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Yeah they are still around. They haven't had a new book in like 2 years maybe as long as 3 years. But I don't think it has been that long.
Their front page sadly for a long time has long been out of date. They are working on a new page that will allow Clark and Bill to do blog style updates themselves instead of having to get their web person to make all the changes like it is currently.
Necro has plans for a few products including listing Tome of Horrors for PFRPG for one. They have a host of other products that are done but they decided to hold off after the whole annoucement for 4e happened. Until recently they wouldn't agree to the GSL and PFRPG isn't out yet. With the big decline in 3e sales for every company but Paizo they decided to wait.
Now they will support both 4e and PFRPG, which products will come out for which and when they will start coming out is the big questions.
Yea, Necro isn't Clark's full time job so he can wait as long as he wants to put out a new product.
We're still alive, or at the very least in advanced stages of undeath :)
Waiting for Pathfinder to be supportable. Looking forward to it.
As some have said, we have the luxury to wait. We dont have to just crank our product to "remain visible."
Thanks for the help, DM!
Clark
Thanks for the help, DM!
Always glad to help out the Demon Prince of Undeath. (At least until Master Tenbris comes along and rejoins with his other half and together they shall rules the abyss and storm the gates of the celestial planes. And we Kobolds shall finally obtain our place as the rightful masters of every material plane in existance! *evil laughter*)
*Clears throat*
Good to see you around here.
(I think he's talking to HER.)
They do that.
(I think he's talking to HER.)
*looks around* ohh yea, I knew that. Just testing you. ;)
All your posts belong to DMs....
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Hey just saw this on Enworld and thought I should let people know
Originally Posted by Orcus
Hey everyone.
I know its been a long time between updates for a lot of reasons and that can be frustrating. Sorry for that.
I'm still hopeful to do Pathfinder print products and perhaps a key 4E print product or two (a Tome 4E perhaps), but abiliity to product the 4E print stuff is proving to be difficult. Retailers are less than excited about 4E supplemental material. Distributors even less so. Print partners still less excited.
All you know my desire to support 4E and my many plans, some of which are even under way. Right now, the 4E PRINT plans dont look like they are going to happen.
I dont want this to turn into a "yeah Pathfinder, boo 4E" thread. Any such posts will be deleted. This is an update thread, not an edition wars thread.
Other than a key 4E product, such as a Tome 4E, I dont see Necro doing much in the way of print 4E products. That leaves us with the possibility of pdf products. That is not necessarily bad, but it would reflect a shift in our traditional product strategies and will require different analysis on how to go forward.
In large part this situation is due to the delay of an acceptable GSL. Not having one at launch created a huge slowdown of momentum as well as a retailer and distributor gap where distributors didnt have 3Ps plugged in to the product array for 4E. Now, having no 3P track record for 4E they are wary (and probably happy to have some of it go away). Had there been a GSL at launch I think we would have hit a few big products and gotten distributors on board for 3P products for 4E. But that didnt happen. Now I think we have a chasm we just cant cross with anything but a tiny selection of key 4E products, such as a Tome 4E. But that said, even the idea of a Tome 4E has been floated by those who matter and even for a product like that there is less than total enthusiasm.
All that said, we are exploring pdf and print on demand options.
It would be fair to say that I am frustrated by the path 4E and 3P support for 4E has taken and that we, essentially, had the ability taken from us to support 4E by the mishandling of the GSL. I say that while at the same time applauding Scott Rouse's tireless fight to get the GSL revised--which he did and did well. I just wish there were more people at Wizards who "got it" like Scott did and were on board. Its really too bad. 3E was truly a golden age of D&D, a revival of all that was great from the early years of the game. Its too bad that same feeling and fervor couldnt happen for 4E. Maybe I was naive to ever think it could, but I did think that.
All this means is likely no big 4E print products (maybe one or two at most) and perhaps only a few Pathfinder print products. We are still in contact with Paizo and have a good relationship there. We still have great connections for online and print on demand products and are working with OBS to achieve those things. Its just that our hoped for print lineup will likely not happen.
