Digging in Under the Bridge

The last few weeks have been very interesting. We continue to see tremendous amounts of traffic at the site and interest in the game. Initial orders went beyond expectations. Generally a reprint is not met with much reaction at the retail level, but we saw strong out the gate numbers. This was encouraging. They were away and beyond the 2nd printing of the M&T. Nothing to shatter records and put C&C on the map as the game of choice, abut very good for TLG and the Crusade in general. In many ways the M&T is the weakest of the books as it is designed primarily for the Castle Keeper. So we have high expectations for the 4th printing of the Players Handbook.

That book has been moved forward, in front of Gods and Monsters. This was a tough decision for me to make and it is mine alone (so if it goes south, we have no one but me to blame). Essentially we are reprinting two hard back books back to back with nothing to soften the expense blow other than the two books in question. This might not make a lot of sense, but both the PH and the will be viewed as reprints by the retailers. This means that they treat them as a normal restock as opposed to a new title. New titles always outsell restocks by 10 to one if not more. The original plan was to bring Gods out to soften the blow for the PH and MT however circumstances changed when retailers quit ordering the PH 3rd printing altogether (once they heard the 4th was coming) and consumers followed suite. Without the PH in the pocket the Crusade has little steam to go on no matter the quality of the M&T, Gods and the CKG. So I moved it forward of Gods to bring it to the fore asap.

Now the 4th printing is slated to go to press on May 31st. We are on target for that date. I have dug in under the Troll Bridge today to finalize edits and material to get over to Peter. The barbarian is largely finished, but I will have it playtested a little more before press time. In the meantime I am putting together more of the art notes for Gods and Mosnters and bringing that fellow to a close. We hope to have everyting on Peter's desk by June 5th so he can finalize layout and we can get this guy to press and out by Troll Con VII. As it stands we are on target for that.

Once these two books are done and gone its all hands on deck for the CKG. Which is still on target for the August release. I'll bring more of that to light later.

But in the meantime. Look for the Heart of Glass release this weekend. It will have some few things the original did not, namely the Crna Ruk as a playable monster (as oppossed to the prestige class of yeasteryear) and the Rings of Brass as playable magic items.

All this is coming and the 4th Crusade expanding into the next realm!

Thanks for Playing
Steve the Troll Lord