BastionPress_Creech
First Post
The subjective nature of art will always be a controversial topic for any RPG book, be it Bastion's or Wotc's. Having said that, I believe that the responses of those who are associated with Bastion (including myself) are directed more towards the people who claim that the only reason they won't have anything to do with the setting is because of the art in the core book and not at those who are critical of things besides the art. From the sounds of it, I really think that a significant percentage of Bastion's critics (Oathbound and otherwise) are the ones who picked up the first few books in the Bastion line when the company was young.
To give a short history lesson, Bastion was founded by Jim Butler (former Brand Manager for TSR/Wizards of the Coast) in late 2000. For the first two years of the company's life, Greg Dent was the company's Creative Director and Todd Morasch was the Art Director. Most of the criticisms being leveled at the artwork in Bastion's early books are directly Todd's, whose style reflects that lean musculature structured work that people either love or hate. Both Greg and Todd left the company to pursue other interests about two years ago. Since that time, the Art Director role has fallen upon the shoulders of Brannon "Ashy" Hollingsworth (for a brief time), Hal Greenberg and Jim Butler. Kevin Melka assumed the Creative Director role a little over a year ago. I've been serving as Director of Marketing for a little longer than that.
Now, going back to the criticisms of earlier books, I think many people stopped picking up a Bastion book when it was no longer full-color (which was shortly before the switch to 3.5 with the releases of Oathbound: Wrack & Ruin and Into the Green). Part of this was because they were disenchanted with Todd's art and partly because there were a lot of topics that didn't appeal to them. Bastion's color books consisted of (in the order of their release) Minions: Fearsome Foes, Arms & Armor, Villains, Alchemy & Herbalists, Spells & Magic, Oathbound: Domains of the Forge, Guildcraft, Oathbound: Plains of Penance, and Pale Designs: A Poisoner's Handbook. A lot of the negative comments I read here and elsewhere are usually reflective to these books and 98% of them are about the art. With the exception of Guildcraft (which flew under a lot of folks' radar), all of the above books sold very well with Arms & Armor selling gangbusters. Alchemy & Herbalists and Oathbound: Domains of the Forge even received ENnie award nominations. Minions was a monster book that received fairly positive feedback because we offered something no one else did at the time, campaign hook on how to use the creature. Still, it is a monster book and has limited scope and use. Both Arms & Armor and Spells & Magic were very popular because they appealed to both player and DM on equal levels. Villains was a collection of NPCs that were meant to be the basis of the BBEG in a campaign while Alchemy & Herbalists catered more towards the "intellectual" player rather than the hack/slash style player.
Bastion has always been open to listening to constructive criticisms of our products. If you disagree with something about a book, that's fine. But it would be nice to know why. A good example of this is the criticism regarding Todd's artwork. You will notice that Plains of Penance and Pale Designs had very little of Todd's work in it. That is because we were in the process of making changes to reflect what people were saying. To say, "Your book sucks" doesn't help anyone. However, to say, "I think the prestige races present a problem when you bring the players back to their original world from Oathbound because they are now inherently more powerful." is much better. It allows us to address the point directly. We've also listened to what people had to say about Oathbound and its domains. Starting with Wildwood, each domain will be entirely self-contained in a single book (a mini-campaign setting, if you will). This means that you no longer need 2 or 3 books to flesh out the domain. It's all there in a single source.
In case you haven't picked up a Bastion book since the days of color, you are missing out a lot. Torn Asunder: Critical Hits took home a Silver ENnie award this year for Best d20 Rules Supplement, while Oathbound: Wrack & Ruin received an honorable mention for Best Campaign Supplement. We've just released Arms & Armor v3.5 to extremely positive critical praise. The book is garnering 4 and 5 star reviews all over the internet despite our decision to reuse some of the art from the original book (because printing a hardcover book is so costly these days). So to the critics who have been saying that Bastion's "substandard layout, illustration and editing" are all terrible, or our game mechanics are not balanced, I invite you to look are some of our more recent books. I think you will notice improvements in the art, editing, layout and design compared to our earlier 'color' book days.
Regarding the criticisms about the price of Bastion's books. We have always competively priced our books in accordance to the expenses we incur during development. Sure, we'd love to make a full color 128 page book and only charge $19.99, but the realities of publishing make that not only unfeasible but unrealistic. Simply put, you cannot print 1000 copies and make any money at all at that price. Bastion is in the publishing business to not only make great product but also to make money. And to be perfectly up front and honest, with the current market still soft but improving, we aren't making much. Gamers tend to have a misconception about the price of gaming books because of either the old TSR days of $20 hardcovers or the 3.0 days of $19.99 Wotc splatbooks/initial core books. The facts are this, it costs a lot of money to develop and print a book. Quite often, the profits of one release are funneled into the development costs of the next. It's the nature of the business. We can't afford to go out and hire the best artists in the industry on every book because the art budget isn't as large as Wotc's or some of the other publishers. We prefer to make sure we are putting out the quality content and get the best artists we can within the constraints of the development costs we've set aside. This philosophy has worked for us in the past by allowing us to latch onto some of the new and 'hot' talents before everyone else knows about them. Good examples are Phillip James (the elf slicing through the Kyton's arm in Torn Asunder, Jeremy McHugh (Lore of the Gods and the Grand Asherake in Oathbound: Arena), Jonathan Kirtz (who did the cover for Arms & Armor v3.5), and Chris Pickrell (cover for Oathbound: Arena and interior art for Arms & Armor v3.5).
