who else loves the C&C...?

[Philotomy Jurament]

Due to health reasons it looks like CZ will be a largely Kuntz written project from Gary's drafts, an idea that doesn't fill me with joy but may still be good.

Rob is no longer associated with the Castle Zagyg project. The last updates I'm aware of were from several months ago (and it was before Gary's unfortunate bout of shingles), in forum posts from Gary and from Steve (i.e. Troll Lord). Both indicated summer (i.e. August) of 2007 as the release date for the next installment. I don't know if Gary's recent illness affected that target date or not, though.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Rob is no longer associated with the Castle Zagyg project. The last updates I'm aware of were from several months ago (and it was before Gary's unfortunate bout of shingles), in forum posts from Gary and from Steve (i.e. Troll Lord). Both indicated summer (i.e. August) of 2007 as the release date for the next installment. I don't know if Gary's recent illness affected that target date or not, though.

Well that is good news. No offense to Rob of course, his stuff is just not my bag for the most part.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I'm sure they have the best of intentions too, but you don't make a promise to your customer then not come though. That's bad business.

RPG companies, unfortunately, make promises they don't come through with fairly frequently.

Speaking as someone who's seen all sides of that -- as author, still waiting to be paid for stuff I wrote in 2005; as purchaser, still waiting for products I bought in early 2006; and as small press publisher, I can understand the reasons why it's happened. I've promised to have print-ready versions of OSRIC available in March... as far as I know, I can achieve that, but a single unexpected challenge could prevent it. And at the end of the day, I have a life and a family and a day job.

(Admittedly, OSRIC's a non-profit, free in .pdf and will be non-profit in print; I'm not even pretending to be running a business. But I think there are fundamental similarities in the way these different entities work.)

TLG and Rob Kuntz have both occasionally made the perhaps dangerous choice of accepting people's money before they have a product that's ready to ship. I've personally resolved not to do that.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

TLG and Rob Kuntz have both occasionally made the perhaps dangerous choice of accepting people's money before they have a product that's ready to ship. I've personally resolved not to do that.

Good idea on your part.

 

[Grimstaff]

as author, still waiting to be paid for stuff I wrote in 2005;

Right there with ya, brotha!

 

[Treebore]

Rob is no longer associated with the Castle Zagyg project. The last updates I'm aware of were from several months ago (and it was before Gary's unfortunate bout of shingles), in forum posts from Gary and from Steve (i.e. Troll Lord). Both indicated summer (i.e. August) of 2007 as the release date for the next installment. I don't know if Gary's recent illness affected that target date or not, though.

GenCon 07 will see the release of the first boxed set for Castle Zagyg. Written or edited/approved by Gary. I don't know of any exact breakdown of what Gary wrote and didn't write. Since I find Gary's manner of writing very distinctive I think I'll be able to tell when I finally read it.

As for the Crusader magazine bit, I feel your pain. They have the covers posted for up through issue 7, at least.

The Trolls are definitely biting off more than they can do. They are trying to run a gaming company in a manner that requires lots of committed time. They are also working normal day jobs with wives, newborn kids, older children, etc... So the production schedule kind of sucks. They have done much better since last GenCon, we finally have our CK screen, a half dozen or so modules have been released, plus a couple of pdf products.

They have hired someone that will hopefully result in a much more consistant schedule for Crusader. He was hired in early Jan., so we still have to wait and see how well it effects Crusaders publication.

With Castles and Crusades now being one of the top 5 games/gaming companies maybe the Trolls will get to a point where they can give C&C their full attention. Until then we, and the company, will have to suffer with the eratic and slow publications.


As for the CKG, I know it is being worked on, but that is all I know. I didn't sign on to help develop it. I do know that several of the people who did sign on are very good and actually work to get things done. So I am hoping to see the CKG either by the end of this year, or June of 2008 at the latest.

This is just based on my expectations due to how I have seen the Trolls operate in the past. Like I said, they have been noticeably better about some things since GenCon, so if they keep improving they might be faster than I am hoping/predicting.

 

[S'mon]

Flexor the Mighty!: "I'd have to say my biggest problem with C&C, other than the horrible dragons in M&T, is TLG itself."

I agree about the M&T dragons, but the BECMI/RC D&D dragon stats seem to work perfectly using standard C&C rules (Attack bonus = hit dice, I give them 8hp/die but rollng d12s would be fine too), so a minor quibble from my POV.

Troll Lords seem to consistently bite off more than they can chew, yup. Their quality control is not the best in the industry. OTOH they really seem to go out of their way to make up for mistakes, and are consistently regarded as nice guys doing their best, they certainly make a real effort on individual customer service. If "all you need is love" were true, they'd be #1 in the industry.

Anyway, the more I GM C&C the more I'm growing to love it. I'm still sloughing off some 3e mental accretions on how d20 is supposed to work, and enjoying C&C more the more I come to see it as its own game, with its own internal logic.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Flexor the Mighty!: "I'd have to say my biggest problem with C&C, other than the horrible dragons in M&T, is TLG itself."

I agree about the M&T dragons, but the BECMI/RC D&D dragon stats seem to work perfectly using standard C&C rules (Attack bonus = hit dice, I give them 8hp/die but rollng d12s would be fine too), so a minor quibble from my POV.

Troll Lords seem to consistently bite off more than they can chew, yup. Their quality control is not the best in the industry. OTOH they really seem to go out of their way to make up for mistakes, and are consistently regarded as nice guys doing their best, they certainly make a real effort on individual customer service. If "all you need is love" were true, they'd be #1 in the industry.

Anyway, the more I GM C&C the more I'm growing to love it. I'm still sloughing off some 3e mental accretions on how d20 is supposed to work, and enjoying C&C more the more I come to see it as its own game, with its own internal logic.

Oh I did that on the dragons, I just use the copies from the MM.

 

[mhensley]

With Castles and Crusades now being one of the top 5 games/gaming companies...

I find this impossible to believe.

 

[Ourph]

Their quality control is not the best in the industry.

Are you suggesting that they actually HAVE quality control?