Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

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Jack Burton
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Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Jack Burton »

I was disappointed when I read the weekly update today and BtS2 books were not even mentioned as projects on the horizon. We've all speculated why the other necessary books for BtS2 have not been completed. There could be a number of reasons why that is. I've thought about this and wonder if the PB folks are worried about wasting time, effort and money by producing a lot of books and then being stuck with them if they don't sell. That's a valid concern. I also wonder if they believe their resources would be better spent on products that are known sellers, such as Rifts material. It's naive and unrealistic to think their resources are unlimited.

I've thought about ideas to get these books done and this is what I've come up with:

1. Let the fans help write the books! If resources don't permit PB staff to dedicate time to write them, set some guidelines for what is expected and what is required and then ask for submissions. (need for magic rules, N.P.C.s, spells, creature stats, artwork, adventures, O.C.C.s, etc) Set some ground rules, such as submissions are voluntary (not paid), ideas or material may or may not be published and whatever is submitted becomes property of Palladium Books. Have contributors sign an acknowledgement like they have to when submitting to The Rifter. Of course, this shouldn't be the norm for the way PB publishes books. That may kill the relationship PB has with its freelance writers, so make these two books the exceptions. PB isn't likely going to hire anyone to write these anyway, so what is there to lose?

2. Going back to #1, make it FUN! Hype it up! Generate buzz and excitement by allowing the fans to take ownership. Promote them as a fan-written publications! Make these SPECIAL! Submissions are nothing new (i.e. Rifter), so why not for these? BtS2 has a "cult" following, that's for sure. (pun intended). This would breathe new life into a line that has been dying on the vine for some time.

3. If a concern is getting stuck with a bunch of cases of books, then release Arcanum and Tome Grotesque through Drive Thru RPG and skip the costs associated with printing/shipping/stocking them. If there are sufficient orders placed for digital copies, then perhaps consider releasing actual printed books.

What do you think, PB?
What do you think, fellow BtS2 fans?
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Jasper
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Jasper »

Sounds like some great ideas. I am up for contributing, though I am not sure how good I would be at actual writing up game systems. That being said I do have some ideas on things would like to see.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Jack Burton »

Now we just need PB to kick the idea around!
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by gaby »

I hope they do it too.
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Wintercross
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Wintercross »

I really want those two books finished.

Maybe if they don't want to risk printing them, they should consider at least offering them as PDF on one of the sites that they have been using?
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Thom001 »

This sounds great. On a related note, is there anything in any of the rifters that is for bts?
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Jack Burton
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Jack Burton »

Thom001 wrote:This sounds great. On a related note, is there anything in any of the rifters that is for bts?

Yes, there is. If you look in the "Beyond the Supernatural" section of the forum and look for a topic called "A list of BTS material in the Rifter", mrloucifer has kindly listed a lot of material for BTS and what Rifters you can find it in.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Hendrik »

Jack Burton wrote:
Thom001 wrote:This sounds great. On a related note, is there anything in any of the rifters that is for bts?

Yes, there is. If you look in the "Beyond the Supernatural" section of the forum and look for a topic called "A list of BTS material in the Rifter", mrloucifer has kindly listed a lot of material for BTS and what Rifters you can find it in.

There is quite a bit (also mrloucifer is an excellent writer himself) and there is always something coming. On the Rifter front we BTS fans are doing good!

It is just a shame that the other two books are not coming out at the moment. I am happy that they get on the forefront on and off and are not entirely forgotten.

We all know we can bridge the gap by adapting BTS-1 but it would be more than just nice to finally get Arcanum. Tome Grotesque is not necessary but would be awesome as I like the uniqueness of the BTS creatures very much (they are mostly interpretations of known creatures but in such a unique way).

I like your ideas, Jack. I think it would make a lot of sense to harness the fan interest for the two open projects or let a few or one (mrloucifer) write them and then edit as much as Kevin pleases. I think the latter would be the fastest way to get the books.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by kennethk »

Sadly this is one of the reasons I have not got BtS 2nd Edition yet. I think getting fan involvement into this project would be awesome. I would be more than happy to assist in the process.
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Thom001
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Thom001 »

BTS is definitely the setting I would rather play but my group disagrees, mostly because of things like the lack of content in this setting. So when it does happen the world is basically a rifts world before the rifts, hundreds of years in the future from now, laser weapons, mdc stuff (including mdc armored clothing, MIB like agents that try to mind wipe civilians (and sometimes us) when they see this stuff to stop it from getting out. social media is monitored and routinely censored, sometimes a one world government, etc.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by gaby »

Here hoping for 2018.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by The Beast »

gaby wrote:Here hoping for 2018.


