D20 Vaporware

[Nellisir]

I always wondered what happened to Dragonfist. I know it went to Green Ronin, but then nothing ever happened with it.

I think Chris Pramas mentioned it in his "what's happening in 2005" announcement/speech thingy, so don't write it off yet.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[PatrickLawinger]

Necro vaporware?

<Clip>
Necromancer's City of Brass is still being worked on, as is the Wilderlands boxed set, but they're both so long overdue that I'm sure some see them as vaporware (but I still have faith in Clark and the rest of the Necro gang).

Yeah, we got overly ambitious on a few things and didn't have a good idea of how big some projects would really be. Sometimes we also schedule releases around particular dates.
Wilderlands Boxed Set is in layout now and should be out for GenCon and the present September 2005 release date
City of Brass - art is ordered and is in editing (yeah, yeah, I'll get it to Mike in a week or so). CoB should be out in Nov/Dec 2005
Both of these took longer than we'd like to think about, but in the end, these are both incredible products. Now, the big "vaporware" accusation I expected against us here was Bard's Gate. This book will come out as well. We just published CSIO last year and have to time our releases so that we don't compete with guys like Monte, SSS, etc.

In defense of other companies (as well as Necro), I think a lot of companies got excited about products and announced them WAY earlier than they should have. Some projects just get much larger than one originally expected. The Wilderlands Boxed Set, for example, is gigantic and the expenses of the maps, etc. are gargantuan. Another factor is market conditions, at least for print publishers, the demand for d20 products in general and small books (like smaller adventures) has gone down considerably. If a distributor says, "eh" about a product, it probably isn't going to get made, at least not in print. What happens if you print a great book and nobody buys it? Um, you go out of business and don't write any more books. Market realities altered some of our plans and schedules and I know they have done the same to other publishers.

Now, I know some people started out strong, but then the realities of how much work they had to do hit, along with a shrinking market and other factors, and they simply stopped working on them. There are some products announced a few years ago that I'd love to see, but that is simply a fact of life

You notice that most companies now only announce things when the project is almost complete (although this can still be months away from release) simply due to bad experiences.

We're trying guys ...

Patrick (one of those Necromancer Games guys)

 

[reveal]

My group and I playtested Odyssey Prime for Eden Studios.

http://www.edenstudios.net/odysseyprime/news.html

It still has yet to hit the streets.

 

[Twowolves]

Now, the big "vaporware" accusation I expected against us here was Bard's Gate. This book will come out as well. We just published CSIO last year and have to time our releases so that we don't compete with guys like Monte, SSS, etc.

I have always LOVED just about anything Necromancer Games has touched, so I was very excited about Bard's Gate in the early days. I still ran a bit of a hack'n'slash with the Rappan Athuk/Abysthor adventures anyway, and their woeb support was THE standard to follow, in my opinion. If they had been able to strike while the d20 iron was still hot and get Bard's Gate, Vampires & Liches, Dragons & Giants, etc etc stuff out, even if it was just a gazeteer (like Scarred Lands had) it would have probably cemented their place on top of the d20 hill, instead of being another tree in the forest.

Still, love everything you guys do, and have purchased everything I could with the infamous Orcus logo on it! Keep it up!

Twowolves Howling

 

[philreed]

I'm probably listening to KMFDM Radio so that may affect the tone of my posts depending on the beats per second.

You, sir, are my new god. I never even knew that site existed.

Can everyone guess what I'm listening to now?

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

Ed Greenwood's Castlemorn campaign setting.

 

[Droogie]

My group and I playtested Odyssey Prime for Eden Studios.

http://www.edenstudios.net/odysseyprime/news.html

It still has yet to hit the streets.

Although it wasn't vaporware, I was a little miffed that Fields of Blood didn't really turn out to have everything it originally promised: Originally advertised management rules for realms as small as a single tower to "mighty empires" or something to that affect. Was also disappointed to see the rules for running NPC kingdoms were MIA upon the books release.

 

[tsadkiel]

The Dangerous Land of Zo by New Retro Games, dagnabbit. I even offered to playtest, but the company disappeared instead.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Now, the big "vaporware" accusation I expected against us here was Bard's Gate.

Forgot about that one. Add it to my list.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Black Powder Gods - a campaign setting that ened up being just a single adventure...

The Auld Grump