This is my Elemental Airship.

[Formulajh7]

I spent 6 months building the most elaborate dnd 4e game I could possibly muster. I built open world non grid tactical game rules I added tons of fluff and quite possibly have one of the most elaborate games currently running. Ive invested thousands into the idea and own every single craptatsic 4e book.

In the middle of this they cancel the miniatures line (thanks wotc) added the dreadful fortune cards brought back a VTT that is CRAP compared to what they first promised AND the icing on everything they actually had the balls to release a players option book where the introduce VAMPIRES of all things as an freaking CLASS! I class?!? seriously wotc?? That's the best you could come up with?!?!?! Also thanks Chris Perkins no really...

Just to show you how insane my campaign is and what a true sucker I was for throwing myself head first into such a crappy IP here is the elemental airship I had commissioned. This is such a small part to the hundreds of set pieces I had made and thousands of custom miniatures I had done.

The pictures suck as they were taking with my iphone.

Even better though there is nothing any of us can do about this... Wotc and the team will drive dnd into the ground but it wont be a quick death it will play out for years... Noone is investing into table top rpg's anymore this is what we are stuck with...

Can you tell I'm bitter?

 

[Incenjucar]

That's amazing, but even if WotC set off a nuke with every game designer on the planet at ground zero, you would still be able to play a 30 level game without any issue, so while I also do not like some of the recent efforts (though they seem to be trying to fix things), you'll be fine.

 

[Mummolus]

First of all, that airship is awesome. Nicely done.

Now, on to the meat:

1) Nothing is stopping you from using miniatures you already have, or from using non-WoTC minis.

2) Nothing is forcing you to use Fortune Cards.

3) If you hate vampires, don't allow them in your campaign, or relentlessly pummel any that appear.

4) If WoTC stopped supporting D&D today, you'd still have all the stuff you've already got. You obviously enjoy it enough to commission expensive props, so why not continue to enjoy it?

 

[Formulajh7]

All good points this unfortunately goes much deeper. I don't think many people actually use the fortune cards so this goes without saying. Also making something that should obviously be a race a class while intensely unimaginative does bother me a bit as this is the game I'm playing and the people they have hired came up with.... that... although realistically its probably forgivable this really only touches the surface of whats wrong with the current state of dnd.

Anyone who has ever bought the tomb of horrors super adventure or any of the modules really would be able to tell you some key issues that could have been fixed by anyone with common sense.

So tomb of horrors book gives you two maps basically... that kind of sucks but ok.. I should be able to use my ddi subscription to simply download the rest of the maps and print them out! This is great I mean they spent so much time on detailed maps and art references...



Then you find out the maps that you can download are complete garbage even the ones without the monster markers. If you have access to photoshop there is a convoluted way you can blow them up to be exactly 1 inch squares which sucks to begin with but worse when you actually do blow up the map its terribly pixelated...


Now add on how amazing it would have been to also sell miniature packs that actual go with the pre done adventures... ontop of the ridiculous way they tried to market the miniatures...


I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a business major to figure out that they should either sell the maps in the book to make it easy for dm's who dont want to freaking half ass chessex it OR at the very least offer them up through ddi to print out on a 1 inch square format...

Simply frustrated with the fact that I have very few options... Pathfinder while great also has its issues... Its funny though as I feel like I got into this way too late.. with a major system overhull and someone other than Magic the gathering buying the IP DnD really could have been amazing...


Thanks btw on the airship. I'm new to all of this but I will be showing lots of the set pieces I had made off in the future with much better pictures. (Most of the airship is lost on that picture. I even have a backup trapped fire elemental powering weapon systems of sorts. Different parts of the ship light up and the fire elemental itself I mentioned earlier glows with a special led in the back.)


P.S. My campaign will go on for a while I was interested in also weaving in and out of the evolving canon as I use a shard concept. (I basically made my world in an alternate reality as I really didnt like some of the story choices they had made with elminster for example ect.) My characters still have the option though of going to the other shards even the canon ones later (its not easy but possible) and it would be great if wotc could keep evolving the content in a way that isn't terrible. Also the campaign is a bit ambitous as the players have access to Eberron Faerun and Athas and all will play a part by the time the main story arch is finished.

 

[Gryph]

Ok, spoiler alert, I'm about to be a bit of a d-bag and make all kinds of unwarranted inferences from your epic fail of a whine.

You, sir, are not a market segment. Only a handful of artisans can hope to make any money off of your gaming desires. Anyone who has the money to throw away on commissioning that, admitedly beautiful, set piece has a tv "reality" series perception of the typical gamer.

Full color printed maps of every location in a module would make them cost prohibitive for the average gamers budget. Pre-painted minature packs with everything needed for a printed adventure would be similarly over market priced.

