Any word on the sourcebooks?

[kaemaril]

Jun 10, 2010 15:10:10 GMT renegadetimelord said:

I mentioned the official DWAITAS site while talking about the game in general and the site - like the game materials - requires BBC approval. So, no possibility of drifting from the approved look/content and the thing with the release dates... well, they slip. Perhaps we, as RPGers, have become too demanding of exact dates and times. My opinion, but as you may have read on my blog, I thing the slow progress in official supplements may actually be a good thing. Reminds me of the infancy of home computing when you learnt how to program games because the shelves weren't exactly heaving with them. You learnt the code and experimented - just as, with DWAITAS, you learn the game and the mechanics, and create your own content, creatures, etc. ... and hopefully share them on here.

Well, if you're going to use home computers as an analogy ...

I first got into computers back in 1981 - my first computer was a ZX81, closely followed by a ZX Spectrum the following year.

And no matter how much of a fan of Your Sinclair, Crash! magazine, Computer & Video Games etc I was (and I really was - I loved typing in page after page of Hexadecimal in order to see a poorly animated version of Frogger ) I reckon the take-up of computers such as the ZX-81, the Spectrum, the VIC-20, the Commodore 64, the BBC Micro, the Amiga etc - even with those wonderful magazines and their games you could type in - would have been severely curtailed if the first commercially published software for each of those models did not arrive until eight months after the computer in question was released.

[kaemaril]

Jun 10, 2010 13:20:57 GMT misterharry said:

Jun 10, 2010 13:02:09 GMT olegrand said:

Perhaps the main cause of C7's silence is some ultra-strict non-disclosure agreement of some kind with the BBC which prevents them from making any official statement about the game or its supporting material without the BBC's green light - or something along these lines.

Possibly, I guess. But any NDA which restricts C7 from even updating release dates would be unduly stringent.

Can you imagine what would happen if the BBC itself ran this way, and the Doctor Who production crew at BBC Wales instructed BBC in general to keep mum?

December 2010:
BBC Continuity Announcer, following Doctor Who special: Fans of Doctor Who will be pleased to know that Doctor Who will return in Easter ...

Two days before Easter, 2011, Points of View: Sad news for Doctor Who fans, as unfortunately the series isn't quite ready yet. Viewers will be pleased to know the series will be returning in May.

1st May 2011, Points of View: We've received a letter from a Mrs Trellis from Wales who asks 'What's happening with Doctor Who? It's May, and I've not even seen an advert in the Radio Times. Come on, BBC, don't keep us hanging. Bring back Doctor Who!'

Well, I've good news for Mrs. Trellis and all the other Doctor Who fans. The producers of Doctor Who have used their extra time off the air to make the programme even better, and it will be returning - bigger and better than ever - in June. Watch the skies, fans.

June 29th 2011, Points of View: Another letter from a Mrs Trellis from Wales, who asks: 'What the hell is going on? It's the end of June, where's Doctor Who?'

Calm down, Mrs. Trellis, Doctor Who is on the way. Unforeseen problems have meant that some CGI had to be redone. But it'll be returning in July.

July 28th 2011, Points of View: We're getting sick of her, but another letter from Mrs Trellis, who asks: 'I've just returned from a party at the BBC Television Centre, where I actually bumped into one of Doctor Who's executive producers, who told me the programme will be returning in August. August? You told us July!'

Honestly, Mrs. Trellis, these things happen. There's no need to be so excitable - these things happen in Television. Doctor Who will be returning soon, and that's the main thing isn't it?

August 3rd 2011, Points of View: We've received a letter from a Mr. Brooke-Taylor who says 'Mrs Trellis should just calm down. It's just a Television series, for goodness sake! And it's only three or four months late. She should count herself lucky she's not a Goodies fan waiting for the next DVD release. Anyway, I have it on good authority Mrs Trellis is completely fictional...'

Thank you, Mr Brooke-Taylor. The good news is that Doctor Who will be returning on August 31st, and that's definite.

September 1st, 2011, Points of View: We've received a letter from Mrs Trellis, who says 'I give up. It's been five months. Where is it? Oh, and you can tell Brooke-Taylor that I definitely am real.'

