Causa WotC – Paizo and White Wolf Reactions

Happily I had a nice newsletter this morning in my inbox, the Paizo one (once again), this time with a lot better news, Paizo is offering a limited time (very) special prices on their pdf’s.

On the other side White Wolf have a similiar offer, they offer their Exalted Second Edition PDF free of charge (until 12th of April) and a one time 10% discount on their pdf’s withthe magic  “wwlovesyou” word. Honestly I like this approach. The exact announcement can be found here.

Looks like half the rpg-blogoverse is already spreading this, therefore I guess it won’t harm if I point you there, as well. If you’re into pdf’s (I definitely am) – pick it now. Might be one of the best chances to have a good look at new material in many ways. Finally WotC’s decisions do have a very positive impact on the gaming industry in terms of showing they are different.

Update 2009-04-08

Short Update on Blogs

Help needed

That said, you might want to check out A Butterfly Dreaming and share your opinion on his postings and blog. I’m pretty sure most of you are familiar with his advice sections and might enjoy the contest he has started for…

Blizzards, Thunderstorms and long, dry nights

If you’re running games, you should be a regular at campaignmastery.com – if you ever wondered how helpful weather might be in your games, check out their latest advice.

For the indecisive

In case you’re still searching for a reason why you should play rpg’s – check out madbrewlabs. It’s good for a smile and stating truth on a hobby you probably do like.

The evil guys..

And one of my preferred topics is currently dealt with at the Core Mechanic – Villains.

You’ll find a lot of blogs going wild on the latest WotC news – pdf’s cancelled – and the german blogs with the following story:

WotC the story goes on…

No enough to cancel the pdf products, WotC obviously has started a campaign against players worldwide. WotC has according to dndgate (a german website) given only a 2-sentence e-mail cancelling an arrangement agreed upon in the past – and left the publisher Feder & Schwert out in the cold rain. I’ve hardly anything I want to add on this, nothing to add that is not a rant. Read for yourself in case you’re interested. I can’t wait to get my pathfinderRPG as soon as it’s released and I wish with all my heart for Paizo that this will become a huge success in the future.

WotC’s newest Faux Pas

I have to admit, I hardly ever read newsletters I receive from rpgnow, drivethrurpg and paizo, wait – I do read a bit of the last… But I tend to have a little bit of this scan-through and filter for information when I have a minute or two…

WotC stops sale of PDF documents

Paizo, rpgnow and drivethrurpg aren’t the only ones but probably the largest ones. With Wizards stopping the pdf distribution of their products they probably try to harm a bit of the industry on one side, and will limit the former-canon products available to be used with PathfinderRPG. In my opinion this sounds very much like the Music industry to me and their everpresent fear of piracy. Hey guys, we’re your customers – have you ever – EVER – heard of Customer Relationships? You should try to inform people about measures you’re taking, you should try to make them understand.

Looks like I’m not the only one hoping sincerely that WotC sells the IP rights for the whole D&D products soon. Well, I’ve stopped buying original WotC products when 4e came out, my disappointment with the license that ended the revolutionary era, started by the whole d20 and the OGL, and ended with the rest of 4e – for which not a single player of my group could find a little motivation for – it was in short just a disappointment with a few ideas but intended obviously for a different audience. For now I’m still waiting for WotC to search for a legal action to be taken against PathfinderRPG – that would just seem to be the next step a giant like WotC – obviously blind to see the most loyal customers around… Hell if this happens I really hope we would find a way out.

RPG.net Thread

RPGBlog2

and a lot more have already started discussion and spreading of the word. It’s really upsetting that many fabulous authors are still working for WotC – and I wish every single one of them manages the jump onto something solid if the large machinery ever starts stalling…