Campaign in a Box

[ender_wiggin]

I think this is a great idea, despite not knowing much about its market potential.

If we do decide to do this partially through Enworld, I would be very interested in contributing; perhaps through designing an encounter or two (all creature stats, I would assume, would have to be custom created).

 

[saskganesh]

I think this is a great idea, despite not knowing much about its market potential.

Tie it in a with an existing literary or cinematic product and one has a ready enough audience.

Campaigns-in-a-box have been produced for 30 years, starting with Judges Guild "City State of the Invincible Overlord", followed by TSR's Greyhawk. This proposal sounds like it wants a lux presentation, which is cool, but it is not anything special.

Content. Content is king. One can have minis, nice maps, perky in chainmail on the cover... but I want to hear what the campaign is about.

 

[Quickleaf]

Okay. Let's do it.

Perhaps we can even collect the ENWorld Braintrust to help design it? Put up some polls to determine plot points and adversaries, and maybe whip up a Kickstarter to get it all funded?

I'm probably way too optimistic....

Haha, I think the ENWorld overlords are a bit tied up with a little project called Zeitgeist at the moment. Kickstarter is a very cool concept; a friend just had great success using it for a line of baby sleep products (no not whisky).

Wait...you're a quarter serious, aren't you?

I think this is a great idea, despite not knowing much about its market potential.

Yeah I just write and get published a little, the business costs and reasonable ROI for publishing game material is beyond me. Though if something like this happened it would probably be a limited run thing appealing to a small group of gamers.

If we do decide to do this partially through Enworld, I would be very interested in contributing; perhaps through designing an encounter or two (all creature stats, I would assume, would have to be custom created).

I think that's jumping the gun a little bit. So I'll jump a little with you

<4e speak>I was playing around with minion varieties and I think there's lots of cool design space there. Recently I came up with the Forgotten Kings, basically a ghost possessed statue (level 11), that were only killed by one of these conditions: a single attack dealing 50+ damage, a critical hit, hitting them in the right order (4 appear in the encounter), an attack by an heir to the throne, by a Lawful Good character, or with a Kingsbane Weapon.

Tie it in a with an existing literary or cinematic product and one has a ready enough audience.

I've been really impressed with Green Ronin's approach to literary setting projects like Black Company and Thieves World. Also Goodman Games' Death Dealer for 4e was based off a comic book by Franzetta.

Campaigns-in-a-box have been produced for 30 years, starting with Judges Guild "City State of the Invincible Overlord", followed by TSR's Greyhawk. This proposal sounds like it wants a lux presentation, which is cool, but it is not anything special.

Of course you're right - the idea is not new - but most of the products that have been mentioned are more aptly described as City Supplement or Mega-Dungeon. And those can make great campaigns but that's by what I had in mind exactly...

The old City State products were city guides and maybe campaign outlines, but not complete campaigns by any means. Maybe you're referring to the 2004 Necromancer version of City State? That one was bigger so maybe it was more than a big city supplement?

Content. Content is king. One can have minis, nice maps, perky in chainmail on the cover...

Sacrilege! real women fight with spaulders and cuirasses!
http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Joan-of-Arc-leelee-sobieski-321505_600_740.jpg

but I want to hear what the campaign is about.

I was about to answer your question with a gushing description of the adventure series I've been working on, then realized (a) I am no publisher and it's my pipedream, (b) you're probably asking rhetorically, (c) if I told you the concept could blow your brain with awesome, and (d) I don't want to dominate the thread with my particular story.

But in principal I agree with you, none of the bells and whistles matters until an adventure's story is solid.

 

[ThunhusDM]

Island "Campaign in a Box"

-Whole campaign for levels 1-5.
-Includes at least 40 fully prepared encounters with battlemaps, tokens, monster stats.
-Sandbox style setting with fully prepared encounters/delves/dungeons/village/castle
-Short adventures with one encounter, delves with 2-4 encounters and larger dungeon/castle with more than 4 encounters
-Suggestions to increase/decrease encounter challenges (more/less players, different level)
-Should give at least 80 hours of gametime (40 hours combats/skill challenges and 40 hours exploration/roleplay situations)
-Island size is roughly 200x200 miles

Content:
-1 page sheet introducing to Island for players
-DMs Island overland hexmap, A3 size
-Players Island overland map, A3 size
-Island book, 96 pages, detailing villages, castles/towers, dungeons, wilderness
-Encounters book, 96 pages, detailing monster stats, maps, tactics
-40 A4/A3/A2 size paper battlemaps. Some are used in multiple times in different encounters
-200 tokens (WotC style). Tokens for needed monsters and some PC tokens
-Sturdy box (like new Red Box)

What else you need
-4e rules
-character sheets/cards

Variant way
-Using WotC 3 basic tile sets for battlemaps (dungeons/city/wilderness)
-Paizo's blank flip-map for battlemap and a marker
-Using Dungeon Master's Kit and Monster Vault tokens

Making it more deluxe
-Plastic miniatures rather than tokens
-Battlemaps from sturdier material (like WotC tiles)
-Campaign for levels 1-10. Double all page counts, battlemaps, tokens

Thunhus

 

[I'm A Banana]

Haha, I think the ENWorld overlords are a bit tied up with a little project called Zeitgeist at the moment. Kickstarter is a very cool concept; a friend just had great success using it for a line of baby sleep products (no not whisky).

Wait...you're a quarter serious, aren't you?

Always at least, rarely more.

I was actually thinking of running polls just in the General RPG forum about some big questions with the campaign, stuff like, "Help us choose a villain!" or "What should our MacGuffin be?", or "Which three races should we include?" just to get the opinions of opinionated folk, and maybe to be able to slap Made With EN World on it or somesuch. That's a little less viable if you've already got a clear plan in mind, though I think it would help get people talking about it and jazzed for it.

