Whatever happened to Necromancer Games?

[Stormonu]

All Joe is saying is that Paizo works with 3pp PF publishers in a way that WOTC never, ever, did. They advertise them on their front page. I got to Paizo boards several times a day, and I know the first thing I saw many times were advertisements for 3pp products for PAthfinder. Go to their products forum on their message boards and not only do you talk about Paizo products, but 3pp PF products, as well as the stuff sold in their store.

Something the suites at WOTC would have never allowed, and likely never will.

So Paizo supports and promotes even the 3pp's, who are clearly "competition", but Paizo is classy enough to share their field.

When Fiery Dragon did counters for Keep on the Shadowfell, WotC did openly link to the counters on RPGNow, I seem to remember. Also, if you look back in the MM2 (3rd edition), you will find two creatures from the Creature Collection by Sword & Sorcery. (Likewise, most of the creatures from Tome of Horrors by Necromancer games have attributions back to Gary Gygax and old TSR products - which WotC would have had to allowed). Then there is the whole Ravenloft and Dragonlance line for 3E...

WotC used to be very friendly with 3PP, but they've backed off quite a bit.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Ravenloft, Dragonlance, and let's not forget Gamma World.

I don't count that as 'friendly' as opposed to licensed work though. After all, it's not like they let them keep going with the material and in the case of Dragonlance, that just seemed baffling.

I keep hoping Richard Knakk will come out with a game for his Dragon Realms. It was some fun stuff and I see they've started to reprint it.

WoTC also had some OGL content via Unearthed Arcana.

Overall though, WoTC promoting of the game outside of their own massive manor seems lacking. Even when Mike Mearls is talking gaming, he's often talking things like Magic. Eh? Maybe it's just me but I don't recall a lot of card gaming chat coming from Mearls back in the day.

Things change though so evolve or die I guess.

 

[dmccoy1693]

To me, [Paizo goes] well and way above what the OGL itself does.

This. As a young 3rd party publisher, I gotta say that the people at Paizo are the best. Hands down. It goes beyond their website as well, their facebook page and more.

Everyone at Paizo really does seem to carry the spirit of gaming with them. For this and much more, I wish them many many years of success in business ahead of them.

 

[Maggan]

The paper models for example are a top notch idea.

Yeah, and if I may offer an idea to Paizo, it would be rad if you would add some more pictures of the paper minis assembled and in action to your site.

Or if you already have such pictures on your site, please make them easier for me to find.

/M

 

[Wicht]

Right. I guess I was misreading your saying that the OGL itself was promoting the 'open environment as opposed to Paizo going well beyond anything required in that field and standing up and kicking ass in the name of righteous gaming.

Any legal document is only as good and useful as the people promoting it allow it to be.

I'm very much a fan of the OGL and the theory behind it, but I recognize that in and of itself it will accomplish nothing. And, as I've already stated, I think it fairly obvious Wizards of the Coast never took advantage of it after the MM II. They seemed to have reached a point internally where they saw only that it required them to give and never seemed to fully grasp the possibilities available to them. Paizo on the other hand has, from the beginning of their AP line, used the OGL as it was intended to be used and I think everyone (Paizo included) has benefitted from this.

 

[Wicht]

Yeah, and if I may offer an idea to Paizo, it would be rad if you would add some more pictures of the paper minis assembled and in action to your site.

Or if you already have such pictures on your site, please make them easier for me to find.

/M

Since you asked

The last features the paper terrain made by World Works game for the first Legacy of Fire adventure and contains the paper demon mini from the Pathfinder Paper mini line. There are larger images available if you want to see them better. Just follow this link and when you see the image you want, click on the option to veiw it in "any size."

 

[TarionzCousin]

Every time I see this thread title, I can't help but think "Whatever happened to Fay Wray?"

 

[Jadeite]

Every time I see this thread title, I can't help but think "Whatever happened to Fay Wray?"

That delicate satin draped frame?

Good to know I'm not the only one.

 

[James Jacobs]

The thing with the OGL is that if it DIDN'T exist, Paizo wouldn't exist in the way it does today. I'm not sure what we would have done after the magazine license went back to WotC—probably would have just turned into a web store for a year and then MAYBE if we lasted we would have tried out some sort of new game or something.

Paizo pretty much owes its existence and success to the open gaming concept, so the way we see it, it's silly for us not to embrace the concept fully and make every bit of rules that we create open as well (with the rare exception of when we do rules for things that we can't secure open content rights to, such as the deep crow or the coeurl).

 

[Azgulor]

The thing with the OGL is that if it DIDN'T exist, Paizo wouldn't exist in the way it does today. I'm not sure what we would have done after the magazine license went back to WotC—probably would have just turned into a web store for a year and then MAYBE if we lasted we would have tried out some sort of new game or something.

Paizo pretty much owes its existence and success to the open gaming concept, so the way we see it, it's silly for us not to embrace the concept fully and make every bit of rules that we create open as well (with the rare exception of when we do rules for things that we can't secure open content rights to, such as the deep crow or the coeurl).

For all the OGL detractors out there, please read the above post again. Even if you're not a Paizo customer, you'll be hard pressed to find a gamer who isn't or who hasn't heard about the quality of their products, or a 4E fan who hasn't wished for Paizo-developed 4E content.

IMO, if the only benefit derived from the OGL was to enable Paizo to exist in its current form, then the OGL was a smashing success.

The fact that I have a great RPG library filled with expansions, alternatives, licensed prodcuts, adventures, settings, and yes - some products that competed with WotC core that are still useable with my Pathfinder RPG campaign is frakkin' fantastic.

The OGL kicketh much backside!