- The WotC lawsuit issue rages on!
- Ryan Dancey (former WotC VP) weighs in on PDF issue with a somewhat negative opinion:
This is a classic example of Death Spiral. As things go bad, the regressive forces inside the organization (lawyers, commissioned sales people, creative folk who feel stifled by history, precariously tenured executives) are increasingly able to exert their agenda. It always makes a bad situation worse, but there's no magic bullet that would likely make the bad situation better so you get a rapid unbalance in the Corporate Force towards the Dark Side.
> <acronym title="Open Gaming License">OGL</acronym>? Risky (someone might make us look bad, steal our ideas before we print them, or create a competitive brand that siphons off sales), and lack of faith in network marketing devalues ROI assumptions. Kill it.
> PDF? Causes endless problems with hardcopy partners creating pressure on sales team they could really do without, and revenues are so small as to be non-strategic. Cut it.
> Online? Every time you talk about it someone produces a $10 million minimum cost estimate to "do it right". After spending 3-5x this amount in a series of failed initiatives (lead by utterly unqualified people), executives assume Online is plutonium. No qualified lead or team will touch it.
> Evergreen? Sales of each unit are going down and few products have any staying power. The only (seemingly viable) solution is to put more books in production - make up for the revenue hole caused by lack of evergreen sales by getting more money out of each customer. The Treadmill.
The next things that will take hits are the RPGA (costs a lot to operate - slash it's budget), then quality (put fewer words and less art on fewer pages and raise the price), then consistency (rules varients generated by inexperienced designers and/or overworked developers start to spawn and cohesion in rulings breaks down leading to ad hoc interpretations as the de facto way to play).
Meanwhile sales just keep going down, the gap in the budget keeps getting bigger, and no matter how many heads roll, there isn't any light at the end of the tunnel.
Wizards is about to be forced into the D&D end-game which is something that many publishers have gone through but none ever with a game the scale and impact of D&D (TSR walked right up to this cliff but <acronym title="Wizards of the Coast">WotC</acronym> saved them from going over the edge). There are 3 outcomes:
1: A total collapse, and the game ceases meaningful publication and distribution at least for one gamer generation and maybe forever.
2: Downsizing until overhead matches income; could involve some kind of out-license or spin off of the business - think BattleTech in its current incarnation.
3: Traumatic rebirth, meaning that someone, somewhere finds some way to cut out the cancers that are eating the tabletop game and restarts the mass market business for D&D.
Note that 2 and 3 can be mileposts on the road to 1.
> <acronym title="Open Gaming License">OGL</acronym>? Risky (someone might make us look bad, steal our ideas before we print them, or create a competitive brand that siphons off sales), and lack of faith in network marketing devalues ROI assumptions. Kill it.
> PDF? Causes endless problems with hardcopy partners creating pressure on sales team they could really do without, and revenues are so small as to be non-strategic. Cut it.
> Online? Every time you talk about it someone produces a $10 million minimum cost estimate to "do it right". After spending 3-5x this amount in a series of failed initiatives (lead by utterly unqualified people), executives assume Online is plutonium. No qualified lead or team will touch it.
> Evergreen? Sales of each unit are going down and few products have any staying power. The only (seemingly viable) solution is to put more books in production - make up for the revenue hole caused by lack of evergreen sales by getting more money out of each customer. The Treadmill.
The next things that will take hits are the RPGA (costs a lot to operate - slash it's budget), then quality (put fewer words and less art on fewer pages and raise the price), then consistency (rules varients generated by inexperienced designers and/or overworked developers start to spawn and cohesion in rulings breaks down leading to ad hoc interpretations as the de facto way to play).
Meanwhile sales just keep going down, the gap in the budget keeps getting bigger, and no matter how many heads roll, there isn't any light at the end of the tunnel.
Wizards is about to be forced into the D&D end-game which is something that many publishers have gone through but none ever with a game the scale and impact of D&D (TSR walked right up to this cliff but <acronym title="Wizards of the Coast">WotC</acronym> saved them from going over the edge). There are 3 outcomes:
1: A total collapse, and the game ceases meaningful publication and distribution at least for one gamer generation and maybe forever.
