Fantasy Productions they were instead supporting Fantasy Productions.<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|435}} Boyle and Bills attempted to purchase FanPro LLC from Fantasy Productions but when that failed they threatened to leave bid for the WizKids licenses when they came up for renewal; WizKids came to mediate and while they would not allow Boyle and Bills to start a new company, they did grant the licenses to [[InMediaRes]].<ref name="designers"/>{{rp|435}} The license for ''Das Schwarze Auge'' went to [[Ulisses Spiele]]. Since then the company focuses on publishing novels only, although it continued its preexisting novel series for ''Das Schwarze Auge'' ; the ''Shadowrun'' and ''BattleTech'' series ceased publications in 2008, following disagreements between WizKids and Fantasy Productions concerning the German license for those properties.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.fanpro.de/ German website]

{{The Dark Eye}}
{{Shadowrun}}
{{BattleTech Universe}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantasy Productions}}
[[Category:Book publishing companies of Germany]]
[[Category:Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:Publishing companies of Germany]]
[[Category:Role-playing game publishing companies]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1983]]