D20 Modern Spectaculars Canceled

[hobgoblin]

im picking up d20 modern books because i like the system, but am tired of fantasy.

so having a system that can do modern games, from every day to far future sci-fi to me is a must. if i could get superheroes on top of that, things would realy be interesting.

ok, sure, i could go gurps. but something about that system never ignited me the way d20 modern does. still, im a systems whore. if have the main books for atleast a dusin systems here. but only 2-3 of them go beyond that. those being d20 modern and shadowrun at the moment (and maybe witchcraft if i can get hold of two more in that series).

 

[C. Baize]

im picking up d20 modern books because i like the system, but am tired of fantasy.

so having a system that can do modern games, from every day to far future sci-fi to me is a must. if i could get superheroes on top of that, things would realy be interesting.

Blood and Vigilance is a supers tack on, right over the top of D20 Modern.
There are only a few new rules to learn.
How the Power Points work.
Origins.
Stunts.
Knockback.

And it's all super simple.
We've got a B&V game that's been going for a couple of years, now.
We do sort of a "round robin" GMing with it, that's reminiscent of different writers taking over the same comic book franchise for different story arcs.
Works pretty neat that way.

 

[CSgeekHero]

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.

Well, I never intended it to be taken as a barometer of sales. Dismissing it out of turn when it comes to popularity due to the fact that it is mostly boardgames is short-sighted. When I read Ken Hite's Out of the Box about the market share of different game companies then look at the mentioned list, there does appear to be a correlation in terms of popularity.

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.

Hmm, we seem to have a context disconnect here. The "most gamers don't stick with just one system" doesn't mean that I believed that they jump from system to system within one genre. For myself, and a few others I know, it is the idea of finding a system that they like for a particular genre and sticking with that system for that genre, then jumping systems for a different genre. For instance, someone might stick with Mutants and Masterminds for all their superhero gaming, but actually use HERO for pulp gaming. And so on. That is where it comes to stealing sales. I would never use d20 Modern/Future for a science fiction game. A hard sf game for me would feel best in GURPS, space opera style in HERO, Hard Nova][, or MnM depending on the level of crunch and tone of the campaign. When it comes to fantasy it is either DnD or Fantasy HERO, depending upon the campaign. So, looking at it in that way the two statements aren't mutually incompatible.
No offense meant to anyone.

 

[buzz]

Well, I never intended it to be taken as a barometer of sales. Dismissing it out of turn when it comes to popularity due to the fact that it is mostly boardgames is short-sighted. When I read Ken Hite's Out of the Box about the market share of different game companies then look at the mentioned list, there does appear to be a correlation in terms of popularity.

Okay, but I wanted to maek clear that the list was simply the results of a survey of games played during a sponsred event, not a list of best-selling titles or anything. I didn't see it as really relevant to the discussion.

Hmm, we seem to have a context disconnect here. The "most gamers don't stick with just one system" doesn't mean that I believed that they jump from system to system within one genre. For myself, and a few others I know, it is the idea of finding a system that they like for a particular genre and sticking with that system for that genre, then jumping systems for a different genre. For instance, someone might stick with Mutants and Masterminds for all their superhero gaming, but actually use HERO for pulp gaming. And so on. That is where it comes to stealing sales. I would never use d20 Modern/Future for a science fiction game. A hard sf game for me would feel best in GURPS, space opera style in HERO, Hard Nova][, or MnM depending on the level of crunch and tone of the campaign. When it comes to fantasy it is either DnD or Fantasy HERO, depending upon the campaign. So, looking at it in that way the two statements aren't mutually incompatible.
No offense meant to anyone.

Not saying there was offense, I'm saying that you can only speak to you own experience. You're attributing behaviors to gamers as a whole based on no real data. E.g., what you say above isn't true for me. I.e., there are assumptions being made.

 

[hobgoblin]

Blood and Vigilance is a supers tack on, right over the top of D20 Modern.
There are only a few new rules to learn.
How the Power Points work.
Origins.
Stunts.
Knockback.

And it's all super simple.
We've got a B&V game that's been going for a couple of years, now.
We do sort of a "round robin" GMing with it, that's reminiscent of different writers taking over the same comic book franchise for different story arcs.
Works pretty neat that way.

call me old-school but i prefer hardcopys...

or atleast until i can get hold of a e-ink based pdf viewer that allows me to see a whole page at a time...

 

[Wasgo]

call me old-school but i prefer hardcopys...

or atleast until i can get hold of a e-ink based pdf viewer that allows me to see a whole page at a time...

I would prefer hardcopies were it not for the fact that RPGObjects makes my favourite source books. They're cheaper, integrate well, and I always find them more fun than the WotC books. They're always really high quality, and I'd take them over an 'official' book any day of the week. Plus they always come with print versions that make the hardcopy dilemma a lot easier.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

Dang NDA.

I think I can safely say you won't be seeing Spectaculars in July. That doesn't mean you'll never see it, but I can't say you definitely will either.

The one thing I can say with absolutel certainty is that if the book never shows up, it's not because WotC decided to save money by doing freelancers dirty, as one poster suggested. WotC always pays for what it asks for, even if that book never gets used. I happen to know of at least one completed manuscript I wrote part of that has never seen light of day (and likely never will). I was paid in full, as was the other author on the book.

Also, the fact Spectaculars isn't showing up in July shouldn't be seen as a death knell for d20 modern in general. I'm not privvy to sales information or scheduling plans (and what I am privvy to I can't talk about), but the d20 Spectaculars issue isn't connected. While d20 Modern may or may not be selling like hotcakes, and may or may not have a robust set of releases in the near future, don't read anything into this one release not hitting shelves in 2 months.

I wish I could say more, but I don't know much and can't say what little I know. For those of you talking about looking for this book, apparently intently interested in what we've done with the mechanics, I thank you. Sorry, it won't be out in July. Hope we catch you later, on this or something else.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[jaerdaph]

Thanks, Owen.

Well, hopefully we will see it someday in some form or other. Hopefully it won't be too "mutated" from the original. In the meantime, I guess we'll just be "climbing the walls" waiting to see.

Flame o... err GAME on!

 

[C. Baize]

call me old-school but i prefer hardcopys...

or atleast until i can get hold of a e-ink based pdf viewer that allows me to see a whole page at a time...

*shrug*
A lot of people want hard copy.
We do, too.
That's why 3/4 of my D20 collection is in binders, with sheet protectors.

 

[hobgoblin]

well if i had access to a grayscale laser printer i would maybe go after the task of printing a 70+ page pdf. but right now i only have a ink-based printer, and one that cant be set to only print grayscale...