Well, Mrs Trellis, as you're probably aware BBC Wales decided at the last minute to recast the Doctor, which inevitably meant some delays as a few scenes were filmed again with the new Doctor. But the good news is all that filming is now complete and Doctor Who will be returning in the new year ...

January 3rd 2012, Points of View: We've received a letter from Mrs Trellis, who says 'The new episode of Doctor Who was fantastic, and very nearly worth the eight month delay. But why on Earth doesn't the BBC keep us up to date, instead of me having to write increasingly distraught and anguished letters trying to get information out of you?'

Well, Mrs Trellis the answer is ... none of your business. We can't - and won't - tell you as it's all confidential and sealed down with contractual obligations. whispers But if you wanted to blame BBC Wales I'd not disagree with you wink...

[imajica]

Ah, I miss Humph. His replacements haven't been anywhere near as good.

[kaemaril]

Jun 10, 2010 12:31:37 GMT JohnK said:

Hullo, Kaemaril,

I don't understand why you're bothering to be so polite here when you finish with ...

but if you want more information, get in touch directly with the game company, and stop griping about it here.

Charming.

FYI, I do have a presence on the Cubicle 7 forums. I registered around 2 days after the game was announced back in December 2007. I'm easy enough to find, as I use 'kaemaril' there too.

The latest thread where I 'gripe' can be found here. It has a post from Angus seemingly confiming the delay. And you will find info on that delay nowhere else - not on their main site, not in their store (still June), not on their twitter feed, not on an actual announcement in their forums ... just buried in that thread.

[olegrand]

Jun 10, 2010 15:10:10 GMT renegadetimelord said:

Reminds me of the infancy of home computing when you learnt how to program games because the shelves weren't exactly heaving with them. You learnt the code and experimented - just as, with DWAITAS, you learn the game and the mechanics, and create your own content, creatures, etc. ... and hopefully share them on here.

Exactly - especially since the basic DWAITAS rules contain everything needed to get a campaign started and running (unlike many RPGs which actually require two or three supplements for this); as far as I'm concerned, the supplements will be, well, supplements - I'm especially looking forward the Aliens & Creatures and perhaps even more the Time Traveller one... but waiting for these books has not prevented me from launching my own campaign and running 10 episodes so far - with a lot of time-hopping and new creatures. The DWAITAS rules really give you a complete toolkit (or is this a toybox ?) and that's really a huge asset in favor of the game.

[kaemaril]

Jun 10, 2010 19:31:45 GMT olegrand said:

and that's really a huge asset in favor of the game.

It's a huge asset, I don't deny it. The game is brilliant.

It's just unfortunate that C7 seem to be on the tightest leash you could possibly imagine, to the point where they're:

1. unable (and/or unwilling) to keep their customers fully informed about delays to their product.
2. unable to offer their own 'official' forums - DWAITAS was supposedly 'semi-official', but there doesn't appear to be much dialogue from C7 going on here now ...
3. essentially forbidden discussion of the game on their own forums.
4. unable to offer even a decent 'official' static website (try reading it with images off).

In short, as far as I'm concerned, C7 (and/or the BBC) have practically crippled their ability to have a dialogue with their customers regarding their own product. And I find that tremendously disheartening. Especially when I've been waiting six months for a pre-order I broke out my credit card for ...

[Curufea]

I certainly intend on spending some serious time compiling the wonderful resources made available by players so far.

If I can get the Drupal (matrix.curufea.com) to create PDFs and possibly compile together sections into printable books - that will be ideal.

[anathar]

I know I'm really keen to get my hands on the new sourcebooks, but I suspect that they may be being kept waiting by the BBC because of SPOILERS for the season finale as well as new artwork.

That said I agree C7 should do more to keep in touch with it's client base, even if it's to say they can't give specifics but that everything is waiting on an OK from the Beeb....

[imajica]

Jun 13, 2010 19:33:07 GMT anathar said:

I know I'm really keen to get my hands on the new sourcebooks, but I suspect that they may be being kept waiting by the BBC because of SPOILERS for the season finale as well as new artwork.