I know this means more waiting for all of you and I am sorry for that.
I hesitated to post this because some will say "Necro is folding." Thats not the case at all. We are just being forced by external factors to shift our product plans. I felt all of you were owed an update and an explanation about that.
Clark
Thanks, Kevin. That was informative. If depressing to sift through.
Well, let's hope a PF Tome of Horrors is the 1st horse out of the gate. Whenever that might be...
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This was Clark lastest response over at enworld:
Thanks for the kind words everyone.
And for those laughing at the irony, I'm right there with you. I agree. It is ironic. Of course, it just so happens that I also wish it wasnt me that happened to be the brunt of that irony but it sure is. Dont fret about the hard words, though. I'm a big boy. I can take it. If I was worried about people pointing out the irony I wouldnt have posted. I could have just kept quiet. But I thought people have been waiting and deserved to know.
I had a nice long chat with Scott Rouse today. He is the man. I really wish the vision he and Linae had for the GSL had been allowed to proceed out of the chute. I understand why it didnt work out that way, I think. What a different place D&D would be in if the GSL was as it is now at launch. Or, better yet, had the suggestion to PI 4E and release it under the OGL been adopted. Makes you wonder if there would even have been a Pathfinder and a splintered marketplace. I have this image in my mind of Paizo supporting 4E and Necro doing the products we envisioned at launch and other print publishers all being on board--like we all were on that big conference call before WotC changed course. Seriously, when I got off the phone from that conference call of the publishers with Linae and Scott, I dont think I'm exaggerating to say people were pumped. We were suprised. Many of us emailed each other and said "wow, its really happening, we're gonna get to support 4E, they are listeniing to us, they understand the value of 3Ps to the launch of the new system and to supporitng the game on store shelves, the way stuff happened for 3E." Then it all went wrong.
The problem, I think, was the distributors. As 4E got near, they said "we hope there wont be a glut again like with 3E" and I think that really threw Wizards and I think that got the GSL off track. Then, when 4E launched without 3Ps, those same distributors said "hey, there arent any products to support this new line." And now when you talk to them about doing products they say "there's no established track record and sales suck." Its like a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Its crazy. Its been crazy. Luckily we have good people with vision who want to make it right. I still believe in Scott and I believe Wizards can pull itself out of this dangerous track they are in of dividing the customer base.
I think Wizards needs to step back and say--lets not be the company of 4E, lets be the company of D&D. Lets embrace ALL players, not just 4E players. How much would it rule to see some of the old handbooks revised and reprinted (for those who want them)? How about not tell us waht to play and demean those who dont adopt the new hotness? How about finding a unifying thread of that game? How about a system-neutral world that has run through every edition of D&D prior to now (nudge nudge, a Greyhawk revival that is a setting only, not system specific; how rad would that be, nudge nudge)? Sometimes I wonder if Wizards has learned the lessons of the history of this hobby.
I hope they find their way to say, "hey, come over here. sit down with me. lets play D&D. however you want. we are the company of D&D and we want to help all of you play it." I think that can be done. Here's hoping. But you guys would be right to take my optimism with a grain of salt. I cant deny that
Anyway, I got off track. I'm still a cheerleader. I'm still an optimist. I still have immense respect for Scott (and Linae) and the people there who get it. I have come to the conclusion that the momentum behind the GSL was not capitalized on. That ship has sailed and we cant get that chance back. And the inertia of getting it back running again is working against us. That bums me out that we missed that chance (and by "we" I mean wizards working in partnership with the 3Ps; and you guys need to know that as of the time of the inisider conference call, that was really really close to happening).
So I came to those conclusions and evaluated the current situation, I made the post I made.
Thanks again for the comments--the good and the bad. All are warranted.
Clark
I hope we get to see a Bill & Clark adventure collaboration at least one more time.
They make some special stuff when they do....
I guess I should have posted this here.