Several new expansion on its way

[Scott]

Here's my perspective as one of the authors affected by this situation:

The expansions that I was involved in making, I did primarily for the love of the game, and because I saw something that was both missing from the game and IMHO better than some things we were seeing from HiG. I would venture to say that some of the other expansion authors had the same motivation.

Just in case it's not clear to everyone, we authors collectively decided to approach Jay from RGG about having one or more CarcCentral expansions published officially, and Jay contacted HiG. We wanted this to happen. I have not seen anything yet to indicate that we are not going to be credited for our ideas, so I think it is premature to say that HiG is taking credit.

On the next point I can only speak for myself. I was not specifically looking to make money from this, but to promote CarcCentral. It's why every expansion we publish has the CarcCentral logo at the end of the rules document. If anybody offers to send money my way, I would of course accept it. At the very least I would hope that the publisher would give me a copy of my expansion for free. A free copy of each CarcCentral expansion would be even nicer. By getting published, we'll be reaching a much wider audience. I would hope that far more people play Carcassonne than the number of people that show up here. I'd love to be able to point to a published expansion and say, "Yeah, I made that."

I don't think there has been any discussion yet about what would happen after a CarcCentral expansion got published. I have not heard anything from RGG or HiG that they would want us to stop offering our expansion for free. There are games that have gone from print-and-play to published and the print-and-play version is still available. The publisher may opt to have some/all of the artwork redone by Doris Matthaus for better consistency, which would make the published version slightly different and of higher quality. The fact that it would be professionally produced instead of labels stuck to tiles would also mean higher quality. The publisher would need to make money to justify publishing the expansion, and Doris would need to be paid as well. I expect Klaus-Jurgen Wrede will also make some money as the original author of the game. I expect each expansion will cost around the same as River II or the Count ($7.95 CDN at my FLGS).

If you still don't want to buy them, there will be no hard feelings from me. Some people are either not comfortable with print-and-play, or not satisfied with the difference in quality. Some people appear to stress about whether their print-and-play tiles will feel different from the official ones. What I can tell you is that I would be far more comfortable paying $8 for By Order of the King than the $20 that I spent on The Catapult. Part of me was miserable that I spent $20 on an expansion I disliked and would probably never play. The other part of me would have been miserable if I hadn't because I'm a completionist and need to have everything.

[Scott]

No, I'm just looking at the title of the expansion and can't imagine it would be anything else.

[JPutt927]

Very well said Scott.  I wasn't quite sure what my thoughts were on this whole development, but I think you've done a nice job of encompassing most of them. I think I would be disappointed at this point if some of these new expansions were NOT some of our work. Besides, like you mentioned, given some of the titles I'm not sure how they could be anything else. As one of the potentially impacted authors, I'm personally excited, and eagerly awaiting more news!

[Strix]

I found this:

Hans im Glück: Carcassonne: 7 Mini-Erweiterungen in 6 Schachteln   

24.01.12: Wenn Sie unsere tabellarische Messevorschau verfolgt haben, sind Ihnen bereits die 6 Mini-Erweiterungen für Carcassonne aufgefallen, die der Hans im Glück Verlag in Nürnberg präsentieren wird. Jede kleine Box enthält acht neue Karten und zusätzliches Spielmaterial aus Holz und kostet 3 EUR. Wer alle sechs Minis kauft, hat damit eine siebte Erweiterung "Die Kornkreise", denn in jeder Box steckt eine Karte dafür.

http://www.spielbox-online.de/

[Scott]

Google Translate

Hans in Luck: Carcassonne: 7 mini-expansions in 6 boxes

 01/24/12: If you have followed our tables show preview, you already have the 6 mini-expansions for Carcassonne noticed that the Hans in Luck will present publisher in Nuremberg. Each small box contains eight new maps and additional game material made ​​of wood and costs 3 EUR. Who buys all six Minis, has thus a seventh expansion, "The crop circles", because in each box for a card inserted.

The picture is also very interesting:


This is a counter-top box similar to what they did for the Phantom expansion. Each of the six expansions has one crop circle tile included in the box. Not sure where the rules for Crop Circles will be printed though. Very easy for the store owners because they just need to open along the perforations and fold the top up.

