Eric Noah's Info

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I'm waiting for Grim Tales 2e rumors and news. Or maybe Grim Tales: Revised and Expanded.

Not me. I hear it'll just have a little coin-box that you have to keep feeding money into every 15 minutes to play, and that the miniatures will be made out of sugar so that they'll have to be replaced every time it rains or someone gets hungry.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Hasbro's benchmark for success ($) and my personal benchmark for success (more people to play D&D with) are not actually divergent.

But if D&D evolves into a game you don't like, you're going to have lots of people playing something you don't want to play.

 

[EricNoah]

the miniatures will be made out of sugar so that they'll have to be replaced every time it rains or someone gets hungry.

Um, scary -- one of my groups literally almost played D&D with gummi bears instead of minis the other night.

See, now that's what WotC needs to get into. Edible minis and maybe edible rules printed on fruit roll-ups!

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The real bellwether of 4th Ed will be when you see current WotC employees putting their houses on the market in anticipation of the inevitable purge.

 

[Faraer]

Hasbro's benchmark for success ($) and my personal benchmark for success (more people to play D&D with) are not actually divergent.

Wargames and RPG-wargame hybrids aren't more popular than RPGs, they're just more expensive and thus more profitable per player.

 

[SteveC]

WotC can end the d20 license, but not the OGL. They don't have to use the OGL to use their own material, however -- and everything WotC has done with the D&D name is their material.

Arcana Evolved, Iron Heros, Mutants & Masterminds, and Conan are all OGL games that won't be affected (legally) by 4e. Conan, Iron Heros, and Arcana Evolved are all very similar to core D&D.

That's certainly true. What I'm thinking is that unless 4E is VERY different from 3.5, there is nothing that wotc can do to stop people from making OGL products that are compatible with the new edition. Unless there are some serious changes coming in 4E, the odds that the content in it would not be based on current open content somewhere are long. Change the ability scores to bonus only and make combat options all skills? There are already multiple open products out there that do just that.

So if I'm putting out Steve4E, the new OGL property, the odds that I can't make it computable with the real 4E and be in perfectly good legal standing are long. Now I can't advertise it as such, but the worst we could do is get back to the situation with Mayfair games from years back.

That's the thing I'm wondering about: ultimately does it matter if D&D 4E is open or not? If I can make an OGL game that's computable with it, I don't think that it does matter what wotc does at all.

--Steve

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

What I'm thinking is that unless 4E is VERY different from 3.5, there is nothing that wotc can do to stop people from making OGL products that are compatible with the new edition.

I think you're correct.

 

[philreed]

That's the thing I'm wondering about: ultimately does it matter if D&D 4E is open or not? If I can make an OGL game that's computable with it, I don't think that it does matter what wotc does at all.

You can release a game that's compatible with any other RPG on the market today -- game rules cannot be copyrighted, just the exact expression of those rules.

The challenge is in how you promote your product to the right crowd.

 

[Sammael]

With the number of books on the calendar, I'm not sure if they have the manpower available for a full-out, on-the-shelf-next-year development.

Most of those books list freelancers as authors. Also, the lack of editing quality and playtesting in recent (last 2 years or so) WotC titles indicates that their editing and playtesting resources may have been reassigned to other projects. Finally, Mearls was brought over to R&D as a developer, and he's hinted about the amount of time he spends developing miniatures and miniature-related products (Fantastic Locations, etc.).

As for SteveC's question about the minis market, there are actually three overlapping markets for D&D miniatures: role-players, collectors, and skirmishers. I know only one single person who buys minis and doesn't play the RPG. On the other hand, I know lots and lots of people who buy minis only to use as RPG props and have zero interest in skirmish. In fact, there is one really solid proof about the skirmish game not being popular enough for WotC's liking: rather than pushing DDM any further as a tournament game, WotC is introducing a new miniatures game - Dreamblade - as their future tournament flagship, with a $20,000 tournament going on at GenCon this year. DDM has never had that much prize support. In fact, prize support for DDM this year has been reduced from last year.

There is one other strong argument that can be made against the prevalence of minis in 4E: D&D miniatures quality is on the decline. Heavily so. There have been problems with sculpts, paintjobs, illegaly leaked information and photos, packaging, randomness issues, typos on cards, typos on posters, torn maps, maps with erros, and so on, and so fourth. Furthermore, the booster price is set to increase next Spring, and many serious collectors have stated that they plan to reduce their purchases. Minis are too expensive for kids to buy as is; I firmly believe that it is the multi-case-buying collectors who have been driving the market, and if they stop buying, the game is dead.

Finally, previous DDM lead designer Mike Donais and other members of the team have been moved to the Dreamblade team, with Stephen Schubert taking the lead role of DDM. I very much doubt that they'd change the leadership and downsize the team if they were putting so much focus on minis as Eric's initial post implied.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

IF there is a 4e soon, and IF it isn't OGL, and IF you're not going to switch, AND if you need an influx of professional, balanced game content to keep enjoying your existing 3/3.5 games, you still need not fear.

I'll happily write and sell them to you.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman