DDXP Liveblogging

[I'm A Banana]

Sounds vague, but solid.

I like that there's going to be a Heroes of the Feywild.

I like the idea of fear, madness, and apathy problems in the Shadowfell. Sounds very "Ravenloft" to me. Not sure I liked the "deck" aspect but time will tell if they're going to sell it in randomized boosters.

I actually think pushing towards boxed sets and bits and the like and moving a lot of raw rules content online is a good move. Give people things to play with in stores, and things to prepare with online. I'm 100% behind the "lets only release the stuff that's worth releasing" deal.

I also like poster maps (better than Dungeon Tiles!). And the fact that the Monster Vault is also filled with other nefarious organisations is +1 excellent.

I'm fond of what they're talking about here.

We'll see what action yields, but I think I'm going to be pretty happy with WotC in 2011-2012. Especially compared with the 2008-20010 span.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Yes, the list summary seems to be

If you want to do 4e:

buy DDI

Play encounters

If you want to play at home, here is a bit of support, but a lot less than you are used to from WOTC

 

[Dungeoneer]

I see a very clear "less splat books, more box sets" strategy in it.

Well obviously, but look at the amount of "we'll wait and see" and "we'd like to do that..." type statements they made. Also look at how little new stuff they actually announced. Even DDI was light on specific announcements.

 

[Dausuul]

What I see is this:

"Our core business model is no longer working; splatbook sales are way down and no prospects for improvement on the horizon. We're experimenting with alternatives, hoping that we can make up for the drop in book sales by selling a lot of bits and trinkets. We're going to try and leverage Encounters-style meetups and mass-market board games to achieve this. In addition, we hope to get some lapsed gamers on DDI when the Virtual Tabletop goes online. You guys who play face-to-face at home, we'd love to sell to you, but we can't figure out what you'll buy in large enough quantity to make a profit."

I wish them the best of luck, but I'm not seeing a lot that interests me beyond what's already been announced. The minis line was what had me hooked, and that's gone. Though I could give the board games a go.

 

[Pour]

Sweeet! The expanded product list is almost all buys for me.

Anyone else stoked for the new Book of Vile Darkness? Really looking forward to elaborations on the darker side of the current cosmology.

Shadowfell should be awesome with the new mechanics. Seeing the expanded Nentir map in Conquest of Nerath will be great. MV 2 having organizations! Heroes of the Feywild? Yeah, I'm sold.

 

[Mistwell]

I am starting to get jazzed too. I finally see where they are going this year. I understand now why they pulled the print books that they did. Essentially, they are putting that stuff in the DDI instead of in print, because people were only using 2% of an entire book, and that doesn't make sense for long term stability of the game. So now they are focused more on usable things, like descriptions, and hardcopy maps, and other things which will get used more than the small percentage of a mechanics-heavy splat book. Meanwhile the mechanics-heavy stuff will still be there, in the DDI and the magazine.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The board games sound interesting.

Shame about the whole 'China' problem. The fact that they apparently can't make these in America at a profit is baffling to me. The costs must be too high. Damn shame that even as technology advances with ye old 3d printers that the materials and transportation aspect seems to be taking its tolls.

I would love to see them do a Compendium style books on the magic items and monsters of D&D though. Those i'd pick up just as I did for 2nd edition's magic items and wizard and cleric compendiums.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

I wanted a definitive statement about what we can expect for new material on DDI, especially as it relates to the material from the cancelled books. That didn't really happen; just more maybes and would-like-to statements. The closest thing to a definitive statement was in regards to magic items, which I understand a lot of people want, but I was interested more in all the other stuff from the cut books (core Themes, Essentials multiclassing & power swapping, etc).

I liked Castle Ravenloft, I expect to like Ashardalon. Legend of Drizzt would have been great when I was 15. Not so much now, but hey, it's popular so more power to 'em if they want to release that.

Shelving the Ravenloft box is a little disappointing.

Heroes of the Feywild intrigues me.

New Monster Vault sounds pretty good.

Shadowfell box sounds interesting. Might get it.

Neverwinter - zero interest. Next.

Gardmore Abbey could be decent. It's in the maybe pile.

Book of Vile Darkness has my interest; hell yes.

Conquest of Nerath - I'm undecided. Probably not.

Dungeon Tiles - not sold on these yet. I have a vinyl battlemap which I'm pretty happy with.

Their emphasis on what people are actively playing and saying that they want to concentrate on that is distressing in that it doesn't address why people are not playing the least popular stuff. Support it and they will come.

I'm not there, so I can't tell them that.

I'm in the same boat as many of the others with respect to the statement about Champions of the Heroic Tier and its material being released in a book that was also cancelled is... confusing, to say the least. That is, unless Hero Builder's Guidebook is not, in fact, cancelled. Bloody well say so!

It's a simple matter - give a simple answer.

Whew. Rant complete. I'm not angry, just anxious.

 

[caudor]

I'm glad to see a few more items on the schedule.

There is one thing that confuses me. On one hand, we'll have these boxed sets with paper maps, tokens, cards, etc. I like that.

On the other hand, we'll have this swanky new virtual table. I like that even better.

So what content will be available for the virtual table? Will we have to create it all ourselves? Will I be able to play Madness at Gardmore Abbey on it?

If the goal is to have printed products tied to in-store events, then what will tie into the VTT?

 

[caudor]

...
Their emphasis on what people are actively playing and saying that they want to concentrate on that is distressing in that it doesn't address why people are not playing the least popular stuff. Support it and they will come..

Yep, as the Orc says to the campfire: "Give Krag more heat then Krag give you more wood."