2: Downsizing until overhead matches income; could involve some kind of out-license or spin off of the business - think BattleTech in its current incarnation.
3: Traumatic rebirth, meaning that someone, somewhere finds some way to cut out the cancers that are eating the tabletop game and restarts the mass market business for D&D.
Note that 2 and 3 can be mileposts on the road to 1.
[d]jh[/d]
- Arcane Power Someone on the official messageboards has Arcane Power and is answering questions!
[imager]http://www.enworld.org/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=39807&stc=1&d=1239286969[/imager]Having just flipped through the book for the first time, I thought I'd share a few tidbits for those of you interested in knowing more about it.
Bard--the new virtue (Prescience) allows the bard as an immediate interrupt to grant one ally struck by a foe a bonus to the relevant Defense once/encounter. There are many new ranged powers, but no new powers keyed to the other two Virtues. New Paragon Paths are Cunning Prevaricator, Euphonic Bow, Grave Caller, Half-Elf Emissary, Karmic Shaper and Life Singer.
Sorcerer--two new class features for Storm and Cosmic Magic. There are new powers for all four class features including a fair number of close and ranged bursts. New Paragon Paths include Blizzard Mage, Celestial Scholar, Dragon Guardian, Essence Mage, Lightning Fury and Primordial Channeler.
Swordmage--the new Aegis (Ensnarement) allows you to teleport marked targets adjacent to you under certain circumstances. There are new powers keyed to all three Aegis class features, and the Ensnarement powers often serve to hinder, slow and/or immobilize foes and include a number of ranged powers. New Paragon Paths include Arcane Hunter, Ghost Blade, Sage of Fate's Bonds, Sigil Carver, Sword of Assault and Ward Guardian.
Warlock--the new Pact (Vestige) grants the character one of two boons to start, and additional pact boons can be unlocked through the use of daily powers as the character rises in level (though they only last until the end of the encounter or until you switch them out). There are new powers for all pacts, including Dark, and many Vestige Pact powers are keyed to Constitution or Intelligence. Some powers grant differing additional bonuses for two different Pacts. (For example, the spell Life Siphon grants a power bonus to attack rolls, with Dark Pact Warlocks also receiving a self-healing effect while Infernal Pact Warlocks get temporary hit points.) New Paragon Paths include Dark Reckoner (for Dark Pact Warlocks), Entrancing Mystic, God Fragment (Vestige Pact), Hellbringer (Infernal Pact), Hexer, Master of the Starry Night (Star Pact), Sea Tyrant Oracle (Vestige Pact) and Storm Scourge (Fey Pact).
Wizard--there are new Arcane Implement features for orbs (Orb of Deception, which boosts Illusion powers) and two for the new Tome option. There are new powers for all Arcane Implements, and obviously many new Illusion and Summoning powers. There are also some potent new defensive spells (such as Globe of Invulnerability and Prismatic Wall) and summoning spells that conjure abyssal hordes and living mountains that occupy a 3 x 3 square. New Paragon Paths include Arcane Wayfarer, Bonded Summoner, Hermetic Saboteur, Rimetongue Caller, Unseen Mage and Weaver of Chance.
Additional Content--unsurprisingly, this involves feats, familiars, magic Tomes and Rituals, as well as some new Arcane Backgrounds. Some of the new multi-class feats require paragon multi-classing (as we saw in Martial Power) which grant potent abilities--the Sorcerer Paragon M/C feat grants your Str or Dex modifier as a damage bonus to all arcane powers (I guess many Wand Wizards with good Dex scores and Swordmages with good Str scores might take advantage of this). New Epic Destinies include Arcane Sword (for Swordmages), Archlich, Archspell, Feyliege, Immanence, Lord of Fate, Magister, Parable (for Wizards) and Sage of Ages.
Bard--the new virtue (Prescience) allows the bard as an immediate interrupt to grant one ally struck by a foe a bonus to the relevant Defense once/encounter. There are many new ranged powers, but no new powers keyed to the other two Virtues. New Paragon Paths are Cunning Prevaricator, Euphonic Bow, Grave Caller, Half-Elf Emissary, Karmic Shaper and Life Singer.
