My favorite "wizards" are the two patrons of Fafyrd and the Grey Mouser, the ineffably cool Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. That's sort of where I'm going with Jupiter Kwan in the Cyclopean Deeps, although so far he's more about what he does than what he is.
Cyclopean Deeps is almost certainly going to represent a financial loss for Frog God Games, and has cost me a disastrous amount of time that should really have been spent on the Swords & Wizardry game -- promotion of the game, publication of smaller stuff, keeping in better contact with people on the net, and this blog. In light of that ...
it had better be a masterpiece.
Working diligently on that. In the meantime, remember: dealing with archmages always has a cost, even if it isn't immediately apparent.
I am sad that CD will be a loss maker, it is a great series and I enjoy getting my copies in S&W (and PF too)
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree the two Wizards of Lankhmar are awesome!
I enjoyed the first two that I got from being a backer of Rappan Athuk, but the subscription model for later entries confused me. I suspect they would have sold better if they had been marketed in a more traditional manner.
ReplyDeleteI like those kind of wizards, also the ones in the Thieves World books.
ReplyDeleteThe subscription model confused everyone, and the pricing was thought through incorrectly. During the backstage confusion of the Rappan Athuk kickstarter, we thought, "12 softcover modules are worth $12 each, so we give people 6 pdfs and a hardcover for only $10 per module, which is a bargain." We didn't step back and say, "wait, that's a 100-200 page book for $60." It works for separate modules, but not for a book, which should sell for less per page. We're planning on doing something extra for the people in the Kickstarter, and dropping the price of the actual book. It simply doesn't make sense right now, price-wise. But we haven't decided how to fix it, and until Book 1 is ready (it's written already, just not converted/proofed/playtested/layout/art), we haven't decided exactly how to give something extra to the KS backers who paid an unrealistically high price for the full subscription. We plan on doing that, but frankly until we've got the pricing model fixed, it's awfully expensive. It's worth it, if you think of it as separate modules, but as a book it's pricey.
ReplyDeleteEdit: "6 softcover modules are worth $12 each (printed)..."
ReplyDeleteMatt---
ReplyDeleteI haven't kept up on all of the CD modules: how many are there, and are they still available?
Allan.
It looks like we have only published 1-4. 5 and 6 must both be in the works, then. I am working on 7 and 9 concurrently, because I'm making links between them and the others. Eventually there will be 12. I'm not sure what has happened to 5 ... I need to chase it down. It might just be that I didn't get a copy of it when it was published.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the magic from Lieber's Newhon is also superb. Science fantasy at it's best.
ReplyDelete