Interview with Scott Rouse, Chris Perkins & Bill Slavicsek

[Teflon Billy]

=Bill Slaviscek]I also want to take a moment to quell some related rumors. D&D is not going away. In no way do our plans call for the end of face-to-face tabletop gaming. We are not making an MMORPG. We will continue to produce printed, for-sale, published products.

I do wonder why they specifically eliminated the concerns about MMORPG's, but made no comment similarly discounting the concerns about a "Collectible" model for D&D...despite it's appearance in the questions at about the same rate.

Actually, I don't have to wonder too hard. :\

 

[daemonslye]

Scott/Linae, appreciate the continued discourse.

I keep coming back to one pertinent fact. WOTC cancelled the magazines. I'd love to see any info you'd like to share on the market data that shows your customers preferring online to print. However, I suspect the decision had little to do with customer preference.

I also appreciate that you have been flexible with Paizo regarding the announcement date & extension. But, again, WOTC cancelled the magazines. If I'm wrong here, and the terms to Paizo to extend the license remained the same, please let us know or allow Erik to tell us why he "mutually agreed" to lapse the license.

So, am I interested in the new WOTC digital push? Moderately.

Am I MORE interested in your Print Initiative? Heck yes!

So - enough of this DI business. You probably can't talk about it anyway ("jibbe jabba" indeed). Let's hear about your Print Initiative. Lets discuss what we want out of that:

- Ongoing Print Periodical for Players and DM's - could include adventures in it's format or adventures could be in a separate periodical.
- In some recurring form, Print Adventures with great artwork that includes content from long-time and new writers side-by-side; Getting 1 to 3 large (and $$$) adventures per month does not meet the need. (needless to say, neither does logging in, downloading, printing, and worrying about the digital format expiring)
- Better tie in's across multiple adventures - e.g. Make the adventures smaller, cheaper, quicker in release and give tie ins across multiple - Remember the "A" series? The "G", "D", and "Q" (yes, I have "Demonweb Pits/2007" - Sorry, just not a fan of the Planescape/flavor of the planes; Things get treated a little too "day-to-day": Ho Hum, we are going to another plane. Again...)
- Rigorous playtesting across all Complete books. The "power-level" has been climbing again. We don't need a 4E to fix it. We just need some good quality assurance. Lots of folks around here can help!
- I might be a minority, but I would buy a few updated/errated books for 3.5 e.g. Savage Species (updated to tone it down a bit), Fiend Folio, etc.
- Greyhawk Hardcover (!!)
- Hardcover adventure-path for Age of Worms, and later Savage-Tide (if you REALLY are friends with Paizo - Let them publish these).
- Lots more when I have more time. Others - Jump in!

I'll keep my $$'s to going to other companies until then. Getting my various groups right now looking at Iron Heroes (which seems fairly cool actually).

~D

 

[caudor]

A thought...if I ask a very general question maybe you can answer without getting in NDA troubles. Worth a try (but don't even try to answer if you think it might get you in trouble)

I like D&D and live in Texas. My son likes D&D and lives in Ohio. We sure wish we could play D&D together. Might there be anything in the DI that I might get excited about?

Thanks.

 

[Razz]

A thought...if I ask a very general question maybe you can answer without getting in NDA troubles. Worth a try (but don't even try to answer if you think it might get you in trouble)

I like D&D and live in Texas. My son likes D&D and lives in Ohio. We sure wish we could play D&D together. Might there be anything in the DI that I might get excited about?

Thanks.

Actually I DM my old gaming buddies using the Internet. There is a way to accomplish this for free and with minimal costs in gear.

We use OPEN RPG at www.openrpg.com for the room server, chat, and real-time dice rolling (to prevent fudges, of course). Free program to use.

I use Campaign Cartographer to make the battlemaps, upload them onto my Geocities account as a JPG, then display the battlemap on OPEN RPG for all to see, because OPEN RPG has that cool feature (it also has a sound feature to play sounds or music for all in the room to hear and nice and clear, too). I do this every turn or every round. Doesn't take too much time if you leave a browser open on Geocities for quick and easy uploading. I suggest purchasing CC2 Pro along with Dungeon Designer and City Designer. Would cost about $70.

We use Teamspeak and headsets to talk to each other and, of course, RP through it. That's free. What's neat is no one can see anyone else's character sheet and private messages can be sent between a player and DM without anyone else knowing. Headsets are between $20 and $35.

There are disadvantages. Nothing beats personal tabletop RPing and nothing beats actually rolling the colorful dice in your hands, letting it go, and watching the suspense build up. But other than that, it works out great. Better than no D&D at all, I say.

 

[Sledge]

Quick question, since the interview revealed that people at WotC are currently experiencing the same emotions as the community, how long have they known about it? Was this decision kept secret internally?

Regarding names, I'm assuming that WotC will be very careful to use them in such a way as to maintain the trademarks.

 

[caudor]

Thanks Razz!

 

[crazy_cat]

So I can't have print magazines then? How about a pony?

 

[SnowRaven]

In response to Devyn you said:

I'm glad you recognize that, but I'm still spectacularly pissed off by the halting of my beloved magazines in print, and I can't imagine anything that I'd like to have online instead. So it's a loss for me no matter how I look at it. I'm more than happy with the magazines and in a few months they'll be gone for me...

My read of it isn't that the DI is for everyone, but rather that for those that don't want internet stuff, there will still be plenty of D&D print products, including compilations of the online material.

 

[daemonslye]

So I can't have print magazines then? How about a pony?

Oooh. Yeah - Maybe even a So Soft Pinkie Pie Pony! (http://www.hasbro.com/default.cfm?page=ps_results&product_id=19045)

I'm actually quite serious regarding wanting to know what they have in store for Print. If DI is in flux, I'm hoping we can at least get a better glimpse into the current print strategy. That can't have changed that much (what with lead times and all).

Hey, I'm not asking for an apology... or a pony (maybe if it was blue though. ..with spots. ...Ni!).

~D

 

[Thomas Percy]

Quick question, since the interview revealed that people at WotC are currently experiencing the same emotions as the community, how long have they known about it?

1 year