Whatever happened to Necromancer Games?

[froggie]

news from Bill Webb

OK guys--website will be live in a few days froggodgames.com. Greg and I are a go. A few details to still work out---but here is the plan. I have to make it a non-Necro release for various reasons..but Clark has passed me his infernal blessings, so here we go.


The Sleeper Awakes!
At last, after languishing in its crypt for an age, the secrets of the slumbering city of Tsar burst forth in all their macabre glory. Poured forth from the eldritch furnaces and crucibles of the Necromancer and Orcus himself comes Frog God Games bringing you at long last The Slumbering Tsar Saga™.
Something Stirs in the City of Evil
Over the distant northern hills, beyond The Camp, and past the Desolation stand the pitted walls of Tsar. A hundred armies have crushed themselves against this bulwark in futile attempts to breach the city. Even the combined might of the Heavens and Earth were unable to break through in the final battle of Tsar. So why was the city suddenly abandoned on the verge of victory, and what waits for those foolish enough to enter the Temple-City of Orcus?
The Black Gates Await
Only the bravest and most powerful of heroes dare the depths of the Desolation and live to tell of it. But what happens when they penetrate that blasted landscape and look upon the gates of the very center of evil on the earth. Can even heroes of such renown breach the Walls of Death and live?
The Slumbering Tsar Saga™ began its journey years ago as a single mega-adventure for the masters of Third Edition rules and First Edition feel, then became a trilogy of adventures, then a trilogy of mega-adventures, and now finally comes to you as a monthly series culminating in a massive book with over a half million words of pure First Edition-style adventure. Updated to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to accommodate today’s audience of the classic fantasy roleplaying game, The Slumbering Tsar Saga™ brings you 14 chapters, released monthly in electronic format, each chapter the size of a full adventure in its own right (30-50 pages) . Then when the final chapter has been released, the whole will be available in a classic edition, hardcover adventure book.
The Slumbering Tsar Saga™ will begin its run with the release of its first chapter, Slumbering Tsar: The Desolation, Part 1 —The Edge of Oblivion. Then each month will follow a new chapter in the saga:
Slumbering Tsar: The Desolation, Part 2 —The Ghosts of Victory
Slumbering Tsar: The Desolation, Part 3—The Western Front
Slumbering Tsar: Temple-City of Orcus, Part 1 —The Tower of Weeping Sores
Slumbering Tsar: Temple-City of Orcus, Part 2 —The Lower City
Slumbering Tsar: Temple-City of Orcus, Part 3 —The Harrow Lanes
Slumbering Tsar: Temple-City of Orcus, Part 4 —The Crooked Tower
Slumbering Tsar: Temple-City of Orcus, Part 5 —Foundations of Infamy
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 1 —At the Feet of Orcus
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 2 —Echoes of Despair
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 3 —The Throne of the Demon Prince
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 4 —In the Belly of the Beast
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 5 —The Mind of Chaos
Slumbering Tsar: The Hidden Citadel, Part 6 —Caverns of the Barrier
COMING SOON
Coming May 15th to Frog God Games Slumbering Tsar: The Desolation, Part 1 —The Edge of Oblivion in pdf format for the introductory price of $2.00.
Each month following, the next chapter of The Slumbering Tsar Saga™ will be released for the low price of $9.99. A subscription option is available to ensure that you don’t miss a single installment. Upon the release of the final chapter, the whole will be available as a hardcover print adventure and is included as part of the purchase price for those how purchase all 14 installments of the series or for a one-time purchase price of $120.00 (includes hardcover). Non subscription hardcover books will be available for $150.00 (when we are all done) at Drive Through RPG (DriveThruRPG.com - The Largest RPG Download Store!) . As soon as Slumbering Tsar Saga™ is complete, look for our next release!
Don’t miss out
You have waited long enough for The Slumbering Tsar Saga™. Now it is waiting for you.

 

[crazy_cat]

*lots of stuff about Slumbering Tsar*

Hurrah!

 

[Kafen]

"—The Edge of Oblivion in pdf format for the introductory price of $2.00.
Each month following, the next chapter of The Slumbering Tsar Saga™ will be released for the low price of $9.99."

Hmm, we can get a cool book for the price of two fast food meals per month. I can deal with that one.

 

[carmachu]

PS - Shame on those few who felt the need to threadcrap with edition warring. And thanks to the mods for being quick about shutting it down. Clark's decisions weren't about which edition is cooler and he has always been very respectful of WotC, thankful even as the OGL was WotC's gift to the community.

Maybe I missed something, but how is it edition wars pointing out that Clark WAS cheerleading for the new edition and put alot of faith in WOTC for the new GSL/Edition and eventually got burned/found the GSL too restrictive? Because thats the reality, and it has nothing to do with 4e nor whether one likes or dislikes 43 or 3.x

Because I recall alot of CLark's words back then, and his eventual metaculpa in the OGL board here later on....

 

[Kafen]

Maybe I missed something, but how is it edition wars pointing out that Clark WAS cheerleading for the new edition and put alot of faith in WOTC for the new GSL/Edition and eventually got burned/found the GSL too restrictive? Because thats the reality, and it has nothing to do with 4e nor whether one likes or dislikes 43 or 3.x

Because I recall alot of CLark's words back then, and his eventual metaculpa in the OGL board here later on....

I suspect that the sheer amount of people talking about 4e non stop is annoying people.

Anyway, I'm glad to see the announcement and other stuff come out of the thread. I would not mind seeing a Wilderlands update for Pathfinder.

