D20 Modern Spectaculars Canceled

[hobgoblin]

well there is one up there that talks about hearing it directly from a WOTC person iirc...

 

[M.L. Martin]

OK, NOW I believe it.

I got a chance to take another look at the WotC Sept--Dec 2006 catalog today. Spectaculars isn't on the d20 Modern product listing in the back of the book. That implies a delay or cancellation to me.

d20 Dark*Matter is there, but not in the catalog. I'm still waiting for the final word, but those backlists usually include only the stuff that's come out before the timespan the catalog starts. Could it be that they decided to push d20 D*M up a month or two to fill Spectacular's slot, and the 3DA page is there just to avoid having to repaginate the whole catalog?

That said, I'm not sure I trust even the catalog backlist. The SW Minis game lists Ultimate Missions: Universe, and there's no sign of that product anywhere.

Matthew L. Martin

 

[DragonLancer]

Just got a message from the distributor, and it seems that this book has been canceled. Not sure if anyone was anticipating it (I was), but I figured I would let people know.

Thats a shame, I was looking forward to that. :\

 

[philreed]

I don't think we've seen two different distributors cancelling. I think we've just heard about Alliance cancelling from two different people.

Alliance is the largest distributor for hobby gaming.

 

[arscott]

Oh, I know. I was just nitpicking.

 

[Morgenstern]

No, it's fair. My bad. I thought Alliance and someone else had been involved on the distributing side.

 

[Aristotle]

I swear I responded to this two days ago, but whatever... I just wanted to add, although I know it doesn't much matter, that I feel it would really hurt the game to see such an important supplement canned. D20 Modern is served best, in my opinion, by genre books that expand the potential of the game and better allow potential game masters the ability to run the campaigns they've envisioned without hours of haphazard house-ruling.

The recent books, while not ground breaking to everyone, have done this for several genres. I think the supers genre (and the many sub-genres it contains) is an important one among those that make up the basis for modern and postmodern campaign settings.

 

[CSgeekHero]

Well, I guess opinions vary as to who does stuff better.

I'm not sure what you have in mind as far as "retreads"...with a generic modern system, there are certain books that are sort of a given --- a sci-fi supplement, post-apocalypse, a book of weapons, some popular historical eras, etc. Inevitably, if WotC doesn't get there quick, someone else will get there first.

Maybe the book got pulled because the whole line has been underperforming...that's plausable. But based on Kenneth Hite's recent Out of the Box article about the extent to which WotC dominates the industry, I'm skeptical about 3rd party games stealing d20 Modern sales --- and I say that as both a fan and a designer of third party d20 products.

I respectfully disagree with your last sentence, not on the point of thrid party d20 publishers, but other publishers such as White Wolf, Steve Jackson Games, FanPro, and even Palladium. Look at this link to the Top 100 Games of 2005:link
d20 Modern did not make the list, but GURPS, Rifts, Shadowrun, and a couple of White Wolf products did make the list. Many gamers don't stick just with one system and those that do it is usually because it is popular(DnD) or fairly generic(GURPS). So, I think it is more of other systems stealing d20 Modern's sales. Particularly when you consider that d20 Past was so bad that you can get it for a song-and-a-dance and that hurt all supplements to follow. I never even bothered with looking at Cyberscape and I flipped through Future Tech and said, "Meh, it's bland like Milk of Magnesia."

To the people who are waiting for confirmation from WotC: I went to the d20 Modern main page in January of this year(2006) to see if they had anything on the main page for Future Tech and the Flash advertisement was still for d20 Past and d20 Apocalypse, which were both released in the first half of 2005. Now, they're advertising DnD products along with teasers for upcoming releases like Future Tech and Critical Locations. Plus, this wouldn't be the first time that they canceled a book so late in production. They also did it to the Star Wars RPG line with The Clone Wars Sourcebook.

 

[buzz]

FWIW, there are currently (as of this posting) two WotC d20M books in the Amazon.com Top 100 bestsellers in the Gaming category. I've been checking the list about 1-2 times a week for the last couple months. There is always some d20M product on the list.

I'd like to see the book (I put in a preorder). I don't know if I buy they'd cancel so close to release, but I don't have any info that says one way or the other.

 

[buzz]

Look at this link to the Top 100 Games of 2005:link
d20 Modern did not make the list, but GURPS, Rifts, Shadowrun, and a couple of White Wolf products did make the list.

This is a list of "...members of National Games Week... favorite games and the games played at their events." This list has nothing to do with sales or popularity. It's also mostly boardgames.

Many gamers don't stick just with one system and those that do it is usually because it is popular(DnD) or fairly generic(GURPS). So, I think it is more of other systems stealing d20 Modern's sales.

I think there's a host of speculation and synecdoche in that sentence. I also think the statement "most gamers don't stick with just one system" and the concept of "stealing sales" are mutually incompatible.