[Malladin's Gate] Product Update

[malladin]

Here's an upadte on our coming products

Firstly we're going to ditch the New Horizons line. RPG Objects Campaign Models seem to have this line of thing pretty much covered, and I don't beleive competing against them will help either of us out. However, this gives us some developed stuff that we can probably print in some other format (The Swordsman class is a spin off from Muskets and Musketeers).

Along this line, we're going to rejig the Maelstrom setting, change its name as this has since been used by someone else (current working title is DarkLore). We're going to use a lot of the ideas we had for New Horizons: Cloak of Acheron and build a nice low-powered dark fantasy setting. We'll probably produce this in the same manner as we intend to do with Etherscope, with a Campaign Primer released as a 30ish page freebie with the very basics to run the game and setting, followed by regular expansion supplements that build on the setting info and game mechanics simulaneously.

After that, we're looking at further additions to our existing product lines. Forgotten Heroes: Bard and Barbarian are very much in development currently, and we're hoping to add to our Academy Handbook line with books on Illusion or Transmutation.


Now I suppose you're going to want to know when?

I really hope we can get Sorcerer out before the end of June, but things are abit hectic at the moment with new babies, so we'll have to see.

Martial Avengers is next on the list, so hopefully sometime during the summer for that.

We're intending to test the water for Etherscope with DarkLore, to make sure the Campaign Primer/piecemeal production is viable, so we're hoping to get that out over the summer, too, although this may slip into september.

Etherscope should therefore follow in Autumn/Winter, alongside a first release for DarkLore and a new academy handbook or FH:Bard.

Looking beyond into next year, we'll be bringing out further expansions for Etherscope and DarkLore and probably more Modern Heroes.

Cheerio,

Ben

 

[malladin]

I've just posted a new poll ion our website. Now you can decide which school of magic you'd like us to explore with our next Academy Handbook.

Vote Here

 

[Jon Potter]

Yeah, but when will we see your sorcerer book?

I trust you haven't foregotten about these forgotten heroes. But there's only about a month left before Spring 2003 becomes Summer 2003.

Eagerly awaiting...

 

[malladin]

Sorcerer is very close to being done. We're basically awaiting edit on the last few chapters of the book and then its just layouting to be done. Hopefuly you'll get a much better art content in this one than our previous products.

cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate Press.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The problem seems to be one of timing.

For example, Sorcerers is coming out. Yet even as I write this, Quintessential Sorcerer isn't that far away, nor the Scarred Lands player book that covers Wizards & Sorcerers.

Same issue cropped up with the Paladin book as Q. Paladin and Call of Duty both came out at or near the same time, voiding the statement about underlooked class.

 

[malladin]

I can see what you mean, Joe, but I'm not sure it's necessarily that big a problem.

I don't think PDF publishers can really compete with print publishers, anyway, and I think that FH: Paladin and Call to Duty complement each other quite nicely on the content so much that I would advise people to buy both.

I don't think that a couple of other books out for sorcerers or paladins changes the fact that they're relatively undersupported when you compare them to fighters, rogues and wizards.

cheerio,

Ben

 

[Jon Potter]

I don't think PDF publishers can really compete with print publishers, anyway, and I think that FH: Paladin and Call to Duty complement each other quite nicely on the content so much that I would advise people to buy both.

I sisagree. Some of the most useful d20 products I own are pdfs. I'm quite sure that I'm stating the obvious when I say that there's no reason that quality has to suffer just because a product is electronic rather than print.

And the generally lower cost for a pdf is another big plus to those of us who have bottomless appetites for supplements without the bottomless wallets to match.

FH: Sorcerer is on definitely on my purchase list while the other supplements Joe mentioned are not. At least not yet anyway.

 

[malladin]

Thanks for the support, Jon.

When I was talking about competing with the print publishers I was meaning in terms of quantity of sales.

If sorcerer does as well as paladin we'll be looking to sell 150 in the first 3 months. I'd expect Quintessential Sorcerer to sell 20 times this amount at least.

Whereas we try our best to compete on quality, I think that again there are solid market reasons why smaller publishers like ourselves (excluding the 'big boys' of the pdf market like EN Pub, Phil Reed and Monte) find it difficult to produce something that has as high overall quality as a print product. We simply can't afford the same investment into art and editing and so have to make do with what we can manage our selves.

That said, where I think we can match print products is in the quality of ideas and the implementation of these through game mechanics. This is what I think we have achieved with FHaladin that made it such a success within its market place and the reason why St John's College of Abjuration and Unearthed Adventurers get constant high to high/average reviews (even from joe ).

St. John's suffers greatly from a lack of a map, Unearthed Adventurers has been criticised for poor editing and all our products are in need of a greater level of artwork. Whilst we can improve, and have responded to these criticisms by putting in place new quality control systems for all future productions, including Sorcerer, I don't think we'll ever be able to get up to the highest standard of print products. That said, some of the biggest companies it up form time-to-time .

Cheerio,

Ben