Necro is IN! Planned Products

[Orcus]

WotC just had a conference call with the publishers yesterday and have posted their OGL and SRD plans on their site today, as most of you know. I wanted to let everyone know that Necromancer Games is IN! in conjunction with Paizo. We will have products for GenCon or shortly thereafter.

Products include:

1. Tome of Horrors 4E: if WotC leaves monsters out of the offial rules, we will put them back in (cant say which ones cause we dont have the rules yet). Plus all the classics from the original Tome that you want in your 4E game will be back.

2. Advanced Player's Guide: To be designed in part by industry insider Ari Marmell, if they left classes and races out, we put them back in (Of course, we can't say if bards or druids or barbarians or gnomes or half-orc are or arent in 4th edition, but we know some stuff has been cut, and whatever is missing we will create for you with work by respected designer Ari Marmell.)

3. Tegel Manor. A 4E version of the 1E Judges Guild classic.

4. Winter's Tomb. A free, downloadable PDF along the lines of Wizard's Amulet, Necro's Ennie-winning introductory adventure, that will help jump start your 4E campaign.

Winter's Tomb will be available at the first day 4E products can be released. Tome 4E should be available at GenCon with the Advanced Player's Guide. Tegel is also targeted for GenCon. Dates could slip pending WotC's delivery of the design kits.

We have been planning this stuff for months, privately.

You trusted us to help put the 1E back into 3E, now we are doing the same for 4E!

Viva Necro!

 

[Stormtalon]

And now we know what happened to everyone's favorite bloodsucking rodent.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Great news, Clark!

 

[Jack99]

WotC just had a conference call with the publishers yesterday and have posted their OGL and SRD plans on their site today, as most of you know. I wanted to let everyone know that Necromancer Games is IN! in conjunction with Paizo. We will have products for GenCon or shortly thereafter.

Products include:

1. Tome of Horrors 4E: if WotC leaves monsters out of the offial rules, we will put them back in (cant say which ones cause we dont have the rules yet). Plus all the classics from the original Tome that you want in your 4E game will be back.

2. Advanced Player's Guide: Designed in part by industry insider Ari Marmell, if they left classes and races out, we put them back in (Of course, we can't say if bards or druids or barbarians or gnomes or half-orc are or arent in 4th edition, but we know some stuff has been cut, and whatever is missing we will create for you with work by respected designer Ari Marmell.)

3. Tegel Manor. A 4E version of the 1E Judges Guild classic.

4. Winter's Tomb. A free, downloadable PDF along the lines of Wizard's Amulet, Necro's Ennie-winning introductory adventure, that will help jump start your 4E campaign.

Winter's Tomb will be available at the first day 4E products can be released. Tome 4E should be available at GenCon with the Advanced Player's Guide. Tegel is also targeted for GenCon. Dates could slip pending WotC's delivery of the design kits.

We have been planning this stuff for months, privately.

You trusted us to help put the 1E back into 3E, now we are doing the same for 4E!

Viva Necro!

Argh, for a sec I thought we would have the necromancer in the 4e PHB1 or something...

JK, I am extremely pleased that you are going to be doing 4e material.

 

[Dragonblade]

Nice! I plan on buying all the WotC stuff, but I'll probably be picking up this stuff as well!

 

[mhensley]

I'll start saving up now. Yay!

 

[S'mon]

This is good. I might well buy Tegel Manor to convert to C&C and not get the 4e rules, though!

 

[catsclaw227]

As I stated in another thread, excellent news, Clark! These books are on my buy list for sure.

 

[tenkar]

I can see where my money is going this summer

 

[Rechan]

This is assuming that they won't stop you from publishing the Gnome, Druid, Barb, Necromancer, etc first by saying it's not up for grabs in the SRD.

 

[Orcus]

By the way, working on the Advanced Player's Guide (name may change, I'd love to call it something else) has been hillarious. I literally have no idea what is in my own book since I dont have the rules yet and any work that has been done has been by a freelancer under an NDA. So I said--you know what I want, get going! He has created classes and races but he cant show them to me yet. How funny is that!

