[X] My Assistant

[Synner667]

JF,

Thank you for the clarification, and sorry if I appeared to be dissing RedBrick's ED.

It's been a while since I read up on the ED license situation, or how each was being supported.

Having seen how Digital Burn has died, I should have realised something similar had happened to their ED license.


From the sound of it then, Age Of Legend is a separate product line from ED, with some shared background using the new v4 rules.

That sounds OK...
...In fact it sounds a little like Eberron [which I loved, though only for it's background].


In short, carry on sir.

[Anunnaki]

Hi,

Thank you for the clarification, and sorry if I appeared to be dissing RedBrick's ED.

No apology necessary. I didn't get the impression that you were dissing anything -- just posting based on what information you had.

It's been a while since I read up on the ED license situation, or how each was being supported. Having seen how Digital Burn has died, I should have realised something similar had happened to their ED license.

It's been in a strange state (not for RedBrick) for a while. Nothing formal has been forthcoming which, while it really doesn't bother us, does mean there is a bunch of ongoing confusion about the state of the ED license.

From the sound of it then, Age Of Legend is a separate product line from ED, with some shared background using the new v4 rules.

That sounds OK...
...In fact it sounds a little like Eberron [which I loved, though only for it's background].

We will have more information posted on the www.ageoflegend4e.com website in a Q&A format soon. But yes, that's a concise summary.

In short, carry on sir.

Will do sir. Although sleep beckons first (it's late here in New Zealand, and RL work begins early during these cold winter days).

Kind regards, James

[shadowfire]

Just remeber the demise of Guardians of order... they did the same thing and went out of business a year or 2 later.

[Anunnaki]

Hi,

Just remeber the demise of Guardians of order... they did the same thing and went out of business a year or 2 later.

My apologies, but I have to ask: Do you know this because you have inside information on how GoO worked? They were a company that made some business decisions from which they couldn't or didn't recover. Their foray into d20 was just one of their business decisions. I don't see the association with GoO and RedBrick, sorry.

RedBrick, as a company was designed from the ground up to thrive in the current economic climate and to accommodate the evolving nature of the pen-and-paper roleplaying game publishing industry.

While I appreciate your concern, we don't make any business decisions lightly and without forethought (or legal advice).

Kind regards,

JAMES FLOWERS
Managing Director

[shadowfire]

Well, i hope that you are right. I was the word Hope in a very loose sense.

[Lordmalachdrim]

Hi,



(I won't solicit my opinions on the conversions for these games -- they were certainly not "forced" into being ported to d20, however.) Our decision to make Age of Legend is *not* in the "d20 stupidity" camp. If it was, you would have seen RedBrick publish a d20/OGL Earthdawn a long time ago...

Seriously, take a long hard look at Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition. Look at how the mechanics work. Then, if you have experience with Earthdawn, start making a checklist for comparison. In the same way as Earthdawn borrowed heavily from D&D and other RPGs back in those halcyon days of 1993, now those same games are borrowing back just as heavily.

As for dual-stat books. Just not going to happen... *grin* (I hate dual-stat books.)

Kind regards,

JAMES FLOWERS
Managing Director

I didn't me that they were forced to port them into d20, I meant the way they forced the setting to fit d20 and its mechanics when they did port them and how it skewed the way the game played.

[Adarael]

The largest part of GoO's demise - much like Dream Pod 9's near-demise - is the fact that their publishing strategy relied on a weak canadian dollar and a majority of sales in the United States. When the Canadian dollar jumped in value, it really hurt them.

[imperialus]

Just tell me when I can pre-order. Like I said in the OP I think the 4E mechanics will mesh nicely with ED. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

I'd be interested in seeing how the GSL is affecting the Earthdawn IP. The GSL seems pretty... interesting in that regard.

[Bull]

I'm actually very interested to see how this develops, so I'm in for at least the core book.

And thanks for posting and clearing some stuff up, James! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Adam]

Just remeber the demise of Guardians of order... they did the same thing and went out of business a year or 2 later.

I worked at Guardians of Order from late 2002 [just after they published their first d20 game, Silver Age Sentinels d20] until the time they laid everyone off in late 2004, and then I did some freelance work for them until they ceased operations. While some of their d20 products were not successful, others were -- BESM d20 sold very well [and was pretty damned fun!] -- and I wouldn't put much blame for their overall demise on the shoulders of publishing lines in both their house system and d20.

[imperialus]

I'd be interested in seeing how the GSL is affecting the Earthdawn IP. The GSL seems pretty... interesting in that regard.

Specifically this bit of the GSL:

Licensee recognizes Wizards’ rights and interests in and to all Wizards Intellectual Property and that all rights therein... For the avoidance of doubt, Wizards Intellectual Property includes all content contained within the Core Rulebooks and all Licensed Materials

My take on this is that if you publish something under the GSL it becomes part of Wizards IP. Does Redbrick have a special arrangement with them to keep the Earthdawn IP separate? Also I assume that the rules about not being able to publish a given product line under multiple systems is why you are calling it Age of Legends?

[Adam]

Within the GSL, "Licensed Materials" basically means "the stuff licensed from Wotc" not "the publisher's products that are using the GSL". That's in Section 4.

[Anunnaki]

Hi,

I'm actually very interested to see how this develops, so I'm in for at least the core book.

*smile* We're also very interested to see how this develops. Just hope we don't disappoint.

And thanks for posting and clearing some stuff up, James! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

My pleasure. Here to help; I just don't have much occasion to post here, sorry. (We have a lot of Shadowrunners on our dev teams, but I have to admit that I'm not as much into SR as I am ED. One picks one's poison, I guess. *grin*)

Adam, thanks for responding to those earlier posts in this thread. Spot on as always.

Kind regards, James

[Bull]

My pleasure. Here to help; I just don't have much occasion to post here, sorry. (We have a lot of Shadowrunners on our dev teams, but I have to admit that I'm not as much into SR as I am ED. One picks one's poison, I guess. *grin*)

Yeah, I know the feeling. I always liked ED and Battletech when I was doing stuff for FASA, but SR was always my focus. But that's ok, diversity is the key. Be damned boring if we were all playing the same game all the time!

And I'm sure the book won't disappoint. By all accounts, you guys have been rocking it so far, so I expect we'll see more of the same!

Bull