After 18+ pages a conversation is apt to drift a bit...lol.
But the future of 4th edition D&D is entirely a valid part of the conversation, since Mongoose used OGL to base the Conan RPG on.
What's funny to me is the further info that Wizards is apparent;y deciding that RPGs aren't profitable. At $30-$40 a pop for each book, if Wizards hasn't been able to generate some extra cash off of D&D then what they need to quit the business altogether. There's absolutely no way that I belive that WoC hasn't made money hand over fist with D&D 3.0 and 3.5.
The fact that they have staff that arent' creative enough to create subsequent quality supplemts that appeal across the board may be something they need to look into. I was so monumentally underimpressed with Ebberon that I can't even begin to quantify for you all. I just yawned when I saw it, thought "why didnt' they just make these new Greyhawk races?" and put it out of my mind. WoC has yet to truly revisit Greyhawk and the other worlds of D&D, or to develop an absolutely unique alternate campaign world product line.
That's where this 4.0 D&D jibber-jabber relates to the future of Conan and what Mongoose may or may not do to keep the liscence alive. D20 works. It's a good, clean system and it's popular. If WoC changes D&D so drastically as to leave D20 to the ancestors (which I doubt very seriously will happen), then that would be the only circumstance under which I could see Mmongoose following suit and lifting Conan over to RQ. Personally, I think all this WoC rumor garbage that "RPGs arent' profitable" has more to do with other companies, like Mongoose, having product lines that are suddenly more successful than actual D&D. The fact that the last year's WoC D&D publications suck just doesn't seem to occur to the powers that be over and Wizards. It must have more to do with the fact that RPGs are just not profitable. Gosh, that just depends on whether you are losing more money than you're making, and if you publish vapid books with little substance consisting of nothing but new feats and prestige classes, well, customers tend ot go looking for something fresh elsewhere. Wow...whadaya know? :shock:
I think it's a lot mor elikely that WoC will try to pull off 4.0 as a cleaned up 3.5, sticking to the PHB/DMG/MM formula. Anything else would be on par with suicide in the industry. But, there again, maybe they'll do it to just dangle that "unprofitability" in the faces of consumers and compettitors effectively to say "see, we told you it would never work" and put this old RPG dog down. I dont' see that happening either. Magic and minis are only profitable because people are still curently willing to dole out loads of cash for replicas of crappy commons just to have the few good candidates that it takes to be competitive. There's still the RPG crowd out there that aren't interested in being competative, enjoy social interaction on a level other than "untap, upkeep, draw a card" and will stay brand loyal to D&D, whatever WoC do to it.
Then there's us. We've not really "jumped ship", but instead have found a viable alternative craft on the same river that we can hop over to for a change of pace from fighing dragons and dodging fireballs. Frankly, if Woc were smart (which I'm beginning to doubt if the rumore are true) then they'd make up a low magic, high combat adventurous campaign world and make it into a product line. Oh well. That leaves us, the Conan fans, squarely and loyally with Mongoose. Only now we see the insidiousness of the OGL plan - get other companies to stand still with the OGL long enough to produce thier own materials, then pull the rug out from under them claiming it to have not been profitable all along.
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