Yesterday, Wizards of the Coast formally announced the process by which publishers could license their D&D rule content for derivative works. I sent an IM to my partner Ed, and here is a transcript of the conversation:
Preston: FYI, http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20080108a
Ed: $5000! I could almost buy my own company for that!
Preston: And who would run it? You?
Ed: You bet I could…
Preston: Running a game company isn’t like dusting crops, boy!
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So, are you going to stick with Savage Worlds from here on then?
We’re having our annual company meeting this Saturday, so I’m sure that’ll be a topic for discussion. We’ve been planning ETU since before the 4E announcement, and that was always going to be a Savage Worlds title. It was only a question of whether we’d then try to bend the d20 Modern mechanics enough to make it work there too. It sounds like WotC won’t be tackling modern mechanics for another year, so we have time to release the Pinebox adventures that have already been written.
The whole issue is really only germane to the Silven Crossroads imprint. Since our production calendar is pretty much already set for 2008, I personally don’t see a problem with waiting to release any new Silven titles (other than SteamWorks) until 2009. But that’s just my take. We’ll see what the others say this weekend.
On a personal note, I’d be much happier with Savage Worlds stuff to review/plug on Flames Rising. I actually play that system from time-to-time…
Anyway, keep us posted as you figure things out.
That’s good to know. I’ll try to keep that in mind for our next release. If there’s anything in our backlist you’re interested in reviewing, just let me know.