ELEMENTAL EVIL Player's Companion - FREE!

The Elemental Evil Player's Companion is available for free download over at DTRPG (and RPGNow). It includes new races (aarakocra, deep gnome, genasi, and goliath) and ove 40 new spells. The PDF is a full-colour 25-page PDF; according to the first page, the genasi in chapter 1 and all of the spells in chapter 2 also appear in the appendices of Princes of the Apocalypse, the adventure due to hit store shelves very soon.

"Not inherently evil, elemental power can be mastered by those with both malevolent and benign intentions. The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion provides everything players need to build a character that is tied directly into the Elemental Evil storyline.

New race options include the aarakocra, deep gnome, genasi, and goliath. Additionally, a plethora of new spells put the elements directly at your command.

The Elemental Evil Player’s Companion, was original designed by Richard Baker, Robert J. Schwalb and Stephen Schubert, with additional design and development by Wizards D&D R&D.

This accessory is specifically meant to support the Elemental Evil–Princes of the Apocalypse adventure product."

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[SkidAce]

Why are you still arguing, Majoru?

People got pissed. It's bad customer service to piss off your customers.

Ergo, Mearls handled it badly.

Who's actually right or wrong has nothing to do with it.

Customers have reasonable expectations that must be met by a business.

But if they are wrong they are wrong.

 

[CapnZapp]

I have no problem with people saying "I don't like that they cancelled the book! I wanted it!" Sure. You wanted it, you are pissed. Completely understandable. I wanted the book, too. I was very disappointed that it wasn't coming out. I was looking forward to some new class features. I want more choices for my elemental monk.

However, that's not what people are saying. They are saying that Mearls handled it wrong. There is absolutely NOTHING he could of said that wouldn't have had at least some people on the internet pissed. The book got cancelled and he was the guy in charge. If he had said "Yes, we cancelled it" someone would be yelling at him because of how callous he was in answering so curtly. If he said "I'm sorry, we decided to cancel it" someone would be saying "I eagerly anticipated that book for months and all he can say is 'I'm sorry'? What a jerk!"

He handled it the best way he could given the circumstances he was in.

People control their own reactions. Blaming other people for the way you are feeling is just plain stupid. Mearls didn't make you pissed. You decided to get pissed all on your own. You can just as easily decide not to be pissed anymore.

But if you need to stay pissed, then at least acknowledge that you are pissed about the book being cancelled and not about the theoretically circumstances of a book being officially announced or not officially announced before it was cancelled or about the semantics of some guy on the internet.

Sorry but my point is that
1) people got pissed specifically about how Mearls handled it
And
2) you need to accept that having pissed off customers is bad, no matter what you did or didn't do.

Either way, Mearls loses. If he had been less of a smartaleck, perhaps he could have avoiding that.

That is the point and no matter how reasonable you think he is, or how unfair you feel it is, is going to change the fact that he pissed off his customers.

End of story.

 

[weldon]

I think it's kinda weird to hold Mearls feet to the fire for an offhand reply to a question from someone he knows on Twitter. It's not like he issued a statement on behalf of the company. It's not like he used an official company account to comment on the matter. When he realized others were watching, he went on to elaborate a bit more to give a larger context for the decision. I think he did fine.

I kinda like this world where we have semi-access to people involved in creating products we like. I really dislike this attitude that we are allowed to crucify them for anything they say on their private accounts even when it was only said in reply to one person (but in a way where others could listen in).

 

[Coredump]

In combination with their other web articles, sure. Provided they do it monthly.

Edit: And no, I don't expect them to "do it monthly", nor indeed do I think it would be reasonable to expect them to do such a thing. It is, after all, free.

I think it would be *horrible* to have something like the EE players companion come out monthly. That is just *way* more crunch bloating up the system than I want to deal with.

 

[delericho]

I think it would be *horrible* to have something like the EE players companion come out monthly.

No, I agree that wouldn't be good. But *if* they wanted that sort of thing to be an replacement for Dragon, then monthly releases would be needed.

Because there are two big strengths of the Dragon format. The first is the range of material - much of it was pretty niche and would never show up in 99% of campaigns, but that didn't matter so much because of the range of it; they only needed to provide enough for each individual customer.

And the other strength was the monthly nature of the thing. By giving regular drops of information (and regular drops of a fairly meaty chunk of information) they gave people things to get into, to discuss, and generally to remain engaged with the game over.

Don't get me wrong - this guide is great for what it is, and especially for being free. It's just not a substitute for Dragon. (Which isn't, actually, a criticism - after all, it isn't intended to be such a thing.)

 

[Nellisir]

I know at my job we have the same attitude. I have to say absolutely nothing about what I'm working on to anyone.

I worked for a company that does custom-designed, volunteer-built playgrounds. Two of us would fly to the jobsite on Tuesday, meet with the people in charge, and Wednesday at 7AM volunteers would start showing up. We'd work Wednesday to Sunday afternoon, the goal being obviously to complete the build in that time.

The #1 question we were asked is "Will it be done?", to which I would reply "ask me Saturday night". On Saturday, I'd tell them to ask me tomorrow.

(Chances are, if you knew or know a large, amazing, wooden playground, they built it. I think there's probably still one every 30 miles or so along the East Coast, from Maine to Florida. They've built in all 50 states, plus the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, and a few other countries. Best job ever.)

 

[Kramodlog]

Apple doesn't care. They never announced a product and, to them, it doesn't exist until it is officially announced.

Of course it can. It is a fact that Sasquatch Games work on the splatbook for WotC. The content of the book exist. We even got a piece of it for free this week. Art was made for it. Cover and interior art. We saw them. They exist. WotC made an ad copy for it. We saw them. I mean this is just denial at this point.

 

[Kramodlog]

You should read the stuff I posted from Twitter today where Mearls responded to my request for information about this. He explains it was not an intentional leak, that they don't do intentional leaks, and it was stuff they showed a distributor, and they often show distributors stuff that isn't a finished plan and even entire lines that are never made. I thought you had read that earlier when you were responding. I guess you missed it.

I saw it. So I means it was supposed to be made public since leaks aren't permitted. I woudn't call it an official announcement though. On that point I agree with Mearls.

 

[BryonD]

I think you meant UNfair.

No I meant fair.

If someone thinks dealing with the public is based on "fairness" then they don't get dealing with the public and should not be doing it.

The only interaction I saw was them saying basically, "Huh? What? We never announced that!" That's not what I'd call interaction that's not standing up. If you have something different, I'd like to see it.

It is not about you. It is not about me. It is about managing overall PR.

What mistake? Let's say someone illegally stole the cover. Is that a WOTC mistake?

So ENWorld has an illegally stolen WotC property for weeks and they are oblivious? Yes, that is a huge PR mistake.

Wait, WHERE is your evidence that they "let" the cover be out? That's the entire unknown of this matter, and you're assuming it's known? Show me that proof.

What remote difference does this make to the PR question?

No the nefarious part is your description of it being a fast one. You're the only one who used that description, not "any" disagreement just your particular choice of disagreement.

I pulled a quarter out of my nephew's ear this weekend. His dad told him I had pulled a "fast one".
Your efforts to force a definition on the situation does nothing to change the PR being discussed.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

It was also just a joke that Mearls made as they never announced the product. Also almost no one was annoyed by this they were just curious.