Orcus of Necromancer Games says "You were right, I was wrong"

[Orcus]

Wow, that was way too short of a post for three smiley faces. Sorry about that. Smiley overload.

 

[Wicht]

A Demon Lord of UnDeath who Cares.

Now there's a PR/marketing slogan for you.

 

[Votan]

IOW, its alright to assume the party has an arcane caster. Its not alright to assume that the party has a 15th level Wizard with Fly and Fireball prepped.

One of the challenges with high level 3.5E play (and this is true of many other systems so it is not, by any means, a dig at 3.5E) is that the range of capabilities that a party could have is broad. An obstacle (say collapsing bridge in Moira) that would be a massive problem with a bunch of fighters becomes trivial if there is a sorcerer with teleport in the party.

I think that there are two options left:

1. Build a realistic module, for opponents of the level of the party, and let the party worry about whether they can handle it

2. Build a model to the capabilities of the party

For an experienced group I would expect 1 to be the better approach. #2 might seem to reduce the challenge and part of the intellectual challenge of the game is figuring out what types of challenges you can face.

If nobody can fly/teleport then you need to think carefully about signing on as caravan guards with a rogue dragon about.

Similarly, if you have characters with knowledge skills, then I'd worry that I'd have to mimic key features of a vampire's powers should we go vampire hunting.

 

[SteveC]

If I could ask, was the problem with the license or the conversions? I can certainly understand if there were legal issues that couldn't get resolved, but if it was a conversion problem, I find it a little bit harder to understand. Some clarification would be most appreciated!

--Steve

 

[Mercule]

Caring is one thing I do do.

<beavis>Heh. Heh. You said "do do".</beavis>

 

[Angellis_ater]

I can't speak for the others, but the writing for the Slumbering Tsar series was completed about 4 years ago.

Ah, well that does explain the inability (or rather, major workload) to convert it into a normal 4E system. Thankyou for taking the time to share and explain, as I guess that the others are somewhat on the same scale.

However, @Clark, that still leaves the question - was it the GSL rigidity that forced you to step away from remaking the rules into a system that would've been closer to your "ideal vision" and could've included these three adventures?

 

[Grazzt]

<beavis>Heh. Heh. You said "do do".</beavis>

Settle down, Beavis

 

[Voadam]

So the slumbering Tsar one is part one of three, the shortest of the three and the writing was finished four years ago? Any word on when the follow ups will be released?

 

[Greg V]

So the slumbering Tsar one is part one of three, the shortest of the three and the writing was finished four years ago? Any word on when the follow ups will be released?

Word from Bill Webb on the Necromancer Games boards is that it will depend on sales of the first which, as a pdf only right now, have been slow based on what I've heard However, Drive Thru RPG is supposed to be launching POD within a few weeks and a lot of people have stated that they are holding out for dead-tree versions. Hopefully sales will spike then. So here's my plug: if you want to see 'em published (and I do as a decidedly biased observer) buy the first one!

Oh yeah, and I echo Beavis...Orcus said do do (heh, heh)

 

[catsclaw227]

It would be interesting to compare the sales between 3.x and 4e versions of the same adventure. Are there any that were written for both (or written for one and converted to both)?

How are 4e sales of WotBS doing compared to 3.5 version?