Games: Of interest to D&D players, especially old-school ones

[MadZealot]

I consider the upcoming reprint of OD&D to be why over-priced. IMHO, it's aimed at collectors, not people who want to actually play OD&D, which is a shame.

You're being too kind, Randall... it's overpriced as hell.  Amazon's discount makes it more reasonable, especially given the content, and hey, it's an expensive hobby.  I agree that it looks more like a pretty collectors' piece, but I'd play the hell out of it. Would probably steal your technique and put copies in a binder tho.  Still, it's not a realistic buy at the moment... depends on how quickly this job situation gets sorted out.

[MadZealot]

Hmm, I suspect this isn't just 'related news' in the topical sense, but that the timing is no accident.

Also no accident that 2e is getting a Premium re-release as well.  Also, the next iteration of the game is being playtested, so we can expect that in 1-2 years.  To me it looks like 4e didn't perform well and they need to make money between now and D&D Next.

[RandallS]

Also no accident that 2e is getting a Premium re-release as well.  Also, the next iteration of the game is being playtested, so we can expect that in 1-2 years.  To me it looks like 4e didn't perform well and they need to make money between now and D&D Next.

What I would really like to see WOTC re-release is the D&D Rules Cyclopedia -- probably the best one volume set of D&D rules ever published. If anything deserves a hardcover premium edition, this does. I have a couple of originals, but thety are getting hasrder to come by for those who don't have them.

[MadZealot]

What I would really like to see WOTC re-release is the D&D Rules Cyclopedia -- probably the best one volume set of D&D rules ever published. If anything deserves a hardcover premium edition, this does. I have a couple of originals, but thety are getting hasrder to come by for those who don't have them.

I think it'll happen, but not until after the white box and all the single reissues are done.  
In the meantime, Amazon has used copies for about $35.  Not a terrible price.

[stephyjh]

As cool as the digital copies are, I'm WAY more excited about a re-release of 1st edition in hard cover.  I love 1ed!!!  We'd still be playing that version if we could convince the young 'uns it was worth finding the source books...

(My husband still has his well-loved original D&D booklets from the 70's and many of the dice that came with them.  No box, though...)

My dad had all the 1ed books until just before he moved out of his mom's house. She found them, declared them devil worship, and burned them.

...Yeah.

[SunflowerP]

I'd say it still counts as an archive: it's a collection of historical material that was gathered (it looks like the intent is to have all the material eventually digitized and so there is no longer a high cost/physical material restriction on purchasing it), preserved, while also being put into a format that allows others to access. While you do have to pay for some, some archives don't allow public access, or if you want to take a copy of things, you have to pay a small fee (usually I think to cover copying costs, or copyright issues).

But that's just my opinion. :ange:

Your opinion is a sound one - unsurprising, since it's a professional opinion!

I'm tempted to say that I'm used to online digital archives being accessible for free... except then I remember that's only true of some kinds of archive, a notable exception being that quite a lot of scholarly journals keep their online archives behind paywalls still. High paywalls.  (Though I'm heartened by the steadily-growing ranks of open-access journals, both new ones starting out OA, and older ones shifting their access models.)

Similarly, that rebuts the 'but this is a for-profit endeavor' argument.

So, really, I'm just not used to geek nostalgia being archived in this particular way. But that doesn't make it less of an archive.

Sunflower

[Jenett]

Your opinion is a sound one - unsurprising, since it's a professional opinion!

I'm tempted to say that I'm used to online digital archives being accessible for free... except then I remember that's only true of some kinds of archive, a notable exception being that quite a lot of scholarly journals keep their online archives behind paywalls still. High paywalls.  (Though I'm heartened by the steadily-growing ranks of open-access journals, both new ones starting out OA, and older ones shifting their access models.)

 
One of the things I'm wondering about in this case is what their licensing and epublication agreements were and are, and how that's affecting things.

(Dragon Magazine, involving some of the same people, and I'd be willing to bet some of the same standard agreements, was one of the early places to get extensive and protracted legal wrangling about what's owed to contributors who did work, got paid, but where electronic rights were not negotiated at that time - generally, because no one saw the rise of epublication coming in the 70s, 80s, or even early 90s.)

I haven't dug into it in this case (because other things on my plate this week) but it wouldn't surprise me at all if making it available online had some substantial licensing/permissions costs associated with it, anyway.

[SunflowerP]

One of the things I'm wondering about in this case is what their licensing and epublication agreements were and are, and how that's affecting things.

(Dragon Magazine, involving some of the same people, and I'd be willing to bet some of the same standard agreements, was one of the early places to get extensive and protracted legal wrangling about what's owed to contributors who did work, got paid, but where electronic rights were not negotiated at that time - generally, because no one saw the rise of epublication coming in the 70s, 80s, or even early 90s.)

I haven't dug into it in this case (because other things on my plate this week) but it wouldn't surprise me at all if making it available online had some substantial licensing/permissions costs associated with it, anyway.

 
Yes, that right there means that any archival resource of D&D manuals/modules can't be free. (Pre-3.x, anyway.)  And speaks strongly to what I said earlier about the prices seeming a bit high - I hadn't thought about that aspect, and in light of it, I retract it and say that they seem pretty reasonable.

Sunflower

[MadZealot]

One of the things I'm wondering about in this case is what their licensing and epublication agreements were and are, and how that's affecting things.

 
I just peeped into the Deities and Demigods .pdf, and it's the later edition, with the Lovecraftian and Melnibonean chapters removed.  
Bummer.

[RandallS]

I just peeped into the Deities and Demigods .pdf, and it's the later edition, with the Lovecraftian and Melnibonean chapters removed.  
Bummer.

The sad thing is they never needed to be removed. Chaosium simply wanted acknowledgement, the Blume brothers who were running TSR at the time are said to have not wanted a "competitor" mentioned in their products.

[MadZealot]

The sad thing is they never needed to be removed. Chaosium simply wanted acknowledgement, the Blume brothers who were running TSR at the time are said to have not wanted a "competitor" mentioned in their products.

Makes me wish even more that I still had a copy.  That and Oriental Adventures.  Never used either book, but I sure loved 'em.

[RandallS]

Makes me wish even more that I still had a copy.  That and Oriental Adventures.  Never used either book, but I sure loved 'em.

While Deities and Demi-Gods with the Lovecraft and Moorcock stuff is generally expensive, used copies of Oriential Adventures can be cheap -- some under $10 on Amazon.

[MadZealot]

...

More geek news.  Warner Bros has acquired the rights to make a new D&D movie.  Since fantasy films have proven to be popular (and lucrative) in recent years, here's hoping the studio will put time, money, and talent into a good piece of work.

[RandallS]

More geek news.  Warner Bros has acquired the rights to make a new D&D movie.  Since fantasy films have proven to be popular (and lucrative) in recent years, here's hoping the studio will put time, money, and talent into a good piece of work.

It wouldn't take much time, money, and talent to beat the previous awful D&D movies.