Just had a chat with Ronnie about a bunch of DZ questions that you guys have raised in reply to recent posts.
The one I’d like to deal what today is the fact that some people might have bought the existing DZ recently, and might feel a bit miffed about shelling out for a new one.
Rest assured, the main point of reworking DZ is to get more people playing it. With this as the aim Ronnie’s keen on making this transition as smooth as possible.
The way this is achieved hasn’t been finalised, but Ronnie said he was happy for me to let you know the sort of thing that he currently has in mind. This starts with giving a digital copy to all the original KS backers. For those who’ve bought DZ after this, there will be some sort of discount scheme. The sort of thing that Flames of War has done between editions seemed to work – get your old edition stamped for a hefty discount on a new one.
Something like that.
Of course, whichever way you got your copy of DZ, your models, mat and scenery are all perfectly compatible with the new one so there’s no need to replace any of that. Whilst there are new sculpts of some models, the new ones are the same scale, style and imagery, and personally I’m entirely happy to mix all the ones I’ve seen so far.
Quirkworthy 
I never got the new copy of flames of war. I have to drive 75 miles, pay toals and parking to find my friendly is no longer stocking Mantic, something about kick starters. Perhaps a pic of painted models submitted might be retaliated with a digital copy of the rules
Possibly. When I spoke to Ronnie he hadn’t worked out the details – he just knew that he didn’t want it to be a major hurdle to getting people playing. I’ll mention your concern next time I see him, and I’ll try to remember to mention it before I start obliterating his troops as that tends to distract him 😉
Thanks
I really think that the basic rules should be free like KoW… That model seems to work in selling the game….
Well it depends. If I get a royalty on the game and not the models, that’ll be the last game I publish.
Seems like the limited free rules for KoW are working pretty well though, theyve already run out of their first printing. And re: stamping… well, it could work if Mantic shops were as common as GW shops… but they arent. And even then, the closest GW shop is still 200km from here… I got all my Mantic stuff from online retailers. So theres definitely still some issues… still, happy to hear theyre planning to do something for retail players. 🙂
It seems to mostly have worked for FOW, and they have the same number of shops as Mantic. I don’t know what they did for people who are in your position. Can anyone enlighten us?
Just a quick query in case one missed this somewhere on your blog, are the new rules going to be part of the new KS Deadzone: Infestation or is one right in thinking this will be a new set of rules and KS later-on.
Part of DZ:I
Finding out that you are doing such drastic changes to the game is concerning for those of us that bought the first DZ. You shouldn’t have done the DZ2 KS without having the alpha rules done.
Your business model seems to be to make a ton on KSers instead of developing and supporting a good game. I think this is KS abuse. I am waiting to see the final DZ2 product before I spend another dime on Mantic.
As it stands now, you’ve lost a customer. Your game will eventually catch up and I don’t see mantic being around in 5 years. That’s a shame you started with really good products.
Jake is freelance. Hes hired to write the rules, hes got no say on any business decisions. So complaining here is pointless, head over to the mantic blog or their forums for that.
Sorry to hear you feel like that Steve. However, as Tyr says, I am a freelance designer and don’t get to make those decisions.
The point about KoW being free and DZ not is interesting – Jake do you know if Alessio (the KoW author) had a very different deal than yours? Could you publish abbreviated rules for free, then sell the “full” rules?
I’m curious to know what Alessio’s deal was, but presumably it’s different than yours as the author for DZ. Then again, KoW is perhaps more amenable to having a trimmed down, “free” version available online, while still encouraging fans to buy the full printed version?
I’ve got no idea what Alessio’s deal is.