EN Worlder gets cover credit on Mordenkainen's: how'd that happen?

[Tav_Behemoth]

Since the EN Worlder in question is me I know part of this story - back in '08 I applied for a game designer position posted at the WotC site, and James Wyatt liked the design test portion of my application and took a chance on me - thanks man! Thanks also to Mike Mearls for later assigning me such a hefty chunk of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium.

Thanks also to Eytan Bernstein for bringing me in on a project he had from Joseph Goodman to write versions of the classic classes that were missing from 4E at launch; to Joseph who was open to Eytan's suggestion to bring in more authors from our playtest group; and to Greg Tito and Brian Cortijo, the other two guys with whom I developed the class and power design and playtesting skills that would later make my design test stand out.

OK but the part I don't know about is: how did Mordenkainen's get back on the release schedule? When its cancellation was announced I resigned myself to never having my name on the cover of an honest-to-goodness official Dungeons & Dragons book. And because Greg and I have been so busy running the non-stop demo of our new thing Adventurer Conqueror King, I haven't had time to keep up with the Gen Con news happening outside my little bubble. What's the word on this and any other changes to future 4E books?

 

[Estlor]

This popped up in a Rule of Three about a month ago.

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Rule-of-Three: 07/18/2011)

Basically, it was "canceled" because they decided to do some additional playtesting/revisions on it before release. Supposedly it's a Hobby/Game Store exclusive, but I'd be shocked if it doesn't turn up at Amazon and other similar online retailers.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

This popped up in a Rule of Three about a month ago...
Basically, it was "canceled" because they decided to do some additional playtesting/revisions on it before release.

Thanks for the link! Freelancers are often the last to know.

It's possible the need for additional revisions was my fault. I spoke to someone at the booth who said they were waiting until it was the best book possible to release it. I know I was late on my turnover and didn't hit some of my assignment targets - I didn't think my portion was important enough for my problems to pull the book off the release schedule, but if I wasn't the only freelancer who created problems for them maybe it was trouble on the getting it written end rather than the "OMG WotC is cancelling 4E support" thing people took it as.

 

[keterys]

At one point WotC decided that they weren't releasing stuff in a sufficiently polished and tested state - and they sought out playtesters and created a playtesting group over on the WotC forums. You can occasionally see posts from them on the WotC forums, with a little beholder icon on the people:

So, yeah, plenty of testing going on - alas, all under NDA, so no real ability to respond to things like "The system is ending, they cancelled everything and we'll see 5e at Gen Con! Woe and lawks!"

Congratz on your name seeing the light, man

 

[Estlor]

It's possible the need for additional revisions was my fault.

From the perspective of a fan of the 4e system (and a gearhead when it comes to RPG rules) - no worries. We're at the point where 4e has become robust and mature enough that there are lots of things you have to keep in mind when building and designing. It's very easy to forget something or have something develop unintended consequences when released into the wild.

Especially if you go kitchen sink and mix stuff from FR, Eberron, and Dark Sun together in one campaign.

 

[sfgray]

I was one of the other designers on Mordenkainen's, and am equally pleased that it wound up back on the schedule. But speaking as a mostly-editor for Wizards, i can assure Tavis that it takes a lot more than a bit of late turnover to mess with a book's production schedule. As a fellow lowly freelancer, i don't have any other information on the decision-making. However, my suspicion is that it probably had to do with just wanting more time for development than was available in the immediate aftermath of the Essentials launch.

 

[vagabundo]

Congrats all. Looks like a good book

I'll be honest I came into this thread thinking that it was about me. I've never written anything for WotC, that's how egocentric I am!!