That said I agree C7 should do more to keep in touch with it's client base, even if it's to say they can't give specifics but that everything is waiting on an OK from the Beeb....

Unless the C7 staff have seen the episodes that will be broadcast in the next 2 weeks, I don't see how they'll contain spoilers. Books that would've been published in July & August (as Defending the Earth and Time Traveller's Companion should have been) would hit the shelves long after the season finale and after the kids have forgotten that Who was on on a Saturday night and have moved on to the next big thing.

By failing to release whilst the show is still actively being broadcast they're missing a marketing tie-in. But then they botched that all through last year with the specials and only just managing a release in time for shipping not to be able to deliver before Christmas.

[lunahq7]

^.^

For those in the US, I just got my copy of Dr. Who :: ATS within the last couple days, but I had an email saying that they were moving their warehouse this month, so some delays were to be expected.

John B.
Laramie, WY USA

[ugavine]

Anyone who has been collecting RPGs for any length of time will no doubt shrug and carry on at any delay. It's pretty much the norm in RPGs, it has been for years. As is the lack of information. WOTC before they lost the licence were incredibly slow releasing information on Star Wars products. One set of their miniatures was not announced until a week AFTER it's release!

As for the analogy of a TV series being delayed, Star Wars Live Action series anyone? Yeah, that was supposed to be out a couple of years ago and now I am finding it nearly impossible to find any details at all, no idea if it is still happening or when other than IMDB saying 2011.

Sadly this is how this industry works, but late is better than never

[Curufea]

Yep - with you there. RPG publishing is such a small time thing, it verges on vanity publishing. They're always understaffed.

[imajica]

Right, all change again. From the Cubicle 7 forums (the full post here in the fullness of time).
* Aliens & Creatures to be in shops September (end of August at the very earliest)
* New re-branded Core set expected November
* Defending the Earth, Time-Traveller's Companion being re-branded and will most likely released *after* the new Core set.
* New website underway.

I reckon Aliens & Creatures will probably need re-branding if there's a new Core set, after all who wants a book in different livery? But I'm hopeful that it will hit the shelves first. Otherwise I'd have to pack this in completely and go back to running Who using Conspiracy X 2e.

Since we're getting a new Core set, we should just treat what we have now as a preview. A limited-run to whet our appetites before the real thing is released in the run-up to Christmas.

Hey, if they hit that November release for the new Core set they could even tie in with the publicity run-up to the Christmas Special.

Of course, when they kill off Matt Smith and replace him this Saturday, all bets are off ;-)

[olegrand]

Will the rebranded core set be a revised edition or will the contents (in terms of rules & text, not images) be exactly the same ?

[misterharry]

I've just posted Dom's latest announcement from the C7 forum over in the "News from Dom" thread - the two threads could probably do with being merged, as they're both discussing the same thing!

[kaemaril]

FYI, just popped back to alert people that it looks like pre-order PDFs are now being made available. Just got a mail pointing me to rpgnow, with a coupon.

A very generous move on the part of C7, imho.

See ya.

[rsaintjohn]

Well, one good thing seemed to come out of this conversation.

The PDF of ALIENS & CREATURES is available on RPGNow! (link removed, see below)

Pricey PDF ($24.99) and I probably shouldn't reward my cancelled pre-orders with a purchase of what I know I'll get in hardcopy... but I did anyway. ;D

ADDING:



I don't know whether it's the PDF or my system/reader (v 8.0), but it's broken. Generates an error early on, and the main book (both versions) just display empty pages with a background. No text.

The cards and accessories look nice though.

So I guess it's not such good news after all. Off to try to get a refund or fix.

EDIT:

1. Sorry, Kaemeril and I posted at the same time
2. I already got a message from C7 that they know the PDF has issues, they're working on it.

Everyone should hold off (it's a big set of downloads) until it's fixed.

[rsaintjohn]

Looks like Dom & Co got everything fixed now. The download I just grabbed fixed all of the issues.

This is an AMAZING supplement, goes much further than I expected it to. Not just a typical encyclopedia of monsters with stats, but a New Worlds Generator, a nice adventure, and extras like monster cards, new gadget cards and more.

HIGHLY recommended, can't wait for the published version!!

