Arbiter of Wyrms
First Post
I confess to rabid fandom over just about any product that Monte puts out, but he has explicitely said on more than one occassion that he doesn't really have an interest in acquiring any liscence and just doesn't enjoy doing conversions. As much as I would like to see more Planescape material, I'm sure that if it does come, it won't be from Monte.
The largest product one RPG writer has ever done? It's not a module. If it were, it would be a pointless imitation of World's Largest Dungeon, and not worth doing in color, because color or black and white, it would be too expensive to sell more than a hundred copies. It's not another event book. They seem to have stopped, sadly enough.
I want to entertain the idea that it's a new system, but as Monte was integral to the design of 3rd edition and then designed AU/AE and no doubt had a hand in the creation of Iron Heroes, I don't see that a new system would be sufficiently different from these to warrant publication and if it were, it would likely be so different as to compromise sales.
So, we can be fairly sure that this new product will either be straight d20, AE, or Iron Heroes. I'm guessing straight d20, specifically D&D. I have a feeling that that is Malhavoc's bread and butter.
It won't be an adventure. What if it were a sourcebook? Racial? No. I don't see Monte doing a big book of races Dwarves, Litorians. . . nothing really works from a business standpoint nor does it look like it would be a large enough project to justify the earlier remark. Classes? Eldritch Might one, two, three, complete, Hallowed Might one and two. Iron Might. Roguish Luck. What does that leave? The Book of Leafy Might? No. Sorry. I don't see it. So, no class book.
No new game system. No racial or class sourcebook. I don't see him hedging in on the environment series. Ptolus is a possibility, perhaps, but a slim one. As another poster pointed out already, The Banewarrens provided enough of a rough sketch that if you're desperate to run a game in Monte's homebrew, you can just use that and infer from the campaign journal on his website.
A monster book. Well, Monte did say one time that he makes more monsters than he uses from published settings, but Legacy of the Dragons just came out, really, and it doesn't seem to have shattered any sales records. Why put the money into a shiny new color bestiary?
I really can't guess what he's got up his sleeve, but I think he's been playing this one close to the chest for a long time. I think that that's why he hired Mike Mearls in the first place. Mike is an excellent designer, and hyper-prolific to boot. His game sensabilities seem similar, or at least compatible with Monte's, so Monte and Sue were sitting around the kitchen table after a game one night and Monte said to Sue "I'd really like to design X. That'd be cool!" and so Sue asks
"Why don't you?"
"It would take forever. I wouldn't be able to write anything else for a year!"
"So, don't write anything else for a year. The whole reason you left Wizards was to write what you wanted, right?"
"Yeah, but Malhavoc can't survive a whole year without new new products. How would we pay for Marley's food?"
"So hire somebody. Bruce and Sean and Skip have all written for Malhavoc. We could just hire some people to write other Malhavoc-y products while you work on X."
"We can't hire a whole writing staff. What we need is a caffiene-powered robot."
or not. who knows?
Oh! and by the way, whatever happened with Monte Cook Presents the Best of d20?" Did that come out during finals week and I missed it or what? Was it cancelled?
The largest product one RPG writer has ever done? It's not a module. If it were, it would be a pointless imitation of World's Largest Dungeon, and not worth doing in color, because color or black and white, it would be too expensive to sell more than a hundred copies. It's not another event book. They seem to have stopped, sadly enough.
I want to entertain the idea that it's a new system, but as Monte was integral to the design of 3rd edition and then designed AU/AE and no doubt had a hand in the creation of Iron Heroes, I don't see that a new system would be sufficiently different from these to warrant publication and if it were, it would likely be so different as to compromise sales.
So, we can be fairly sure that this new product will either be straight d20, AE, or Iron Heroes. I'm guessing straight d20, specifically D&D. I have a feeling that that is Malhavoc's bread and butter.
It won't be an adventure. What if it were a sourcebook? Racial? No. I don't see Monte doing a big book of races Dwarves, Litorians. . . nothing really works from a business standpoint nor does it look like it would be a large enough project to justify the earlier remark. Classes? Eldritch Might one, two, three, complete, Hallowed Might one and two. Iron Might. Roguish Luck. What does that leave? The Book of Leafy Might? No. Sorry. I don't see it. So, no class book.
No new game system. No racial or class sourcebook. I don't see him hedging in on the environment series. Ptolus is a possibility, perhaps, but a slim one. As another poster pointed out already, The Banewarrens provided enough of a rough sketch that if you're desperate to run a game in Monte's homebrew, you can just use that and infer from the campaign journal on his website.
A monster book. Well, Monte did say one time that he makes more monsters than he uses from published settings, but Legacy of the Dragons just came out, really, and it doesn't seem to have shattered any sales records. Why put the money into a shiny new color bestiary?
I really can't guess what he's got up his sleeve, but I think he's been playing this one close to the chest for a long time. I think that that's why he hired Mike Mearls in the first place. Mike is an excellent designer, and hyper-prolific to boot. His game sensabilities seem similar, or at least compatible with Monte's, so Monte and Sue were sitting around the kitchen table after a game one night and Monte said to Sue "I'd really like to design X. That'd be cool!" and so Sue asks
"Why don't you?"
"It would take forever. I wouldn't be able to write anything else for a year!"
"So, don't write anything else for a year. The whole reason you left Wizards was to write what you wanted, right?"
"Yeah, but Malhavoc can't survive a whole year without new new products. How would we pay for Marley's food?"
"So hire somebody. Bruce and Sean and Skip have all written for Malhavoc. We could just hire some people to write other Malhavoc-y products while you work on X."
"We can't hire a whole writing staff. What we need is a caffiene-powered robot."
or not. who knows?
Oh! and by the way, whatever happened with Monte Cook Presents the Best of d20?" Did that come out during finals week and I missed it or what? Was it cancelled?