Sorcerer--two new class features for Storm and Cosmic Magic. There are new powers for all four class features including a fair number of close and ranged bursts. New Paragon Paths include Blizzard Mage, Celestial Scholar, Dragon Guardian, Essence Mage, Lightning Fury and Primordial Channeler.
Swordmage--the new Aegis (Ensnarement) allows you to teleport marked targets adjacent to you under certain circumstances. There are new powers keyed to all three Aegis class features, and the Ensnarement powers often serve to hinder, slow and/or immobilize foes and include a number of ranged powers. New Paragon Paths include Arcane Hunter, Ghost Blade, Sage of Fate's Bonds, Sigil Carver, Sword of Assault and Ward Guardian.
Warlock--the new Pact (Vestige) grants the character one of two boons to start, and additional pact boons can be unlocked through the use of daily powers as the character rises in level (though they only last until the end of the encounter or until you switch them out). There are new powers for all pacts, including Dark, and many Vestige Pact powers are keyed to Constitution or Intelligence. Some powers grant differing additional bonuses for two different Pacts. (For example, the spell Life Siphon grants a power bonus to attack rolls, with Dark Pact Warlocks also receiving a self-healing effect while Infernal Pact Warlocks get temporary hit points.) New Paragon Paths include Dark Reckoner (for Dark Pact Warlocks), Entrancing Mystic, God Fragment (Vestige Pact), Hellbringer (Infernal Pact), Hexer, Master of the Starry Night (Star Pact), Sea Tyrant Oracle (Vestige Pact) and Storm Scourge (Fey Pact).
Wizard--there are new Arcane Implement features for orbs (Orb of Deception, which boosts Illusion powers) and two for the new Tome option. There are new powers for all Arcane Implements, and obviously many new Illusion and Summoning powers. There are also some potent new defensive spells (such as Globe of Invulnerability and Prismatic Wall) and summoning spells that conjure abyssal hordes and living mountains that occupy a 3 x 3 square. New Paragon Paths include Arcane Wayfarer, Bonded Summoner, Hermetic Saboteur, Rimetongue Caller, Unseen Mage and Weaver of Chance.
Additional Content--unsurprisingly, this involves feats, familiars, magic Tomes and Rituals, as well as some new Arcane Backgrounds. Some of the new multi-class feats require paragon multi-classing (as we saw in Martial Power) which grant potent abilities--the Sorcerer Paragon M/C feat grants your Str or Dex modifier as a damage bonus to all arcane powers (I guess many Wand Wizards with good Dex scores and Swordmages with good Str scores might take advantage of this). New Epic Destinies include Arcane Sword (for Swordmages), Archlich, Archspell, Feyliege, Immanence, Lord of Fate, Magister, Parable (for Wizards) and Sage of Ages.
[d]jh[/d]
- PHB2 Sold Out! In the court documents linked above, WotC indicates that the first print run of PHB2 has sold out, and that the original 4E core books (PHB, DMG, MM) are on their third print run. They estimate that 6 million people play D&D worldwide.
- Hexographer Hex Mapping Software Reaches "Beta" Status New web browser-based software tool makes creating wilderness hex maps very easy.
- FREE Q-Workshop dice with New Kobold Quarterly Subscription "The title says it all... but don't be fooled by our store. This offer is good with new PDF, PDF&Print, and Gift Subscriptions, as well as our Adopt-a-soldier program."
- Fight back against the zombie menace this Easter In celebration of Zombie Outbreak 2009 this Easter Sunday, the Hartford Gaming Lifestyle Examiner reviews how video, board, and role-playing games handle the zombie menace.
- Desolation: Survivors First supplement to Desolation roleplaying game to be released this summer.
- RPGA: Important Change to D&D Event Scheduling Effective Wednesday, April 8, there will be some changes to improve the scheduling system when judges set up their events. This article explains the changes and how they impact scheduling for both private and public events.
- RPG Countdown This bi-weekly show combines the hottest sellers from online retailers with sales figures provided by your friendly local gaming store.
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