Corinth said:
With the two Counter Collections out there now, I think you folks at FDP can get away with leaving out the counters more often these days.
Yeah. There were certain realities about the counters being in every adventure that we have had to come to grips with. Original costs aside, one thing I discovered with Beyond All Reason is that its sorta tough to write a big, involved, high-level adventure with only the one counter sheet available. The price would go through the roof if we went with two sheets in order to do all the encounters justice. However, as you've said, with the two collections out now (and more to come), it felt like it was time.
There's still plenty of stuff we can "introduce" to our adventures though to set us apart. Increased page count is one, but there are other options as well. For instance, the upcoming "Revivify the Vivid" will feature an illustration booklet a la Tomb of Horrors. It'll also have plenty of new monsters and other crunchie bits that will add to the package. So, even though the counters may not be included, there'll be plenty of other things to look for.
I've been looking forward to this one since I first read about it. Then Queen of Lies by Monte himself. Could a Demon Lord be next? Can anyone remember G1-2-3,D1-2-3, and Q1; 3e style.
The homage to the Against the Giants/Decent into the Depths of the Earth happened all by accident. BAR's concept was developed before Monte came on, but once we found out about the subject matter of QoL, it was a no-brainer. BAR features fire giants (known as the Jirockk), but it also contains other giant types too, and even goes into giant culture and their history within Karathis. The Jirockk are not your regular, run-of-the-mill fire giants either. They are a fully realized society, including religion, family life, special "technologies" and so forth. They also like to burn things.
Anyway, back to the counters. Now that we've got the ball rolling, the emphasis will be on the Counter Collections. Pretty much all of the monsters in BAR are also in CC2, so we are trying to tie the adventures to the collections. Claudio has done an amazing job, and we're very pleased with the response. I couldn't imagine running a game without them. They're just so damn cool! Yeah!
Cheers!
