JohnnyZemo
Member

Just a note that some people (like me) don't know what "Kingdoms & Warfare" is, and the article refers to it with no explanation. I'm guessing it's another book by Colville. Is it out now, too? Is it coming later in 2019? It's his next book, he says he's starting the process to write it. No fixxed timeline yet

I'm glad to hear that D&D is doing so well. I just have one quibble with the article. The mention of the Platinum Edition of Dragon Heist seems out of place, since we have no data on how well it has sold. The fact that one company is taking a risk and offering an expensive item is not proof that the market will support it. Well the Beadle and Grimm platinum edition is sold out so I assume that it sold good enough.

When is it coming out? Kickstarter is slated for July 23, per the SJG Daily Illuminator 13 June entry.

Such a canonic place does exist! The early printings of B1 gives some suggested locations in the World of Greyhawk setting. Interestingly enough, later printings omit it. Great find! I must have gotten a later printing as I never found that reference! Thanks!

When is it coming out? There will be further news soon.

That's a strange picture. Check out the d10s. They're both numbered "00, 10, 20, 30..." whereas the actual set will presumably have one that's numbered "0, 1, 2, 3..." And is one of the d20s actually significantly larger than the other, or is that some weird perspective trick? I'm confused. The two d% seems to be an error, but the one-larger one-smaller is presumably because of Advantage/Disadvantage. I can't think of any situation off the top of my head where you'd need to keep track of which die is which out of 2d20 (since it's always "take the higher" or "take the lower"), but it's possible I'm forgetting something since I haven't finished my coffee and trying to follow a live stream of the season finale of a campaign I don't watch while a barely-moderated Twitch chat is going on...

I'm not crazy about this use of the word "Irreligious" which means "indifferent or hostile to religion." A creature that is indifferent to religion should not be affected by a holy symbol. Being hostile to religion doesn't give someone else's religion power over you (other than perhaps to annoy you); it's exactly the opposite. I hope they will find a different term for this. I’m partial to “Theophobic”

And this is a bit of a nitpick, but if the title of the article is "let's look at some stat blocks," shouldn't the article include more than one stat block? :-) Your eyes are being tricked. It's like the laurel/yanny thing. Half the people on this page see stats for the ogre and the other half see the redcap. :D

I love this theory! But maybe not an update of all the I modules (since we already have Ravenloft and Tomb of Annihilation has some very I1-ish stuff in it). But maybe a big adventure that re-visits lots of other places from the I series. Okay, not very likely. But the Xanathar bit seems so obvious that there's got to be more to it. I'm expecting it to be like the Storm King's Thunder/Volo's Guide to Monsters or the Tomb of Annihilation/Xanathar's Guide to everything announcements. The storyline is heavily hinted at and it becomes fairly obvious what direction they'll go with it beforehand, but it's basically a diversion so that the other book announced becomes the "real" surprise.

As a GM, I have to say I am not a fan of this "spend an action to activate your shield" thing. I don't want each character's armor class to be constantly fluctuating during combat. Waaaaay too much to keep track of. I mean, a few buffs are fine; I'm used to Shield of Faith and Mage Armor. And then you're going to have players who forget to say they're using the shield each round. (If they want to just say they are always using it, I could live with that.) Pathfinder's strength is giving players lots of options. Making it painful for the GM is not helpful. It certainly feels like you need a white board more than a DM screen for PF2.

Well, we know the launch stream is going to be called the "Stream of Many Eyes," which (best guess) means that a beholder or beholders will be involved. The Gangs of New York reference makes me wonder if Xanathar will be important to the plot in some way.Whelp, the Xanathar is the Beholder pictured in the announcement, so signs point to maybe. ;)

Setting material is easy to port to different editions, and there's so much old setting material available on DM's Guild (and in the books already on my shelves) that I'd rather have something new, but I seem to be in the minority as far as that goes. At any rate, a setting wouldn't be eligible for this poll, so it's a moot point. It would be interesting to see a "Most Anticipated Product (Other Than New RPGs)" poll. Might be too broad. Or a "Product I'd Most Like To Have That Has Not Been Announced Yet" poll. :-) It is not so much about porting it as it is using the setting for new content. I have a bunch of stuff tied to Greyhawk I could offer on DM's Guild. But, it is not allowed since all content needs to either be setting neutral or FR. It would be possible to make it setting neutral, but it decreases the quality of the content IMHO.

I have backed more than half of the MCG Kickstarters, but I'm passing on this one. I have a ton of Numenera books already, and I rarely play it. I like the setting and I like about 58% of the rules. The really odd thing to me is that for as well as the Kickstarters do, I don't know many people who actually play the game. I'm sure the players are out there. It just doesn't seem like they are proportional to the success of the Kickstarters. Of course, that's purely anecdotal, so maybe meaningless. Around where I am Numenera is played as much as any non-D&D system, at least as far as online game day calls seem indicated. I've been running a couple of campaigns for a while; I have pretty much all the books but am not going to get into the latest kickstarter -- the rules I have work fine for me, and the price for "a bit better" seems too high. With the three Into the X books, I have too much material for me ever to get a round to, so honestly, it's pretty hard for MCG to pull more money out of ...

