Necromancer Q&A: Let's ask Orcus some questions!

[saturnin55]

I think it is cool that NG release so many web supplements for almost each of its products. CoF, ToA, Rappan Athuk, Grey Citadel, Necropolis, etc., each had numerous freebies. I noticed the last couples products mostly had maps booklet. Don't get me wrong, it's great to have those maps on pdf and I thank NG for that. But early products had more different types of freebies : rumors, special locations, wilderness (which are more than often included in the book now), encounters ideas, epic quests...

I guess it's a matter of time, you guys are probably too busy writing all the cool stuff that goes in print, but I just wanted to say that those old freebies were very appreciated! Thanks!

 

[froggie]

Free download stuff

It became more problematic when our (translate free) staff layout guy had IRL problems and had to quit doing it. I cannot ask Mike Chaney to do freebies (he does this stuff for a day job)...and the effort is so huge to get a real freebie online.

We also increased book size an bit. This is not to say that freebies will not be done, only that its incredibly more complicated to do them now that we have no layout guy to do them for free.

Bill

 

[saturnin55]

You guys should ask on your board for a freebie layout guy. Maybe there is dedicated NG fans able to do some layout that would be interested!

 

[Orcus]

Have you apologised to Critical Miss yet? If not, why not?

I have nothing to appologize for. The guy sent me an idiotic email. I responded. In fact, I even tried to respond kindly to his lame email. Somehow it got brought up on the boards and I said he sent me an idiotic email and pestered me to answer him. That is true. The email was idiotic (apparently some really weak gag email I guess) and he sent me atleast one follow up email when I didnt answer the first time which I found annoying. I guess some dude thought I treated him bad and it became a huge issue (in his mind) on his site. I loved how this guy blew it out of proportion on his site, like I was "attacking him" and it was some big "scandal" that called for a response, for him to "roast me." What a joke.

Oh well. Hey, if you dont want to have it said that you sent and idiotic email, dont send idiotic emails.

Similarly, your question was a cheesy question. And no, I am not appologizing for saying that either. If you want to come in here with all of 5 posts to your name (2 of them dedicated to drudging up this moronic issue) and ask cheesy questions, I'm going to say it is a cheesy question. Deal with it.

However, since you seem interested in irrelevant stuff that might offend someone somewhere, I probably farted at some point two years ago and never said excuse me. We can talk about that too if you want. It seems equally relevant.

Now back to our regularly scheduled good questions...

Clark

 

[Orcus]

Saturn-

One of the reasons early products had more web stuff is because that was stuff that we wrote that we couldnt fit in the book. Bill and I were horrible about keeping in our page count. We always over-wrote. Since we had to cut to keep the product inside the size that we had budgeted, we ended up with extra content. Now, we could have just dumped that stuff or charged for it. But we said, hey what the heck, lets just give it away.

Now, after some time in the "biz" Bill and I and our professional authors are much better at restraining ourselves and keeping inside page count. Also, our books got bigger too. That is why there is less stuff now and why the early stuff seemed so much more "essential". Because it was. It was literally supposed to be part of the book, but we had to cut it. So we gave it away for free.

Or, best of all, the Crucible freebie of extra adventures. I just went nuts with that. Now we just dont have the time to do that.

Clark

 

[Darrin Drader]

The guy sent me an idiotic email. I responded. In fact, I even tried to respond kindly to his lame email.

Clark, you should know that I'm a fan of Necromancer, so please don't take offense to this. I'm going to call shenanigans on this (and I'm going to use language that should keep this highly hypothetical, speaking of this as a purely fictional occurance in order to keep myself from getting on Orcus's bad side, you know, since he is a lawyer and demon and all that). I'm going to suggest that this whole thing appears as though it could have been orchestrated. Critical Miss isn't (wasn't?) a serious publication, but instead took a satirical look at the game and the industry. So in this purely hypothetical scenario, this guy calling himself Johnny Nexus comes to Clark and says, "Hey, you're Orcus. You're evil and I love your products. How would you like to look more evil for your evil loving fans?" Clark thinks it over, and the truth is that while outspoken, his online persona is extraordinarily nice, friendly, and mindful of the fans as opposed to the sinister villain that he has chosen for himself to use on the messageboards. "OK," says Clark, "what do you have in mind?" Johnny Nexus then outlines the publication's final joke, which consists of making much ado about nothing, and having Clark play the part of the psychotic egomaniac who behaves in exactly the opposite way that we have become accustomed to. The diatribe on the website posts a bunch of insubstantiated allegations, conspiracy theories, and otherwise annoying ranting - we're talking the quality of stuff that rivals the classic 'My hat of d02 know no limit!'. And the only thing Clark has to do is sit back, pop in the conversation once in a while whenever and wherever it comes up, and be extremely insulting and condescending towards this guy and his alleged retarded email.

So what would everyone get out of such an arrangement? Johnny Nexus gets to play the part of the ranting idiot customer that always makes a mountain out of a molehill (What do you mean you're raising the price of your next module fifty cents? That will be the death of D20. I've been buying your products since before third edition was even thought of and you owe me for my loyalty. You must seriously consider everything I say. If you don't listen to my suggestions, I'm going to whine about it as loudly as possible on the messageboards and I'm never buying one of your products again as long as I live!!!!!!1111). Clark gets to call this behavior what it is. In the end, Critical Miss lives up to its name while going out in style, and as for Necromancer Games, lets just say that any press is good press. Both of them have a good laugh at the expense of anyone who falls for it and Clark gets to walk away looking like a badass.

Hypothetically, of course.

 

[Orcus]

Maybe. Hey, I dont care I like the idea. I wish it had been like that. That would atleast make some sense. This wasnt that interesting. In fact, it isnt even worth talking about.

 

[Treebore]

There is always that old saying, or one of the many like it, to consider about this Critical Miss thingy, "Let sleeping dogs lay." If it is so much a non-issue why give it any justification with a response? Especially with rude and condescending responses that give credibility to their claims? Ignore it.

 

[mhensley]

Is there any possibility of NG doing a module for C&C?

 

[JoeGKushner]

1. What will the Tome of Horrors III focus on? All new monsters?

2. If Tome of Horrors I is redone ( or 3.5ed), will it get an art boost? Many people I personally know didn't buy Creature Collection Revisited not because they didn't want the updated stats, but because they weren't paying twice for an ugly book. Perhaps cutting out the Necromancer Monsters (putting them in ToH III) and just putting the original D&D critters to cut down on size?

3. Any chance of seeing a sourcebook on the Plane of Agony from ToH II?

4. Any chance for a sequel to Grey Citadel? There is a dearth of city adventures on the market.

BTW, your forums at Necromancer Games rock!