Necromancer Games-update by Orcus

[Crothian]

Personally, I think 80% of people converted to 4e, but that is just my own pure guesswork.

Take this for what it is worth which ain't much: While listening to many podcasts this past year from publishers and fans of all sorts of games I was surprised by how many of them when talking about what they were personally playing said 4e D&D.

 

[DaveMage]

Not to nit-pick, but I don't think Necromancer Games did either of these. The module was Green Ronin's Death in Freeport, and the Creature Collection was Sword & Sorcery Studios/White Wolf.

Correct - although the Creature Collection was Clark Peterson's baby (via White Wolf).

Although, the free Necromancer .pdf adventure - Wizard's Amulet - was, IIRC, out at Gen Con too...

 

[Twowolves]

Correct - although the Creature Collection was Clark Peterson's baby (via White Wolf).

Although, the free Necromancer .pdf adventure - Wizard's Amulet - was, IIRC, out at Gen Con too...

Having never (yet) been to Gen Con, I had forgotten that The Wizard's Amulet was there in print and not just as a free PDF afterwards. Likewise I had forgotten Clark's name on the CC. I was under the impression (recollection?) that they were user/fan submitted critters, like the spells and items in R&R.

That's what I get for getting older!

 

[Dark Mistress]

Wow this thread grew today.

Maybe, but there are more things likely to get cut back then the book, which gives you the most bang for your buck instead of say....a movie or eating out.

For some and for others no. Especially for people with families. Most of them I know RPG is the first budget cut, because movies and dinner is family events and RPG tends to just be one or sometimes both parents.

Which means, ultimately, Necro was irrelevant to the general market for what, a year before 4e?

Not exactly since 4e was announced almost a year before it came out. the last necro product if I recall was earlier the same year when we learned 4e was coming out.

 

[Mistwell]

Overall I've found adventures in general to be weaker in 4e. I don't know if that is bad luck on the ones I've seen or if there is something about 4e that causes me to not like the adventures. I like the game just fine.

So far, Burning Sky is great. But, I am a player in that, so I have not seen much of it yet.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

I think people on ENWorld tend to overestimate the importance of 3pp, since this is the de facto home forum of fans of 3pp/OGL. I spend time at WotC and RPGnet, and remember my posting days at WotC prior to 4E's announcement. The "chatter" regarding 3pp/OGL on other sites is much less than it is here.

 

[Dark Mistress]

Agreed. There were many 3PP that kept me in the D&D fold rather than going elsewher in the gaming world. I know I cant be alone there.

Your not but the real question is how many of us are there? No one knows for sure and we can all throw around numbers from our personal experiences but the problems with that is. Birds of a feather tend to flock together.

Which is true, most of the gamers i knew the most where the ones that was big into 3pp stuff and they tend to be the group that least liked 4e.

But not to start a edition war. Anyways 3e brought me back to DnD but 3pp products keep me playing it, with out them honestly i would have went back to other games long ago like I did with 2e.

 

[Voadam]

How about finding a unifying thread of that game? How about a system-neutral world that has run through every edition of D&D prior to now (nudge nudge, a Greyhawk revival that is a setting only, not system specific; how rad would that be, nudge nudge)? Sometimes I wonder if Wizards has learned the lessons of the history of this hobby.

Clark

I've already got the statless 1980 Greyhawk folio that is very points of light and I had the Living Greyhawk Gazeteer whose only stats were deity domains for 3e (though unfortunately I lent it out and never got it back).

I'm guessing you are thinking of a mix of the statless nature of the Pirate's Guide and the style and depth level of the FR Campaign Guide.

 

[Jack Colby]

I'd love to see Clark and company make their own Necromancer RPG, then support it with modules. I'd be on board with that in a big way.

 

[Erik Mona]

Erik and James have popped on the forums explaining how they can't sell in big box stores because they're on a different scale of economy.

Not sure if James has chimed in on this, yet (I'm still digging through the thread), but I don't believe I've ever said that we _can't_ sell at big box stores (I assume here you're mostly talking about Barnes & Noble and the like).

Getting in those places is VERY difficult, but is is possible. We publish a lot of "small stuff" with tiny or even no spines, which makes stores like B&N reluctant to heavily stock our books. That said, the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting has gotten wonderful penetration into Barnes & Noble, and I expect the hardcover Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Bestiary to get significant play in bookstores as well.

Companies smaller than Paizo will likely get into B&N ONLY if they are distributed into the book trade by a professional distributor (really either DBD or PSI at this point), and even then it is far from a sure thing.

WotC, having decades of bookstore inertia from their own efforts, the efforts of _their_ distributors, the legacy of TSR's brands, and the piles and piles of corporate money they have thanks to publishing numerous very successful brands, doesn't face the same challenges smaller companies do when it comes to mass market penetration.*

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

* I'm sure Scott Rouse could tell you horror stories about mass market accounts that we little guys can't even imagine, though, so it's not all wine and roses on either side of the industry.