Rage of Demons: "D&D On Hard Mode"

Out of the Abyss will be available in preferred stores in just two days (and elsewhere 11 days later). In the meantime, the promotion is still coming thick and fast, this time with a Chris Perkins interview over at Polygon. The interview covers a range of general D&D topics which you've probably seen dozens of times before, but there is some new material on Out of the Abyss. "The idea with Rage of Demons was to paint the Underdark as D&D on hard mode".

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The whimsical Alice in Wonderland style is divisive; Perkins describes it as "the Underdark becomes the Wonderland of D&D; this crazy weird place that you have to fall down a hole to enter, and it’s full of crazy deranged characters. The more you hang around them, the more you begin to understand them, and the more you realize you’re going crazy yourself."

The interview also describes some details of the adventure. The PCs start off as prisoners of the drow.

The article also describes the sentient gelatinous cube, Glabbaagool. The demon lord Juiblex's presence causes lots of oozes to gain sentience. Other NPCs include Yuk Yuk and Spiderbait, a goblin tag team. "These guys are your bungee-jumpers, hang-gliders, stuff like that. We encounter them in Out of the Abyss where they help you navigate this gigantic cavern complex full of spiderwebs."

And then there's Xazak, the beholder with ten disintegration eyestalks and an Igor-like servant called Mr. Peebles. And Zelix, a mindflayer who runs an insane asylum because insane brains are more tasty than sane ones.

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Read the whole thing here.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

It bothers me that they have to put in a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks to be hard. That sounds like a chump GM maneuver to me.

That's not actually much harder than a beholder with eight disintegration eyestalks. Perhaps they did it to be goofy instead of hard: he's one frustrated beholder because everytime he wants to charm somebody or flip a level with telekinesis, it disintegrates them instead.

Edit: oh, I guess not, it's a Frankenstein thing instead.

 

[graves3141]

There's an interesting implication for Perkin's numbers quote. If the target for any given book is over 100k sold, then we're really not going to see much of an increase in the pace of new books being available. There's only so much demand for books, and, if you start banging out splats, that's just going to cut into that demand.

This jumped out at me too and I totally agree. That target number is way too high for WotC to start pumping out a bunch of stuff the way they did in the past. 100k is probably more attainable if they only put out two or three books a year because people will be so starved for D&D books that they will be more likely to buy anything that gets published. Either that or they'll switch to Pathfinder or something else that is more adequately supported.

 

[Psikerlord#]

It bothers me that they have to put in a beholder with 10 disintegration eye stalks to be hard. That sounds like a chump GM maneuver to me.

On the contrary I love that sort of unique monster approach! I'm sure the PCs hear the rumour of his 10 disintegration eyestalks well in advance of meeting him (or, likely do, or ... well... there are chances to hear of it...)

 

[Tyranthraxus]

I like the tone of it and the ability to actually travel from place to place in the Underdark.

Pathfinder is starting to worry me. I honestly think they are running out of ideas for books. They have taken their 3.75 system to about the limit of where it can go.

 

[delericho]

Pathfinder is starting to worry me. I honestly think they are running out of ideas for books. They have taken their 3.75 system to about the limit of where it can go.

I think the next two years will be very interesting as far as Pathfinder is concerned.

 

[Ahrimon]

I think the next two years will be very interesting as far as Pathfinder is concerned.

Especially since they lost dancy and had to let almost the entire pathfinder online team go. I know goblinworks was separate, but something like that still eats funds from the main company.

 

[delericho]

Especially since they lost dancy and had to let almost the entire pathfinder online team go. I know goblinworks was separate, but something like that still eats funds from the main company.

I doubt that will hurt them directly. They saw it as a risk and therefore wisely kept the Goblinworks stuff at arms' length.

But I think this, coupled with a resurgent D&D and the near-saturation of their current edition, may make it difficult for them to grow their brand any further. Indeed, I think they may now have peaked and will start to shrink somewhat. Though whether that leads to them going the way of White Wolf (effectively ceasing to exist, with the IP going elsewhere) or the way of Green Ronin (still a respected, if smaller, vendor) remains to be seen.

One key problem they will have is with Pathfinder 2nd Ed. In the past, a new edition was often a case of bringing some of the best supplementary material into the core, giving the rules a polish, and adding new artwork. But the existence of websites compiling all the rules mean that that's much less attractive as an option (and the OGL means they can't just disappear those sites). But a new edition that vastly changes the rules, as is the new norm, runs the risk of being greeted by their fans the same way 4e was, or at least splitting the fanbase.

Perhaps the internet era just puts an effective maximum lifespan on an RPG?

 

[Ahrimon]

I wasn't doom and glooming. I was agreeing with your statement that things will be interesting over the next few years because of the recent big news.

 

[wedgeski]

One key problem they will have is with Pathfinder 2nd Ed. In the past, a new edition was often a case of bringing some of the best supplementary material into the core, giving the rules a polish, and adding new artwork. But the existence of websites compiling all the rules mean that that's much less attractive as an option (and the OGL means they can't just disappear those sites). But a new edition that vastly changes the rules, as is the new norm, runs the risk of being greeted by their fans the same way 4e was, or at least splitting the fanbase.

PF fans have deep wallets and massive loyalty. They will open their wallets for a 2.0. I'm sure the core will be a big hit. As Paizo churns out the support material, though...

 

[Eirikrautha]

This jumped out at me too and I totally agree. That target number is way too high for WotC to start pumping out a bunch of stuff the way they did in the past. 100k is probably more attainable if they only put out two or three books a year because people will be so starved for D&D books that they will be more likely to buy anything that gets published. Either that or they'll switch to Pathfinder or something else that is more adequately supported.

The likelihood of someone switching to Pathfinder simply because of the ancillary materials is about the same as US national broadcast stations deciding that 16 football (American) games per year is too few, and so they will drop all football broadcasts and switch to broadcasting rugby (football's ancient ancestor). Not going to happen in large numbers. The mechanics of the two games (D&D 5e and Pathfinder) are so different, along with the "feel" of them, that such a choice is not game agnostic. We're talking a radical mechanical change here, over product support that is not vital to using the product to begin with. I just don't see it....