Unbidden ... WTF?

Ok. I'm really confused now. wTF is up with the Night Horrors: the Unbidden book? I've been looking forward to this book, but I only buy PDF's. I have literally bought every WOD pdf they've put up. But with this one....

1. DriveThruStuff doesn't have a PDF, but...

2. The local game shop and the local Barnes and Noble have copies on shelves for the last several weeks! WEEKS!

3. Amazon now lists a release date as MARCH 2010! ( http://www.amazon.com/Night-Horrors-Unbidden-Matthew-McFarland/dp/1588463788/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257542320&sr=1-1 )

How can you have a March 2010 release date for a book that is sitting on shelves?  What is going on? Does anybody know?

Maybe because the copywright laws governing internet properties are not the same as *in-print* properties, and they have to make sure they have all those legal ducks in a row before putting it out there?

Not to mention someone actually doing the job of compiling it into .pdf, which you know, might not be priority #1 on their list of things they get paid to do.

rational_lunatic:

How can you have a March 2010 release date for a book that is sitting on shelves? 

How can they have a March/April 2009 release date for a book that hasn't been released yet? That's the release date for Signs of the Moon last time I checked.

As I understand it, Unbidden originally had a release date of November, maybe December. It seems that some distributor released it way early, without the permission or knowledge of White Wolf. It seems like the PDF is delayed, when really they are holding to the official schedule.

Or the situation could be otherwise. I haven't been keeping track very closely. Also, EddyFate was on here talking about the situation, and if he explained what had happened, I never saw it.

What makes Amazon even stranger is that it says "Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks." and has the graphic for ordering the book rather than pre-ordering it.

I've been out of the loop for a few months.  Is this book out yet?  What else is planned for Mage other than this, and the Chronicler's Guide?

Eddy has been talking about this in a thread I started a while ago: Where is the Unbidden PDF?

Thanks for the link.

Oh, and Amazon says my copy will ship in early December.  They are estimating it will ship with Book of the Dead, which I also have on (pre-)order.

after reading the unbidden i have to say i am a little disapointed by it. I was expecting something more interesting then most of the antagonists/templates presented there. I think Mage deserves his own Wicked Dead book, and the few bright new and good things presented on the unbbiddem are the ones that follows the style of this vampire night horrors book.

I don't think the general antagonists were enough interesting for me. I usually love Mage supplements, they were capable of putting Mage as the best game line for me, but this one seems to lack the quality of recent suplements.

Unbidden is just like Immortal Sinnners, Grim Fears, and Wolfsbane; Wicked Dead is the exception, in both its content and the fact that its a second Night Horrors book for Requiem.   The Night Horror line is meant to be a grab bag of enemies to insert into your chronicle at will, not intruduce new baddies (ye gods, does Mage even have room for more monsters?)

There's a reason that Vampire got two Night Horrors books- because, in VtR, your enemies were always other Kindred or ghouls.  Wicked Dead is basically the missing "antagonist book" of Vampire, like Predators or Autumn Nightmares.   Mage already has several "antagonist" books if you want them, including Intruders, Grimoire or Grimoires, Keys to the Supernal Tarot, and Summoners.

I understand that, but i was hoping for different things. I mean there were different things in the book, as evil/malfuctioned anankes and everything, but i don't know, the writting cound't catch me like in Supernal Tarot (that was a great book).

Since it appears Im one of the lucky bastards that got a copy mailed early from amazon, (early October) here is what the book contains:

Mages and groups:
The Golden Quorum, a cabal of abyssal mages
Brother Ben, messianic leader of the Quorum cabal;
Wildcat, a witch that has attained immortality as a lich;

Creatures and magical families:
Ab Ia Mu, sanctum guardian automaton;
The Fury, a mage who styles herself after the Greek Furies of legend;
Gnomon, something that should not be;
The Lucid, a Sleepwalker family that has inherited insight and madness;
The Ludin Sisters, the remnants of a German mage's quest for revenge;
Madame La Tourre, a Vodoun priestess/goddess who hungers for magic and lives in New Orleans;
Metathron, a renagade messenger of Fate that delivers prophecies and detroys those who do not live to their heroic destinies;
Michael Wschsler, a collector of artifacts following the orders of a long dead master;
Pellax, a familiar in service for generations to an ancient magical family;
The Ravaged, living nightmares that punish Sleepers' acts of Hubris;
Shard Crows, a spirit from the Shadow, taking the shape of a murder of crows, hungering for mage soulstones;

Constructs & Objects:
A slew of them, notably the Arkhitekton, the clockmaker Ashar Arif and the Tick Tock Soldiers. Also an Imperial artifact forged from the soul of an Archmaster, called the Elder Shard.
Somnia Draconis, Atlantean golems;
The Die of Destiny (a 20 sided artifact);
A Fear-Powered iphone of Hell;
Mind of the Exarch (the Supernal Wind);


Magical conditions and infections (like the Abyssal Imprint) and other sundry magical viruses.

Magical Places:
The Dream Computer of Ashward Heights;
Byebury Henge (the Groaning Stones);
The Alumni of Franklin High