Tzzarg's page

The answer to your question has a variety of factors Goroxx. As I understand it, Hasbro became interested in Wizards due to primarily Pokemon and Magic (Wizards had the rights to publish the Pokemon Cardgame, Hasbro had the rights to produce the Pokemon toy line--though Pokemon sales now are a shadow of what they were in the late 90's, back then they were selling like gangbusters). I suspect Hasbro would have been interested in Wizards based on the success of Pokemon alone, but Hasbro has a history of growth through mergers and acquisitions and the chance to also acquire the Magic card line and D&D and the highly profitable D&D book lines were sweeteners in the pot. Take a look at the Wikipedia article on Hasbro (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbro) and look at the long list of current and former divisions. Most of those companies were separate entities at one time or another and were snapped up or acquired. There's little doubt the strategy has payed off handsomely for the company and its shareholders, as they are now one of the largest toy companies in the world with 2006 revenues of more than 3 billion dollars.

There were other motives on Wizards end. In a 2002 Gamingreport interview with Peter Adkison (former CEO of Wizards) at http://www.gamingreport.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&fi le=index&req=viewarticle&artid=42, Mr Adkison stated, "Nope. While it was difficult to sell Wizards of the Coast, it was clearly the right business decision. Pokemon was so hot and our revenues were so high that I knew I’d never get that sort of opportunity again. If it would have been entirely my own company and I wouldn’t have had investors and option holders to answer too, then I could have sat on it and weathered the post-pokemon storm without a problem. But when you have investors your first responsibility is to them and you have to put personal preferences aside."

His mention of having investors and option holders to answer to is important as TSR, to say the very least, has a somewhat tortuous and convoluted ownership history (I'll see if I can find the link to where Mr. Adkison talks about that, I do remember a discussion or two several years back). Although Wizards acquired TSR, many of the stockholders and dispersed ownership problems came along with the acquisition. While the Wizards acquisition may at times stink from a fan point of view, it was a good and sound business decision, enabling employees to join a firm that was on a much sounder financial footing (TSR was in serious financial straits when Wizards bought it, there was a stretch of several months to a year in the late 90's where nothing (including Dungeon and Dragon magazines) was released because TSR could not pay its printers) and enabling stockholders to cash out of an industry that while having meteoric hits at times, can go through stretches of stagnant and declining sales.

[Edit} Aargh, must type faster, four people responded in the time it took to type my reply ;)

Snagged chapter 1 of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth at 6:30 pm eastern on 10/12. I'm going through it now. My hats off to Ari so far on his twisted take on an old classic. The decision to add taint seems a good one--it turns a what could have been a retread into something dangerous and different. Chapter 1 though stops at the entrance to the Lost Caverns, we'll have to wait until 10/19 to see what the update of them looks like.

Hmm, Ungoded or a staff member normally fields these, but they haven't gotten to this one yet.

I don't know about getting a copy of Pathfinder #1, which shipped back in August, but Pathfinder #2 will not be shipping until early to mid October. Apparently, GenCon caused a whole bunch of printing and shipping delays and Pathfinder #2 is either cruising onboard a container ship at the moment or waiting to clear customs. Just be patient and you'll get your copy. They'll mail you the pdf at the same time they mail out your physical copy.

According to Dragonmount.com, Mr. Jordan passed away over the weekend.
Sir, rest in peace. I do not think we will see your like again. Thanks for providing one heck of an epic tale.

Fenrat,

Hmm, Ungoded normally seems to field inquiries like this, but he hasn't gotten to this one yet. Paizo personnel (I think it was Vic Wertz) posted awhile back that delays caused by Gencon has pushed back ROTRL 2 to October. It is either at the printer right now or on a slow container ship from China (where the Adv. Paths are printed). My guess is sometime within the first half of October is when it will finally arrive in your mailbox. The delay is no fun, but at least we'll be getting two issues in November and then it will be back to one a month.

Mr. Logue,

Excellent module and what I've come to expect from one of the fiendishly clever trio of Vaughan, Logue, and Pett. It looks like Hell's Heart will see print for 3.5. If you go to the Wizards website (which is very dodgy right now with the massive crush of people wanting to find out more about 4E), and click on the "Dungeon" tab, this is what you get:

Starting in October, this is your destination for
the best in D&D adventures. Coming in issue #151,
we’ll be wrapping up a three-part Eberron series,
which began with “Chimes at Midnight” in issue #133,
as well as returning to a classic 1st Edition
adventure, updated for D&D 3.5.

So, soon we'll find out what Mr. Logue cooked up for the conclusion of the trilogy. I look forward to it.

Hmm, Ungoded hasn't gotten to this one yet, so I'll do my best to answer.

Hopefully this week, maybe next. If you check some of the other threads on the board, Vic Wertz, Gary Teeter and the rest of the Paizo staff that have not headed off to GenCon have been physically boxing up the Pathfinder #1's and creating the mailing labels to stick on them (hopefully they'll get a fulfillment service or machine to help them as time goes on). At a minimum, we're talking thousands of Pathfinders (hopefully tens of thousands), so that's a lot of boxes/envelopes to pack. They're at least halfway there with the boxing, so they should (fingers crossed) finish this week. Since the digital watermark system and delivery server are complete (thanks Gary), pdfs should go out pretty quickly after Pathfinder is finally mailed.

