I think the $2 billion on one movie will keep interest up for Star Wars. FFG can't keep these books around, they are going to reprint in less than 2 months after release anymore.

I think the $2 billion on one movie will keep interest up for Star Wars. FFG can't keep these books around, they are going to reprint in less than 2 months after release anymore.

This actually got discussed on the latest Order 66 podcast, with Sam Stewart as special guest host.

To the surprise of pretty much no one, FFG saw their sales of Star Wars games spike in December, and as you said they've been having to do reprint runs of a lot of books. They certainly seem to have made it a very successful licensed property if there's enough incentive on FFG's part to do reprints, something that didn't really happen with WotC with the exception of the corebooks despite fan demand for reprints of some books, namely Saga Edition's Starships of the Galaxy and KOTOR campaign guide.

I don't even know what number reprint they're on for the EoE CRB, but it's been a # of them. That's pretty indicative of a growing fan base I would think.

That's a good sign -- always nice to see a tabletop RPG product that's not D&D ver X succeeding.

Oh, I have high hopes it will see out the career books at the very least. It seems to have both critical and commercial acclaim, just as it deserves. So I'm not running around crying 'the sky is falling!'

But you just never know when a licenced product is involved. I've been gaming all my life and have seen plenty of favourites become extinct long before their potential was realised... or go through needless reboots and money-spinning 'editions', or just left fallow without any real interest like the current D&D, where all the effort is made on the MMO and minis line and not the RPG.

I have faith in FFG and the people in charge of the SW game seem to know what they're doing.

Oh, I have high hopes it will see out the career books at the very least. It seems to have both critical and commercial acclaim, just as it deserves. So I'm not running around crying 'the sky is falling!'

But you just never know when a licenced product is involved. I've been gaming all my life and have seen plenty of favourites become extinct long before their potential was realised... or go through needless reboots and money-spinning 'editions', or just left fallow without any real interest like the current D&D, where all the effort is made on the MMO and minis line and not the RPG.

I have faith in FFG and the people in charge of the SW game seem to know what they're doing.

I think with some of those, it was due to issues with the license holders. I remember there being a rather problematic issue in the past with Cubicle 7 and the Tolkien estate in regards to selling electronic copies of their One Ring books; I presume it's been resolved as Cubicle 7 still has the license and is selling One Ring PDFs.

Disney seems to be content that so long as the money is rolling in, FFG can do their thing, with no greater oversight than the general approvals process that every licensed product has to go through. I know in the past that Lucasfilm pretty much turned a blind eye to what WEG was doing with the RPG back when they had the license (though they probably still had an approvals process so that the WEG writers didn't go too wild or try to sneak in retcons for bits of SW lore they didn't like), but the company only really took notice once the royalty checks started bouncing and not long after took the license away from WEG. WotC for their part knew when the product line was going to end since they were voluntarily opting out of the license, and so could plan accordingly with regards to Saga Edition, which was beginning to suffer from d20 system bloat by the time Unknown Regions was being written.

So unless Star Wars as a general franchise suddenly tanks within the next five years, I suspect we'll at the very least see all the career sourcebooks get published.

I really loved the 5th edition reboot - D&D is my first love - but my group refuse to play it because WotC aren't supporting the rules.

Not to get off topic, but how are they not supporting the rules? I know a guy....

I too love 5, it really feels like what D&D should be like, to me. I sorely miss the dual-axis dice whenever I play a system without them, but good ol' D&D never fails to entertain.

Not to get off topic, but how are they not supporting the rules?

Excellent core rules, neatly bringing together what was best about previous editions.

Nearly two years on, a grand total of one sub-standard splatbook.

NO online character generator, and rules preventing a fan-made one like OggDude's.

And lots of nonsense about the minis game and awful MMO.

I don't expect the huge glut of monthly Pathfinder books, but I want more than this.

Based on the fact that WotC has pulled their presence from GenCon, I'm getting the impression that the D&D team is just 3 people in the corner of the MtG office.

Based on the fact that WotC has pulled their presence from GenCon, I'm getting the impression that the D&D team is just 3 people in the corner of the MtG office.

It actually consists of just Mike Mearls in a trance, channelling dread Azathoth and gibbering quietly in a corner.

