Interesting thoughts about the announcements at gencon

[Asatru]

Well, if I *had* to guess I would say watermarked .pdf, if the went the .pdf route. So as they are able to track back to the original person and ensure they are punished for copyright infringement. I'd also venture to say that they might choose the Kindle Fire as an electronic device to view their books because they could be done in a proprietary format as opposed to the .epub which normally does not use restrictions to view content one has purchase but is able to do so if they chose to.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I think they are going just information books - stripping out rules. Also, most likely this will be old material just being re-hashed.

 

[TerraDave]

On the two Realms adventures...for those who haven't sat through the long address--these would be new adventures that would determine the fate of the Realms. As in, there would be a survey, and based on what parties did in the adventures, that is what would happen in the Realms.

Seriously, thats what they actually said.

The problem is that the adventures would come out before the new rules.

I was wondering that as well. A couple of options spring to mind:

- They could well release them online, in three different versions (1st, 3e, 4e). Or release them as physical 4e products, with online conversion guides.

- They could do as they did with Keep on the Shadowfell, and include a proto-5e rules booklet for use with the adventures.

That would seem to mostly cover it. One thing is that, given the fate of the realms seems to hang in the balance, its not obvious that these would be good for intro adventures.

 

[delericho]

On the two Realms adventures...for those who haven't sat through the long address--these would be new adventures that would determine the fate of the Realms.

Well... I wouldn't go that far. They'll survey the groups, and that will determine the "official" outcome of those adventures in the Realms. But I doubt these will be the core of the RSE - more likely, they'll be local to some region or other, and possibly affect the balance of power there. So, determine the fate of some part of the Realms, perhaps, but I doubt they'll massively affect the whole.

That would seem to mostly cover it. One thing is that, given the fate of the realms seems to hang in the balance, its not obvious that these would be good for intro adventures.

No indeed. But they need some system to use with them, and I don't see them going with 4e as the system (despite being the obvious choice, being the current edition). That suggests that they either try to support all editions (costly in terms of development, and problematic because good adventure design in 4e is not the same as in 1st Ed), or they go for some other edition.

I guess we'll just need to wait and see!

 

[TerraDave]

Well... I wouldn't go that far. They'll survey the groups, and that will determine the "official" outcome of those adventures in the Realms. But I doubt these will be the core of the RSE - more likely, they'll be local to some region or other, and possibly affect the balance of power there. So, determine the fate of some part of the Realms, perhaps, but I doubt they'll massively affect the whole.

...

They made a pretty big deal about it...I think there would be some "core" impact.

Maybe this is how they do the high-level playtest for 5E (something emphasized in another seminar).

 

[RangerWickett]

I was at the event, and it did not sound like they were saying your actions would affect the Realms-Shaking-Event. It sounded like, "Look, we screwed up, and we're going to fix it, and then we're going to let you guys affect stuff."

In my opinion, if you want to let players in home games affect the setting, you really ought to focus on robust Organized Play. And make the very first Organized Play event for 5e Realms have a major, prominent effect to show people that you're serious. Like, there's an orc horde attacking some city, and you're called upon to sneak around the horde (which likely involves taking a short-cut through a dungeon) to deliver a plea for help and a pricey offering to another city. If you succeed, the two cities come to an alliance. If you fail, the one city is razed.