Anubium Insights in Libris Mortis (WotC book)

[J Lloyd]

I have to say when we first released it, I was quite pleased with our Dark Arts of Necromancy, but nothing made me happier than to see our insights confirmed by WotC staff in their new book Libris Mortis, the book of the undead. Just a smidgeon of game mechanics and game insights leap to my attention when I scanned the spells section: Awaken Undead; Ghostform; Plague of Undead; Summon Undead I, II, III, IV, V; Spawn Screen; Veil of Undeath; Revive Undead; just to name so many!

Many spells from LM imitate the spells from DAN, including the name; others tap into the same concepts, if only the spell's name differs. If I were keen on cynicism, I would think someone at WotC had a copy of DAN in house for this one! I'd like to think it was the prescience of our writers that enabled us to beat WotC to the punch.

To our writers, I would like to thank them for their keen insights and fantastic job. If the level of imitation or concurrence is any evidence, I think we have more than a modicum of talent wrapped up in DAN.

See for yourself: Dark Arts of Necromancy.

 

[Alzrius]

I have to say when we first released it, I was quite pleased with our Dark Arts of Necromancy, but nothing made me happier than to see our insights confirmed by WotC staff in their new book Libris Mortis, the book of the undead. Just a smidgeon of game mechanics and game insights leap to my attention when I scanned the spells section: Awaken Undead; Ghostform; Plague of Undead; Summon Undead I, II, III, IV, V; Spawn Screen; Veil of Undeath; Revive Undead; just to name so many!

Many spells from LM imitate the spells from DAN, including the name; others tap into the same concepts, if only the spell's name differs. If I were keen on cynicism, I would think someone at WotC had a copy of DAN in house for this one! I'd like to think it was the prescience of our writers that enabled us to beat WotC to the punch.

Forgive me if this seems somewhat cynical, but it seems to me that Dark Arts of Necromancy is what borrows from WotC, not the other way around.

Let's look at some of the above examples. According to the link you provided, DAoN was released April 29, 2004. Now, Summon Undead I-V were in the Player's Guide to Faerun, released March 2004. Awaken Undead was in Savage Species, released February 2003, and Ghostform was in Tome and Blood, which was released sometime in 2001 (don't know the exact month).

That's just what a quick perusal found. Don't get me wrong, from what I've heard, DAoN is a good product, but it seems to have been inspired by, rather than inspirational to, WotC.

 

[drnuncheon]

Now, Summon Undead I-V were in the Player's Guide to Faerun, released March 2004.

Magic of Faerun, actually - 2001. Don't know if it existed in 2e or not.

J

 

[Darkness]

Magic of Faerun, actually - 2001. Don't know if it existed in 2e or not.

J

There were undead summoning spells in Cult of the Dragon (1998).

FYI, I'm moving this thread to the publishers forum. I'm still considering the exact details, though, so there's a slight chance that this is not be a permanent decision. If anyone has comments or questions, e-mail me.

 

[johnsemlak]

Summon Undead I-V were in the Player's Guide to Faerun,

It's not such an innovative concept, really.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I know the feeling. I almost freaked out when I heard that WotC's Serpent Kingdoms had a spell named Serpent Arrow in it, since I had the exact same thing in Poisoncraft, which was released several months earlier. Of course, we both stole it from Thulsa Doom, right? Besides, my mechanics and my illustration are much, much better.

 

[J Lloyd]

Going beyond the framework

Alzrius:
"Forgive me if this seems somewhat cynical, but it seems to me that Dark Arts of Necromancy is what borrows from WotC, not the other way around."

No need to ask forgiveness, Alzrius. Your comments bring to the fore a lurking conceptual thought.

Talks with the writers for this work convince me that their work is genuinely reflective of the mechanical hintergrund pervading the fantasy d20 scene, by which I mean that many of their mechanics and spells just seem to flow from the foundation provided by the core rules. They didn't read any of the WotC material. Their ideas seem to be natural evolutions from what seems possible. Nothing really inventive, as one poster responds, just consistent with the game's arche, the game's mechanical framework. To be frank, it is the same feeling that I get when I first saw "innovations" like race-level advancement (taking two levels in lizard folk, etc.) and spell templates. What seems quite innovative is, in my mind, just a natural evolution from the base system. It was foreseen, and conceptualized, by many before it was even out by a major publisher.

Kudos for game publishers putting this out into the open (especially WotC, who provided the key worldview [read game mechanic philosophy] for this to happen). What concerns me is the natural evolution of ideas is, well, perhaps railroaded? Perhaps the system can only route people down a certain road. Or maybe it's just my own mind that is hinged to the conceptual rails and is unable to get off the tracks to tread new paths. If the former is true, there seems to be little room to manuever before the system possibilities are exhausted (has it already come to that?). If the latter, then my vision is just myopic!

In any case, can anyone think of a particular mechanic that seems to go outside the game's base framework to mold the core rules into something other than the creators' intentions? I'm trying to think of rules that are more than just additional layers, like templates or additional races. The epic level concept of spell seeds seems closer to what I was thinking.

 

[coyote6]

The spellcasting mechanics in Black Company and Grim Tales, perhaps.

The Damage save in Mutants & Masterminds (later reprinted in WotC's Unearthed Arcana).

Though one could argue about those (e.g., spellcasting being fatiguing or damaging is fairly common outside of d20, and Damage saves are based on the save mechanic).