Third-Party 4E Releases

[Battleground]

Third-Party 4E Releases
Mongoose, Goodman in; Necromancer Out
August 4, 2008

Mongoose Publishing and Goodman Games are among the prominent third-party Dungeons & Dragons licensees with a slate of 4th Edition products releasing later this year, while Necromancer Games looks to be joining Green Ronin Publishing on the sidelines.   October’s Wraith Recon is Mongoose’s brand-new setting that casts players in the roles of “special forces”-type adventurers in a dark fantasy world filled with spies and secret agendas. Also coming in October is The Adventurer’s Equipment Guide, a 4E update of the popular d20 resource, outlining hundreds of essential pieces of gear for adventurers, while the Quintessential line of class-specific guidebooks will also be remade for 4E, starting with The Quintessential Wizard in November.

Goodman Games continues its Dungeon Crawl Classics line, with five 4E releases in September, along with Xcrawl: IndyCrawl, the low-level adventure Dragora’s Dungeon, and the Character’s Codex and DM Campaign Record accessories. Another Dungeon Crawls Classics, the Forgotten Portal, ships in October, as does Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song, which re-introduces four popular character classes: barbarian, bard, druid, and monk.   Meanwhile, Necromancer Games’ President Clark Peterson issued a statement recently, labeling the GSL “a total unmitigated failure” and stating that his company would not be signing the GSL as currently presented. While Peterson made it clear that he bore Wizards no ill will and  was “hopeful” that the GSL could be re-worked and that his company could produce 4E material in the future, the company’s previously announced 4E products are on hold. A Beta version of the Pathfinder RPG, co-produced with Paizo Publishing and using the D&D v3.5 rules, is still set for an August release.

[Rob S]

Another Dungeon Crawls Classics, the Forgotten Portal, ships in October, as does Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song, which re-introduces four popular character classes: barbarian, bard, druid, and monk.

Next year a second PHB (or such) is going to be released by Wizards that reintroduces more classes, including those listed right?  Will these be a preview to what the classes will look like or is it possible that they'll be completely different?

[Battleground]

Next year a second PHB (or such) is going to be released by Wizards that reintroduces more classes, including those listed right?  Will these be a preview to what the classes will look like or is it possible that they'll be completely different?

Almost certainly, these 3rd party class versions will be completely different than those that appear in the PHB II.

[Jonathan]

This is perhaps a stupid question but if there will be a 2nd PHB next year why buy the PHB that is out now?  Will the 2nd one contain different material or will it be an expanded version of the current one (same stuff as current with the added classes mentioned by Sims)?

[Ian Mulligan]

PHB2 will have different content than the 1st PHB. Each will contain unique classes.

[Jonathan]

PHB2 will have different content than the 1st PHB. Each will contain unique classes.

Thank you, that makes much more sense.

[Unit04]

The PHB I (if you look closely at the title) says "Arcane, Divine and Marshal heroes".  If you read one of the boxes on the inside, they talk about more sources of power that exist in the world.  My guess is that each PHB will focus on different power sources.  Also, I'm guessing that they are all "Player Hand Books" (as opposed to the "Complete {insert word here}") to convince people that all the classes presented will be "legal".