The Return of Necromancer Games - Back to Support 5E


4th Edition

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The secret has been revealed

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

Now go give us all your moneys.

ALL OF 'EM!

<grin>


This looks.....eeeeeviiiiiil.....

Liberty's Edge

Holy badass Batman!!!

Sovereign Court

HOW COULD THEY ABANDON US

Just kidding. GJ, hope they earn a lot of money.

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

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I know you're kidding, Hama, but for the record, we're still going to produce PF and SW material!

Dark Archive

So have licenses for the new edition been revealed or is this defaulting to OGL (Think thats the one you can default to.) Also any chance of any of this stuff being made into a pahfinder version down the line?


I personally think this is SMART from a 3PP and something the Frogs have been honing for a few years now. Build a fantastic adventure, sourcebook, what-have-you, and maximise your customer base by high quality conversions to multiple systems. S&W, Pathfinder and 5th Ed are cut from such similar conceptual cloth that it works a treat. Another clever usage of this concept is the Achtung Cthulhu books that have been coming out for the last 18 months with Savage Worlds and Call of Cthulhu support in the same tome.

Clever stuff guys.

Dark Archive

Announcing it during paizocon seems a bit.....whatever I would of waited till after. A bit more classy.

Swords and Wizardry Lead Developer, Frog God Games

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lastgrasp, Bill Webb and Lisa are quite good friends, and Paizo will be selling these books once they are printed (and making a profit from the sales). This was a way of showing that we aren't jumping ship, to make the announcement at PaizoCon. If we were changing our focus to 5th Edition then yes, it would have been crass. But it's the contrary; we are staying with Pathfinder, and announcing the plan at PaizoCon sends that message. Or should, anyway, that was the intention.

Dark Archive

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lastgrasp wrote:
Announcing it during paizocon seems a bit.....whatever I would of waited till after. A bit more classy.

No - they are a primarily a 3pp and Dungeons and Dragons Basic was released just a few days ago. And being a 3pp they need to strike while the iron is hot.

They did this in the past there are a ton of creatures that made it out of the Wotc IP lock because Necromancer Games acted fast vs. waiting around for that market to develop. The Frogemoth, Orcus, Arumvorax, Caryatid Column, Eye of the Deep and a ton of other creatures are available for PF because NG moved fast to fill a void that Wotc didn't want to fill at the time.

This is a smart move and a reaction to the release of the rules while the interest is there. I have no doubts that FGG will still produce material for PF

And partially ninja'd by Mr Finch

Pathfinder Creative Director, Frog God Games

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Yeah, no stepping on Paizo's toes here. We're getting in on the new market but not abandoning the PF core. Everything should still appear in PF and S&W rule sets. They'll just have a new 5e little brother kicking around. :-)


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Yup. Like I said in my seminar this am. We are first and foremost a Pathfinder supporter. All books that it makes sense for will be done in all three versions


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FGG/Necromancer Games covered plenty of other topics in their seminar, including upcoming Pathfinder projects.

All in all, it's all good stuff and FGG/NG supporting...

1. Rules Light system (S&W)
2. Rules Heavy systeem (PF)
3. Somewhere in-between system (5e)

...means more great content no matter what sort of game you prefer.


Woo!
Well, sort of, given that I have only ever liked "1st edition feel" in tiny doses. But the collaborators on the project look impressive. One question, though: the kickstarter description does not list Clark as one of the authors. Is he expected to be involved in any future 5e Necromancer projects?


So, could we see the return of monsters like Beholders and Mind Flayers to the Necromancer game products?

Of all the questions that could be asked, this is the first one that jumped in my head.


justmebd wrote:

So, could we see the return of monsters like Beholders and Mind Flayers to the Necromancer game products?

I wouldn't count on that. :)


yeah...even if they were granted an OGL license, that stuff would still remain off limits...


Well, the ideas for a floating ball with a bunch of eye stalks with laser vision is certainly not anyone's IP--it's been used by numerous other franchises, some larger than D&D.

You could potentially do a beholder-esk monster, as long as you aren't beholden to the name:)

Shadow Lodge

I kind of thought they might be supporting 5e under the NG label, given the lack of FGG branding on the 5e "The Wizard's Amulet".