"The Index Card RPG (or ICRPG) started as an experiment in using index card sized illustrations in place of square by square combats." I don't understand this sentence. How can an illustration take the place of a combat? Juomari Veren answered this well. Hankerin always used grids and one night he doodled on some index cards some fantasy images. He started connecting the cards together in place of his grid. This game goes way beyond that concept, but that is where the ideas started and the reason for the name of the rpg.

"The Index Card RPG (or ICRPG) started as an experiment in using index card sized illustrations in place of square by square combats." I don't understand this sentence. How can an illustration take the place of a combat? I think there's a bit of pack of context there. I imagine it's theater one the mind, but the index card itself contains relevant information on it as well as a picture. The players and monsters still have their own standees, but the battle scene illustration is meant to send as the backdrop instead of using a gets like D&D would. From the sounds of it, it's mostly theater of the mind combat. I believe FATE had a similar concept called encounter zones, where pastures can choose from a selection of environs that are distinct and provide both bending and drank based on logical conclusion of the area your on code to fight within. Imagine it like rooms in a house, where each one is connected but you can move between them and doing so will provide different ways to change the com...

Unless there are special laws related to pirating books, it's probably just a misdemeanor. In most states in the U.S., the value of the thing being stolen has to be at least $500 for it to be a felony. I thought the DMCA removed the lower limit for covered items. I could be very wrong, though. I just know the law goes well beyond what I'd consider reasonable (I'm pretty much in the camp of strong protection for 7-10 years, then it automatically goes into public domain, with some protections for personal likenesses but the whole Disney/Happy Birthday thing should have been moot several decades ago).

I've been a Numenera fan and own most of their material. The thing not working for me is I don't need the one corebook that is a rules update. The rules section of the Numenera Corebook is pretty smal and simple as it is, and I'm not going to pay for a 80-90% rehash of the setting ( which is MOST of the book and one trait that I really like).Maybe then the new Player's Guide and the Destiny book? I have backed more than half of the MCG Kickstarters, but I'm passing on this one. I have a ton of Numenera books already, and I rarely play it. I like the setting and I like about 58% of the rules. The really odd thing to me is that for as well as the Kickstarters do, I don't know many people who actually play the game. I'm sure the players are out there. It just doesn't seem like they are proportional to the success of the Kickstarters. Of course, that's purely anecdotal, so maybe meaningless.In my case, it's not a lack of want or desire to run it, but I only have one gaming group. There is...

Glancing through this article reinforces the need for good cover art. Paying an artist to do a decent cover for your product is going to be a huge help in getting people to check it out. That Winter of the World RPG cover is great; it made me want to learn more about the game. I am seriously considering buying it just because the cover makes it look like it will be a good game. Yeah, it is a great cover art. And I guess Cakebread and Walton had no doubt it would be, when they were choosing it, as it is a zooming-in of the iconic cover for the classic "Death on the Reik" supplement for the first edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay! In fact, it is quite fascinating to see it used again as the cover art for a British RPG product! Between, the author is none other than Master Illuminator Ian Miller himself.

... and EN World will be getting some exclusive information (only available here!) before the KS launches. I'll back this thing in a heartbeat as long as it's a certainty WoTC won't shut it down a week later. Obviously that will hopefully be one of the first FAQ he answers. Frank has already (and is continually) in contact with members of the Gygax family and we've got a list of Banned Words to avoid any IP transgressions. Moreover, the editing team is extremely aware of the delicate situation here and they're all veterans of the industry more than capable of keeping the lanes clear, as it were. We will absolutely be addressing that in the FAQ! Also I would add that Frank is a consummate professional and wouldn't have 12 people working on this thing already if he had any suspicions we'd all get the rug pulled out from under us. This is still maddeningly vague; the headline had me hoping for a more concrete details. The link in the article just lets you sign up for the newsletter. JohnnyZemo I'm right there with you and I pushed for more meat in this announcement, but I promise over the next month you're going to get those details. Here's what's up: if this were a Kickstarter for a small thing (like a tiny 20 page adventure module) we wouldn't have released the launch date a month in advance--this is a big, big deal. People need time to prepare their finances and it would've been a real bummer for folks if they didn't get that opportunity. Some of the pledges include signed materials (which is something many of Frank's international fans maybe would never be able to get otherwise) as well as some REALLY amazing stuff really only available for this one thing, like having Frank make and run a small campaign for your group (which is kind of beyond belief for me and I'm trying to figure out how to buy one). Giving people a reasonable amount of time to prepare their bank accounts to get in on things like that is important because those primo pledge levels are definitely limit...

Also, check out the diagram on p. 17 of Storm King's Thunder, where cloud giants are referred to as "coud giants" and the word "Storm" appears as "STorm." Ouch. I like Volo's a lot, but after giving some of the entries a closer reading over the past couple of weeks, I think a lot of the writing is not as polished as it was in the three core books. It's not like the core books are error-free. But they at least don't seem to be missing words or full of sentence fragments. I bought Volo's Guide mostly for the potential collectibility of the FLGS cover. I honestly didn't expect it to be such an awesome book. But if that cover had not existed, I would have taken the same track I am with Yawning Portal - wait until the second or third printing, when it will read a bit less like something run through Google Translator. I have no real use for the adventures, so I hadn't even noticed issues with Storm King's Thunder.