Necro is IN! Planned Products

Stormborn · Jan 8, 2008

EDIT: Basically what he said.

tenkar · Jan 8, 2008

Sitara said:
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.

I seriously doubt it will be anywhere as restrictive as you think. Classes and races have been tinkered with in one way or another since the earliest editions of the game. Major mechanics changes (True20, M&M, etc) are where I expect the OGL will be less flexible.

Orcus · Jan 8, 2008

Sitara said:
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 frer adventure. I enjoyed the wizards amulet, even though I am not really in 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!

1. Select freelancers have had the rules for some months now. I just decided to contact one and say: I know you cant tell me what you are doing, but here is what I want you to do, can you do it? He said "yes."

2. No need to wait. Its my plan, if I cant do it then I cant do it. And it wont be my fault if I cant. I want people who are thinking about 4E and making decisions to know that we will help them fill gaps and we will help bring 1E themes and ideas to 4E. I want them to know that right away. If something ties my hands, so be it. But people need to know that Necro is out there bringing classic gaming and classic gaming options to 4E.

3. We'll see. You might be right. But I have a funny feeling that WotC knows when the official version comes out, people will use that. I dont think wotc is worried about little ol' me. But I am convinced that they know that I can get a certain message out to our established fans who trust us to deliver content.

4. You know, I got literally hundreds of emails from people saying "we werent that excited about 3e but we decided to check it out when we downloaded Wizard's Amulet." WotC knows Necro can do that for 4E too. And our plan for Winter's Tomb is to highlight some of the new stuff from 4E. Just like Corian in WA was a sorcerer (highlighting a new class), Winter's Tomb will have similar highlights of some of the strengths of the new rules--terrain as part of encounters, new fun monsters, plus all of that old school Necro goodness!

Orcus · Jan 8, 2008

catsclaw227 said:
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.

Lots of freelancers have the rules. Its the publishers that dont.

Not yet, anyway.

Rechan · Jan 8, 2008

I am glad that Ari's getting to sink his rodentile fangs into more fleshy dead trees!

Sitara · Jan 8, 2008

But there is absolutely no way WOTc will allow anyone to publsh the 'core's' before them. How they stop them is what will beinteresting.

Cadfan · Jan 8, 2008

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.

That being said, best of luck to your company. I doubt most of your product line will interest me, as I am not in the market for nostalgia or resentment over cut material. I do promise to give Winter's Tomb a lookover, though. A high quality prewritten adventure to help ease myself and my players into 4e would be appreciated. Please make it fully playable with official materials, rather than with your other books.

Grazzt · Jan 8, 2008

tenkar said:
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

Ya know....we actually did that for the Tome of Horrors. And that's where the name of the book/series came from

Orcus · Jan 8, 2008

Sitara said:
But there is absolutely no way WOTc will allow anyone to publsh the 'core's' before them. How they stop them is what will beinteresting.

I dont think they care. They know the PHB2 or whatever will sell like crazy whether or not I have given an alternate version/

You have to remember--when 3E came out, Steve Wieck and I published the Creature Collection, a hardback monster manual that came out A MONTH BEFORE THE OFFICIAL MONSTER MANUAL (yes, you read that right; if you werent around back then, a third party publisher put out a hard cover core rule book looking monster book BEFORE WotC published the official MM. hard to believe, but true). And no one cared. In fact, Ryan Dancey (then head of D&D and the father of open gaming) paraded it around teh WotC offices as a testiment to the strength of open gaming. And guess what, everyone still bought the Monster Manual.

I dont see any reason for them to stop it at all. In fact, I see them as encouraging stuff like this. If they want to do it on DDI (as they are doing the halforc apparently) they will. Will that hurt my book? Maybe. But that isnt the point.