Roleplaying Games
The title pretty much says it all - Monte Cook, possibly the most respected name in the d20 System industry, will be lending his advice and developmental assistance to Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder RPG as a Rules Consultant. Now technically, Cook is going back on his decision to retire from the RPG field by signing on to help with Pathfinder, but I doubt anyone will mind. Paizo and Malhavoc Press, Cook’s d20 company, have worked together in the past, so it seems logical they’d come together for something as potentially-major as the next “bedrock for the Open Game movement” (as Erik Mona of Paizo put it in our recent Audio Report interview). Click through to the full announcement, which makes it sound like Cook has been involved for a while now.
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Since I’m borrowing a machine yet again – man, I need a laptop – I’ll give you a quick braindump of things seen and heard at the GAMA Trade Show ’08 this year. I’ll post more when I can sit down longer, and we’ll discuss everything in detail next time we record an Audio Report episode.
Many of the show’s exhibitors and attendees missed the show schedule addendum, which explained room costs had been negotiated lower for next year (yay!) by agreeing to hold both 2009 and 2010 starting on and during the week immediately following Easter Sunday (What?!?). Nearly everyone I spoke with thought the move was beyond a bad idea – doesn’t anyone remember the final nail in Gen Con UK’s coffin a couple years ago? Reportedly, GAMA is now rapidly backpedaling on this announcement.
Now on to the games:
I’ll get more posted when I can, though at this rate, it may have to wait until after the trip home.
First, if it escaped your attention, Lee Valentine has an exhaustively thorough look at Ken Hite’s new Trail of Cthulhu RPG. If you’ve got questions about whether this latest complete game on the Mythos is the one for you, Lee probably has answers.
Second, our post-DunDraCon podcast is finally ready for your ears. Enjoy, and post your comments.
Announcement. The upshot as far as I can tell is that the SRD will now be free, to someone anyway, and the go date for publishing 4E GSL-licensed material will be October, not January 2009 or whatever it was. That is, the associated SRD will be free for download on 6/6, and a few hand-picked folks are getting it early. And guess what: something called a D20 license (in this case, a D20 GSL) will be coming back, for the benefit of third parties who’d like to do non-fantasy material. Still no word, from what I can tell, on what either GSL’s terms actually are.
The final preview of the new Traveller rulebook is up at Mongoose Publishing’s website, giving fans an early peek at a Scout ship. Despite the company’s aborted attempt at an in-house printing facility, the new edition arrives at the end of the month, so it’s almost time to try out the latest incarnation of the RPG that has had more versions than any other (by my unofficial count, at least). Due to the line on the Character Generation Checklist that prompts players to “Roll for survival on this career”, it sounds like Mongoose was trying for the spirit of the original character creation process, wherein a character could die before ever being played (which seems ridiculous when you first hear it, but not everyone has a happy backstory, ya know?). Mongoose promises to employ the Traveller system to power updates of titles that include Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, and Starship Troopers, so fans of those lines may want to get onboard for this month’s release as well. We’ll soon see how well the new version is received, and whether third party support will rally - either under its OGL or more defined Traveller Logo license.
Normally, I wouldn’t comment on the April Fool’s Day wackiness - other than to say “duck and cover”, perhaps - but Wizards of the Coast managed to be fairly amusing with this year’s round of pranks. The day’s wackiness has been archived, but be sure to check out the mock 4E character sheet preview, where alignment has one checkbox each for Autobot or Decepticon. It doesn’t get any geekier than that.
Paizo Publishing, former publisher of Dragon and Dungeon and the company behind the Pathfinder d20 product line, announced today its plan to produce the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, due to release August 2009. Perhaps more significant was the company’s decision to stick with the D&D 3.5 ruleset as its foundation. Paizo intends for the game to be “designed with backward compatibility as one of its primary goals, so players will continue to enjoy their lifelong fantasy gaming hobby without invalidating their entire game library.” This move could be designed to help Paizo absorb any D&D fans who end up dissatisfied with 4th Edition once it arrives, and additional thunder-stealing is on the horizon - Paizo already has a free 65-page preview PDF available, and plans to release a full-color softcover Pathfinder RPG Beta release book this August for $24.99.
Multiple announcements accompanied the press release (below), including a statement from Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens. Stevens elaborated on the decision to stick with 3.5: “After careful evaluation of our options, we believe that the 3.5 core will continue to be the best system to tell the stories we’ve got planned for Pathfinder. […] We’re sure that lots of roleplayers are going to be thrilled with Wizards of the Coast’s upcoming 4th Edition, and we’re also looking forward to the 4th Edition products that our partner Necromancer Games will be creating. Paizo may also publish 4th Edition products in the future, but if we do, they won’t cross over with our Pathfinder products.”
Paizo publisher Erik Mona cut right to the heart of the matter in his statement: “Basing the Pathfinder RPG on 3.5 also allows Paizo more control over our destiny than simply following along with the latest edition and the newest licensing changes.” Beyond merely taking control of its ruleset, Paizo may be establishing an in-print system that other publishers can adapt for their needs. Interesting developments in the D&D upgrade shake-out, to be sure.
[UPDATE: A follow-up press release, added here, states the free Pathfinder Alpha PDF has already been downloaded 10,000 times]
Round two of today’s catch-up episodes, this early February show muses on the future of the Dark Heresy RPG (which became clearer soon after show time), upcoming con season, the WoW CMG, and more. Mike also gives us a primer on Vincent Baker’s latest game, In a Wicked Age, and we’ve all been keeping busy playing things. Again, thanks to everyone who emailed asking when we’d be back - the answer is, now.
The OgreCave Audio Report is getting back up to speed with this, the first of two shows being fired off today. We’ve been talking, you just haven’t been able to hear it. Here’s the proof: our first Audio Report of the new year, recorded back when OGLs and inroads to Starbucks were all the rage. Thanks to everyone who emailed their concern over the extended, unintentional hiatus - my dead paperweight of an old machine caused considerable delays, but we’ll be all caught up fairly soon. Meanwhile, have a listen, tell us what’s on your mind, and welcome back.
White Wolf is making a more agressive play to bring converts from D&D to Exalted in a new promotion. The Graduate Your Game promotion will provide 2,500 copies of the Exalted: 2nd Edition rulebook in exchange for a D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbook. Consumers can either contact White Wolf directly with an order form and a book, or bring a different form to a local retailer. Here’s where it gets amusing: participating retailers must “take all D&D 3.5 Player’s Handbooks that are exchanged, tear out the pages, and return the full cover with the consumer forms”. Destroy those books! As if that weren’t enough, gamers can download a diploma “for graduation from the Third Edition Fantasy Game”. Those who want to take advantage of the trade-in offer should make arrangements soon, as retailer promo kits get mailed next week, and White Wolf anticipates a good chance that all book preorders will be spoken for well ahead of the April 28th deadline.
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