Marginally OT - Red Box D&D to be Published Again! • Page 2 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Marginally OT - Red Box D&D to be Published Again!
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Invincible Overlord
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:58 am

Zenfinite wrote:
Yeah, ummm.....you mean www.ddo.com? There's been a D&D MMO now for...three years? Maybe this is the third year. Anyway, it's based in Ebberon and it's free to play. I personally don't play it but I have a couple friends who do and they like it. If your computer can handle it, check it out! It's free, after all!

Zen

There's free content, and then there's paid content.

You can probably get a character up to level 10 or 11 playing the free part of the game.

I have an 18th level dwarven fighter on the Khyber server.

RPGâ€™s, D&D in particular has had a major influence in my life. Itâ€™s bonded me together with life long friends...itâ€™s that bond in life not just as friends, but in our jokes, our mannerisms, and what we find funny. Invincible Overlord

ashmire13
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:59 am

I'm currently downloading it to give it a go... :oops:

Rolls a '3'

"Did I hit.....?"

Kingofpain89
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 10:21 am

Invincible Overlord wrote:
There's free content, and then there's paid content.

You can probably get a character up to level 10 or 11 playing the free part of the game.

I have an 18th level dwarven fighter on the Khyber server.

I did say "right mind".

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

Invincible Overlord
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 11:16 am

Kingofpain89 wrote:
I did say "right mind".

It's using the D&D 3.5 rule set, so all you 1st Edition elitist snobs be forewarned...

mordrin
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:00 pm

Keith the Thief wrote:P.S. -- I'm a returning Acaeum member. How do you find your own past posts?

Click your profile button - bottom left of a post - use one for you, not me, though.

There's a conspicuous link in your Profile

ashmire13
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Posted: Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:17 pm

Invincible Overlord wrote:
It's using the D&D 3.5 rule set, so all you 1st Edition elitist snobs be forewarned...

Dammit...

Rolls a '3'

"Did I hit.....?"

Mythmere1
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:55 am

Invincible Overlord wrote:
It's using the D&D 3.5 rule set, so all you 1st Edition elitist snobs be forewarned...

3.5 or 4th??

MetaSigma
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:42 am

Mythmere1 wrote:
3.5 or 4th??

DDO was based on D&D 3.5 when I played (very briefly) a few years ago. It might have been updated since, but I doubt it.

Ithaca Dragon
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Zenfinite
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:14 pm

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:
DDO was based on D&D 3.5 when I played (very briefly) a few years ago. It might have been updated since, but I doubt it.

3.5 ruleset for sure. 4E wouldn't make a very good MMO due to it's strategic rulesmind, but hey, I could be proven wrong. As to past allegations of it being "absolute shit", it IS the 3rd largest MMO out there at last count, so, they're definately doing something right, it seems.

I'm still waiting for some sort of Final Fantasy Tactics type engine that used 4th Edition rules. That would be friggin' AMAZING.

AFAIK, the reason there are no new D&D videogames is because Atari has the rights for another year or two and they just aren't doing anything and aren't letting another company snap the rights up. Worse comes to worst, their contract will expire and Hasbro will have the rights back, then we'll see what pops up.

Zenfinite

ashmire13
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 1:19 pm

Well, I've downloaded it and will be setting myself up on there tonight..

Anything for free!!

EDIT - Hopefully it be useful to see the 3.5ed rules in practice?

Rolls a '3'

"Did I hit.....?"

Kingofpain89
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Posted: Tue Jun 29, 2010 2:41 pm

Zenfinite wrote:As to past allegations of it being "absolute shit", it IS the 3rd largest MMO out there at last count, so, they're definately doing something right, it seems.

Third largest FREE MMO you mean. World of Warcraft, LOTR Online, EVE Online, Aion, Age of Conan, and even Guild Wars are more popular. The only reason it has as many players as it does is because it went to free play status.

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

Agent Cooper
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Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 10:00 am

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Kids can't afford $40 dollar hardback books.

And besides, why would any kid nowadays want to play a game that requires them to read? They can easily jump on their computer or video game console and connect to some sort of MMO game instead.

I don't think it's the cost. Video games (PS3, XBOX or PC) new are $40-60 a pop. The console systems themselves are $150-$300. A basic PC can be had for around that but you have to spend much more if you want to game seriously on it. And this stuff is not exactly gathering dust on the shelves - I don't know a single kid who doesn't have one or the other, and the technology moves ahead every 5 or ten years so you have to upgrade if you want to play the new games.

