Whatever happened to Necromancer Games?

[SkidAce]

I think the insights into marketing and such...that may have contributed to what happened to Necromancer Games...very interesting and would not like this thread shut down.

P.S. I would never ask for a thread to be shut down, let them die a natural (or violent) death.
(no disrespect to Joe's opinion intended)

 

[JohnRTroy]

So since we now know what happened to Necromancer Games and the thread has started to veer off into various subjects that have nothing to do with the original, is it time to be shut down?

Why shut down an interesting thread, just because it goes off on a tangent? There's no real edition war or anything like that going on. Maybe we can fork the OGL discussion...

 

[DaveMage]

During the whole 4E/GSL debate, Clark said at one point that he was only interested in publishing if he could do so for the latest edition of D&D. That struck me as a strange position to take, as it seemed to place the brand of D&D over the game itself.

I'd guess from his posts that Clark always saw Necromancer Games as the modern-day Judges Guild, and thus wanted to support the current version of Dungeons and Dragons only.

Unfortunately, the relationship between the primaries at TSR and Judges Guild (back when Judges Guild was making those complementary adventures) seems to be quite a bit different than the relationship between the primaries at Necro and WotC at present.

 

[Piratecat]

Why shut down an interesting thread, just because it goes off on a tangent? There's no real edition war or anything like that going on. Maybe we can fork the OGL discussion...

I'm okay with the tangent, especially since the original question was fully resolved. Just keeps things interesting and polite - like usual.

 

[Fifth Element]

During the whole 4E/GSL debate, Clark said at one point that he was only interested in publishing if he could do so for the latest edition of D&D. That struck me as a strange position to take, as it seemed to place the brand of D&D over the game itself. I had to look at it more practically.

Might it have something to do with Necromancer being less important to him (in the sense of it not being his day job) than GR is to you? Businesses not intended to provide a livelihood can bear different business models.

 

[carmachu]

Paizo was handed its customers, and most of its employees, on a silver platter, by some other company whose name escapes me at the moment.

Uhm no, not even close.

They work pretty hands on with their customer base. Their approachable, and answer your questions.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Uhm no, not even close.

They work pretty hands on with their customer base. Their approachable, and answer your questions.

AND.... let's not forget the huge AND here, were responsible for Dungeon and Dragon magazine and were able to, thanks in no small part of that history of careful caretaking, including some massive ups and downs, keep a large part of that talent and that audience and a large part of the audience disatisfied with 4e with them.

I'm sure Piazo would still be a great company but if they hadn't been doing Dragon and Dungeon? Quite a different story I'd suspect.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I don't disagree with you at all. Paizo is a fantastic company. I mean no disrespect to them.

My point was that Hasbro has made some decisions that benefitted Paizo greatly.

They conduct yearly layoffs, and often seem to lay off their best people. That provides a ready source of new employees at Paizo.

They gave the Dungeon and Dragon license to Paizo, giving them the opportunity to excel and achieve huge visibility in the D&D world. Then they radically changed D&D, forcing players to embrace a completely new game or be fired as customers, while simultaneously making it very difficult for Paizo to come to the new edition with them.

And the alternative that looks most like D&D to those people who do get fired is now produced by Paizo, and written by many of the same people who wrote 3rd edition D&D.

That's what I mean by 'handing customers and employees to Paizo on a silver platter'.

Ken

Uhm no, not even close.

They work pretty hands on with their customer base. Their approachable, and answer your questions.

 

[Greg K]

If the compendium, monster builder and character builder were up during the start of the 3.x era, there would be no 3PP either even WITH the more open OGL.

During 3.x, there really was no difference between a 3.x sourcebook produced by WOTC and a 3PP in terms of how easily it was to integrate the material into an existing campaign......

Well, speaking for myself and several other gamers I know, a 3.5 compendium, monster builder and character builder would not have stopped us from using the 3pp we use now. Most WOTC supplements among my circle of gamers were banned or saw only very select items used.

If I were to run 4e, the same electronic items would have no impact on the use of 3pp. There are several WOTC races and classes that I would not allow and several 3pp that I would use (e.g, Blackdyrge's Critter Cache supplements for Goodman Games and elements from Expeditious Retreats's Advanced Player's Guide ). If other 3pp were to produce material (including, but not limited to race and class supplements) that fit my tastes for the games I run, I would include and use them as well.

 

[vagabundo]

Well, speaking for myself and several other gamers I know, a 3.5 compendium, monster builder and character builder would not have stopped us from using the 3pp we use now. Most WOTC supplements among my circle of gamers were banned or saw only very select items used.

If I were to run 4e, the same electronic items would have no impact on the use of 3pp. There are several WOTC races and classes that I would not allow and several 3pp that I would use (e.g, Blackdyrge's Critter Cache supplements for Goodman Games and elements from Expeditious Retreats's Advanced Player's Guide ). If other 3pp were to produce material (including, but not limited to race and class supplements) that fit my tastes for the games I run, I would include and use them as well.

A lot of people said this before they became hooked. It is difficult to put custom elements into the pre-printed sheets; just is the path of least resistance and tends to focus energy on other parts of the game the more easily accepts custom elements - like those from 3rd parties. DDI and the compendium are like a drug for game prep.

Maybe you would have been one of the exceptions, maybe...