But my directive was this--if it is 1E, it has to be there. If there are no monks or bards or barbarians or gnomes or druids or half-orcs, then make them. Our players need to be able to run those kinds of characters. Right away.

But I know one day WotC will publish official books with that content. So I wanted to keep our book short and usable. I didnt just want to make some hardback to cash in. I wanted a book designed by a design expert--heck, he may even be working on the official versions one day--that people could get right away to fill the play gap for classes that arent in the core 4E rulebooks.

You will also get some alternatives to rules if there is stuff in 4E that I want to improve. Some notes on alignment as an optional rule. Some variant monsters, such as the succubus as a demon and some of the classic monsters "done right" presented as variants so that you can preserve your game with 1E feel.

 

[takasi]

Two Questions for Clark:

1.) Will we see Winter's Tomb on Free RPG Day? WotC mentioned this as the first day to publish.

2.) Have you considered if WotC's license might not let you do something like an 'Advanced Player's Guide'?

 

[Orcus]

This is assuming that they won't stop you from publishing the Gnome, Druid, Barb, Necromancer, etc first by saying it's not up for grabs in the SRD.

If they do, then we can't do the product. But I've got races and classes all written and ready to go--though I havent been able to even look at it Was it a gamble? Yes. Will it pay off? Dont know till I see the OGL.

 

[Orcus]

Two Questions for Clark:

1.) Will we see Winter's Tomb on Free RPG Day? WotC mentioned this as the first day to publish.

2.) Have you considered if WotC's license might not let you do something like an 'Advanced Player's Guide'?

1. I hope so. I'm still working on lining up a special someone to help me with Winter's Tomb and the follow up adventures for it (you'll know his name from Dungeon).

2. Yes, I took a risk. I may wind up having used certain undead rodent freelancer and not get to do anything with his content. It is, in my view, a gamble worth taking. We'll see what WotC says.

 

[tenkar]

hmmm... you could start a thread asking for suggestions as to the name of the book... not that I can think of any at the moment

 

[Orcus]

hmmm... you could start a thread asking for suggestions as to the name of the book... not that I can think of any at the moment

Oh I already have a name in mind: probably the same one as you

 

[Beckett]

By the way, working on the Advanced Player's Guide (name may change, I'd love to call it something else) has been hillarious. I literally have no idea what is in my own book since I dont have the rules yet and Ari is a freelancer under an NDA. So I said, Ari--you know what I want, get going! He has created classes and races but he cant show them to me yet. How funny is that!

That is pretty good. You should be able to take a glance at it once your check clears.

I'll be keeping an eye out for this. Although I'm starting fresh with 4E, I like having lots of options for my players, and I've always been pleased with Ari's work.

 

[jester47]

Hey Orcus, how about Entombed Arcana-
Tributes Unearthed Arcana - indicates that the stuff inside is from an older tradition...

 

[Sitara]

Hmm...

1) How exactly didi Ari marmell design the stuff if he does not have the rules yet? (since the rules have yet to be released even to freelancers who pay the $5000)

2)I really think you have jumped the gun on this; not due ot the gamble you took but due to posting your players guide here. I think it would be prudent to wait abit and read the OGl before announcing anywhere else.

3)I seriously doubt WOTC will alow anyone to fill the gap for barbarian/druid et al. Especially since the Ogl now requires the PHB even for 3rd party products; I think designing new classes might be not as..open as before.

4)Look forward to the free adventure. I enjoyed the wizards amulet, even though I am not really into krawls at all; perhaps this time it will be a Warlock who will have need of ocmpanions and will be plagued by a haggidy old wizard seeking to steal his 'new' type of magic.

Regards and best of luck with your company and 4E!

 

[catsclaw227]

1) How exactly didi Ari marmell design the stuff if he does not have the rules yet? (since the rules have yet to be released even to freelancers who pay the $5000)

I've predicted a month or so ago that Ari has had the rules (via playtesting) for a while. And I am REALLY stoked about this one. I have been a fan of his work for a while.