I wonder what the 3rd party publishers, who are dependant on WotC think?

[Mark]

I plan on being a 3rd p4rty publisher myself

Well played, sir!

 

[Erik Mona]

I'm wondering whether Paizo will go ahead and publish all their setting books for Pathfinder as planned in Q1 2008.

Or will they postpone them a few months and bring them out in 4.0?

Nothing about our announced release schedule changes in any way. The Q1 2008 products we've announced outside of Pathfinder are rules-light, anyway. There will not be a lot of "crunch" in the Guide to Korvosa, the Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer, or in Classic Monsters Revisited, so I really don't see the edition change as such a big problem.

As for what we'll do about 4e _after_ April 2008, that's a good question.

And a question I'm not prepared to answer until I see a final draft of the new SRD and the new rules system itself.

I trust and expect that it will be an improvement. I know the guys working on it, and these are smart guys.

I also am currently of the opinion that, if anything, the new SRD/OGL will be _more_ permissive than the current one, which would certainly be an argument in favor of conversion.

But none of us, readers or publishers, have enough information to make an informed business decision yet, and that's unlikely to change for the very near future.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

 

[Erik Mona]

I'll be happy if Paizo releases two pathfinder adventure paths for 3.5 before the switch, so I'll have lots of stuff to play while others are switching over.

Prepare to be happy, then, because the first two Adventure Paths will, for sure, be for 3.5. We can't very well publish an Adventure Path for a game that hasn't even been released yet!

--Erik

 

[Aus_Snow]

I feel sorry for those of you with those 3E books that are not compatible with 4E. At least with me, and my Castles and Crusades rules set, I'll be in a position to use anything I like from any edition. So, just like I do with 3E, anything I like in 4E I'll be able to use in my game.

Um. You jest, surely.

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Good job, Erik Mona! I know you will do great things at Paizo in the future with 4E, I imagine. I thought your editorial and the whole issue of the final issue of Dragon is outstanding. Im looking forward to the 3.5E products you have in the schedule as well!

Thank you!

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[JVisgaitis]

Now the question is do they go with 4th and try to tap into the new market that D&D is creating or stay with 3.5.

Provided the rules are well written and everything makes sense, I don't think you will see a lot of publishers sticking with 3.5. You go with the market and though I know there will be some people who stay with 3.5, there will be tons more who move on to 4e.

We purposely held off releasing anything since last year because of the anticipated switch to 4e. Unless the new rules are totally bunk (and I like almost everything I've read so far), we'll be switching to 4e and finally getting Violet Dawn out to the masses.

As to rehashes on old material, I think it would be better for companies to come up with new products as opposed to re-inventing old ones. You probably won't see another Denizens of Avadnu from us in 4e at least until after we get some new material out there.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Over at Dark Quest, they are basically just rolling up their sleeves and getting ready to work.

 

[Roudi]

I also am currently of the opinion that, if anything, the new SRD/OGL will be _more_ permissive than the current one, which would certainly be an argument in favor of conversion.

Now that would be interesting... you're the first I've seen who's suggested the new edition might actually provide more to the 4rd party market than less. The next few months will be intriguing indeed.

 

[William Ronald]

I am glad to see that we will have some support for 4th Edition among other companies. There have been many great products released under 3.0 and 3.5, and I expect that this will be the case for 4th Edition.

I suspect that we will see adventures first, although I wonder if we will see any company release a monster book before WotC releases the Monster Manual. Also, I hope we will see updates to 4th Edition for such great products as Arcana Evolved and Hamunaptra, as well as Freeport.

While people may be uncertain about the rules, I think developers will have an idea what roles monsters and NPCs will have in adventures. So, I think the publishers will be ready to meet the demands of the gaming public. I hope that the publishers will soon get more info on the SRD and OGL, as I realize that this is a big change.

 

[thundershot]

If Paizo and/or Goodman Games start up a new run of 4E adventures, I'll be there. I stopped with the 3.5 adventures because we got burned out on 3.5. 4E is getting me excited about playing again.



Chris