So what's in the future for Oathbound? Well, Tom has already mentioned our next release being Wildwood and you will note in Kevin's signature that we've established a new official Oathbound website (www.Oathbound.net). We are continuing our support of the line through electronic releases of pdf material. We already have the initial hardcover Oathbound book, Oathbound: Domains of the Forge on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG for $19.95, along with downloadable adventures. We've also just released the first of an ongoing series of pdf support releases called Legacies of Oathbound, which will detail stuff not covered or barely mentioned in the print supplements. Sometime in the coming year, we will be launching the Legends of the Forge interactive campaign. Initially, this will only be available at conventions, but we expect to be able to open it up to everyone shortly after it has been established. Players will have opportunities for their characters to truly become legendary within the relams of Oathbound. Watch for more news on this sometime in the first quarter of 2005. Currently under development and possibly slated for a Gen Con release is an Oathbound product that will not only update the setting to 3.5, but also give player's many of the tools they've been asking for regarding Oathbound. But that's all I'm allowed to say about it for the time being.
Lastly, to bring this back around full circle and back on topic about Oathbound and EN World, I think one of the biggest reasons why Oathbound isn't that popular on EN World is because the largest group of our supporters (*gasp*) don't actually post on EN World much if at all. We do see a great deal of traffic on our boards at Mortality and also on the official Oathbound discussion list from time to time. Having said that, Bastion would be more than happy to answer any questions that arise about Oathbound or any other products here on EN World should they come up. Most of us do check the boards regularly so if something appears we will likely see it. If a question does get missed, however, you can always get our attention by dropping us a quick email letting us know about the thread. We'll answer it to the best of our abilities.
Oathbound is a very cool setting and one that I think a lot of gamers would greatly enjoy if they take the time read the book and think about the possibilities it offers. I've said this before and I'll repeat it again, if you loved Planescape and Dark Sun, then you will probably love Oathbound. Many of the elements that went into those settings, especially the high fantasy/adventure and in-your-face attitude, are also present in Oathbound. Still not sure about it? Try picking up the Oathbound novel Forged by Thomas Reid for a sample first before buying the core hardcover. It's a good read.
To give a short history lesson, Bastion was founded by Jim Butler (former Brand Manager for TSR/Wizards of the Coast) in late 2000. For the first two years of the company's life, Greg Dent was the company's Creative Director and Todd Morasch was the Art Director. Most of the criticisms being leveled at the artwork in Bastion's early books are directly Todd's, whose style reflects that lean musculature structured work that people either love or hate. Both Greg and Todd left the company to pursue other interests about two years ago. Since that time, the Art Director role has fallen upon the shoulders of Brannon "Ashy" Hollingsworth (for a brief time), Hal Greenberg and Jim Butler. Kevin Melka assumed the Creative Director role a little over a year ago. I've been serving as Director of Marketing for a little longer than that.
Now, going back to the criticisms of earlier books, I think many people stopped picking up a Bastion book when it was no longer full-color (which was shortly before the switch to 3.5 with the releases of Oathbound: Wrack & Ruin and Into the Green). Part of this was because they were disenchanted with Todd's art and partly because there were a lot of topics that didn't appeal to them. Bastion's color books consisted of (in the order of their release) Minions: Fearsome Foes, Arms & Armor, Villains, Alchemy & Herbalists, Spells & Magic, Oathbound: Domains of the Forge, Guildcraft, Oathbound: Plains of Penance, and Pale Designs: A Poisoner's Handbook. A lot of the negative comments I read here and elsewhere are usually reflective to these books and 98% of them are about the art. With the exception of Guildcraft (which flew under a lot of folks' radar), all of the above books sold very well with Arms & Armor selling gangbusters. Alchemy & Herbalists and Oathbound: Domains of the Forge even received ENnie award nominations. Minions was a monster book that received fairly positive feedback because we offered something no one else did at the time, campaign hook on how to use the creature. Still, it is a monster book and has limited scope and use. Both Arms & Armor and Spells & Magic were very popular because they appealed to both player and DM on equal levels. Villains was a collection of NPCs that were meant to be the basis of the BBEG in a campaign while Alchemy & Herbalists catered more towards the "intellectual" player rather than the hack/slash style player.
