Re: [HOE] Not really OT: d20 System

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

 >I do hope that this is pure speculation.  I do hope that Shane and John
 >and Jeff and all the other wonderful minds behind one of the greatest
 >RPGs to ever be produced have the good sense and willpower to turn down
 >the money, in lieu of keeping their vision alive.

Okay - this here is the crux of the matter.

But first - ever since T$R pansied out and removed demons from the game 
(deciding that a vocal minority was more important to listen to than their 
actual paying customers) I haven't purchased anything from them - with 
three notable exceptions - all for non-game reasons.  Given that this is a 
hobby, I have no desire to give my discretionary funds to a company that 
frankly, disappointed me so bad.  Back then, I was young and foolish and 
believed in standing up to idiots.

WotC earned my dislike when they decided to no longer reprint old versions 
of MTG card - firmly leaving the ability to win games in the hands of those 
who spend the most money.  Their recent Microsoft-esque business strategies 
of WotC have also not endeared me.  (The recent report by a Terry on his 
tribulations as a retailer perfectly mimic MS's coercive tactics against PC 
manufactures - but this thread is a long rant with a lot of evidence and is 
off topic so, I'll leave it at that.)

FRPG - owners of the L5R license and co-creators of the L5R card 
game.  I'll never buy from them or AEG for lying to me over the card 
game.  Early advertising for the game said that the game would end in two 
years.  Near GenCon '97, it was spin-doctored to be that the story arc 
would end instead.  Insult to injury was their decision to not release 
certain power rares (after following the CCG trend of having X number of 
broken power rares in each expansion), and THEN they sold themselves to 
WotC.  I had the official Lion Clan website, organized the entire official 
clan websites to begin with, double katana winner, multiple copies of each 
set, etc.  When I heard that WotC the new owners, within 10 minutes my 
website whose URL had been published in the CCG rulebooks was gone.

If WotC's continued bypassing of the distribution chain (the chain that 
allows the small company to get it's product into hundreds of stores) ends 
up driving those small businesses, well, out of business - then I'm 
quitting the hobby that I've been in for about 20 years now.  (An option 
that I don't have with Microsoft)

ahem.

Suffice it to say that I am not a fan of that overinflated subdivision of 
Hasbro.

BUT. back to your original point
 >. . .have the good sense and willpower to turn down
 >the money, in lieu of keeping their vision alive.

With no money - there will be no vision.  Shane, John, John, Dave, Lee, 
Zeke, and Chris will have to go out and get paying jobs.  And Pinnacle will 
join the ranks of far too many other good game companies that tanked.

If they do a D20 system - I doubt that it will be at the expense of the 
main production lines.  It certainly won't detract from the setting.  The 
worst that could happen is that they over print the books and are left a 
large pile of 'em.

The best that could happen is that 5% of the DnD book buyers pick up a copy 
of the Deadlands book, giving PEG a nice chunk of change.  Then, some of 
those folks who picked up the book on curiosity, will become fans of the 
game and start buying the core DL books, increasing the overall sales of PEG.
-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com
Deadlands fan site - http://www.darious.com/deadlands/index.html

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The Band:
To take a load off....