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Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song - available at RPGNow.com
Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song is now available at RPGNow for $12.95.
It looks like this is the first "competition" product for the barbarian, monk, druid and bard. It will be interesting to compare the three different barbarian classes, though WOTC may have the advantage of getting a gob of playtesting done for free.
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Characters & Games
Books currently in play: Dungeon & Dragon Magazine (*Scales of War AP*), WOTC 4e Core and Supplemental books
Current Campaign: Scales of War - Lost Mines of Karak -- Kodirgo, Minotaur Barbarian 6; Vondal, Dwarf Cleric 6; Karithul, Gnome Bard 6; Marshaun, Elf Druid 6
Anyone who has it already can maybe answer a question. It says 4e (GSL), but I thought it wouldn't be possible to call a druid a druid and a monk a monk under the GSL?
I am asking because after buying their "4e" DCC products, which aren't really 4e, I think I am going to stay away from such products. They didn't really impress me with the way they did things.
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Anyone who has it already can maybe answer a question. It says 4e (GSL), but I thought it wouldn't be possible to call a druid a druid and a monk a monk under the GSL?
It's possible while Wizards haven't released a Druid or a Monk in the 4e SRD. After that, the license is a little unclear.
Anyone who has it already can maybe answer a question. It says 4e (GSL), but I thought it wouldn't be possible to call a druid a druid and a monk a monk under the GSL?
My understanding is that Druid is not a defined term in the 4E SRD, and so you can use it however you like.
But... if Druid is added as a defined term in the 4E SRD, then you can no longer sell product which alters WotC's definition of the term.
Given that we have a preview of the Barbarian from PHB2, it seems to me that gambling that Barbarian won't be added to the SRD is a poor bet.
But maybe a/ they're gambling they'll sell enough copies before the SRD changes to be worthwhile, or b/ WotC won't enforce the retroactive clause, or c/ they have a loophole, or d/ I haven't understood the GSL correctly - which is entirely possible!
I'm working on my review now- I received an early review PDF from Goodman Games. Hoping to have the review up tomorrow.
To answer a few questions, it is GSL. It'll be in print in a few weeks. It does use the "real" names. My impression is that it has a really neat hook for including these classes in your game, but the classes themselves seem a bit more complex than the versions in APG.
I wonder why they left the barbarian out of the subtitle?
Not that I mind - I hate that 3.0 splatbook naming convention.
The barbarian and the druid really can both be classified under "fang." We had a lot of debate about the title and went through multiple different incarnations, but we eventually settled on this one.
Is it for sale in print? If not, then they'll likely pull it once those other classes are added to the official list and PHB2 comes out.
It will be for sale in print. I spoke explicitly with the guys at Wizards about this and left with the impressions that any material put out before a term is defined in WotC cannot be considered to conflict with that term. It's hazy and I guess it's possible that this could change, but they indicated that we had nothing to worry about creating our own druid before Wizards created their version. No one can predict what concepts are going to appear in books in the future, so there cannot (or at least most likely won't be) be after the fact copyright infringement. Ari was smart in his approach with the APG, giving things similar but alternate names, but we're hoping our approach will help FH.
Anyone who has it already can maybe answer a question. It says 4e (GSL), but I thought it wouldn't be possible to call a druid a druid and a monk a monk under the GSL?
I am asking because after buying their "4e" DCC products, which aren't really 4e, I think I am going to stay away from such products. They didn't really impress me with the way they did things.
It is absolutely GSL compatible. We built the classes and powers in the same manner that happens with WotC books.
To anyone who had purchased the book (and I recommend it).
Under the Monk Feats it references "Secret Techniques" but so far I haven't found anywhere in the book that explains what these techniques are. Am I missing something?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eytan Bernstein
I spoke explicitly with the guys at Wizards about this and left with the impressions that any material put out before a term is defined in WotC cannot be considered to conflict with that term. It's hazy and I guess it's possible that this could change, but they indicated that we had nothing to worry about creating our own druid before Wizards created their version. . .
Did you get that in writing?
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I mostly want to know how it stacks up against the APG from an editting perspective...and what the publisher's policy is on incorporating errata into PDFs.
I mostly want to know how it stacks up against the APG from an editting perspective...and what the publisher's policy is on incorporating errata into PDFs.
This is interesting to me too, since XRP has stated officially that they won't be updating the PDF,only providing an errata sheet. I want to know what they did to differentiate the powers in lieu of a color coding system (assuming all is in B&W).
__________________ Game on, gang! Ptolus #16 (with customized, personalized sig from Monte. Awesomesauce.), Rappan Athuk Reloaded #37 (Another Awesomesauce, the Necromancer way.)
Try to not let failure to use technical language properly get in the way of getting to the real point under discussion. - Umbran
Characters & Games
Books currently in play: Dungeon & Dragon Magazine (*Scales of War AP*), WOTC 4e Core and Supplemental books
Current Campaign: Scales of War - Lost Mines of Karak -- Kodirgo, Minotaur Barbarian 6; Vondal, Dwarf Cleric 6; Karithul, Gnome Bard 6; Marshaun, Elf Druid 6
To anyone who had purchased the book (and I recommend it).
Under the Monk Feats it references "Secret Techniques" but so far I haven't found anywhere in the book that explains what these techniques are. Am I missing something?
But maybe a/ they're gambling they'll sell enough copies before the SRD changes to be worthwhile, or b/ WotC won't enforce the retroactive clause, or c/ they have a loophole, or d/ I haven't understood the GSL correctly - which is entirely possible!
-Hyp.
I thought I once read somewhere that the vast majority of 3PP books make the majority of their money within the first month of release, so I think it makes sense to release them now, before March rolls around and GSL/SRD issues come to the fore. I like XRP and GG, but I seriously doubt that the APG or FH will make any kind of serious dent to the PHBII sales because they feature similar classes, and I'm pretty confident that the WoTC versions will come to dominate the larger 4e gamer consciousness, so the time to publish is now. That said, releasing books like the APG and FH will garner their respective publishers even more gamer goodwill and nicely allows them to position themselves among the top tier 4e 3PPs.
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After finishing watching 36 Chambers of Shaolin, I was highly in a mood to read about such a class.
One thing that's interesting is that monk has no armor proficency but does have abilities that work with cloth armor. Feat use or errata... Probably feat use.
A lot of the monks abilities/powers, allow him to negate some damage/attack, but puts him at a disadvantage. In some ways I can see how this will work, but in others, I'm wondering how they'll scale up in terms of armor class. I haven't played enough high level 4e to know yet.
Another difference between FFS and APG, which I'm admittedly surmising only from the druid preview Goodman Games put out and my own full copy of APG, is that while the APG constrains itself to the core three power sources (Martial, Divine, Arcane), FFS took the plunge and reeled in the Primal power source. While I can admire that tactic as a selling point, I personally prefer the APG because it stuck with what we already know.
After that, the license is a little unclear.
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