The fate of the Advanced Player's Guide

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Thought everyone would be interested to know that Expeditious Retreat Press has executed a contract with the esteemed Mr. Marmell and we'll be bringing the Advanced Player's Guide to print. We're aiming for an October release. Ari's familiarity and experience with the rules system, along with his clean and evocative style will be an asset for anyone playing 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. We'd always wanted to work with Ari before, but the opportunity had never arisen, so we're excited to finally see an idea to fruition.

Awesome.

And you know, on the speed to market issue, given the old school tone of the product, going with woodcuts and the like as you did with the original version of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe would be perfectly appropriate (assuming you could find a few gnomes and half-orcs, or rather things that would pass for them).

Let us know when we can preorder.

 

[Darrin Drader]

Good (and surprisingly rapid) news announcement forthcoming in the near future.

So did the various publishers who are willing to use the GSL get into a bidding war, or did you take the first offer that came your way? I'd imagine that there are about three parties right now who would be willing to pay well for the right to publish this book.

 

[MacMathan]

That is great news, sign me up for a pre-order.

I know some players who will be very happy once this is out.

 

[Mouseferatu]

So did the various publishers who are willing to use the GSL get into a bidding war, or did you take the first offer that came your way? I'd imagine that there are about three parties right now who would be willing to pay well for the right to publish this book.

There might well be, and maybe I could've gotten a bigger deal with a bidding war. But no, Expeditious Retreat made me the first offer, and I went with it.

I like Joe and Suzi. I respect them professionally, and we've hung out socially. It wouldn't have felt at all right, once they made me a reasonable offer, to turn around and tell them "I'm going to try to find something better."

Plus, I've been looking for the chance to work with them for a while, anyway.

 

[phloog]

I'm confused - wasn't this book meant to cover things like Bards, barbarians and such...and weren't many of those things set to be included in PHB2, making you in dangerous competition? (maybe I'm thinking of another book)

 

[Mouseferatu]

I'm confused - wasn't this book meant to cover things like Bards, barbarians and such...and weren't many of those things set to be included in PHB2, making you in dangerous competition? (maybe I'm thinking of another book)

No, that's this book. But...

A) It's coming out almost half a year before the PHB2.

B) I deliberately designed the classes to go in a different direction than (as far as we know) WotC is going with their versions. For instance, WotC's druid (according to Races and Classes) focuses primarily on shapeshifting. So I created a class that focuses primarily on natural spells. The idea being, even when both versions are out, they both fill different niches and can function in the same campaign, or even the same party.

Also, I've tried to design mine more in-line with older-edition versions, to make converting old campaigns easier.

 

[jgbrowning]

Let us know when we can preorder.

Once we send the file to the printers we'll open up pre-orders. Once that milestone is reached it's highly unlikely that anything can pop-up delaying the process. As soon as we can, we'll set up a pre-order system for the APG.

So did the various publishers who are willing to use the GSL get into a bidding war, or did you take the first offer that came your way? I'd imagine that there are about three parties right now who would be willing to pay well for the right to publish this book.

It was very much a "Two man enter, One man leaves!" situation, but once I got that old chainsaw working things went quickly...

joe b.

 

[Mouseferatu]

It was very much a "Two man enter, One man leaves!" situation, but once I got that old chainsaw working things went quickly...

You weren't supposed to tell anyone about that until after I borrowed the chainsaw to go "talk to" Uwe Boll...

 

[jgbrowning]

There might well be, and maybe I could've gotten a bigger deal with a bidding war. But no, Expeditious Retreat made me the first offer, and I went with it.

I like Joe and Suzi. I respect them professionally, and we've hung out socially. It wouldn't have felt at all right, once they made me a reasonable offer, to turn around and tell them "I'm going to try to find something better."

Plus, I've been looking for the chance to work with them for a while, anyway.

Dammit! My story had chainsaws! That's so much cooler...

But seriously, I know we'd been trying to find a way to work together for several years now but nothing ever fell into place. When I saw your announcement is just seemed like the time had come.

joe b.

 

[The Little Raven]

B) I deliberately designed the classes to go in a different direction than (as far as we know) WotC is going with their versions. For instance, WotC's druid (according to Races and Classes) focuses primarily on shapeshifting. So I created a class that focuses primarily on natural spells. The idea being, even when both versions are out, they both fill different niches and can function in the same campaign, or even the same party.

Are they named in such a way as to avoid issues when the official versions are released? From what I understand, having the same name as something but defining it entirely differently is a no-no.