What is your view of EN Publishing?

[Morrus]

Umm.. good point.

The primary access method is - and is intended to be - EN World subscriptions. That's working out just fine; I have no complaints there. The rpgnow stuff is really there just to catch those people who shop at rpgnow but don't visit EN World.

 

[El Mahdi]

My view mirrors that of most people that have posted. The smaller supplements are good. Obviously they are only useful to those that they strike a vibe with, but they are usually quite useful when that vibe is struck, well written, quite clever, and with good fluff.

The Adventure Paths though, are truly outstanding. As a whole, the writing and production are far beyond what I would have expected ENWorld as a publisher to produce, and as good as or better than adventures written by "bigger" publishers.

WotBS was top notch, and the support for both 3.5E and 4E was outstanding.

The new paths are even better.

I think Zeitgeist is going to be remembered as an absolute classic in RPG's, regardless of edition or system preferences.

 

[S'mon]

As a non-buyer: I rarely buy pdf material, since I have to print it out to use it in play, and that is a pain. I don't buy a lot of adventure paths. If ENW stuff was available hardcopy, I would probably buy the first adventures to check them out; that's what I've done with a couple of Paizo APs.

The last time I printed out any ENP stuff was some free magazines, probably 3.0e D&D, so about 8-9 years ago! They weren't very good; I'm sure your stuff is much better now, but it's generally not on my radar. I occasionally hear how your APs are better than WotC's, that's about it.

Edit: I generally don't like subscribing to stuff, no matter how cheap, but will spend quite a lot of money on one-off purchases of hardcopy, if I think it will be good. So I am not the optimal market for your business model.

In general, compared to other publishers, especially WoTC (and previously Necromancer Games and Troll Lord Games) I don't get a strong hook from ENW stuff, or why I would want to buy it. I think it would be different if there was hardcopy in my FLGS or (especially) on amazon.

Edit 2: Oh yeah, I find the number of buttons and tabs on ENW kind of overwhelming, and I rarely leave the Forums area.

 

[Morrus]

If ENW stuff was available hardcopy, I would probably buy the first adventures to check them out; that's what I've done with a couple of Paizo APs.

It is - as mentioned above.

The last time I printed out any ENP stuff was some free magazines, probably 3.0e D&D, so about 8-9 years ago! They weren't very good; I'm sure your stuff is much better now, but it's generally not on my radar. I occasionally hear how your APs are better than WotC's, that's about it.

What, Asgard? That brings back some memories. But that was long before ENP ever existed; I think they even predated EN World (we made 'em when Eric had his site). That was just a bunch of us on the boards back then playing round with the idea of an fan e-mag. I think we made about 5 or 6 before we got bored. EN Publishing was formed some time later, but had nothing to do with Asgard.


I still have a soft spot for Asgard, though.

 

[S'mon]

It is - as mentioned above.

What, Asgard? That brings back some memories. But that was long before ENP ever existed; I think they even predated EN World (we made 'em when Eric had his site). That was just a bunch of us on the boards back then playing round with the idea of an fan e-mag. I think we made about 5 or 6 before we got bored. EN Publishing was formed some time later, but had nothing to do with Asgard.

I still have a soft spot for Asgard, though.

Yeah, Asgard.

I just checked amazon.co.uk for "War of the Burning Sky", you don't feature. I'm afraid that's pretty much my metric of availability, and the way I make the vast bulk of my RPG purchases, except for minis, and occasional speculative trips to Orcs' Nest & Leisure Games. I'll very occasionally buy stuff POD via Lulu.com, but with the huge shipping costs that's only for things I really want, or some OSR stuff being sold at-cost.

 

[Alzrius]

The big thing for Pathfinder is going to be the Myths of the Far Future stuff. We've ended up, quite literally, designing Pathfinder: Future. The current plan is to release Myths of the Far Future as a free Pathfinder rulebook aimed at far future campaigns (and including its own default setting, but with lots of advice on making your own), and have SANTIAGO be an adventure path which uses it.

Morrus, can you venture a guess as to when we'll see Myths of the Far Future? It doesn't have to be a hard release date, just a ballpark.

As an aside, it might be fun to see if you can get Louis Agresta to use MotFF as the rules for when he releases The Known Universe Gazetteer for Pathfinder.

 

[Morrus]

Morrus, can you venture a guess as to when we'll see Myths of the Far Future? It doesn't have to be a hard release date, just a ballpark.

I'd guess the end of Q1 2012, but you'll see Player's and Campaign Guides before then.

As an aside, it might be fun to see if you can get Louis Agresta to use MotFF as the rules for when he releases The Known Universe Gazetteer for Pathfinder.

I hadn't heard of that. It looks very cool!

 

[Greg K]

I have not bought anything EN Publishing related for a while as I don't like 4e and have switched from d20 to Savage Worlds for my non-supers gaming. However, prior to switching to Savage Worlds, I bought several EN products for d20 (including Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth for d20M). I pretty much liked everything I bought except Librum Equitis (This has to do with me, generally, not being a fan of prestige classes)

I'd go as far as stating that I prefer the EN Publishing products that I bought to most WOTC supplements (Unearthed Arcana and Fiendish Codex 1 being two notable exceptions) The Elements of Magic books are still some of my favorite d20 products and EoM: Mythic Earth rates among my top 10 supplements for d20 and d20M. I would never run a d20M game that included magic without substituting EoM: Mythic Earth for the default magic fx rules.

 

[Lwaxy]

Despite of no advertising, WotBS is well known, even if most of my players could not connect it to EN - as they aren't really here. I didn't pay much attention to EN Publishing until someone brought me a printed out (barely readable) copy of the first 3 parts of the above mentioned story. Now they wanna play it and insist in incorporating the whole into the ongoing mega-adventure madness which would mean turning it into Pathfinder (how long is this campaign supposed to last again?). We'll get the PDfs somewhen in January with the next drive-through RPG purchases of our group. That's the plan anyway.

I think what I've seen of the APs from EN is better than a lot of the published adventures - although "Santiago" is such an overused and uncreative name, really. Maybe there is a reason for it, but really, there are so many names to pick from, or make up your own. The delay in Zeitgeist is a little annoying, yes, but my group will have at least a year before even thinking about incorporating it anywhere.

That said, $6 for a month subscription is not something I can currently do, so unless I get a hold on the hard copies of the other APs somehow I will probably not be able to run them. Not saying it is too much money, but I can't really justify buying any more APs when we aren't quite done with the Paizo ones yet

As for the PDF vs hard copy - I do not mind the PDFs at all. I have the info on the laptop screen, but usually I just happen to remember what I need save the NPC stats, which I usually just jot down on old paper. The few printouts needed for players and the maps aren't an issue.

PDFs, at least, do not drown in coffee, beer or are smothered by pizza, and the cats can't chew them up either.

What I would do is have the SHOP link in the menu more visible, probably in red or in a red box.

As for the lack of reviews - guilty, I am. I tend to forget to do this with the PDFs I buy. The reason is simple, I do not usually use the stuff immediately and forget later. Maybe there should be a "don't forget to rate this" link in the PDFs leading back to where you bought it from. m

 

[S'mon]

What I would do is have the SHOP link in the menu more visible, probably in red or in a red box.

Yeah, I've been coming here for 12 years and I never noticed that icon before.