DnD® comes to Middle-earth®.

[Curulon]

I think this is exciting news! I have faith it will reinvigorate TOR and I'm probably more excited about the forthcoming TOR announcements than this one!

More announcements this week!!!! I can't wait!!!!

What will we get? Perhaps a glimpse of Gondor???

If I were to wager a guess, I'd say we'll get some news about Oaths of the Riddermark, Adventurer's Companion, and possibly Journeys and Maps.

[Elroval]

Already thinly spread resources (both creative and licensing) will now have to be further divided and I think I know where the bulk of the attention will go. This is obviously super-exciting for C7 and I'm very happy for them, but from a personal and utterly selfish perspective I see this as grim tidings indeed.

Agreed. As a huge fan of TOR, I'm having difficulty seeing this as good news...

[HorusZA]

...I see this as grim tidings indeed...

Oh ye, of little faith!

I don't mean to dissuade your concern for TOR, because I know it stems from the same affection for the game as my excitement. However, I would like to point out that at every opportunity, C7 has provided nothing but support for the TOR line. As an example of this, I urge you to recall a time (not so long ago) when digital products for TOR were removed from the market. Even then, despite rampant fears that the removal of the digital product would spell doom for the line, it only grew stronger and eventually fans were given digital products again.

TOR is a outstanding product. Outstanding products managed by smart, talented people rarely fail.

As others have pointed out, this very well could turn out to be a boon for TOR. If more people are exposed to C7 (and TOR!) as a result of the DnD game, we will only see sales of TOR product grow... which, in turn, leads to the need to add even more talented staff... which, in turn, only means even more TOR products of the quality we've come to expect.

I would like to give the smart, talented, hard-working men and women of C7 their due. The TOR line continues strong under their watch; I'm confident it will continue to be so with the expansion into this new product offering.

I hear you... but my memory is still fresh from the countless d20 adaptations that appeared in the early 2000's of some of my favourite RPG's which, in the aftermath of the "great crash", took the original games down with them (or very nearly so).
During that time, while the various publishers were churning stuff out to support the d20 incarnations of their games, support for the original designs either stopped completely, slowed down to a crawl or they went the horrible "dual-statted" route. <EDIT: such as 7th Sea which went down with the d20 ship and was lost will all hands until the recent kickstarter>

I'm just concerned that it may not make commercial sense for C7 to support two iterations of the same (or at least very similar) game when one, as I suspect, will outshine the other by orders of magnitude in terms of sales.

Anyways, time will tell how this all turns out...

[Glorelendil]

Kickstarter, maybe?

Show 7th Sea what 7 figures really looks like.

[Corvo]

My first thought was "is already the first of april? Maybe C7 follows the Julian calendar..."

One of the biggest complaints has been that TOR isn't D&D and the 90% of roleplayers who won't consider anything but D&D (and often don't know about much outside D&D and Pathfinder) might go for a Middle Earth flavoured D&D setting with gusto.
(...)

True. Going D&D is like a promotion to the major league: most players are players of D&D and Pathfinder.

(...)
I'm just concerned that it may not make commercial sense for C7 to support two iterations of the same (or at least very similar) game when one, as I suspect, will outshine the other by orders of magnitude in terms of sales.
(...)

Let's hope you are wrong. But I admit I got the same doubts.

[Corvo]

Kickstarter, maybe?

Show 7th Sea what 7 figures really looks like.

Yeah. Seven figures without a functional dice system

[Falenthal]

My only question is: Will there be Fireballs and Invisible Magicians in Middle-Earth, like in the old MERP times?
And Dual-wielding drows?

Well, that were 2 questions, right? Sorry.

[Jon Hodgson]

Hey remember when we pretty much had to ban the topic of "dual wielding" on this forum? Those were the days!


To address the understandable concerns about the TOR release schedule, we're aware we will have to say this many times: TOR will remain an independent, supported line. We'll have some more TOR news this week.

We have extra resource in place to make this happen. We aren't taking resource from TOR to make the D&D supplements. The D&D game is very likely provide more resources for TOR. However the proof of the pudding will certainly rest in getting you more TOR supplements than last year. Which is our aim, and we're in an excellent position to do this.

[Wagyora]

I think I'm the only one who is really not excited or optimistic about that.

[Corvo]

(...)
To address the understandable concerns about the TOR release schedule, we're aware we will have to say this many times: TOR will remain an independent, supported line. We'll have some more TOR news this week.
(...)

You persuaded me. Now, about these exciting news...