A goodly number of us who have been in the hobby for decades have long enjoyed the "half-assed chessex" approach. With or without minis, painted or otherwise.

In short, Grow Up.

 

[Formulajh7]

You are wrong... First off they could offer the rest of the maps for free in full color on the ddi subscription with little effort they don't because they don't know there market ... there are a few other reasons but these are the biggest two..(they are already there just in the wrong size and resolution. Also many companies offer other map packs like paizo and there doing very well.

You are dead wrong on the pre packs... there are people that spent thousands on those awful miniatures and the marketing and idea was always god awful.... Making rare monsters are you kidding me??? They could have ONLY done map packs separate to the modules and they would be in the black with them right now and still making them. Btw how you do think I can afford commissioning airships? My parents give me the money?

I work in marketing and sales but thats besides the point. Lets look at the market though... Everyone Im sure has heard of this company Below.

www.geekchichq.com


They have a 7 month lead time and they don't even bother with updating there site there doing so well.... believe it or not there are alot of professionals dying to spend crazy amounts of money I'm not even talking about the higher end though everything I'm speaking of is mid range...

This isnt about growing up and frankly some of the reason there able to get away with it is because some of there loyalist (like yourself) are pretty vocal regardless I expect this thread to be trolled indefinitely.

Say whatever you want in counterpoint but you have no idea what your talking about. The real market.. the one were we arent all 45 and living in our parents basement who make 35K+ a year that can spend 70 dollars a month or every couple months on video games or 15 dollars a month on a wow subscription want this to be better.

While its true that I'm in the 3 percent or less that run the game on the Wil Wheaton (actually my game is more elaborate than most celebrities games.) level.. it doesn't mean I'm a spoiled kid whining simply because I'm not getting my way.

I chose en-world because I actually believe many posters may actually take your stance.Also for gods sake you dont need to spend a dime to play dnd almost all the books can be pirated and most people dont even use there canon.


Guess what though if you offered the maps and mini's (which would make the game crazy simple to run) that would have cut down drastically on most of that... Also what if they simply did a 15 dollar sub where they mailed you modules and maps along with ddi?? How many people do you think would pay it? What if they did a 30 dollar a month sub where they gave you minis every month that in a couple years you would have enough to run any module? You think noone would buy that right?? I mean they could have offer ddi a new module and simply the monster tokens for 15 dollars and they would make hundreds of thousands of dollars on that alone...

They don't for the same reasons that they passed the fortune cards though r&d and patted themselves on the backs when making vampires not a race but a class...

They dont know what there doing...

THAT'S why I'm "whining". I would like to see dnd get better I would like to see it stick around.

I't wont the way its currently going.

Look its pointless to argue with you though I only wrote this so I can just link back to this when the tirade of posts start coming through telling me "Hey you are so wrong we want dnd to stay awful!!! DDI is awesome the new online character builder and monster creator rock!! Shut your face man Vampires should be a class idiot!!!


Thanks.

 

[TheUltramark]

You are wrong... First off they could offer the rest of the maps for free in full color on the ddi subscription with little effort they don't because they don't know there market ... there are a few other reasons but these are the biggest two..(they are already there just in the wrong size and resolution. Also many companies offer other map packs like paizo and there doing very well.

You are dead wrong on the pre packs... there are people that spent thousands on those awful miniatures and the marketing and idea was always god awful.... Making rare monsters are you kidding me??? They could have ONLY done map packs separate to the modules and they would be in the black with them right now and still making them. Btw how you do think I can afford commissioning airships? My parents give me the money?

I work in marketing and sales but thats besides the point. Lets look at the market though... Everyone Im sure has heard of this company Below.

- Geek Chic - Custom, Handcrafted Furniture & Accessories for the Geek Lifestyle


They have a 7 month lead time and they don't even bother with updating there site there doing so well.... believe it or not there are alot of professionals dying to spend crazy amounts of money I'm not even talking about the higher end though everything I'm speaking of is mid range...

This isnt about growing up and frankly some of the reason there able to get away with it is because some of there loyalist (like yourself) are pretty vocal regardless I expect this thread to be trolled indefinitely.

Say whatever you want in counterpoint but you have no idea what your talking about. The real market.. the one were we arent all 45 and living in our parents basement who make 35K+ a year that can spend 70 dollars a month or every couple months on video games or 15 dollars a month on a wow subscription want this to be better.

While its true that I'm in the 3 percent or less that run the game on the Wil Wheaton (actually my game is more elaborate than most celebrities games.) level.. it doesn't mean I'm a spoiled kid whining simply because I'm not getting my way.

I chose en-world because I actually believe many posters may actually take your stance.Also for gods sake you dont need to spend a dime to play dnd almost all the books can be pirated and most people dont even use there canon.


