Will we have gargantuan dragons in Red, Green, etc?
No plans at this time for those.
What's in the works big picture-wise?
Feywild is a starter and could be a vehicle for delivering new maps. The rulebook will be updated at that time. Starters could be released on a yearly basis. The next Huge set is tentatively scheduled for 2009 (summer?).
Will we see printed stat cards for the re-statted sets?
Printed card decks were given out to Championship players for the currently-released older sets, but there are no plans to make such printed sets available as for-sale products.
What's the current thinking on banning creatures?
Scott Larrabee said he is not afraid of banning if it preserves balance and fun in the larger environment. He looks to Peter Lee and Stephen Schubert for guidance on potential bannings. Maps may rotate out of the Standard format, meaning a short list of maps seems probable for standard play. Scott talked about having a Level 3 judge assisting DDM Judges this year at Gencon Indy. He also talked about making all maps available online using new starter sets for distributing new maps. Another option is to include one map per case. Classic format competition still has many elements up in the air: venue, whether to make it invitational, and so on.
Will the Icons be re-statted?
Peter said that Epic and larger creatures are low priorities for re-statting.
What faction definitions will evolve as we go forward?
Peter said he plans to drive a more refined definition of each faction. Eight Uncommons in Demonweb are solo faction to achieve a better definition and limit to the factions.
How will future RPG products and monsters impact the minis in future sets?
Andy Collins answered that his instructions are that designers and developers pick the best of the monsters and characters from future products. Rob Heinsoo mentioned that monster manuals will have more significant representations than before. For example, Monster Manual 2 will be well-represented in future sets. In the near term, CAD as part of the workflow has not yet significantly changed the challenge of syncing simultaneous releases of miniatures and RPG rulebooks. More dragonborn PCs are planned for upcoming sets at Uncommon rarities to make them easier to get.
Will more Chainmail equivalencies become legal?
Developers are looking into this.
How does DDI relate to DDM?
There are lots of plans but not much that can be announced or discussed right now.
How has the current economic situation affected DDM?
The cost of materials and shipping, which are closely related right now, have a big impact on minis production costs. Like anything, DDM can be impacted by general economic downturns.
Are qualifiers impacted by the economic downturn?
Andy Collins answered that WotC pays a lot of attention to attendance at events and all factors that provide indicators of the popularity of DDM.
What about the perceived quality drop of some recent figures?
Andy pointed out that it is a continuing challenge to maintain quality talent at production facilities, but they work quite hard at it. Peter brings a lot to the table in managing the production process and expects that Demonweb will make collectors very happy.
Are any Legendary characters coming out or being re-released?
Yes, but not many per year.
What are the plans to expand the player base?
Starter set with better quick start rules and non-random packaging is a plan to help make the game more accessible.
Are particular minis designed specifically for 200 and 100 point formats? Since Dungeons of Dread, development has focused primarily on 200-point play. If a figure turns out to be incompatible with 100-point format, banning it from that format is possible. Team format experiments show that there are opportunities for other formats, but the goal is to limit the number of formats until the fan base solidifies more. 100-point formats will be explored more.
Will large qualifiers such as Montreal be given more invitation slots? Will the number of invitations adjust dynamically to correspond with the number of people who show up?
Scott said they plan to look at options, but nothing can be settled until the 2009 budgets are worked out.
Seg Ago 18, 2008 1:46 pm
