Will these modules ever see the light of day for those of us who never played Living Greyhawk? It seems like an awful shame that a huge resource of Greyhawk related material is being kept from its fans.
I whole heartedly agree. It would be great if modules and other efforts were made available to us commoners. A couple of years ago I tried to figure out how to join (also join the RPGA) but my internet skills are terrible so I never was able to become a member in order to access materials. WOTC I'm guessing would have a lot to say about it and I find it unlikely that they would agree to allow free publication on the internet. There must be some members around here somewhere. Did they have to pay anything to join or once your signed up was everything free?
It seems like an awful shame that a huge resource of Greyhawk related material is being kept from its fans.
Oh, WOTC is good at keeping things GH away from its fans...yet another reason I mourn the loss of Dungeon under Paizo's reign. And hold a grudge against WOTC, for that matter.
They did I remake/sequal to the Ghost Tower of Inverness......Jeez you just ruined my day. I love that module, it was in my top 5 easily.
Pouts....
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There is virtually no chance the LG adventures will be made available for general release.
This is because the RPGA contracts for them are only allow for their use for a limited time, for RPGA events, with rights reverting to the author at the end.
Theoretically, the RPGA could suddenly decide to try and contact every author and buy the adventures, but I can not imagine that happening with a new edition coming out.
The best you should expect is summaries of past adventures at various regional websites, along with a rare chance an author will strip the Greyhawk IP and decide to distribute the adventure himself. Any other use would be a violation the author's or WotC's or both's IP rights, as noted on each adventure. That includes distributing the adventures, even after the LG campaign comes to an end.
(Missed some things.)
The easiest way to join the RPGA is to go to a Game Day at a local and get a membership card there. The easiest way to find one of those is to find out what region you are in and ask on their mailing list.
More difficult ways involve going to a convention and getting a membership card, or trying to get WotC customer service to send you some.
From there, you need to be 18 years old and take the Herald Level DM test.
Once you pass, you get 4-6 friends who you have fill out membership cards, and you start ordering events and playing.
Aside from the time and possibly a small fee at the venue to play, it costs nothing to join the RPGA or order adventures. You simply have to follow the rules for ordering them which includes reporting them. (Which is why you need the friends who join.)
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Man... okay. Forget it, then.
Seriously, that's kinda sucky... and weird, considering that no one even profits from the adventures. I can understand using the adventures to make a profit apart from LG, but just giving them to someone to play...? Weird.
That's what the legal stuff at the bottom of the first page of every adventure says.
How and why you need to ask WotC and an IP lawyer. I would not expect an answer from the first, and do not have the money for the second. ;)
I guess it has something to do with protecting the Greyhawk IP - if they would allow adventures to be published, even for free and for home use only, this might soften up the copyright control. If this would happen, they could not argue against anybody publishing GH stuff for private consumption. And this stuff would steer folks away from the stuff WotC publishes, even if they never again publish so much as one page of GH material. But, for once, the copyright is theirs of course, and they try to get people buying their other stuff.
Just some thoughts.
Stefan
Seriously, though... This really bums me out. I'm not asking for these modules for free. I'd pay good money for them. Probably five or ten bucks a pop. How many modules are we talking here anyhow?
I've been aching to get my hands on this material for years, but I've never really wanted to run them in the Living system. I just want the material. I can't believe people are publishing modules for Greyhawk that I can't buy, borrow or steal.
Grrr!
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Seriously, though... This really bums me out. I'm not asking for these modules for free. I'd pay good money for them. Probably five or ten bucks a pop. How many modules are we talking here anyhow?
I've been aching to get my hands on this material for years, but I've never really wanted to run them in the Living system. I just want the material. I can't believe people are publishing modules for Greyhawk that I can't buy, borrow or steal.
Grrr!
Er... for some of this, you wouldn't want to pay five dollars. Two, maybe.
As for quantity, think of it this way. My region, Verbobonc, comes out with roughly fifteen modules a year. There are about twenty or so regions.
Holy crow! That's a lot of modules! And why wouldn't I want to pay good money for it? Is it bad?
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Holy crow! That's a lot of modules! And why wouldn't I want to pay good money for it? Is it bad?
First off, alot of these modules are written to be played in a maximum time of four hours, and several eight hours. THe just don't have the sheer amount of content that most published modules do.
As for quality... some of it's good, and some of it's "Dwah?!". There's a reason why one of my characters hates hates hateshatesHATES the City of Greyhawk (as a player, I love it, but in one of the modules, things happens that just plan pissed off one of my characters due to the sheer ridiculousness of it).
Oh, and the dwarven assassin that gets eight actions per round. Don't ask. Please.
And the f%%@ing flying monkeys on the way to Tenh.
... I could keep going. In any case, there definitely are keepers, but there's also plenty of washouts, as well as modules that you could've easily made yourself.
I've NEVER played any of them, but read a bunch of them. Those I have read just aren't worth much, IMHO.
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I've NEVER played any of them, but read a bunch of them. Those I have read just aren't worth much, IMHO.
Mine is though. ;)
Seriously though . . .
The number of adventures is probably shocking when you stop and add them up. There are 8 per region, 8 per metaregion, and 20 core - per year. Add in a few regional bonus adventures and the three core specials every year, and that is over 200 per year. And while the metaregions were not going full force until 2004, the total for seven campaign years is still over 1,200. If you add interactives to that total, it easily reaches 2,000.
WotC pays $100 for a core adventure for limited use rights. Calculate more than that for full rights and all those adventures, and it is not happening.
As for people wanting to pay, I would love to get more money for my adventure. I have no expectations that it will happen.
I'm just going to come out and say it. Sect, and anybody else who's willing, I'd be happy to get my hands on any retired mods for the Living campaigns: Living Greyhawk, Living Force, Mark of Heroes, Xen'drik Expeditions, Living Arcanis...any of it.
Because I'm active duty, I've found myself moving a lot and that's put hiccups in a lot of otherwise fun ongoing RPGA campaigns, often changing regions or missing entire story arcs. I've come into campaigns late or had huge gaps in my play and found the campaign has progressed to a point where I'm all "dang, that sounds cool, wish I'd been there".
I'd love to be able to assemble the complete campaigns for the full story.
Just in case sharing is okay (where publishing isn't), feel free to drop me a line at fletcher.gibson(at)med.navy.mil.