Dark Archive

137ben wrote:

Well, the ideas for a floating ball with a bunch of eye stalks with laser vision is certainly not anyone's IP--it's been used by numerous other franchises, some larger than D&D.

You could potentially do a beholder-esk monster, as long as you aren't beholden to the name:)

These things would be the chaotic versions of Beholders.

Chaos Infused Beholderoid, Lesser

Chaos Infused Beholderoid - Don't Even Bother to Fight It version

Large doesn't mean 1st - Wotc owns the IP for the Beholder, Mind Flayers, Displacer Beasts, Umber Hulks, Githyanki, et al. They had the money, so they bought the IP when the acquired TSR. Every other franchise that makes a Beholder-like creature (Doom, etc) is doing just that, they cannot call it a Beholder and any likeness to the commonly used Wotc art style to depict it could be considered a violation of Wotc IP rights.


It seems to me a bit premature to be fund-raising if the licensing isn't (as of 7th July, 2014) nailed down yet. I have a feeling Necromancer said that they were going to get behind 4E, but the plans fell through in the end - mainly on account of holdups in dissemination of rules material to third party publishers and difficulties over what finally showed up in the 4E licenses.

I may be in error in my recollection of the 4E debacle though, and if Necromancer are lining up writers who (at least in my mind) ought to have connections and influence at Hasbro - such as Ed Greenwood - maybe Necromancer are privy to inside information which gives them solid grounds for optimism that this time things will go more smoothly and favourably.

Edit:
:)


But anyway, best wishes to Necromancer in this latest entrepreneurial endeavour!


Given all the disclaimers as to trademarks of WotC and the fact the 5th edition version of the Wizards Amulet has been released under the OGL, I dont think they're planning on using any special 5th-edition-specific license.


And Mike Mearls tweeted on the OGL, specifically whether people thought 5E should go OGL or not... so, it's apparently being considered. We'll see.

Dark Archive

Wow, funded in the 1st day, already past the 15k mark by a couple of thousand. Well, hopefully for all the PF people not backing this other lapsed gamers who dropped out of 3rd and 4th may step up and take their spot.

I would like to see a Necromancer Games take on the Basic and Advanced rules with an old school rules supplement once the main books are all out.

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

What in particular are you thinking about, Aux?

Dark Archive

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Well, right now I'm working on a houserule doc to make the game run more like 1st or 2nd ed.

A big example of anti-old school feel is the default healing rules (don't know if you have read them yet) - they are very generous - heal full points on long rest, or roll your HD + Con Mod per HD on short rest (if you spend HD). So a 4th level fighter, can take 4 short rests a day for 4d10 + Con Mod (x4) or 1d10 + Con Mod on 4 separate rests or any combination. Incredible generous and the system as written needs a helping hand.

Short Rest:
A short rest is a period of downtime, at least 1 hour long, during which a character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.
A character can spend one or more Hit Dice at the end of a short rest, up to the character’s maximum number of Hit Dice, which is equal to the character’s level. For each Hit Die spent in this way, the player rolls the die and adds the character’s Constitution modifier to it. The character regains hit points equal to the total. The player can decide to spend an additional Hit Die after each roll. A character regains some spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest, as explained below.

Long Rest:
At the end of a long rest, a character regains all lost hit points. The character also regains spent Hit Dice, up to a number of dice equal to half of the character’s total number of them. For example, if a character has eight Hit Dice, he or she can regain four spent Hit Dice upon finishing a long rest.

Full healing after a nights rest is very anti-old school - and as a baseline to start from it is a little troubling. That's just one thing. The very fast xp and level progression is another (at least the low levels, not sure how much higher CR monsters are worth).

I don't know what's going to be "missing" from the rules once the core 3 books come out. This can be things as arcane as weapons vs AC or armor types, old style declared initiative and action speeds (2nd ed) and a number of things that I suspect will have fallen through the cracks.

I really like the overall simplified approach of the new rules, but I think a more "severe" version of the rules or a supplement for the rules could be published. I think the market is there. Of course it would have to come from a source that people would trust to know how older style of games should run and feel.

I think a book of options and tweaks would be a good resource for DMs and even help provide some baselines when running NG modules under the 5th ed ruleset, similar to some of the rule tweaks and advice given in Barakus, et al - DM suggestion for reducing XP gain or slow advancement. Some tips on getting an 0E, 1st or 2nd ed feel would be appreciated.