Mr. Lacefield or other Paizo sales reps,

The player's guide is $2.00, correct? I was somewhat flumoxed because I spotted FRP Games selling it for $15.98! (http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=38004) I know Paizo is limited in its ability to influence what others sell Paizo's product for, but that price for a 16 page guide sounds a wee bit high.

Wouldn't it be better to adjust the adventures to suit the party's strengths (flexibility, requiring different skills for jobs, creative solutions to problems - general jack of all trade kinda stuff) instead of declaring it unplayable and unsurvivable?

Maybe it's just me, but it seems kind of off to tailor the party to suit the game and thus limit what people are able to play.

~ Bryon ~

Being unable to tailor the game to a party is one of the few beefs I have with playing in the RPGA. All the mods have to be run a specific way in a specific amount of time--there's a little room for the dm to provide npc flavoring, but the flow of the mod is the same for every dm that runs it (and usually the outcome).

Getting back to ericthecleric's and Paz's posts, i think their ability to tailor the game instead of the party is a function of how much spare time they have. If they're a 30 somethings like me, with a full time job and social obligations during the week and weekend, extensive conversion is possible but improbable. If they're still in college, or have a substantial amount of free time, then your advice Byron is spot on.

Personally, I recommend tailoring the party to the modules. For one, switching out a character or two is a lot easier than having to rewrite or substantially alter 12 modules. There are a few dm's I've known who could wing it on the fly, but if you do not have the time, alter the party.

Not being able to play a character that you want blows at times, but I've found that being sometimes forced to play outside your default character or character archetypes can broaden one's horizons and give an appreciation for other classes that was not there before. Go with a core of 3-4 specialists (tank, divine, arcane, face/rogue) with the rest support/jack of all trades and the group should go far.

Most of my gaming experience has been with the RPGA, which (in my region) tends to be combat heavy and story/rping lite. I agree somewhat with your other DM--your group is very playable at low and mid levels (1-10,11) but starts losing steam at higher levels. However, I disagree that all characters need to be specialists--most of the party should be, perhaps, but a party that also has support characters and a jack of all trades or two around a core of specialists tends to make the best mix.

I recommend that the players with divine and arcane casting ability take a combination of classes and prestige classes that do not cause them to sacrifice levels of casting ability and spell access in their initial core class. The additional spells from mystic theurge are nice, but it can't make up for the loss of high level spells. I have no wish to spoil the AP for you, but from what I've seen in SCAP and AoW, high level combats can be very brutal and you need access to as many high level spells, summons, healing, and buffs as you can get. I also question why the party has two dragon shamans. A dedicated support buffing caster or a knight might be better in place of one of the shamans. Best of luck.

I'm with Onrie on this one, FFXII is a great game. The cg, voice acting, fx and overall "feel" of the game is very polished and very professional.

For me, the best way to describe FFXII is with an oxymoron--its a single-player mmorg. It's obvious Square took their experiences with Final Fantasy Online (FFXI) and applied them to this game. If you've ever played EQ or WoW and liked them, you'll like FFXII, if you didn't like them, you may want to find something else.

Most of the battles are non random in that you can see the critter or critters you're going to engage--for me this was a plus as some zones contain critters that are designed to challenge far above the level you first hit the zone(like the entites, aiyee those suckers are tough). However there are many battles that are unexpected--undead will erupt from the ground, creatures will fly in, things in dungeons will drop from the ceiling. The cool thing is that the surprises happen in a matter that's consistent with that type of creature--no sudden "screen freezes", jump to a different screen and start smacking down like previous ffs.

One seemingly minor thing about this game that I like, is odd as it sounds, the weather. Certain zones will change appearance depending upon the weather cycle (The Westersands and the Giza plains being among the more dramatic) and certain monsters will only be able to be found during certain weather conditions. Its a seemingly minor feature, but it really helped with the game's verisimilitude.

As for the game challenge, I will say that once you figure out how to structure the gambits, equipment, and techniques for your party, many of the latter battles beyond the first few levels in the main storyline are moderately challenging. That does not mean there aren't any controller thrower fights ;), it's just that you have the option of engaging in them or no. If you do get the game (and I think you should) do the Clan Centrio quests--if you're looking for tough fights, many of them will fit the bill.

One final aspect of the game (and its a strength or weakness depending upon how you view mmorgs) is that there is a bit of grinding to be done. Your party will enter a zone and sometimes will have their head handed to them, yet if you come back in 3-5 levels the zone will be manageable and 10-15 levels will be quite easy. If you don't like spending some time just running around slaughtering stuff, you may want to find something else. I haven't found it to be all that boring, and since slaughtering creatures is tied to generating money (which is very tight in this game) by the items the creatures drop (the mixing of which is a subgame in itself) to upgrade spells, techniques, and equipment, the grinding has stayed involving.