A genuine shame this edition was stillborn. It was a lovely little edition. Maybe they can sell it to someone who can give it some love. Love to see FFG's take on D&D

Based on the fact that WotC has pulled their presence from GenCon, I'm getting the impression that the D&D team is just 3 people in the corner of the MtG office.

I can’t “Like” this post, because I think that would leave the wrong impression. It’s not that I hate D&D or WotC, but I have grown far beyond them. And I would hate for me “liking” a post like this to be interpreted as me hating them.

Ahh, the “joys” of language, and the subtle nuances of the not-really double-negative.

With WotC and 5e D&D, I suspect a lot of it is them being more trepedatious this time around given the sheer glut of products they put on the market for both 3e and 4e. Plus, the various 4e online tools were substandard at best, and most of what was promised never materialized, so they're likely being a lot more cautious about what they promise given how much was never delivered in 4e. Plus, WotC's had a strange relationship with online publishing; apparently material for the older editions is fine, but they're so afraid of online piracy that PDFs for the latest edition is out the window, or at least PDFs that they're not already giving away for free.

But I also think part of the mission statement for 5e is that they don't want to overburden the game with splatbooks like they had done with prior editions, and like Paizo has been doing with Pathfinder. Most of what they've published have been adventures/campaigns, which was something that had been asked for repeatedly by novice GMs. I agree that having new crunch is nice, but I can't help but wonder if WotC is giving the other side of the coin a flip given the backlash of pushing out too much new crunch during 4e's run. Could also be that a lot of the lack of splatbooks on their part was due to gearing up for the DM's Guild program; after all why spend time and money coming up with new crunch when there's a large part of your fanbase willing to do it for you, allowing you as the publisher to be more selective what what you do publish. Especially if they're looking to bring back some of the older settings like Dragonlance, Ravenloft (Curse of Strahd is now out, though I've not done more than glance at the cover) and Dark Sun (which from what I understand, the 4e version was pretty well-received, if only for outright nuking a lot of the sillier material that the diehard fanbase disliked and resetting the setting back to the default status it had when the original box set came out).

Not saying I entirely agree with or support what WotC's doing in this case.

As far as FFG SW goes they seemed to have gotten a number of things right, either through planing or luck.

The timing is obviously a big one, Clone Wars and Rebels have had a lot of interest, then to release the FaD core close to Ep 7 was a big boon.

The dice mechanic are unique, interesting, and easy to use, to many it's a breath of fresh air. But most importantly it's Narrative Dice 2.0 since they had the WFRP3e to build upon.

But the big thing IMHO, that's often overlooked, is the decision to have 3 different product lines that are completely compatible. It's so common in other systems for every player at the table to have a core rule book, or the players hand book. That's 3-5 copies of exactly the same thing, great for sales of that SKU, but the group is missing out a lot. The decision FFG made has allowed different players in a group to collect different lines, they all have the same rules, but the content available to everyone is increased dramatically. The fact every single book has something for every person at the table is a big thing as well, the want for everything is actually worth it!

Not saying I entirely agree with or support what WotC's doing in this case.

I see your point, but there has to be a balance between Paizo's monthly deluge of books and the nothing D&D5 is getting. That it even lacks a CharGen program 2 years after release, in 2016, is staggering.

They did well to make it modular... only problem is, there's no 'modules' for it. Makes no sense.

I think FFG have it right; there's regular releases that show the company has some interest in its product. That energises the fans and gets us all talking about what's up next, without the power-creep that's inherent in Pathfinder.

Not saying I entirely agree with or support what WotC's doing in this case.

I see your point, but there has to be a balance between Paizo's monthly deluge of books and the nothing D&D5 is getting. That it even lacks a CharGen program 2 years after release, in 2016, is staggering.

They did well to make it modular... only problem is, there's no 'modules' for it. Makes no sense.

I think FFG have it right; there's regular releases that show the company has some interest in its product. That energises the fans and gets us all talking about what's up next, without the power-creep that's inherent in Pathfinder.

I think kaosoe hit it and they just don't have any real dev staff anymore.

We like the slow but steady release schedule and are all praying the game has a few years in it yet and doesn't go the way of WHFRP3.

Seems unlikely. Pretty sure the fact that Games Workshop were blowing the Warhammer Fantasy setting sky high and replacing it with a cardboard cutout had more to do with FFGs decision to not invest any more into the line.