Yes and no. Same boat as the Battle of Tanin.

Battle of Tanin was the GenCon BI that doesn't look like it will ever be released? From what I've heard (iirc), the GenCon BI is missing a (partial?) writeup making it very hard to release. What's the story with the "Green in Tooth and Claw"?

The Battles against the Pricklespur and for Tanin are both suppose to be released. They both just need to be typed out and edited.

The Expedition of the ul'Hsin is suppose to be released for pay download, IIRC. I couldn't tell you were they were on that though.

I would certainly be happy to have the mentioned items be released in some form.

But I also believe some BIs just never make it into home play. The Battle of Seremas comes to mind from the old campaign. As a practical matter there is just a limited amount of manpower hours in the campaign staff. And the Crusade arc is receding behind us. BIs from that arc are decreasing in relevance to what's happening now in the campaign. And the foes were written with threat in the ranges of Tiers 1.0, 1.5 or perhaps 2.0. Many heroes now are pushing or have pushed through 2.5 and are starting the march on Tier 3.0.

Currently this is less true for the delve (which again I would like to see).

Long story short, its okay to hope but don't hold your breath.

I think I disagree. It was announced that BIs (and some/all special events) in 2014 and later will not be released for home play - that's fine (it was announced long in advance).

However, I think it is important to release all previous BIs (and possibly special events) where at all possible. Otherwise, you will have players that started later and/or could not attend the cons feeling left out (both of the story and of the XP, gold, items, etc). For instance, I ran into several players at Origins that seemed upset about the unreleased GenCon BI because they could not attend that year and it was announced it would be released and it is the one thing they haven't played.

Yes that's a real possibility/concern. When this campaign started it was first stated that "Special Events" (initially LARPs) that could not be replayed outside of the event would provide no wealth and de minimus xp. The reason stated was exactly what you said...some players felt left out and the campaign didn't want to create two tiers of players. An "elite group" that makes the big shows and another who only play at home. This was occasionally a problem in the old campaign too. The accusation that some players enjoyed special status by making all the premiers would occasionally crop up on the The LA Talk List... the yahoo group precursor to the forums.

Somewhere that decision was changed. I am guessing (but don't know) to help promote Convention play. But that's just my guess. Regardless of whether or not the old BIs are actually converted at a level people can play with their primary characters, a differential (real or perceived) between the major con goers and not will potentially be something to monitor as the campaign rolls onward.

This may sound bad, but I feel that if someone is paying considerable time and money to travel to and play at a major convention, advertising the game (by either dressing up for the LARP and answering questions, passing out cards, or just generally talking favorably about the game to hundreds of other gamers), and potentially getting new players, then they deserve a little something for that. The amount of XP/Gold gotten at BI's has not been such that anyone missing a few of them will be that hampered.

What would be great (and this somewhat relies on Harvesters and other organizers) is to have the BI's at other 'large' cons around the country whenever possible for a few months after its premiere. This would likely be parred down to maybe a normal 1 round slot and maybe it would only have 2-3 tables, but at least others would have a chance. I don't know how feasible this is, but it might help out. I also wouldn't expect the same rewards at these 'mini-BI's'.

John

Here are my thoughts.

1. The tier of the character has significantly less impact in Living Arcanis than it did in 3.5. The rewards are identical no matter what version of foes you face and the gear has been significantly deemphesized. Both extremely good things in my opinion.

2. Characters built on volunteer certs will have less stuff and sometimes less XP as the XP totals for volunteer rewards are set.

3. Based on the two items above there is less direct character impact for not playing the one shots.

4. The one shots are still cool and you get an opportunity to influence the world directly. The BI at Origins almost went the other way. From a campaign point of view, there has to be an incentive to make the effort to put all of that together for the staff, the company and the players. I think moving it back to one shot engagements is fine.

5. For the two events that happened that are on the "maybe should be released list" I would consider the limited resource in terms of company and staff's time and consider that occassionally the best of intentions don't quite work out. As an alternative, if you feel passionately about it and are willing to "eat" it if you haven't played it yet, then perhaps one or both of them may be far enough along to have volunteer help to finish making playable. No idea if this is feasible or not.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

I will give my two cents for what its worth...

If I had a choice between going back and working on the GenCon 'Crusades' BI from 2 years ago or prep and work on a new soft point set for release, I will choose the soft point every single time.

Yes, it would have been nice if the GenCon BI was released in a timely manner 2 years ago. But, it didn't. Sometimes, you have to count your losses and move on. Offline from these forums, we have some great volunteers ready to get working on some of the up and coming soft points we have in the production queue. I am not saying it will ever be released (as I don't like to eat my own words) but allocating volunteer resources for the future should be the priority.

If the problem with releasing those two BIs is volunteer time, I'll volunteer to help out on them if they are far enough along that it would be feasible. I'm no author but I can certainly do editing and such.