I'm going to contact Jay and see what he can tell us.

[Sekim]

Too bad that picture is so small, I'd love to see more detail 
I'm very excited to get all of them 
6x€3 = €18  ,that's about as much as 1,5 normal expansions cost around here.
48 tiles and some wood pieces in total. The price sounds right 

[JPutt927]

Consider me intrigued. I want a bigger picture now too!

[Scott]

Doris has definitely been at work here. Here's my guess and what we're looking at:

#1 - A person with wings strapped to their back (Aircraft)
#2 - A man on a horse (By Order of the King)
#3 - A man in a boat (Ferries)
#4 - A man of some sort; can't tell what he is doing (Gold Mines?)
#5 - Two people (Wizards and Witches)
#6 - A man with a backpack (The Robbers)

I sent a message to Jay through his BGG account, so we'll see what he knows.

[Carcking]

I get the "By Order of the King" connection...but do the other three; The Robbers, The Ferries and The Aircrafts correlate to any of our CC fanspansions?

Any guesses?

[Carcking]

It appears to me that the boxes are all the same size, and not the right size for a standard deck of cards - they are too small. The boxes seem to be the same size as the Count box, for example. If By Order of the King is one of the minis they may have re-sized the cards.

[CKorfmann]

I hear what you're saying Scott and I can appreciate it, but here is my question.  Why would Jay not make us aware of this?  I've been writing to him at least once every two months for information.  The last real answer I got from him was that HiG was not interested in any of our work but gave him permission to pursue something on his own (like GQ11).  That was a long time ago and each time I've asked him since, he hasn't gotten around to looking yet.  Personally, though none of theses are mine, I'd be quite disappointed if they published some CC ideas without so much as a nod in our direction.  By all appearances, as of now, there is no mention of any outside influence.  I'm anxious to see what happens.

[Carcking]

Wow, this is exciting. Can't wait to see what these are! 

[Carcking]

I have to say I'm with CK. It would be disappointing...

[Khonnor83]

Small descriptions from 999Games.....translated:

The Airplanes: the planes fly meeples to different tiles, but where they will land is still unknown!
Newsflash: Players get an extra meeple on the scoreboard, with which they can draw a news-message to gain extra points
Ferries: with the ferries you can connect roads to ferry-docks
Goldmines: collect goldpieces. The more you have, the more they are worth!
Wizards And Witches: The wizard makes you gain points, while the witch cuts them in half!!
Robber: With the robber you can score someone else's points.

◦In Carcassonne: De Vliegtuigen vliegen horigen over andere tegels, maar waar ze precies landen is ongewis.
◦In Carcassonne: Nieuwsberichten krijgen de spelers een extra horige op het scorespoor, waarmee ze soms een nieuwsbericht mogen trekken en extra punten scoren.
◦In Carcassonne: De Veerboten kunnen spelers wegen met veerponten verbinden.
◦In Carcassonne: De Goudmijnen verzamelen de spelers goudstukken. Hoe meer ze er verzamelen, des te meer zijn ze per stuk waard.
◦In Carcassonne: Tovenaar en Heks levert de tovenaar extra punten bij een telling op, terwijl de heks de punten juist halveert.
◦In Carcassonne: De Rovers kunnen spelers meeprofiteren van de eerstvolgende telling van een speler naar keuze.

Sounds interesting.

[CKorfmann]

Small descriptions from 999Games.....translated:

The Airplanes: the planes fly meeples to different tiles, but where they will land is still unknown!
Newsflash: Players get an extra meeple on the scoreboard, with which they can draw a news-message to gain extra points
Ferries: with the ferries you can connect roads to ferry-docks
Goldmines: collect goldpieces. The more you have, the more they are worth!
Wizards And Witches: The wizard makes you gain points, while the witch cuts them in half!!
Robber: With the robber you can score someone else's points.

It's interesting that "By Order of the King", or whatever they are calling it is translated as "Newsflash."  Ferries makes the most sense to me.  Still, the names they chose are quite suspect.