Guess what though if you offered the maps and mini's (which would make the game crazy simple to run) that would have cut down drastically on most of that... Also what if they simply did a 15 dollar sub where they mailed you modules and maps along with ddi?? How many people do you think would pay it? What if they did a 30 dollar a month sub where they gave you minis every month that in a couple years you would have enough to run any module? You think noone would buy that right?? I mean they could have offer ddi a new module and simply the monster tokens for 15 dollars and they would make hundreds of thousands of dollars on that alone...

They don't for the same reasons that they passed the fortune cards though r&d and patted themselves on the backs when making vampires not a race but a class...

They dont know what there doing...

THAT'S why I'm "whining". I would like to see dnd get better I would like to see it stick around.

I't wont the way its currently going.

Look its pointless to argue with you though I only wrote this so I can just link back to this when the tirade of posts start coming through telling me "Hey you are so wrong we want dnd to stay awful!!! DDI is awesome the new online character builder and monster creator rock!! Shut your face man Vampires should be a class idiot!!!


Thanks.

I think I am in the minority, and that is a shame, but I have little clue why you seem to be complaining about some of the rules that have been added.

I want to try and hit all your points, but first let me say I spend about .45 cents a month on D&D and judging by how bent you are about mini's I would say I have about 475% more fun.

--Couldn't you personalize your own maps, which A is more fun IMO, and B prevents cheating
--I get it that you are looking for all this 'realism', but really, let me tell ya, I am playing a human thief, my mini is probably the shortest of the group, it carries this huge sword (at least it was huge before it was broken off) and wears armor. Here is the thing...everyone knows it's my guy.
--You work in marketing, and mom and dad buy you airships?
--Me and my game want to make it better too, so we tweaked the rules as we see fit. If we didn't want to have vampire as a class, we simply wouldn't.

Again, God bless, you have every right to vent, and more power to ya! I just think you could be a little more open to perceived kinks in the system and things would work out better.

 

[Formulajh7]

I think I am in the minority, and that is a shame, but I have little clue why you seem to be complaining about some of the rules that have been added.

I want to try and hit all your points, but first let me say I spend about .45 cents a month on D&D and judging by how bent you are about mini's I would say I have about 475% more fun.

--Couldn't you personalize your own maps, which A is more fun IMO, and B prevents cheating
--I get it that you are looking for all this 'realism', but really, let me tell ya, I am playing a human thief, my mini is probably the shortest of the group, it carries this huge sword (at least it was huge before it was broken off) and wears armor. Here is the thing...everyone knows it's my guy.
--You work in marketing, and mom and dad buy you airships?
--Me and my game want to make it better too, so we tweaked the rules as we see fit. If we didn't want to have vampire as a class, we simply wouldn't.

Again, God bless, you have every right to vent, and more power to ya! I just think you could be a little more open to perceived kinks in the system and things would work out better.

Sorry I thought I made that clear but my parents don't pay for anything.. The minis thing is more of a side note as it doesn't concern me much besides there are lots of different companies that make amazing miniatures.


While its true that doing your own maps prevents cheating most of us will never make maps as nice as some of wotc artist created ones including and especially the tombs of horrors maps like the garden of graves for example... Also I always customize every adventure to my game like I assume most of us do so changing things is a given and I'm really not worried about cheating in the slightest.


Very few people want vampire (something that is most definitely a race) a class.... Vryloka Vampire... my god...

So I also play with some people in the gaming industry who have high expectations (as do I). My campaign for me is lots of fun... to me its one of a kind the props are nice but its ofcourse the story and the work I put into it that make it that way... I even do 3d terrain and have rules to use it but none of that matters here is the point... With the current way wotc is headed I will probably never buy another of there products again... This coming from the guy who commissions 3d terrain and airships...

Vampires as a class isn't kinks in the system though Its just down right awfulness exposing them as simply bad at this... That's ofcourse one of many many examples.

I think the old saying though stop bitching unless you could do it better is appropriate here. I do understand how this comes across.. I may actually try my hand at making things better.

 

[Incenjucar]

To be frank, your income level and all the money you've spent really has nothing to do with anything you're talking about. Aside from maybe the rarer minis, WotC's products aren't numerous or expensive enough for income to be a major issue for the average person. Unless you're going to start commissioning gold dragons made of real gold from WotC, they have no reason to be concerned about how much you've spent beyond their catalog.

The reality is that WotC wasn't making a significant enough profit off of minis and so forth in all the various ways they produced them, so they stopped producing them. They wouldn't stop producing them if they were still making a profit on them, because they aren't insane.

I'm honestly not sure that hundreds of thousands of dollars is enough for WotC to invest in something. It's really not that much money.

 

[Formulajh7]

Why did you think my points had anything to do with how much money I spent? Btw sorry that wasnt clear. I think it would be safe to say hundred of thousand a month in additional ddi subscribers if done right.