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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 4055224" data-attributes="member: 7394">If I were still in the running a publishing company business, I would not invest the $5K on to get my stuff out there sooner. I think there will probably be tons of people jumping onto the 4E bandwagon, so it isn't a question of whether or not it will be popular, but more a question of whether or not it would be worth the investment. Here are a fwe things to consider.First off, when 3E was released there were a ton of companies jumping into D20. Some already existed, many were new. The one thing that the vast majority of the original companies embracing the D20 license found was that the business was very difficult to sustain over the long term. It's clearly not impossible, as there are companies like Green Ronin, Mongoose, and Necromancer who somehow managed to survive the lean years, but I feel that most of the people who were inclined to take this sort of risk have already done so. Notice that the truly successful companies have diversified so that they no longer rely solely on D20/OGL products (GR has True20, M&M, and Freeport, Mongoose has Runequest, Babylon 5, Conan, etc.) I think a lot of companies learned that following WotC's lead can lead to short term gains while people are looking for new material to go with the game, but is that worth $5K? I think it's likely that whatever extra they make by being first would disappear into the hefty fee they paid in order to do so.Second, the new rules will be out in what? Another four months? If you're going to have new material out when 4E launches, that can mean only two things: One - you had a WotC 4E designer working on stuff for you on the side, or Two - the rush to publish will lead to a rushed job on a product, and that usually translated into substandard quality in the writing and the editing. The fans will notice this and be less likely to buy your next release, no matter how much better it really is.If I were still in the publishing biz, I would be taking advantage of Green Ronin dropping the licensing fee for True20 compatible products and creating new books for release up through the release of 4E. I would of course buy into the new rules when they are released to the public, take the time to make sure that people have a firm understanding of the rules, and then start creating compatible products at that point to be released when the license is open to the public. That way I'd be able to concentrate more on quality. Assuming that I had a campaign setting with some sort of a following, I would of course update that to the new edition first, along with something new, like a rule book or adventure. In taking that approach I might miss the initial buying rush, but I would be able to tap into the existing fan base of my IP as well as hopefully attract some new people. I think the market for 3rd party stuff will remain pretty hot for at least two to three years like it was with 3E.</blockquote>

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