Dragon's Breath #29

The Dragon’s Breath #29

9 January 2005

2005: A Year in Preview

by James Bell

Well, it’s January, and therefore, it’s time to outline all of the things we hope to accomplish this year so that we’ll be able to see how far off the mark we are in December! :) 

First off, a bit about 2004.

Last year, after taking about 8 months to review our business and plan some new strategies, we came out with our new packaging: the tin collector case.  Our first release, the Summoned Creatures Counter Collection, came in one of these tin cases and ended up selling... really well, actually!  We followed up with Counter Collection Gold, which was our comprehensive version of the 3.5 SRD.  This product went on to win a Silver ENnie at the 2004 GenCon/EnWorld d20 Awards.  Thanks to all those who voted!  A third Counter Collection came out mere weeks after Halloween - the Undead Collection, featuring an amazing assortment of creepy crawlers, inspired by the SRD, folklore, movies, novels, and the frightening imagination of Claudio Pozas.  For all the folks who enjoyed WotC’s Libris Mortis, this one’s for you!

Last year, we also diversified, releasing 3 "mini-games" in the Counter Strike line.  Arriba Espana, Autumn Mist: The Battle of the Bulge, and Battle for China, all went on to find their market and turned out to be constant sellers for us.  This line was a big risk for us, and an exciting stretch into a new direction, but the future looks bright and we’re hoping that we can continue with it for years to come.

Three other useful GM aids were released by FDP last year.  The first came from the mind of amazing cartographer Ed Bourelle.  Adventure Tiles: Dungeons was an amazing collection of cardstock dungeon tiles that really took off, especially with the growing D&D Minis crowd.  We followed this with the BattleBox: Core Fantasy Set.  Designed to be an important part of any gaming table, it went on to become one of our true break-out hits and one of our top selling products for the year.  (Thanks, in no small part I’m sure, to positive word of mouth from the likes of Monte Cook!)  Finally, we entered the information age with the release of Counter Collection: Digital, a CD-R containing over 1,200 jpg images of the counters we had released thus far.

In 2005, we hope to build on our successes of the previous year, and expand into a few new exciting directions as well.

Counter Collections

February should see the first release of our Counter Collections that tie into the Monster Geographica books from Expeditious Retreat Press.  XRP has some great books coming out this year, and we’re very happy to present tie-ins in the form of products like Murky Depths & Swampy Shores (a counter collection of aquatic and swamp creatures).  Future collections will tie in with their books on forest dwellers, and creatures of the hills and mountains.  Looks for some cool ads highlighting these products in the next few months.

Counter Strike

Continuing the success we’ve had with our Counter Strike line, you’ll see new mini-games from us like Friekorps, Marcher Lords, Operation Whirlwind, Algeria, Warplan Crimson, the Final Frontier, Smokejumpers, and (hopefully!) Atomic City!  Whew!  Big growth for this tiny division!

Future Tiles

Working with Ed Bourelle again, you’ll see a new series of tiles: Future Tiles: Starships.  This product will be out in March, and will have some cool tie-ins with Ed & Phil Reed’s Starbase Prime stuff.  We’re hoping that fans take to these Future Tiles as they did with the Adventure Tiles.  So far, Ed’s touch has been gold, and I’m looking forward to playing with this product during my next d20 Future game!

Greek Counters of Doom!

A new partnership that I’m really excited about, Fiery Dragon will be providing counters for Sean K. Reynold’s New Argonauts later this month.  Greek-style heroes, classic monsters from myth, everything that makes gaming cool.  This will debut as a PDF set, but we’re hoping to continue to mine the mind of Sean and perhaps we’ll be able to combine several of these PDF series into one print product later in the year.

Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved

I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re big fans of Monte Cook, and in particular, his Arcana Unearthed game.  We were very fortunate to work with him on Plague of Dreams, an introductory adventure for his alternate player’s handbook.  Well, in the next few months, Monte is launching Arcana Evolved - the next step in the World of the Diamond Throne - and FDP will again be providing support products for this excellent game.

Shortly after the release of the new core book you’ll be able to find a BattleBox: Arcana Evolved at your local game store.  What the original BattleBox did for the core game, the AE BattleBox will do for this fantasy alternative.  With a full-color map of the Diamond Throne world, spell counters, rune tokens and more, this will be a useful tool at any AE gaming table.  We’ll follow this up with an AE Counter Collection, featuring all of the creatures of the Diamond Throne, all those found in Legacy of the Dragon, plus the new creatures (and new forms of familiar friends) found in Arcana Evolved.  That should hit as the summer begins.

But that’s not all - we’re also working on adventures for Arcana Evolved.  Expect the first PDF adventure, entitled I, KING by Todd Secord, to be available shortly after the new rules hit.  And that is only the beginning on the adventure front, with at least 2 more adventures coming out this year (hopefully more!).

30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

Last year may have been the 30th anniversary for Dungeons & Dragons, but 2005 sees the 30th anniversary of another classic roleplaying game: Tunnels & Trolls.  GenCon 2005 will see the official release of the TUNNELS & TROLLS: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION.  Using the new and improved 7th Edition Rules, T&T will be the perfect rules-light system for quick or introductory gaming, and will feature lots of neat bells and whistles to celebrate 30 years of this classic game.

2005: The year we need more sleep

So, lots of things going on, and we’re going to do our best to tackle this Herculean task.  No new babies in 2005, no new houses, no new jobs (at least, none planned!), so we should be able to sail right through (famous last words!).

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