NG and FGG adventures have always had a 1st ed unforgiving feel to them - that is from an adventure writing angle though. A small set of rule tweaks and suggestions for various earlier editions would be phenomenal. People want streamlined rules - but I think they also are trying to capture a "feel", hence the strong fanbase for NG and FGG modules. What I'm suggesting is step beyond the modules without actually competing with the makers of the new rule set - a rules supplemental if you will.

This could go into the 5e KS or a book that comes out down the line after the 3 new NG books are finished - or not at all, it's just an idea.

Sort of rambling here but I hope you get the point.

Pathfinder Rules Conversion, Frog God Games

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We are comfortable in our legal standing.

Our legal counsel have instructed us to say very little on the lawyer-y side of things, so we're not trying to appear shifty in any way, shape or form. We just cant talk about certain business things.

But things should be very good. And the content is being done by some of the best in the business.

And we fully support, and will continue to support Paizo and their products. Paizo has never been anything but great to us, from advice and support to plain old-fashioned friendship, so we would not do anything to sully that relationship.

Skeeter


Skeeter - you're caught in a time loop!

Eject! Eject! Eject!


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The fact that Skeeter double posted must have something to do with the legal workings surrounding the 5e license! Time to over-analyze a forum glitch!

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

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Naw, we just have to do everything in duplicate as of this morning.


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Awesome. I'm going to get two of everything when barakus ships. :)

Pathfinder Rules Conversion, Frog God Games

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Buncha smart-alecks

SG

Shadow Lodge

If you published all your S&W products under the Mythmere label, you would all have to triple-post.


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It does seem the kind of double-take consequence one could only get from a lawyer though:

"Our advice is to say very little, so from now on say everything twice".

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

We've blown past our first two stretch goals which gets all of our supporters an extra 20 monsters in "Fifth Edition Foes"! Our next stretch goal unlocks the book "Quests of Doom"!

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

Also, Matt Finch has prepared a blog that will hopefully address everyone's legal concerns about the project.

http://froggodgames.org/blog/about-legal-questions

Publisher, Frog God Games

Quests should be up shortly I think...

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I am going have to sit out of this one. Not knowing If I am going to even play 5th edition this is too soon for me.

Still waiting on the Full rules release and WotC License status for 5e.


137ben wrote:
One question, though: the kickstarter description does not list Clark as one of the authors. Is he expected to be involved in any future 5e Necromancer projects?


If Clark's still a judge, I would guess that any work he does will not be public.

Publisher, Frog God Games

Clark is out as an author.

Publisher, Frog God Games

Only $2200 from the next stretch goal after only 3 days! Help us get the word out.

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

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This makes me supremely happy.

I'm switching my current 0e Razor Coast/Red Tide game over to 5e, so it's super great to see the support from quality publishers like Frog God Games/Necromancer Games (which in my mind is a top 5 D&D Publisher, with obviously Paizo and WotC, and then Goodman Games and Lotfp rounding out the others).

Top-notch third-party support like this makes me FAR more likely to be content playing 5e, rather than bouncing around from system to system like I have been over the last 5 years or so.

Dark Archive

Matthew Finch wrote:
lastgrasp, Bill Webb and Lisa are quite good friends, and Paizo will be selling these books once they are printed (and making a profit from the sales). This was a way of showing that we aren't jumping ship, to make the announcement at PaizoCon. If we were changing our focus to 5th Edition then yes, it would have been crass. But it's the contrary; we are staying with Pathfinder, and announcing the plan at PaizoCon sends that message. Or should, anyway, that was the intention.

To show your support for Pathfinder you announce your kickstarter at a paizo convention for its direct competitor? That is amusing. I love you guys but c'mon. :)


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While pledging continued support for Pathfinder and Swords and Wizardry, yep, they did. If you like Frog God Games Pathfinder (or other system) products, you will have the opportunity to get them. Some, such as Dunes of Desolation are only Pathfinder compatible. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bill let Lisa and Erik know before the announcement what they were doing. Perhaps they see it as expanding the game base and good for gaming as a whole. I know I do.

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

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And we've passed another stretch goal!

Quest of Doom has been unlocked!

Please read who the authors are and pledge if you want more work from our talented team! Also, spread the word!

Necromancer Games: Back for 5th Edition

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