Topic: Rolemaster Express Addition

[shag margold]

does anyone know  where to buy express additions PDF?

Tnx

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Right now, nowhere...

When Mjolnir lost the license, they had to shut down their online store on January 1st.

The new folks in charge have yet to put any of the core products (or any of the recent products, for that matter) back up for sale.

They say that they are "rebranding" them (and doing a revision in the case of HARP, it seems, though they are only calling it "tweaks", it will still end up with a new version).

When asked publicly, they tend to avoid or change the subject rather than give any sort of timeframe on when they will be available again.

[dutch206]

That's because deadlines can be missed, and then they have to deal with people who say "But you said...!"  This way, there is no miscommunication.

[Thom @ ICE]

Please note that it is true that the Express Addition pdf's are currently unavailable for sale as they are part of a long list of products that need to be rebranded, and in the case of those specific items they are far down the list. 

The priorities are based upon how important they are to playing the game (therefore Core products come first).  The tweaks that will be incorporated into HARP are very minor and will not generate any new versions. If some of the other HARP Modification ideas that were submitted are considered for publication they will be fully playtested first and then incorporated into new products in the future.

In regards to the rest of Rasyr's post his comments are entirely inaccurate. We have been completely forthright on the availability issue, but we will not give dates that we cannot be 100% confident in meeting. 

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

That's because deadlines can be missed, and then they have to deal with people who say "But you said...!"  This way, there is no miscommunication.

Yes, deadlines can be missed. It is fact of life. But nobody is asking for deadlines, just rough guesstimates.

Will they be available in 1-2 months? 4-6 months? Next year sometime?

Instead, of any sort of real answer, all that is given is evasions and misdirections...

In one thread -- http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=10769.0 -- a guy asks where he can get HARP and the Hack & Slash PDF or when they might be available again. And he gets pointed at the OBS site (a proper thing to do, so props for that), but instead of answering him about the products he is interested in, they point out how some old RM2 products (scans, the same scans that Mjolnir used to sell, in fact) are now being made available.

With no actual response to his actual question....

[Thom @ ICE]

In that case Marc referred the poster to Nicholas' previous comments about HARP which stated that we're fixing up the Core products and books first, pdf only products will be later. As for 1 month, 6 months or next year - that depends upon the product and the progress that is made.  So just so everyone is clear - we will not give dates as to when products will again be ready until they are ready (or at least very close).
We'd love to put them all up for sale tomorrow, but that cannot be done. This is a required step and one which we are trying to accelerate.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

We'd love to put them all up for sale tomorrow, but that cannot be done.

Actually it could be done (could have been done since the first of January). The fact of the matter is that you guys chose not to for some reason.

[Thom @ ICE]

That was not my call to make, but I will review it with those who can make that call.  Thank you for the suggestion.

[pastaav]

Not telling when the book would be possible to buy was pretty much standard for Mjolnir also. In fact I recall numerous times when something was reported as almost done and then a couple of years moved past.

I am not saying this to excuse delays to get books back for sale, but to point out that longer-time-to-market but increased throughput might not be so bad. If we get increased throughput is of course still an open question...

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I hope that the EA's get reformatted in the near future as they are a great resource. I have EA's 1-12 but need the last few to complete my collection. Also RMX needs to be reformatted & released again .. I like it's rules lite focus & it's a great way to introduce RMC rules concepts to newbies.

[smug]

I don't think anything has been said indicating an expcted sale date. I really hope it's soon, because I love RMX and dearly want the Express Additions.

[Rasyr-Mjolnir]

Also RMX needs to be reformatted & released again .. I like it's rules lite focus & it's a great way to introduce RMC rules concepts to newbies.

That was one of the main reasons that Mjolnir created RMX in the first place - to provide a product that showed RM was nowhere near as complicated as its reputation suggested. RMX is not a rules lite version of RM, it is simply the core rules of RM, with a few options implemented to make low level characters more survivable.

I don't think anything has been said indicating an expcted sale date. I really hope it's soon, because I love RMX and dearly want the Express Additions.

In an article on my personal website, Pagemaking 101, I discussed some of the issues involved when pagemaking files are moved from one computer to another (such as happened with all of the ICE product files). These potential issues may be the reason why they are not available yet.

[smug]

In an article on my personal website, Pagemaking 101, I discussed some of the issues involved when pagemaking files are moved from one computer to another (such as happened with all of the ICE product files). These potential issues may be the reason why they are not available yet.

Interesting, thanks.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I still hope it's sooner than later for both RMX & the EAs, as I'd like to get a couple copies of RMX for my library. Maybe even donate one to our local public library. All though I play in a RM2 game I plan on running RMX if I run RM for anyone. So the print copies of RMX & the rest of the EAs would be very helpful.

[smug]

EAs were never print, always pdf-only. The issue is that they aren't even on sale as pdfs at the moment.

RMX is on sale as pdf again, I think, but hard-copy for ICE products will only be print-on-demand through the One Book Shelf outlets (rpgnow, for example) and I don't think that's been set up yet. I guess that in the future, there's no reason for there not to be an print-on-demand anthology of EAs, except that assembling it'd be extra work that they probably don't have time to do (particularly given that the EAs still aren't on sale as pdfs).

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I know that the EAs were PDF only but I was only stating I still needed the rest along with more print copies of RMX. I'd love to see a POD collection of the EAs, that'd be sweet.

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

Our efforts are divided between the rebranding/Print-on-Demand programme and getting new products out the door, which means that everything has to be assigned a priority. Minor (< 20 pages) pdf-only products are going to be assigned a much lower priority than core rulebooks or full-blown supplements that are essential parts of a product line and have the page count to make them viable for print-on-demand.

See also
http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=11128.msg141010#msg141010

for an outline of where we are and what is still to be done.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

[Raf Blutaxt]

I noticed in that table with the product line overview that RM X was missing. Does this mean you forgot it, I just didn't see it or that it is not going to return?

[smug]

Yeah, I'm worrid about that, too. RMX is a great product, in my opinion,and I don't think I'd have been able to interest my current groups in playing RM without it. I really want the Express Additions back on sale and I'm concerned that they're not listed even s a lower priority.

Nicholas, are you effectivly saying that we might not see the Express Additions for years? I know that won't bother a bunch of people, people those not into RM2/C, but for my group, RMX was the best route into RM and I'd love to be able to use the transition additions to get to full RM.

Is there really no way we can't be allowed to buy them? Or if they're not likely to get printed mightn't ICE set the content free somehow? It's a real shame for there to be content owned by ICE that won't see lit of day for a long time, if ever, particularly in the age of electronic copies and with the content in queston beng so recently-produced. I do understand that you/ICE have other constraints but as a customer and fan I really want to get hold of them now I've beenable to get my groups going on RM (ironically, I own juts about every other ICE product, includng the RMSS/FRP products, but didn't get the EAs because I thought as pdfs they'd be around forever and I could get them when I needed them).

I'm not a layout expert, alas, but is the something I or others could do to help?

[NicholasHMCaldwell]

RMX has a serious legal issue that means that it cannot return at all in its current format without substantial revision of its content. That has a knock-on impact on which of the EAs can be returned. Hence they have been taken out of the queue so that problem-free products can be processed as quickly as possible.

There will be a Rolemaster Lite product in the future, however, which will do the job that RMX was trying to do.

Best wishes,
Nicholas