As a point of comparison, the Dragonbane core set sells for about $40.And they add gimmick stuff to raise the Vecna box set to $500 and you dont even get any Lego minifig characters to go with it.
Now you have me wondering how much the Basic box sets would MSRP for now. "Zines" seem to go for $5 - $10 and are larger pages count than older modules.
D&D General Matt Colville on adventure length
J-H
Hero
I agree. I have run a couple of long campaigns and they are fun, but scheduling and RL attrition takes a bite. It'd probably be easier to do a bunch of semi-connected drop in/drop out modules that each take 4-6 sessions.
And play by post or over Discord, which are both slower? Imagine running Strahd that way. It'd take 5 years!
I have written and tested/gotten through several 6-10 page modules in only 1-2 months via PBP.
It is a harder concept mentally to go "Ok, we're doing this Episodic like Star Trek. Your adventurers are somewhere, and now they're somewhere else, and we don't care that they've moved a hundred miles!"
And play by post or over Discord, which are both slower? Imagine running Strahd that way. It'd take 5 years!
I have written and tested/gotten through several 6-10 page modules in only 1-2 months via PBP.
It is a harder concept mentally to go "Ok, we're doing this Episodic like Star Trek. Your adventurers are somewhere, and now they're somewhere else, and we don't care that they've moved a hundred miles!"
SteveC
Doing the best imitation of myself
I always find Matt interesting to listen to but maybe it's my age showing where the short modules are what I'm used to. I have bought a number of adventure paths for PF2, but none of them have been the 1-20 variety. Right now I'm running Apocalypse Vaults and we're just finishing up with the first of three books. And I am seeing what he talks about here. There isn't a solid end or resolution to the game at this point, so if we were to drop it, we wouldn't get the same feeling of getting something done as you do with Sunless Citadel.
The next adventure I'm going to run is Rusthenge, which is a 1-4 adventure, so I suppose I'm getting onboard with what he's saying.
The next adventure I'm going to run is Rusthenge, which is a 1-4 adventure, so I suppose I'm getting onboard with what he's saying.
LesserThan
Explorer
Lose the mat, map, cards, and Standers, and still easily $20 MSRP. The page count is way more than Basic had.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Well, four times or so. They put out mega-adventures regularly, but the anthologies are fewer in number.
I think my ideal campaign would run something like Claremont-era X-Men: stand-alone adventures with ongoing effects (OK, so you broke out of the villain's volcano lair, now you're in the jungle and have to work on getting home), recurring villains, and reusing the stuff that has already happened to give the impression of having foreshadowed later things.
But that's no way to run a business. And therein lies the problem: the way to provide the best environment for running the game is not the best way make money on supporting the game.
2017: Tales from the Yawning Portal
2018: --
2019: Ghosts of Saltmarsh
2020: --
2021: Candlekeep Mysteries
2022: Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
2023: Keys from the Golden Vault
2024: Quests from the Infinite Staircase (upcoming).
Just so you can see the timeline.
Cheers,
Merric
Short adventures certainly have upsides, and people are entitled to prefer them, but it is hard to deny "campaign" adventures have always been very popular. Saying "Long adventures are just objectively bad and are solely a money grab by WotC" just doesn't hold water.
Even back in the TSR days the connected series like the Slavelords and GDQ modules (later Dragonlance) were some of the most popular. When Paizo lost the license to produce Dungeon magazine they decided that the Adventure Paths were the most popular adventures from the magazine, and went all in on producing APs. As @MerricB points out, Piazo has occasionally done stand-alone adventures, since then, but continue to rely primarily on the AP format. The fact that the two most successful companies in the RPG marked are focusing on the longer length adventures would seem to suggest that that is what people are buying.
MC claims long adventures are harder for new DMs to run, which seems reasonable. But it ignores that WotC has a beginner's box specifically designed for new DMs with a shorter adventure, and plenty of anthologies of shorter adventures for those that want them. Criticizing WotC because not every adventure is new DM friendly seems unreasonable.
Even back in the TSR days the connected series like the Slavelords and GDQ modules (later Dragonlance) were some of the most popular. When Paizo lost the license to produce Dungeon magazine they decided that the Adventure Paths were the most popular adventures from the magazine, and went all in on producing APs. As @MerricB points out, Piazo has occasionally done stand-alone adventures, since then, but continue to rely primarily on the AP format. The fact that the two most successful companies in the RPG marked are focusing on the longer length adventures would seem to suggest that that is what people are buying.
MC claims long adventures are harder for new DMs to run, which seems reasonable. But it ignores that WotC has a beginner's box specifically designed for new DMs with a shorter adventure, and plenty of anthologies of shorter adventures for those that want them. Criticizing WotC because not every adventure is new DM friendly seems unreasonable.
Shardstone
Hero
Nobody buys small modules. Like, a few do, but usually people want a book because it activates their imagination. The game begins when a potential DM starts reading the book itself. Generally, if the book is too terse and too short without adequate art, it fails to spark imagination in the masses and gets rarely used. People want to get immersed in something as they read typically, and those people are spending a lot more money then the purists who want an ultra-tight, ultra-short adventure to run.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
The best of both worlds would be a series of Modules that form an Epic.
Like steps on a staircase, or chapters in a book.
Like steps on a staircase, or chapters in a book.
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