Bastion has always been open to listening to constructive criticisms of our products. If you disagree with something about a book, that's fine. But it would be nice to know why. A good example of this is the criticism regarding Todd's artwork. You will notice that Plains of Penance and Pale Designs had very little of Todd's work in it. That is because we were in the process of making changes to reflect what people were saying. To say, "Your book sucks" doesn't help anyone. However, to say, "I think the prestige races present a problem when you bring the players back to their original world from Oathbound because they are now inherently more powerful." is much better. It allows us to address the point directly. We've also listened to what people had to say about Oathbound and its domains. Starting with Wildwood, each domain will be entirely self-contained in a single book (a mini-campaign setting, if you will). This means that you no longer need 2 or 3 books to flesh out the domain. It's all there in a single source.
In case you haven't picked up a Bastion book since the days of color, you are missing out a lot. Torn Asunder: Critical Hits took home a Silver ENnie award this year for Best d20 Rules Supplement, while Oathbound: Wrack & Ruin received an honorable mention for Best Campaign Supplement. We've just released Arms & Armor v3.5 to extremely positive critical praise. The book is garnering 4 and 5 star reviews all over the internet despite our decision to reuse some of the art from the original book (because printing a hardcover book is so costly these days). So to the critics who have been saying that Bastion's "substandard layout, illustration and editing" are all terrible, or our game mechanics are not balanced, I invite you to look are some of our more recent books. I think you will notice improvements in the art, editing, layout and design compared to our earlier 'color' book days.
Regarding the criticisms about the price of Bastion's books. We have always competively priced our books in accordance to the expenses we incur during development. Sure, we'd love to make a full color 128 page book and only charge $19.99, but the realities of publishing make that not only unfeasible but unrealistic. Simply put, you cannot print 1000 copies and make any money at all at that price. Bastion is in the publishing business to not only make great product but also to make money. And to be perfectly up front and honest, with the current market still soft but improving, we aren't making much. Gamers tend to have a misconception about the price of gaming books because of either the old TSR days of $20 hardcovers or the 3.0 days of $19.99 Wotc splatbooks/initial core books. The facts are this, it costs a lot of money to develop and print a book. Quite often, the profits of one release are funneled into the development costs of the next. It's the nature of the business. We can't afford to go out and hire the best artists in the industry on every book because the art budget isn't as large as Wotc's or some of the other publishers. We prefer to make sure we are putting out the quality content and get the best artists we can within the constraints of the development costs we've set aside. This philosophy has worked for us in the past by allowing us to latch onto some of the new and 'hot' talents before everyone else knows about them. Good examples are Phillip James (the elf slicing through the Kyton's arm in Torn Asunder, Jeremy McHugh (Lore of the Gods and the Grand Asherake in Oathbound: Arena), Jonathan Kirtz (who did the cover for Arms & Armor v3.5), and Chris Pickrell (cover for Oathbound: Arena and interior art for Arms & Armor v3.5).
So what's in the future for Oathbound? Well, Tom has already mentioned our next release being Wildwood and you will note in Kevin's signature that we've established a new official Oathbound website (www.Oathbound.net). We are continuing our support of the line through electronic releases of pdf material. We already have the initial hardcover Oathbound book, Oathbound: Domains of the Forge on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG for $19.95, along with downloadable adventures. We've also just released the first of an ongoing series of pdf support releases called Legacies of Oathbound, which will detail stuff not covered or barely mentioned in the print supplements. Sometime in the coming year, we will be launching the Legends of the Forge interactive campaign. Initially, this will only be available at conventions, but we expect to be able to open it up to everyone shortly after it has been established. Players will have opportunities for their characters to truly become legendary within the relams of Oathbound. Watch for more news on this sometime in the first quarter of 2005. Currently under development and possibly slated for a Gen Con release is an Oathbound product that will not only update the setting to 3.5, but also give player's many of the tools they've been asking for regarding Oathbound. But that's all I'm allowed to say about it for the time being.
Lastly, to bring this back around full circle and back on topic about Oathbound and EN World, I think one of the biggest reasons why Oathbound isn't that popular on EN World is because the largest group of our supporters (*gasp*) don't actually post on EN World much if at all. We do see a great deal of traffic on our boards at Mortality and also on the official Oathbound discussion list from time to time. Having said that, Bastion would be more than happy to answer any questions that arise about Oathbound or any other products here on EN World should they come up. Most of us do check the boards regularly so if something appears we will likely see it. If a question does get missed, however, you can always get our attention by dropping us a quick email letting us know about the thread. We'll answer it to the best of our abilities.
Oathbound is a very cool setting and one that I think a lot of gamers would greatly enjoy if they take the time read the book and think about the possibilities it offers. I've said this before and I'll repeat it again, if you loved Planescape and Dark Sun, then you will probably love Oathbound. Many of the elements that went into those settings, especially the high fantasy/adventure and in-your-face attitude, are also present in Oathbound. Still not sure about it? Try picking up the Oathbound novel Forged by Thomas Reid for a sample first before buying the core hardcover. It's a good read.