Kudos to Dom for making it available and for getting it fixed so quickly (and sending purchasers mutliple notes proactively through that first hour). Fantastic book, fantastic SERVICE!

[misterharry]

I pre-ordered via Leisure Games. Will I be receiving details of how to download the pdf? Nothing in my inbox so far...

[ugavine]

Well some great news from an e-mail form Cubicle 7;

The First Doctor Campaign Pack is mostly written, the Second is well on the way, the Fourth (part one), Fifth and Ninth have a month till deadline. All other Doctor Campaign Packs are allocated to writers. We also have proposals for several adventure/campaign packs to look at and commission, as well as several PDF adventures to go through and get into layout.

All sounding like a fantastic future for Doctor Who RPG. I really, REALLY hope all of these products do get released.

[drnate]

I wonder how important it will be to get the rebranded core set. Just curious about how many changes there will be.

[Kit]

Jul 9, 2010 3:01:42 GMT drnate said:

I wonder how important it will be to get the rebranded core set. Just curious about how many changes there will be.

I'm not allowed to say much, but my inclination is that it will be worth getting. I dont believe you will NEED it, but I'll be getting it.

[misterharry]

It's quite a lot of money to spend on something if it only has cosmetic changes to the current version, or just the addition of stats for the 11th Doctor, Amy and Rory (which I'd hope they make available as free downloads, if they are the only additions).

But if there's more substantial changes (as I think you're hinting at), then that would sway me. Dare I hope for stats for monsters from Series 5? And maybe a different Adventures Book?

[korith]

...and maybe some new variety to the extras, such as character tokens that can be used to keep track of who's where in chases (hopefully with a whole lot of Daleks), and some handy new traits and tables?

[Curufea]

For marketting purposes it's far better to show the current Doctor.

[drnate]

Jul 9, 2010 8:27:46 GMT misterharry said:

And maybe a different Adventures Book?

I'll buy the whole thing all over again if there is a new adventure book. That thing was 32 pages of awesome.

Beyond that, here's hoping that C7 rewards their loyal followers by posting the rules changes in some kind of "Rules Update" document.

It's all well and good to lure in new people with a shiny new (more up to date) boxed set. But let's not forget the long suffering amongst us who waited and waited for the core game to be released, and then waited and waited for the Alien book, then waited and waited for the next new supplement while the new core set is released.

Also, let's hope that the new core set is out before season six starts, as I have a sneaking suspicion that S6 is gonna bring with it some changes (not as many as S5 brought, of course)

Anyway, my fingeres are relentlessly and perpetually crossed for the future, here.

[drnate]

Update! Amazon just cancelled my A&C pre-order. "Due to a lack of availability from our suppliers, we will not be able to obtain the following item(s) from your order: David F. Chapman "Aliens and Creatures" We've cancelled the item(s) and apologize for the inconvenience."

I'm a little irate, but I am also thinking this is a good chance to skip the thing alltogether and wait for the rebranded core book. After reading the RPGNet Review of the book, I don't think it is for me. It seems like the book is mostly recap of episodes I have seen recently and a number of very specific NPC profiles. I know there is also the Alien Traits and the adventure booklet, but I don't think those alone justify the cost.

Now, will I be so confident about skipping it when the product actually comes out? I'm not so sure. It's possibe I will once again become the salivating fanboy, given a chance to get my hands on the book. If so, y'all can say that you told me so.

If not, I can wait.

[Rel Fexive]

I don't know why anyone bothers with Amazon for their RPG books. They suck! Bad/wrong release dates and more besides.

[Kit]

Jul 19, 2010 19:09:44 GMT imajica said:

No. No, they can't bring back Torchwood. Not without a total reboot.

How does this apply to the sourcebooks?

[imajica]

Jul 19, 2010 21:53:22 GMT Kit said:

Jul 19, 2010 19:09:44 GMT imajica said:

No. No, they can't bring back Torchwood. Not without a total reboot.

How does this apply to the sourcebooks?

It doesn't. Please excuse that last post, I appear to have replied in the wrong forum entirely. Unless there's a post further up mentioning the return of Torchwood.

My apologies! Random outburst post deleted.