D&D 4E Monte Cook on licensing (and 4E in general?)

[SSquirrel]

The GSL has been announced. The sky isn't falling

 

[Center-of-All]

Very interesting. Of all the things I was expecting to hear, I never considered adventures. I am kinda in the same boat. I don't have the time to develop stuff on my own which is why I've been running the Shackled City Adventure Path from Paizo. For me to run anything in 4E, I would need either another campaign-long adventure series or get another job! However, to play 4E, I am stoked and so are my friends. But I think this does mean I won't ever do a Ptolus campaign

Right now, Necromancer has announced a 4E adventure path, so that may be what you're looking for. No word on when it'll be released, though.

 

[ironvyper]

And probably the one thing WOTC/Hasbro doesn't want is another Creature Collection, swoping in and getting sales while also delivering a bad product, but merely taking an advantage of a delayed release of the MM.

Creature collection 1 and 2 are far better books then any of WoTC monster books. That book earned its sales and it and the scarred lands deserves every dollar of them.

 

[ironvyper]

Are there any prominent 3.x publishers left, though? Other than Paizo, most others jumped ship to house systems a long time ago. Green Ronin with M&M and True 20; Mongoose with Runequest, Traveller, etc; I don't think AEG or FFG are in the RPG business anymore; White Wolf dropped out of d20 a long time ago (I guess when they got bought out); Troll Lord has C&C.

The two left (and the two I have the most product by) are sticking with 4e - Necro and Goodman. And Necro's not even a publisher - Paizo is publishing their stuff (in the d20 days, either White Wolf, Kenzer, or Troll Lord published their stuff).

Fantasy flight games is doing the warhammer fantasy roleplay system now. At least legally, who knows what they are actually gonna be allowed by games workshop to do with it.

 

[SSquirrel]

Creature collection 1 and 2 are far better books then any of WoTC monster books. That book earned its sales and it and the scarred lands deserves every dollar of them.

Wait the poorly balanced monsters w/terrible art from S&S were good books? I got free copies of those from a friend and I believe they are sitting in storage rather than gracing my gaming shelf. Obviously our mileage varies. Maybe I should try driving backwards on the way home *wink*

 

[Sunderstone]

umm nm

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've been following the GSL thread ( http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=224083&page=9 )- it seems that the new model will prevent companies from publishing both 3.X and 4Ed materials- this could possibly be applied to 3.X/D20 derived games such as AU/AE, Midnight, Spycraft, True20 and M&M.

This would indicate to me that WotC is aware of the "New Coke" scenario and is taking steps to minimize the potential of its materialization.

While this makes good business sense, I have to say that if the noncompete clause does apply to 3.X/D20 derived games, that it could lead to a net loss for gaming as a hobby.

Waiting to see how this all shakes out.

 

[The Little Raven]

The Ryan Dancy WOTC thought the former way, but I think the new Hasbro dominated WOTC thinks the latter way.

The Ryan Dancey WotC = Hasbro WotC since Hasbro purchased WotC in September, 1999. 3rd Edition and the OGL were released in September, 2000. That means Hasbro signed off on the OGL.

Creature collection 1 and 2 are far better books then any of WoTC monster books.

I never read CC2, but CC1 was an unmitigated disaster in terms of quality (aside from the cover... which was awesome).

 

[SSquirrel]

Why am I not surprised to find Mourn and I in agreement on a topic CC2 wasn't much better, yr not missing a whole lot man.

 

[jeffh]

I never read CC2, but CC1 was an unmitigated disaster in terms of quality (aside from the cover... which was awesome).

No, it was a disaster, but very much a mitigated one. There were some good ideas that proved to have legs there, most notably the hags. Nearly all the problems stemmed from a poor grasp of the d20 mechanics.