After Oblivaeon

With Oblivaeon closer to actually being in our hands, what’s next for the Video Game afterwards?

With Sentinels of Earth Prime on the horizon, that would seem to be the next step. But, let’s be honest. When has Green Ronin delivered a product in a timely manner? They’re a small company, so I understand and forgive them. But it could be literally years before we see any new “official” Sentinels decks.

There is, however, an incredible “non-official” expansion with currently roughly 17 heroes, 11 villains, and 8 environments. Not to mention 5 additional heroes, 3 new environments and 4 new villains currently being tested for the 4th “season”. Sidenote: Drift is amazing. The art mirrors Adams in that it started out rough but became something to admire as the project aged.

I believe, whole heartedly, that what TOSX and his peeps created, should be given strong consideration for the privilege of being called an Official expansion with the Abstract Comics imprint standing side by side with Sentinel Comics and Earth Prime.

I got the feeling that Handelabra's plans for after OblivAeon consisted of stuff like:

1. Doing other projects, since some of Jeremy's comments on past streams suggested they're getting to be a sufficiently popular company for board game makers to make "hey can you port our game" requests to.

2. Hoping to do Sentinels of Earth Prime at some point.

3. Hoping to add Story Mode to Sentinels at some point.

With stuff like Cauldron being more like things they want to try to create Steam Workshop support for.

There is also still Challenge Mode to implement for VotM villains and Trickster Kismet.   Jean Marc still has Hero theme music to produce as well. 

I think new products are pretty much always going to move the needle more than unofficial expansions that the vast minority of players have never heard of, despite the best efforts of some folks to talk about said unofficial expansions at every opportunity.

This goes for the developers (new challenges, a chance to expand their market) as well as the general public. When the ODD kickstarter launched, there were articles all over mobile gaming sites talking about the announcement and expressing excitement that Handelabra had a new project. I doubt the same would be the case for any unofficial SOTM expansion. 

@bolnerap: Yeah, you said better what I wasn't sure I could successfully phrase delicately.

The Handelabra folks are friendly folks who seem to love Sentinels almost as much as GTG does, but they're not just GTG's digital division, they're their own business looking to make money to pay everyone with and with a goal to do tabletop-related stuff in general, and are going to pick projects based on that criteria.

Their expressed desire to see if Workshop support is feasible seems like the best compromise they could make.

@Powerhound_2000: True, they also have to finish up some previously established commitments.

For any of the unofficial expansions(Cauldron, Abstract, etc.) I think the Steam Workshop is the best way to get them on StoMDigital. Though I'm certain that all of these have been converted already in Tabletop Simulator. At least sure enough without checking myself...

Unofficial is never likely to ever be promoted in an official way like you suggest there; for a main reason, that would be a legal nightmare that most companies won’t even want to consider going near… And >G have made very clear it’s an area they don’t want to get personally involved in like that.

Sure it’s nice for the fans to have something like that, but it doesn’t make any kind of business sense at all, and that’s what it comes down to, these are businesses.

If they can manage to work out a system for fans to create and upload their own stuff then that would be possible, but that’s all it will ever be, there will never be a release of specifically fan made content, just like there never has been (and likely never will be) for the card game itself.

I don't know the actual legal terms for the relationship with the Cauldron, but right now it is sold on DTC with GTG permission as an approved fan expansion.  They get a tiny bit of money from the sales even.

The biggest thing would be fan desire for it, since there are a lot of "only official decks" players out there.

Hmm, interesting I wasn’t aware of that, although I expect there’s still a difference between being an endorsed fan made product and being placed in an official product like the video game.

Incidentally, as someone who has never tried out the cauldron decks and is intrigued to give them a go, where would people more experienced with them suggest as a jumping on point? That base set is way out of budget right now, and is a lot for dipping toes in… So I guess I’m asking about either Experimental or Stormfall as going by bundles seems the most cost effective way of getting them.

I think it's more: With the current setup, the Cauldron people do the production of the cards themselves, since Drive Through Cards is apparently inexpensive enough for that to be viable.

Whereas developing a video game is shall we say more complicated logistically. You either need to be able to do all the work yourself, be independently wealthy enough to hire people to do it for you, or show to prospective outside funders that the project would be worth forking over enough dimes.

So I feel hoping for eventual Steam Workshop support is the best option as it makes the first two options more viable, since I'm afraid I just don't think the last option would be viable.

Or to sum up, I think folks making the request may possibly not be taking into account that "getting permission" is only half the matter; the other half is "finding the resources with which to do it once you have the permission".

I figure if Steam Workshop happens, there will just be a hundred people making and remaking Cauldron. GTG, Handelabra and tosx won't need to lift a finger.

If you can only get one expansion, I'll say, in my opinion, Cauldron gets better as it goes. Adrift won't be happening for a while, but the one that comes before it (and no, I can't remember which one that is) has some of my favorite heroes and villains from the set. That's entirely my opinion, though, and I have very strong opinions about Cauldron. :B

If Cauldron doesn't look like a viable thing, and depending on how well S of Earth Prime does, Steam Workshop would very much be a thing I would like to see. Because when it come down to it, more Sentinels is more fun for me. I play more on my laptop than any other game I own, console, handheld, phone, tablet and even tabletop, so the more the merrier.

I'd love to have reasons to give Handelabra money for Sentinels so that's why I'd welcome the Cauldron sets - sure they could release Steam Workshop support,  but if they want my money for Sentinels business purposes, I would welcome the opportunity.

Also, it's not exactly Sentinels but it is Sentinels-universe - what I've seen/heard of Spirit Island makes me think it's right up the alley of Sentinels players!

Oh, I've heard good things about that one.

>_>

<_<

As a completely unbiased voice on the internet what is your opinion of Fate of the Elder Gods?

It would be awesome if we could get a Spirit Island app.  I haven't played it yet and I've been holding off on getting it because, while everyone seems to love it, I get the feeling my family wouldn't be that into it, especially since I recently found out they're not really fans of Sentinels and just play it to indulge me since it's my favorite game.  So being able to solo Spirit Island on an app, which is what I primarily do with Sentinels nowadays would be great for me.  I realize I could do that without an app (I already have with SOTM before I had the app, and even with Tactics once), but it's a lot more cumbersome.

I'd definitely love to demo Spirit Island in app form, but that's only because I haven't been able to make it to any sort of con in a while, and $80 is a steep entry fee.

If either of you use Tabletop Simulator or Vassal, there exists mods for Spirit Island in both platforms (Vassal only goes to 3P, but TTS could take all 4).

I'd still love having it in app form so I didn't have to do so much bookkeeping myself.

I could probably play three spirits then! :D

As a completely unbiased voice on the internet what is your opinion of Fate of the Elder Gods?

I like it a bunch! It's a good game. I love all the ways the mechanics work together to support and advance the theme, and the individual powers for each god/cult/lodge are awesome. However! It is not so much for me, as a primary part of the game play is "take that" stuff that you do to other cults by sending investigators at them or cursing them, and I am not one for "take that" games. I mean, look, I'm kind of into cooperative games, right? 

But yeah, definitely a good game, even if not for me.

I agree on the ”take that” aspect, and but of all of the “Lovecraftian games where you’re playing on the side of the baddies” that I’ve tried out, I think this one gets the tone down the best (which is why I picked it up to complement the cooperative “good guy” games in my collection and haven’t picked up others). So many Lovecraftian (or “Lovecraftian”) things out there get the scale wrong and make things too crazy or too “epic”.