D20 Modern Spectaculars Canceled

drothgery · May 16, 2006

arscott said:
I was going to wait for confirmation before I started ranting. Wizards has always struck me as on-top-of-things enough to not let a book get this far down the production line before axing it.

Wouldn't it be pretty much at the printers by this point?

With an Amazon release date of Jul 11 (it's still listed on Amazon, FWIW), I'd think that would be the case. Heck, I'd think that the only thing that would keep it from coming out at this point would be a court injunction preventing WotC from selling it; even if they'd decided that making the book was a bad move, at this point everything has been paid for so they might as well at least try to recoup their costs.

PoppaGunch · May 17, 2006

Today was the first I had heard of it. I received it from Alliance Games Distributors in their daily newsletter. I hope it is simply a miscommunication. I was actually looking forward to it.

Stormborn · May 17, 2006

drothgery said:
With an Amazon release date of Jul 11 (it's still listed on Amazon, FWIW), I'd think that would be the case. Heck, I'd think that the only thing that would keep it from coming out at this point would be a court injunction preventing WotC from selling it; even if they'd decided that making the book was a bad move, at this point everything has been paid for so they might as well at least try to recoup their costs.

Thats what I'm thinking. Of course it could also have been rescheduled for any number of reasons. Its still listed in the d20 M products on WotC's site, but I'm waiting for an official annoucement from Wizards. I hope it comes out. Even if you have no intent of playign supers, its essentially just another way to do FX and could work for a variant magic system or almost anythign.

Arashi Ravenblade · May 17, 2006

Aw that sucks!

JPL · May 17, 2006

This doesn't add up. Maybe it's just being rescheduled?

I don't buy the "fear of M&M" explanation. Spycraft didn't stop them from releasing d20 Modern. Adventure! and Sidewinder didn't stop them from releasing d20 Past.

I don't buy the "lack of interest" explanation. Has WotC ever cancelled a project because a handful of Internet nerds diss it sight unseen?

I don't buy the "Marvel rights" explanation --- why not use Spectaulars as a large-scale playtest? --- although I supposed they could've drafted the license to preclude WotC from putting out a "competing" supers RPG.

The Lost Muse · May 17, 2006

JPL said:
I don't buy the "fear of M&M" explanation. Spycraft didn't stop them from releasing d20 Modern.

Didn't d20 Modern come out before Spycraft?

HeapThaumaturgist · May 17, 2006

I think Spycraft was first. Spycraft was d20 and not long after the WP/VP system of SWd20. VP/WP came out in that, got some good praise, and Spycraft used it under special deal with WotC before it got released as OGC in Unearthed Arcana.

--fje

Henry · May 17, 2006

Spycraft was first released, by only a few months (both have a 2002 date, and Modern was released in I believe October or November).

It's a surprise to me; Forum poster Vigilance convinced me of the validity of such a product, because d20 Modern users would find more use in a seamless integration, unlike what M&M would give, and also M&M leaves lots of room for other genres, such as more "grim" versions of super-powers, because M&M, both with the Damage Save and with Hit Points, strikes me as pretty four-color with not a lot of room for "deadly grim."

I know my favorite system would be M&M, but others could certainly get use out of an official WotC supers product. OTOH, the best thing possible for them would be to marry it to an existing license, such as Marvel, in order to increase the purchaser base.