Violet Dawn to be a FREE setting!

[JVisgaitis]

Next week we are going to be introducing the Violet Dawn Wiki on our Violet Dawn Website. The wiki will feature all of the fluff from our Violet Dawn products and new information that we have never released. The wiki will remain rules free so the setting can be enjoyed by players of any edition or system. There's more information on our blog, Arcane Sight.

 

[Knightfall]

Next week we are going to be introducing the Violet Dawn Wiki on our Violet Dawn Website. The wiki will feature all of the fluff from our Violet Dawn products and new information that we have never released. The wiki will remain rules free so the setting can be enjoyed by players of any edition or system. There's more information on our blog, Arcane Sight.

Wicked!

 

[DaveMage]

Interesting idea...

 

[jdrakeh]

Awesome!

 

[JVisgaitis]

We'll see how it works. I think Kyngdoms did something similar if I'm not mistaken.

 

[DaveMage]

Is part of the reason for doing it this way the fact that 4E details (classes/races/monsters) are being rolled out over several years? (Which will allow you to update the Wiki with relevant information.)

 

[Voadam]

We'll see how it works. I think Kyngdoms did something similar if I'm not mistaken.

Yep, and I still got the pdf. Wikis are great but I really like having the pdf and knowing I will have the material even if the website goes away later. Hopefully you will put up a pdf as well, I've enjoyed the Violet dawn stuff I own (the monster book, the DM and Player's lorebooks) and would love to get a statless (since plans for the OGL one are shelved) pdf.

 

[jdrakeh]

We'll see how it works. I think Kyngdoms did something similar if I'm not mistaken.

If you go this route, it may be best to use the wiki as a kind of hook for the commercial products. I know there are several commercial products that I have an interest that I will also never fork out the cash for because I'm unable to glean the value of the actual content prior to purchase.

Reviews are great, of course, but only if they're written by reliable sources who are completely unaffiliated with the publisher. . . and those reviews are, unfortunately, in short supply these days. Something like a setting wiki that lets me see what I'm buying before I pay is an invaluable resource.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Is part of the reason for doing it this way the fact that 4E details (classes/races/monsters) are being rolled out over several years? (Which will allow you to update the Wiki with relevant information.)

Part of it is, yes.

Another factor that played into this was the massive cutting of fluff from 4th Edition. Avadnu is a really evocative world with a lot of detail behind it. One of our race descriptions for instance has more fluff text then all of the races in the 4e PHB combined.

The way 4e works and economically, it doesn't make sense to put that much text in a 4e product. We cut them down to fit into the current 4e model, but I didn't want to lose all of that text flavor as that makes the setting what it is.

The last factor was we really have a ton of material that has been print ready for years. While it wasn't enough material to put together into a cohesive book, it is a ton of writing and will let us get this out now and make for a sizeable wiki.

 

[JVisgaitis]

Hopefully you will put up a pdf as well, I've enjoyed the Violet dawn stuff I own (the monster book, the DM and Player's lorebooks) and would love to get a statless (since plans for the OGL one are shelved) pdf.

We'll still be doing PDFs of the material. Don't worry about that.

If you go this route, it may be best to use the wiki as a kind of hook for the commercial products. I know there are several commercial products that I have an interest that I will also never fork out the cash for because I'm unable to glean the value of the actual content prior to purchase.

That's basically the idea. Present a cohesive and detailed setting and try to get people interested in it enough via the wiki to purchase our other PDFs and print products.