 

[Piratecat]

Maybe I missed something, but how is it edition wars pointing out that Clark WAS cheerleading for the new edition and put alot of faith in WOTC for the new GSL/Edition and eventually got burned/found the GSL too restrictive? Because thats the reality, and it has nothing to do with 4e nor whether one likes or dislikes 43 or 3.x

Because I recall alot of CLark's words back then, and his eventual metaculpa in the OGL board here later on....

If you have questions about moderation, please be sure to PM the mod instead of posting about it in the thread.

And to answer your question, it's not. We take issue with folks who are angling to start arguments or who are trumpeting how their game preference is better than others. A lot of this thread (including some of my own posts) has been the discussion of exactly what you've mentioned. That's fine (and interesting) to discuss... because hoo boy, I think WotC really did mismanage the GSL despite some extreme efforts on the part of brand management not to neuter it.

 

[carmachu]

If you have questions about moderation, please be sure to PM the mod instead of posting about it in the thread.

And to answer your question, it's not. We take issue with folks who are angling to start arguments or who are trumpeting how their game preference is better than others. A lot of this thread (including some of my own posts) has been the discussion of exactly what you've mentioned. That's fine (and interesting) to discuss... because hoo boy, I think WotC really did mismanage the GSL despite some extreme efforts on the part of brand management not to neuter it.

I have no questions about moderation, as they question was quoting somone else. I was just wondering as I didnt see any edition war items- simple facts were Clarks's early cheerleading(and later cheerleading) then his eventual post of "let me have it" eating crow thread when he finally realized it wasnt possible.

I agree on the GSL front. Holy crap did that become a trainwreck. Despite a pair of employees who tried hard to make it work.

 

[Crothian]

This is cool to hear. I haven't given Necromancer Games money in awhile and it felt odd

 

[Wicht]

This is cool to hear. I haven't given Necromancer Games money in awhile and it felt odd

You still won't be giving Necromancer Games money. You'll be giving Frog God Games money unless I am totally misunderstanding the announcement.

 

[TheYeti1775]

...snip...what I didn't see at the time was how DDI and the character builder were going to throttle 3pp development. That caught me by surprise.

Think it caught quite a few by suprise.

If a fully functional DDI character builder computer program had been created back in 1999-2000 for 3E D&D that was fully embraced by D&D players and didn't allow any 3pp crunch, wonder if the d20 glut would have ever happened.

Nothing but truth in this statement. It would have prevented many headaches/heartaches over Code Monkey and PCGen.

I'm guessing they are much more concerned about another unintended side effect of DDI: the strangling of their own book sales. This has become a real problem for WotC.

I would wager your right. I was able to play 4E for the first time last Friday without using a book. Honestly except for the DM referencing a module, a book wasn't used.

No, the real problem is that WoTC needs to stop focusing on crunch material and start focusing on settings and modules. Less crunch = less reliance on the DDI and more people.... playing and talking about the World of Dungeons and Dragons as opposed to the latest build.

While it would increase book sales, does it fit their overal strategy goals? Honestly if you listen to us doomsayers, what is one of our talking points. That WotC wants to move to an entirely online Edition.

I would love to see more settings and better modules by WotC.

But will this ever happen again?

After the experiences of TSR during the 2E AD&D era with many different settings, it wouldn't be surprising to see WotC being reluctant about going down that direction again.

Nevertheless. Today if I was looking for better setting and modules stuff, I would probably be more interested in Pathfinder titles.

It wasn't the number of settings that did them in, it was many bad management descisions that sent them down that road.
Case in point you see them taking a chance with Darksun and possibly other settings in the future with a book or two. I think they have a solid setting model in play that could honestly succeed with numerous settings.

I hope so.

There are at least 31,000 subscribers. I've done some experimenting as well, that is a minimum, I've let my account expire and I got removed from that group. Also a DDI sub doesn't get put in the group unless they setup a community account as well.

So there are quite a few, seems like a lot to me. I can still find quite a few players that are not DDI subscribers, though that is changing fast.

You also have to remember of those 31k subscribers how many of them use their multiple downloads to supply their playing group?
That doesn't include those who use a torrent to acquire a copy with the latest patch. Honestly that took less than 10 minutes to find and download.
So I'm betting the number of Character Builder users dwarf's that 31k number handily.

...snip...
I might be misremembering but wasn't there some information from either TSR or WotC that showed that DMs have always been the bulk buyers of the products in most cases?

I think it was numerous threads around here went over it in full. I know WotC's recent survey asked some questions to that effect as well.
I would wager it is a very true statement in any case.
Players are only interested in the rulebooks that will effect them most. If I never play a fighter but only mages, would I pick up a Complete Warrior or anything of that nature?

...snip...
I wonder how long it will be before someone hacks the Character Builder and creates an import tool for other information?

You would see the torrents blow up with a hack like that out. And I would wager a good many would hunt it down for use.


Honestly though after using the Character Builder the other night, I think I would have killed (or at least given money to WotC) for a 3rd Edition version or even the older editions. Even more so if they had an import capability.

Now back to the topic at hand, I do remember NG/Clark stating his issues with the original GSL. Personally though I didn't care as at the time I saw D&D leaving me not me leaving D&D as I continued playing a prior edition of it.
A bit closed minded on my part I admit.

Having played a full session of it, I can see it's appeal. There were things I liked as well as things I didn't, but it still didn't grab me like prior editions. While I won't turn down playing it with my current group, neither would I actively seek it out. Nor do I ever plan on buying books for this edition.