The Kickstarter thing...we could offer those who donate X amount free copies, or even give them extra design input, access to a designers' forum, etc....It would BASCIALLY be Wolfgang's Bag, though perhaps a little more open.

We'd need a target as to how much it would cost...which is officially beyond my knowledge for the whole boxed set kit getting a big print run and winding up on folks' doorsteps. Probably "prohibitively expensive for a small team" level cost. We could probably do a PDF/Lulu version of this for a more realistic goal, perhaps including pages designed to be printed at home for tokens (using cardstock) and maps (using A4 or so paper), even giving those out for free to Kickstarter donors. The big cost in that would be art/cartography, which I would want to be boffo. Art will make or break an RPG product, especially one no one's heard of before. Thankfully, there's websites where artists can compete on prices for individual works, so we can find the right balance of cheap and awesome. Perhaps if that turned a profit, we could release a hardcopy version, and do hardcopy versions in the future.

Anyway, I'd be gung ho for it.

 

[ender_wiggin]

I was about to answer your question with a gushing description of the adventure series I've been working on, then realized (a) I am no publisher and it's my pipedream, (b) you're probably asking rhetorically, (c) if I told you the concept could blow your brain with awesome, and (d) I don't want to dominate the thread with my particular story.

But in principal I agree with you, none of the bells and whistles matters until an adventure's story is solid.

I'd like to hear it, at least abbreviated, if you're also serious about making this work.

 

[Quickleaf]

Always at least, rarely more.

Haha. I like your ideas, it's just an incredibly intimidating venture to consider. I'm guessing you'd be looking at total costs upwards of $60,000 for a print run of 1,000 boxes. Something like this with a big name attached makes sense. From relative unknown writers/publisher it seems too risky.

Thankfully, there's websites where artists can compete on prices for individual works, so we can find the right balance of cheap and awesome. Perhaps if that turned a profit, we could release a hardcopy version, and do hardcopy versions in the future.

What's sites are you thinking of? I've written art order before and work in the architectural design field, so fantasy art isn't totally alien to me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I had the pleasure of working with Nelson Rodriguez on the art direction for Tales of the Caliphate Nights (Paradigm Concepts). Henry over there was really generous with giving me a free creative hand, both with the writing and art. Actually it was nominated for best production vales at origins 2006 (which really had to do with the great folks at Paradigm Concepts, not myself).

Anyway, I'd be gung ho for it.

Hey haven't you done quite a bit of freelance work?

I'd like to hear it, at least abbreviated, if you're also serious about making this work.

It's an Arthurian succession crisis with shades of the Medieval Mystery writers, A Song of ice and Fire, the Tudors, the Artesia graphic novels, and old European faerie tales. At the center is a tragic villain/fallen hero who evolves into a dark lord (a la Ravenloft) whose domain of dread consumes other realms. The PCs can be loyalists to the crown, kingmakers, populist rebels, or even pretenders to the throne themselves.

I was feeling timid about sharing, so thanks for asking

 

[Quickleaf]

A bump for after Gen Con!

Island "Campaign in a Box"

I like the idea of a separate players map / DM map and short adventures especially.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm guessing you'd be looking at total costs upwards of $60,000 for a print run of 1,000 boxes. Something like this with a big name attached makes sense. From relative unknown writers/publisher it seems too risky.

That's not too bad...though a big name would help, my current supply of RPG superstars is nearly exhausted...

What's sites are you thinking of? I've written art order before and work in the architectural design field, so fantasy art isn't totally alien to me

RPG Freelancer is what EN Publishing's current AP is using.

Hey haven't you done quite a bit of freelance work?

It's a small pile, but something of a pile. You have to, no?

It's an Arthurian succession crisis with shades of the Medieval Mystery writers, A Song of ice and Fire, the Tudors, the Artesia graphic novels, and old European faerie tales. At the center is a tragic villain/fallen hero who evolves into a dark lord (a la Ravenloft) whose domain of dread consumes other realms. The PCs can be loyalists to the crown, kingmakers, populist rebels, or even pretenders to the throne themselves.

I like the idea of a sort of "Rise of the Dark King" game. I'd imagine we'd have some strong ruler-based advancement of some sort, which would give it something to hook on, though it's a bit of a crowded market for that ATM (Kingmaker and the Conan path Tav is putting out, for two).

 

[Quickleaf]

That's not too bad...though a big name would help, my current supply of RPG superstars is nearly exhausted...

Heh. Too be honest that's a low large softcover book publishing estimate, so minis and such would drive it higher I imagine. You're right that self-publishing with Lulu would drop the price, but there are other issues with that, especially marketing.

It's a small pile, but something of a pile. You have to, no?

My main thing was Caliphate Nights, and a couple articles for online products. Not much really, certainly not a pile!

I like the idea of a sort of "Rise of the Dark King" game.

I noticed that in the last couple years there havent been many villains who had much traction like a Lord Soth or Kas. My idea was a villain who could really compete with the top 10 villains list.

I'd imagine we'd have some strong ruler-based advancement of some sort, which would give it something to hook on, though it's a bit of a crowded market for that ATM (Kingmaker and the Conan path Tav is putting out, for two).

True. My idea for that was twofold, and I think is fairly unique. Basically it's a "manage a beleaguered keep" with random events requiring attention at certain points, with those decisions impacting future scenarios. The other part was managing a treasury where the PCs can spend it on defenses (giving them an edge during a siege encounter), building roads (decrease travel times, hostile random encounters, improves trade), etc.

I think it's a little different than Kingmaker's approach, but I don't know much about Tav's thing...besides that it will be awesome

But those are just my ideas, and I'm curious to hear how others would approach it.