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Will the last person to leave WOTC please turn out the lights...
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<blockquote data-quote="FDP Mike" data-source="post: 266142" data-attributes="member: 325"><p><strong>It's not really the same ...</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With no disrespect meant toward Green Ronin, I'm not sure that this example actually works. The difference is a matter of scale.</p><p></p><p>True, Green Ronin has put out a number of products in the past while, but other than the <em>Freeport</em> hardcover, most of those products (for instance, <em>Armies of the Abyss</em> or <em>Arcana: Societies of Magic</em> -- which I have and quite like!) are softcover books in the 64-page range.</p><p></p><p>Other than the PsiHB, WotC's hardcovers tend to run a decent 250 pages or more, and the text density in them is very high. It takes a lot more people (designers, editors, artists, cartographers, layout and typsetting folks, and so forth) and resources to put those hardcovers together than 64-page books. Even WotC's classbooks all hit the 96-page mark, usually having two designers. Then there are the superb Forgotten Realms products, <em>Call of Cthulu</em>, the revised Star Wars RPG . . . .</p><p></p><p>(That reminds me: we shouldn't forget that WotC's also producing regular Star Wars material.)</p><p></p><p>Also, the d20 Modern game (and book) is a quite significant investment in hours and development, I would imagine -- on a scale that not many d20 companies even attempt.</p><p></p><p>I'm sure that if you totalled up the page count for the products from Green Ronin and WotC, you'd see that WotC's is much higher -- and that <strong>is</strong> significant when considering how much time and how many people it takes to get just a single product from concept to print.</p><p></p><p>(This post is in <strong>no way</strong> meant to diminish the fabulous achievements of Green Ronin -- only to put those achievements in perspective when numbers such as products and employees are used. Heck, here at FDP it's just 4 guys all with full-time jobs, and up until we left Sword & Sorcery, we were churning out a pretty regular release schedule . . . which is just to say that putting out 64-page books does take an immense amount of effort, even in comparison to WotC.)</p><p></p><p>A more intriguing example in this case might perhaps be Mongoose, though I still think that scale remains important to consider. (Perhaps even AEG is a better example, as it does put out more regular hardcovers and has a diverse gaming line beyond just strictly d20 products. Hmm . . . .)</p><p></p><p>In a lot of ways, I think that WotC is still the leader in putting out high quality books ("crunchy" and "creamy"), from the design on down to the layout. Maybe all of this is just a cycle? Whatever the case, gaming (and D&D) is now pretty safe, I'd bet: the SRD is out (though s l o w l y getting finished); a wealth of excellent and creative and exciting companies are producing material; we're seeing different ways of using the d20 System for games and genres other than D&D and fantasy; and, perhaps most importantly, the fan base is back -- if not encouraged by the many d20 publishers out there now.</p><p></p><p>Hmm, maybe FDP should hire an intern . . . . <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FDP Mike, post: 266142, member: 325"] [b]It's not really the same ...[/b] With no disrespect meant toward Green Ronin, I'm not sure that this example actually works. The difference is a matter of scale. True, Green Ronin has put out a number of products in the past while, but other than the [i]Freeport[/i] hardcover, most of those products (for instance, [i]Armies of the Abyss[/i] or [i]Arcana: Societies of Magic[/i] -- which I have and quite like!) are softcover books in the 64-page range. Other than the PsiHB, WotC's hardcovers tend to run a decent 250 pages or more, and the text density in them is very high. It takes a lot more people (designers, editors, artists, cartographers, layout and typsetting folks, and so forth) and resources to put those hardcovers together than 64-page books. Even WotC's classbooks all hit the 96-page mark, usually having two designers. Then there are the superb Forgotten Realms products, [i]Call of Cthulu[/i], the revised Star Wars RPG . . . . (That reminds me: we shouldn't forget that WotC's also producing regular Star Wars material.) Also, the d20 Modern game (and book) is a quite significant investment in hours and development, I would imagine -- on a scale that not many d20 companies even attempt. I'm sure that if you totalled up the page count for the products from Green Ronin and WotC, you'd see that WotC's is much higher -- and that [b]is[/b] significant when considering how much time and how many people it takes to get just a single product from concept to print. (This post is in [b]no way[/b] meant to diminish the fabulous achievements of Green Ronin -- only to put those achievements in perspective when numbers such as products and employees are used. Heck, here at FDP it's just 4 guys all with full-time jobs, and up until we left Sword & Sorcery, we were churning out a pretty regular release schedule . . . which is just to say that putting out 64-page books does take an immense amount of effort, even in comparison to WotC.) A more intriguing example in this case might perhaps be Mongoose, though I still think that scale remains important to consider. (Perhaps even AEG is a better example, as it does put out more regular hardcovers and has a diverse gaming line beyond just strictly d20 products. Hmm . . . .) In a lot of ways, I think that WotC is still the leader in putting out high quality books ("crunchy" and "creamy"), from the design on down to the layout. Maybe all of this is just a cycle? Whatever the case, gaming (and D&D) is now pretty safe, I'd bet: the SRD is out (though s l o w l y getting finished); a wealth of excellent and creative and exciting companies are producing material; we're seeing different ways of using the d20 System for games and genres other than D&D and fantasy; and, perhaps most importantly, the fan base is back -- if not encouraged by the many d20 publishers out there now. Hmm, maybe FDP should hire an intern . . . . :D [/QUOTE]
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