The Forge Reference Project

Topic: Advancement Question
Started by: Roy
Started on: 12/3/2002
Board: Cartoon Action Hour

Is character advancement (gaining more Character Points) built into CAH or are the characters relatively static once they've been created?

I'm seriously considering purchasing CAH, but I'd like to know the answer to this question before I do. Thanks!

Roy

Roy wrote: Is character advancement (gaining more Character Points) built into CAH or are the characters relatively static once they've been created?

The answer is yes. :-)

The REAL answer is that it's up to you. The "default" standpoint is that you gain more Character Points per session, but you only spend them between seasons, which are 10-15 episodes. This reflects the fact that characters mainly changed when they were updated between seasons, or when new toys came out.

You can choose to allow players to spend points after each episode, like a normal RPG, or not at all. Also, in the hardcopy version in February, we offer an alternate system based on viewer interest instead of internal game rewards.

I'm seriously considering purchasing CAH, but I'd like to know the answer to this question before I do. Thanks!

Great! Obviously we hope you buy a copy, but either way, thanks for seriously considering us!

Thanks for the quick response, Eddy!

I would like to thank you and Cynthia for the excellent customer service you've provided your customers and for your enthusiasm. I've been following CAH for a little while and you've both been class acts the entire way.

Rest assured, I will be purchasing the PDF of CAH later this week from RPG Now. Now get that hardcover out soon so I can get my hands on it!

Roy

Roy wrote: Thanks for the quick response, Eddy! I would like to thank you and Cynthia for the excellent customer service you've provided your customers and for your enthusiasm. I've been following CAH for a little while and you've both been class acts the entire way.

Thanks a lot, Roy! We certainly try to offer whatever customer service we can, and I'm glad the efforts have been noticed!

Rest assured, I will be purchasing the PDF of CAH later this week from RPG Now. Now get that hardcover out soon so I can get my hands on it!

I'm actually looking at the layout right now for last minute changes. :-)

On 12/4/2002 at 3:15pm, Cynthia Celeste Miller wrote:
RE: Advancement Question

Thank you kindly, Roy. We've always prided ourselves on maintaining a close connection to our customers or anyone else who comes along for that matter.

As for our enthusiasm, it's very easy to be enthused when we have such great fans to keep us charged up. :)

Thanks for both your kind words and for doing business with us. Later this week, that is.

Roy wrote: Now get that hardcover out soon so I can get my hands on it!

One thing I wanted to clarify, Roy, just in case. The book release of CAH isn't going to be hardcover. It's confusing because at one point it WAS going to be, but we decided against it, in order to cut down costs. Also, we tend to refer to the book as the "hardcopy version", which (when you look at it briefly) looks like "hardcover version". And sometimes, I've caught myself typing "hardcover" instead.

Hence why I'm taking up the RPG.net slang of "dead tree version". :-)

Just wanted to clear that up!

That's a bit of a shame, really. I bought the hardCOVER Sorcerer and, slim volume though it is, it looks the business and it was pretty damn cheap. Would a hard cover add all that much to CAH price?

Wulf

Wulf wrote: That's a bit of a shame, really. I bought the hardCOVER Sorcerer and, slim volume though it is, it looks the business and it was pretty damn cheap. Would a hard cover add all that much to CAH price?

IIRC, it would have been $5-$10. However, we decided that we'd rather offer a lower cost product with more pages than a hardcover. With most of the games in the industry averaging around $30 a book, we thought that the $24.95 price break would be distinctive, and also sway more "impulse" purchases.

Maybe down the road we can offer a "limited expanded edition" with the first couple of issues of ATM or something added in for a hardcover. ;-)

On 12/6/2002 at 3:26pm, Cynthia Celeste Miller wrote:
RE: Advancement Question

What Eddy said.

I also want to add that when Zev was talking to distributors and retailers, most of them were in favor of carrying it as a soft cover book. We've also conducted informal polls (most notably on RPG.net) and we received the same response. I was surprised by this, but not really disappointed. As Eddy mentioned, we have discussed releasing it as a hardcover later on.

Maybe down the road we can offer a "limited expanded edition" with the first couple of issues of ATM or something added in for a hardcover. ;-)

I wouldn't recommend releasing a hardcover edition unless you add in significant new content beyond just a few issues of a newsletter. I know I would feel cheated by this and I'm sure many other customers would too.

Roy

Roy wrote: I wouldn't recommend releasing a hardcover edition unless you add in significant new content beyond just a few issues of a newsletter. I know I would feel cheated by this and I'm sure many other customers would too.

If we did decide to do it, it would be a serious undertaking, and we'd certainly get fan input first. Right now, it's very far from our "radar", so to speak - we're putting all of our energy into the PDF magazine, and at least three suppliments (at last count!) for CAH.

On 12/7/2002 at 12:16am, Cynthia Celeste Miller wrote:
RE: Advancement Question

Darn! I'm always late getting to these posts.

In any case, we always do extensive research before planning anything major for CAH. And, frankly, right now we're keeping ourselves plenty busy with current projects, such as getting the dead tree version ready to roll, assembling the first issue of ATM, doing up two more Action Packs, working on three supplements and, of course, getting the initial work done on the CAH miniatures battle game "Cartoon Action Zone".

So, if we do end up coming out with a hardcover, it will be a year or three down the line most likely. And it will have new material, corrections and other goodies so that it's worth everyone's time and money. But like Eddy said, it's not even on our radar yet. :)