$120 for a game you can play the rest of your life is an absolute bargain in comparison. Money isn't the problem.

The second point is spot on, and is the real problem in getting the kids to play RPGs.

The owls are not what they seem...

Kingofpain89
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Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 11:06 am

Maybe I should rephrase.

"Kids can't afford $40 hardbacks as well as $60 PS3 games." :wink:

$120 for a game you can play the rest of your life is an absolute bargain in comparison.

If they are only buying the core books sure. But they can't just stop with that. They have to have all of the unnecessary splat books and modules as well. Companies like WotC bank on that need for books to cover every rule and describe in detail every creature.

When it came out I just had to have the Wilderness Survival Guide. Thirty years later and the only reason I can think of for buying it was because no one else had it at the time. :roll:

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

SimperingToad
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:14 pm

Revisiting this for a moment.

In my sleepy, semi-coherent, half-awake-half-dreaming state I was in this morning, a thought suddenly popped into my head. I may be attempting to put 2 + 2 together and coming up with the square root of Hello Kitty, but...

What if the pulling of all PDF sales of pre-WotC D&D is linked to this new boxed set, and what if the plan is to release all-new material using the old covers/boxes? It would behoove WotC to make sure as much of the old material is off the market as they can legally control.

sauromatian
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 1:21 am

SimperingToad wrote:What if the pulling of all PDF sales of pre-WotC D&D is linked to this new boxed set, and what if the plan is to release all-new material using the old covers/boxes? It would behoove WotC to make sure as much of the old material is off the market as they can legally control.

I think you're right. A few months ago on this
viewtopic.php?t=9476&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20
thread, I speculated that

"...they intend to make money from it. After the Silver Ann. box and Dragon Mag. CD-rom were released, they said they wouldn't be reprinting any of it again. That was when they started with the free-download PDFs. I.e.:
No intent to make money from it = free PDFs
Intent to make money, possibly including by new reprints = no free PDFs"

I'll be watching what they do with this product & anything else like it, as I believe it's the inevitable marketing path for Hasbro to take.

Two years ago on this
viewtopic.php?t=6451&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=80
thread, I proposed the exact same product, except using the cover art for Holmes' box (the "blue book") instead of Mentzer's. There was quite a discussion:

Xaxaxe wrote:Sorry, I just don't get it: why even bother with the mixing-and-matching? A blue book updated to 4e? Why? Who would such a product be aimed at?..ODD/1e and 4e share nothing but a name; they are completely different games that, by all indications, appeal to completely different crowds. Mixing them makes no sense at all..No idea what you're saying; you've lost me. Although, as usual, you're doing a masterful job of confusing opinion with fact.

red wizard
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Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 4:21 am

Kingofpain89 wrote:
Third largest FREE MMO you mean. World of Warcraft, LOTR Online, EVE Online, Aion, Age of Conan, and even Guild Wars are more popular. The only reason it has as many players as it does is because it went to free play status.

Free to play had a lot to do with it yes but the real gem in marketing was them getting into the micro-transaction market so now instead of making money off a monthly subscription they are making tonnes of money off mini sales of in game items. Estimates are they went from 40k worth of subscriptions to close to a million in a few months (They were a private company so it was hard to confirm this but now that they are owned by Warner Brothers subscription data may become more public)

I've been playing it for close to 4 years and honestly I don't even bother to check out any other digital game. The graphics are dx10 capable and they use an active combat system which really immerses you in the action. They are based on the 3.5 system and for the most part are true to the rules but in some cases have modified the rules for online play so you have accept a certain "willing suspension of disbelief".

That being said I've been DMing for a couple year's with my son and a core group of his friends and they've easily spent 1k between them on rule books, modules, dice and miniatures. They key I think is exposure and building interested.

ashmire13
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Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:48 pm

Swinging back to topic again on this, the impending arrival is a very fair price, I'd say?

http://www.play.com/Gadgets/Gadgets/4-/ ... oduct.html

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Keith the Thief
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Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 5:57 pm

Seems like a good price.

Wonder if they're limiting it to levels 1-3 or 1-5?

Also, does 4E have to be played with miniatures,
or can you do the old-style "paper & pencil"?

"Never let it be said I didn’t do the least I could do."

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