re: No 4E for Necromancer Games!

[Mark Oliva]

off-topic: Are you sure you need to add your business information twice? Or did you change your sig after you posted this message? (And I am not even sure you need to add it at all, according to German Law - unless your posts here are business communications...)

No ... that was an error.

However, our attorney believes that because we are RPG publishers, we are required to use the legal signature anytime we send E-Mail that involves the RPG business.

 

[Terry DM]

Point of Order: So the question, I think, is: how, if at all, can the community at-large demonstrate to the business leaders at WoTC that a more relaxed GSL will maximize whatever measurement(s) (e.g., revenue, market share, etc.) they and 4E are being judged upon.

I personally don't believe the community can do anything a this point ... just as those at TSR virtually ignored it's supporters/customers, WotC seems to be taking a similar stance thinking they are completely right, and damn what everyone else thinks. I mean, regardless of how perfect the GSL to be, there's always a better way.

Clark/Orcus is probably the last remaining hope to have the GSL amended to benefit the entire D&D-based hobby. Good thing he's a tenacious, and has the best interests of the hobby in mind.

 

[unundindur]

Speaking of now beeing allowed to go backwards to the OGL after signing the new one, isn't that just a matter of creating a new daughter-company, thus using one company for each license? The brand-name should as far as I know be able to stay the same... I may be wrong, but if this is true it just makes it a bit more fussy for everyone.

 

[jgbrowning]

Not to digress too much as I too would like to see Necro in the 4e game but that XRP is going to 4e is a big deal to me because your stuff was some of the only third party I bought during 3.0/3.5. What is the timeline for LoD?

We're looking at an October release for the 1st one and then a monthly schedule.

joe b.

 

[VictorC]

We're looking at an October release for the 1st one and then a monthly schedule.

joe b.

XR gets the money I would have given to Necro for Ari's book. Will that be out October 1st?

 

[Terramotus]

I expected that they wouldn't use the GSL - it's almost impossible to use. However, I'm sad that they're just not releasing anything. Hopefully this will convince WotC to modify the GSL to the level of "restrictive, but sane".

The longer this draws out, the more WotC is leeching on my (and I'm sure others') goodwill towards them. They need to be careful. When people hate your company but enjoy your products, they start to look for ways to enjoy the product while supporting the company as little as possible.

And no, I'm not advocating piracy (although that will be a consequence). There are lots of ways to do this, such as having a single group copy of a book for a group of 10 guys. People will stop making websites in support of the product, stop recommending it, stop running demo games at their local gamestores.

WotC need to turn this around fast, before they start hurting themselves and the whole industry. I appreciate that the OGL isn't the way they want to go now... but I'm sorry, what's done is done. You can't take something like that away without incurring hate.

 

[jgbrowning]

XR gets the money I would have given to Necro for Ari's book. Will that be out October 1st?

For Lands of Darkness #1 we're aiming for October 1st.

We've just purchased the Advanced Player's Guide from Ari and should get that book to FLGS shelves in October, but I don't think it will be the 1st. It's a larger work that will requires a longer production cycle. We're excited to get the Advanced Player's Guide and believe October is a reasonable release month.

joe b.

 

[dmccoy1693]

We've just purchased the Advanced Player's Guide from Ari and should get that book to FLGS shelves in October, but I don't think it will be the 1st. It's a larger work that will requires a longer production cycle. We're excited to get the Advanced Player's Guide and believe October is a reasonable release month.

Just posted this little bit o' news on Paizo's boards.

 

[VictorC]

joe b.

Congratulations and good luck on your continued success.

 

[Galieo]

I personally don't believe the community can do anything a this point ....

I tend to agree. Aside from the reason you suggest (i.e., pride), I think that the largest reason is that 4E is too young to really assess whether a more or less restrictive license will better achieve WoTC's measurement goals. I'm not sure how many quarters will be needed to gather enough data for them to reassess this decision. That would be interesting to know, IMHO.