4E FR. Hope you didn't like the old Realms

[Koumei]

Well, the FR rule is unfortunately "If it's published, it's true."

So if someone writes something that directly contradicts something written before, the old stuff is wrong.

Pray that I never get any stuff published for FR.

[Voss]

That seems unlikely. You'd probably be overly creative and think things out too much.

[Gingerbread]

The FRCS 4.0 sourcebook will be published long after the 4.0 Core books come out. So it seems that the FRCS writers still have a lot of time left to iron out this mess. That's why I think this premature spewing of "thoughts" by Rich is not really helping matters any.

[Voss]

Long after? No. Its slated for September or October, I believe. So like 3-4 months after the core books.

No, I'm wrong. August.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=pr ... rt=1[br]So two months later... they don't have a lot of time. They've got maybe a month and a half to finalize the Core books (for printing and distribution and shit), another 2 or 3 for the FR book.

[Username17]

The leak and listen approach that WotC has adopted is in some ways ingenious. They drop a bunch of hints about what they are currently planning and then they watch the internet communities and then they adapt their plan. It's like sending it to a focus group but free.

Except that it's not free. Some of the people offended by the early draft don't just give feedback and hope things change - they leave. I mean we go back to their preview about filling the hand slots of wizards with stuff that was the equivalent of weapons for when you're throwing fireballs at things. And it was exactly the World of Warcraft shit. Book, Wand, Staff, Orb. And people were pissed. And then they changed it slightly and the article had different equipment listed in it.

But the thing is that a number of people stopped looking forward to 4e when that happened. It was a breaking point in many people's hearts. It wasn't just that they got people to read their shit and tell them what needed revisions for free - it literally drove away potential customers.

When people see low quality stuff in these previews, sure sometimes they offer free constructive criticism, but sometimes they just shake their damn head and lose interest.

It's a dangerous strategy and I don't think it's ultimately wise. They are a big company, they could seriously just give a substantial number of people free copies when it gets published in exchange for proofreading concepts. Art previews and stuff are of course needed to keep people interested, but people would still have essentially the same amount of positive buzz generating if they insisted that everything was going to stay secret and proprietary up until publication date. I mean, I wasn't allowed to publish up excerpts from Augmentation before it got printed.

-Username17

[bitnine]

Huh. That last exchange is not the best, I have to say. I can't be the only one who gets a grasping, defensive tone out of that with a liberal peppering of "we haven't decided all the details yet" and "maybe an archwizard did it", I imagine.

I mean, most of those answers are just devoid of any real substance. Take the statues qeustion as an example. I mean, I could even see a couple of answers actually being a half-decent response to this:

"Well, while we wanted to keep many of the more prominent settings fairly 'as is', we thought there needed to be a visible event that shows that even these places aren't immune to the spellplague in whole. And the frozen statues serving as a continuing ominous reminder in the game that helps to set the theme that we are driving towards. However, we're still working on getting the specific details and causes of some of these pieces into place, so..."

Instead there's a little paragraph so hollow and insipid that I think a total lack of a response would have been more fulfilling.

[technomancer]

My favorite answer is about the weave being required for life -- "We never said it was. If we did, we were wrong."

[RandomCasualty]

1200350563[/unixtime]]
Except that it's not free. Some of the people offended by the early draft don't just give feedback and hope things change - they leave.

I don't know. I mean you figure eventually they'll come back to it when everyone else is playing it. And if you fixed the problem, which hopefully you did, they may end up buying it.

They certainly won't be the people who preorder the book, but eventually you'll sell them a copy, unless of course your final decision is something they didn't like. In which case, no marketing strategy would work.

What I seriously don't understand though, is why they don't just release an incomplete playtest version instead of the bullshit teaser books like Races and Classes. That way they can sell an incomplete shit version to hard core D&D fans, get playtest feedback and still get them to buy the real thing when it comes out.

[Voss]

Because it seriously isn't done.

They just sent it for typesetting last week. And that isn't even the final version.

And, of course, according to Scott Rouse, Book of Nine Swords and SW: Saga were playtesting for fourth edition.

[Draco_Argentum]

1200350563[/unixtime]]And then they changed it slightly and the article had different equipment listed in it.

They, did? I don't remember that. (This being the problem with the strategy.)

[Voss]

Yeah a web-monkey put up the wrong version. Kinda sad too, since the original was largely better. Didn't have the lame ass organizations tied into shit, like Golden Wyvern and Emerald Frost.

[JonSetanta]

I would read and enjoy any Koumei-produced FR material.
Especially if there was a class about Drizzt cloning in a manner similar to the Hipporgriff master.
You know, Simulacrum abuse.... with Drizzt.