Amazon listing for the Book of Vile Darkness

[kaomera]

I don't have much personal interest in this book at this point, but given my experience and impressions of the desire from some players for any kind of "darker" stuff, this might sell. It may end up hinging on exactly what the SciFi BoVD project is like. The DM stuff could be interesting, but I think if any part of this is going to wow me it would have to be the props (booklet and map), and I think at this point that would be a hard sell.

 

[Aegeri]

Does nobody else here remember just how bad the *last* attempt at this kind of book was? I mean genuinely awful and actually bad.

 

[AlioTheFool]

I don't mind the content so much as the packaging. Enough with the boxed sets already! They take up too much room, and besides the Monster Vault this year, I'm not buying any more of them.

I know people have said "Just throw away the boxes" but the "books" inside are flimsy magazine-style things. They aren't even as sturdy as the old BECMI books. The vast majority of original 4E books line up side-by-side on my shelf, but nothing since the first Essentials book stand on the shelf. Everything is in a pile on my desk.

I really try to be positive about the stuff Wizards puts out, but things like this just irritate me. Consistency matters, and starting with big hardcovers, then moving to "digest" style books, then to pamphlets in boxes is anything but consistent. For a company entirely dependent on collector loyalty, Wizards is pretty puzzling in their offerings to those who try to be dedicated to collecting all of their products.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I would prefer non-boxed sets as Amazon Japan does not even sell boxed sets.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

Yeah, not interested.

What I want (I'm a DM, btw):

- A character builder that rocks
- A monster builder that rocks
- Feywild boxed-set (companion to Heroes of the feywild)
- Hell boxed-set
- More Monster Vaults w/tokens (especially since Threats to the Nentir Vale looks excellent)
- Rogue Gallery (a box of tokens for all kinds of NPCs, concentrating on humans and the more usual races, no stats or any game information, this product could be very useful for pathfinder and other fantasy rpgs also; alternatively, reduce the number of tokens and include a softcover with stats and character info for the NPCs).
- Another mini-set (I can wish...)
- Demonomicon 2
- Condition cards (would be great especially for newbies, I know I can make some myself, but I would prefer "professional" cards)

Nothing else really springs to mind.

 

[Scribble]

I love me some boxed sets!

Keep em coming!

 

[Zaran]

Anyone think that this book is way too small?

 

[Ryujin]

It's advertising fluff, for the made-for-TV movie. Can't have a game-based movie, without game-based fluff.

Yeah, not interested.

What I want (I'm a DM, btw):

...

- Condition cards (would be great especially for newbies, I know I can make some myself, but I would prefer "professional" cards)

...

I haven't seen a condition card set that I like yet. I've got a simple idea, for a card that you mark with paper clips, but haven't come up with a functional model yet. That way you don't need to shuffle through a deck of various conditions, in order to get the right one for a character. You just use a paperclip to mark off the condition, from the limited list of possibilities, whether it's 'save ends' or 'until end of next turn', ongoing damage/type, etc..

If I ever come up with a model that I like, I'll post it. That is unless one of the more creative members gets there first, in which case I'll give a hearty thanks and XP

 

[webrunner]

I think it's fine they're coming out with the BOVD.

I think it's strange they're coming out with the BovD in the same year as Heroes of Shadow and the Shadowfell: Gloomwrought box set.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Did anyone actually want this?

Really, we're giving up books that would add useful options for a wide variety of players like Arcane Power 2, Divine Power 2 and Primal Power 2 for this.

Really?

Well I can speak personally that the last thing *I* want is a Arcane, Divine or Primal Power 2.

Martial Power 2 was so stuffed with unnecessary filler to actually pad it out to book-size that it mainly just added bloat to the classes or create new conceptual mechanics that would never be touched, mentioned or looked at again (Martial Rituals, anyone?). The only real reason I think they produced the thing was to be able to add Martial Backgrounds to the system... but that in itself is no reason to write a whole stupid book.

Producing those three Power 2 books JUST so you have a place to print new Artificer, Runepriest and Seeker builds and powers is NOT the way to go. Because those three books would have to include a whole host of other half-baked ideas in order to actually make them full-sized... and that's the last thing the game needs.