Jim Johnston has odds on that.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

When people ask 'What new rifts book do you want?' in the rifts forum (or elsewhere), say that you want the the Arcanum and Tome Grotesque. and do it consistently every time that question is asked.

The whys...
✽ It exposes the rifters to the idea there are books other then rifts books.
✽ When KS (or whoever) looks at the "want list" of those topics, they will see that not everyone want another $#%^& rifts book.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Axelmania »

Tome Grotesque has been on pre-order since 2011: http://web.archive.org/web/201108112159 ... tural.html (price has gone up from 20.95 to 22.99 since then)

Beyond Arcanum since 2012: http://web.archive.org/web/201205131729 ... tural.html (price has gone from 24.95 to 26.99 since then)

I suppose I'm wondering: does pre-ordering these books increase the chances of their being made? Is the benefit that if you pre-order at a lower price then you save having to pay the higher price it inflates to 7 or 8 years later?

If you do pre-order, is it possible to cancel it and get a refund on the money if a certain amount of time goes by without delivery? I mean...

Kevin Siembieda in January 2005 on page 139 of BTS2 wrote:I'm promising here and now that BTS players will not have to wait a year before these two books come out.
I plan on releasing them as soon as possible.


It sounded like he had a lot of confidence and cool ideas about this. I'm wondering if maybe it got entirely reworked because he might be worried if he went forward with an entirely new magic/PPE system that it might cause instability in the Rifts/PF lines? Namely this part:
Magic will work very differently than what players of our other games are used to
(in fact it works very similar to BTS psionics)


That wouldn't really explain the lack of Grotesque though, because TG sounds like something that would be great for pretty much ANY of Palladium's games and a huge potential success. I know I'd want it if it added anywhere near to the number of monsters that Dark Conversions or Creatures of Chaos did, for example.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Jack Burton »

Axelmania wrote:I suppose I'm wondering: does pre-ordering these books increase the chances of their being made? Is the benefit that if you pre-order at a lower price then you save having to pay the higher price it inflates to 7 or 8 years later?

If you do pre-order, is it possible to cancel it and get a refund on the money if a certain amount of time goes by without delivery?


Your credit card is charged only when the book is ready to be shipped. When it is ready to be shipped, your credit card is charged however much the book costs at that particular time, so it doesn't matter if you ordered it years in advance at a lower price or present day at a higher price.... you'll be charged the higher price regardless.
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Re: Ideas to Get Arcanum and Tome Grotesque Released

Unread post by Bounty »

Axelmania wrote:Tome Grotesque has been on pre-order since 2011: http://web.archive.org/web/201108112159 ... tural.html (price has gone up from 20.95 to 22.99 since then)

Beyond Arcanum since 2012: http://web.archive.org/web/201205131729 ... tural.html (price has gone from 24.95 to 26.99 since then)

Kevin Siembieda in January 2005 on page 139 of BTS2 wrote:I'm promising here and now that BTS players will not have to wait a year before these two books come out.
I plan on releasing them as soon as possible.




in 2013 I found the following:

[quote]The site's Store Merchant has changed several times over the years. The oldest reference to them that I'm currently able to find is the WayBack Machine archive page from May 1, 2005.

Tome Grostesque was orginally listed for "Late November, might slip into December". After December it went to March 2006. Arcanum was listed as "Decenber or January", then went to Summer 2006. But we all know what happened in April 2006, so anything after March was never going to happen anyways really.

Interesting to note that while the book is forever in preorder, the price has been going up...
Tome Grotesque:
$17.95 - 10/2005
$18.95 - 3/2006
$20.95 - 1/2011

Beyond Arcanum:
$22.95 - 10/2005
$17.95 or $22.95 (probably the latter) - 1/2006
$24.95 - 1/2011[/qoute]

April 2006 is the pivot though. When the company almost went under, it changed a lot, and these supplements are probably permanent casualties of that event.

But, hope springs eternal, and with the last 3 Rifters including BtSN content, maybe we're about to see these books. Or 3rd edition...
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