DDXP 2010 News and Updates

[Windjammer]

Kudos to WotC for focusing on what's most important to the hobby: growing it.

Sure, I'd appreciate a Feywild/Shadowfell supplement sooner than later, and am mildly disappointed that Martial Power 2 isn't followed up by equally timely Power 2s for the arcane and divine power sources this year. But I'm not that self-focused to fail to realize that focusing on newcomers is a solid marketing approach to boot.

I also appreciate WotC trying as hard as possible to make PH3 a seller to people not interested in psionics.

Can't say I'm pleased about the trend they're taking MM3 towards with less statblocks and more background text. A MM is a table reference first, and I appreciated WotC offering monster ecologies for the MMs elsewhere (thinking of MotP and Plane Below here) so I wouldn't need to carry that info to the table.
That said, MMs 1+2 contained D&D's classic monsters we were raised with. If MM3 otoh contains mostly new critters we've never seen before, the book frankly needs to brief us about the monsters.

PS. And absolutely, thanks Bob for compiling all the info for us!

 

[Pbartender]

The game also has a card component. A deck of 80 cards with 40 tech cards and 40 mutation cards you might suddently manifest

I'm not exactly hot on that, but I'll be curious to see it, and I understand why they're doing it that way... Random charts would be harder to expand.

With a deck of cards as the randomizer, it's easy to include, exclude or weight the deck with a certain set of mutations.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Gamma World! Board games! Dark Sun! Psionics! Humans book! This is the year they made especially for me. All of the rest of you can have your years later.

yes, I agree but, someone ask 'em about SPELLJAMMER!!!!

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Cue OMG they are turning it into a boardgame/ccg complaints in 3. 2. 1

OMG they're turning it from a boardgame w/ elements of an RPG to a CCG w/ elements of boardgame. What's next? Rare cards for special mounts?

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Kudos to WotC for focusing on what's most important to the hobby: growing it.

I seem to remember reading that this is exactly what they intended from the beginning with 4e.

Year 1: new game
Year 2: expand the game for old pros
Year 3: grow the market by making products for n00bs

 

[Dice4Hire]

I, too, will be interested to see if the new "newbie" books will be compatible with 4E, but I strongly suspect that they will be.

As for the Compendium, what exactly is "the rules" Races, classes, powers, feats, magic items, combat stuff skill challenges, etc etc etc?

Will it include stuff published only on DDI? Or only from the books? Both?

It could be very valuable or totally useless, and I am not sure yet

 

[ggroy]

WotC's online catalog has been updated with the newly announced 4E titles.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Product Catalog

 

[Rechan]

I'm OK with SOME fluff in the MM as long as every monster doesn't get tons of it. For the new/important ones, sure.

What I want to know is: What monsters are IN IT?

Also what, no mention of the DMG3?

 

[Piratecat]

WOTC_Trevor mentioned the name of the new Brand Manager:

"Kirin Chase as well - Brand Manager for D&D."

Finally this mystery has been solved!

Not actually true! I've gotten confirmation from WotC: Keirin is a brand representative who does product development, but he's not the brand manager; he reports to different folks. He's very well versed on the brand, though.

Laura Tommervik heads up the team as Brand Manager and effectively has Scott's old job; she's a long-time WotC person. Shelly Mazzanoble reports to Laura and would be considered Sara Girard’s replacement. I'll see if I can get Laura to come by and say hi occasionally.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Cue OMG they are turning it into a boardgame/ccg complaints in 3. 2. 1

Not to immidiately jump on it, but...well, aren't they?

The game itself IS a board game. There's a board with tokens required to use and play on it.

You need to buy and collect packs of cards, both from the main game and from randomized booster packs. That's pretty much exactly what a CCG is.

I guess I can see how it might not be a board game, but the ccg aspect is literally what they're going for here