Necro is IN! Planned Products

[Voss]

And what would you change it to? Heh. I can see the confusion for some, but for many Necro is a publisher first... Everquest Class second

To me at least

Maybe Necromancer Publishing's (Games? Whatever the company title is) Planned Products. Or Planned products for Necromancer <games/publishing/?> It doesn't really matter as long as it isn't typed as a 4e thread with a title that simply says Necro is in! Planned Products.

What does everquest have to do with anything, btw? In D&D alone a 'necromancer' has been a concept since at least 2nd edition. A strong one, with a lot of support.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I'm already looking forward to Tome of Horrors and the Advanced Player's Guide! "Fourth Edition rules, First Edition flavor," here we come!

Can I get an "Amen"?

 

[Klaus]

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!

Clark,


I want IN, dammit!

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Glad to see you doing the Advanced Player's Guide (hopefully) and it may be enough to consider going to 4E (from probably not). Any consideration on an Alternate Players Guide as well that would bring 1e flavor back to the 4e PHB with regards to the classes/races offered there. I would like 1e elves, fighters, palidans, etc. as well.

 

[der_kluge]

Orcus - can you give us some more info on Tegel Manor?

Level range?

book size?

Is Tegel Manor a Wilderlands product, or is it setting neutral?

 

[Merlin the Tuna]

Orcus, you've been absolutely great here ever since the 4e announcement. I'm too much of a whippersnapper to be clamoring for 1e flavor, but the way you've handled yourself and the admiration you've gotten from the community means that I'll definitely be looking over the Advanced Player's Guide, and Winter's Tomb might be the top of my 4e to-do list. You're a good salesman -- maybe I'll finally get around to buying a 3rd party product this edition.

 

[Mighty Veil]

I would guess that, at the VERY most, they would have to change the names of their versions of classic races/classes - of course, words like "barbarian", "druid", and "gnome" were in use well before D&D showed up,

I was thinking the same thing. Just don't call them some expect 3rd party name, like berserker for barbarian. Be clever instead!

Saxon, Ovate, Shaolin. Nome (could probably call it "classic gnome" too since 4e gnomes are getting revamped), half-ork. And you could throw in other 1e fav's like CAVALIER, and Assassin, and rogue-acrobat.

 

[Raven Crowking]

WOTC can't really stop them from releasing a druid or a barbarian. How could they? Normally stupid crap like renaming "Barbarian" to "Blarbarian" is not a sufficient way to get around legal restrictions, but this may be the one case where its possible. A rule that banned classes named "barbarian" would be bypassed by releasing a "berserker" class. A rule which banned classes that used "rage" mechanics would be so broad that it would create more problems than WOTC would want to face. They'll probably just permit the release of whatever people want to release.

WOTC can just permit people to write whatever they want, and then just sit back and let most gamer's preference for "official" materials ensure that later releases of similar material will sell well.

Please note, however, that there is apparently a "community standards" clause in the upcoming "d20-tiered-STL-called-OGL" that, apparently, would allow WotC to pull the plug on anything they wanted to. There very well may not be a sufficient way to get around legal restrictions in this case.

That said, I do wish Necromancer the best of luck. This is the first bit of news that makes me even remotely interested in 4e.


RC

 

[bmcdaniel]

I am concerned about how playtested such products may be that are published so fast out of the gate. Remember how the Creature Collection needed erratta?

New classes / races really need playtesting most of all.

QFT. Especially because once a DM allows a class/race into the game, its awfully hard to remove it later when it becomes clear its unbalanced. An unbalanced monster, magic item or spell is more easily disposed of.

 

[Raven Crowking]

I think the assumption people are making is that WotC is "holding back" gnomes, half-orcs, monks and other 'classics' just so they can sell them (perhaps with DDI) later on.

Considering the announcement re: half-orcs appearing on Insider, I would consider that a pretty safe bet. Wanna bet that a pay model is operation when the half-orc appears?

RC