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<blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 8851438" data-attributes="member: 20741"><p>I'm sorry, but your approach here is misguided.</p><p></p><p>The Eras of Adventure Design closely follow and track structural changes in the RPG business and in the editions of D&D -- <u><span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">except for one singular event </span></u>that occurred in the middle of an edition. That's because that one singular event changed adventure design forever.</p><p></p><p><strong>1. OD&D Era - 1974-79</strong>: Few modules released, but there were important in-roads in creation and sale of modules and settings, particularly by Judges Guild. That model of support for an existing game by a 3rd party played a significant role in the shaping of the RPG business itself and echoes to this very day in terms of the OGL and SRD. Judges Guild and its City State products are, therfefore, <em>extremely important</em>.</p><p></p><p><strong>2. 1st Edition, Phase 1: 1979- March 1984:</strong> This era was dominated by 32 page adventures which were notionally set in the World of Greyhawk, but were portable to any generic AD&D game world. The maps were comparatively poor by modern standards and the story almost invisible by modern standards as well. While subsequent editions have came back and revisited these modules, it's a gimmick and essentially trades primarily on name recognition. All revisitations of these classic modules change the adventures in a major way in that they add story, plot and narrative to adventures in which those things were essenitally absent when first published.</p><p></p><p><strong>3. 1st Edition, Phase 2: March 1984 to 1989:</strong> This era begins with the most important adventure series to have ever been released by TSR - DragonLance. The classic DL modules were entirely a 1st edition phenom. They changed all adventure design -- by giving a series of interlocking adventures a strong narrative metaplot, strong NPC characterizations and a variety of marketing tie-ins. The initial novels, in particular, sold very well (NY Times bestsellers) and TSR made a <em>boatload of cash </em>on DragonLance. The railroady designs of the first 2 modules, when combined with the blow-by-blow unfolding of the adventure in <em>Dragons of Autumn Twilight</em> created a monster of great power -- but it also eventually created more problems than it solved. There were lessons to be learned here. All subsequent adventures path series avoided strong novelizations of their plots, settings and characters and toned down the rail-road. That is true whether they were published by TSR, WotC or Paizo. The point to take-away from this, however, is that interlocking adventures with strong stories and an over-arching metaplot SELL EXTREMELY WELL.</p><p></p><p><strong>4. 2nd Edition: 1989-1999:</strong> In a series of vain attempts to find "the next DragonLance", TSR creates a multiplicity of settings. This fractured their player base, and leads to fractured adventures, which, when combined with the market disruptor that was Magic:The Gathering, lead to the death of TSR. The adventures from this time period that did comparatively well were set in the Forgotten Realms, which was the setting which was most generic and transferrable to anybody's homebrewed world. However, because the market was so fragmented, <em>even those</em> didn't sell well enough. The adventures that were sold for 2nd Ed DragonLance, Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun and Birthright did NOT sell well at all. While the adventure style had been forever altered by DragonLance's narrative story approach, what the market, TSR and later WotC "learned" from this was that <strong><u>adventures don't sell and you can't make money on them.</u></strong> <em>"Because they don't". </em> It was never, ever true, but that fundamental business error would be repeated by WotC until 2014 as a tenet of RPG business faith.</p><p> </p><p><strong>5. 3.xx 2000-2008:</strong> During this time period, the OGL was created so that 3rd parties could write the adventures (which, according to WotC, didn't sell) while WotC would focus on selling rules. And rules and a few settings books is what WotC mainly did. Yes, there were some adventures sold, again -- all with a narrative approach -- but not much that would attempt an interlocking series of published adventures. Those products were seen as too high a risk and best left to the OGL publishers to do.</p><p></p><p>So 3rd Ed was the time in adv design which was dominated not by the rules publisher, but by 3rd party publishers under the OGL. The most successful of them was Paizo, which using the magazines <em>Dungeon</em> (and <em>Dragon</em> in support) revived the interlocking adventure path concept from DragonLance and put it into effect with <em>Age of Worms. </em> (Note: <em>Shackled City</em> was designed, assigned, edited, conceived and written by WotC -- on a completely different basis than <em>Age of Worms</em> and all subsequent Paizo APs were). <em>AoW</em> and <em>Savage Tide</em> were <em>immensely popular </em>and re-established the narrative Adventure Path founded by DragonLance. When execs withiin WotC told Lisa Stevens it wouldnt' work, because such adventures don't make money? "<em>Because they don't</em>" Lisa did what she had always done -- she ignored that advice and did what she thought best. It worked.</p><p></p><p><strong>6. 2008-2014 Pathfinder:</strong> This was not the age of 4e. 4e and WotC is a <strong><em>minor player </em></strong>in adventure design and publishing in this era. Paizo dominates the market with its adventure lines and a subscriber base which buys them every month, directly from the publisher - with no middleman. The PF Adv Paths and the rules become so successful that 4e is basically forced off of store shelves in 2012 and D&D vanished from the marketplace for ~2 years. That should tell you all you need to know about how "right" WotC execs were in their opinion that "<em>adventures don't sell - because they don't.</em>" They were wrong. <strong><em><span style="color: rgb(251, 160, 38)">Dead wrong</span></em></strong>. The adventures which DID sell were all interlocking narrative adventures based on the DragonLance model. That model continues to this day in 2022 from Paizo. They have, here and there, modified the length of those APs so that they can be played and finished sooner, but that's about it. The model hasn't really changed since 2008. It is that same model which WotC decided to follow in 2014.</p><p></p><p><strong>7. 2014- Present:</strong> WotC re-enters the adventure market, timidly at first, later with confidence. WotC takes the AP design of Paizo and initially puts out two hardcover books -- written by 3rd parties Wolfgang and Co at Kobold Press but published by WotC. The idea was good, but like every AP in the history of ever, the first one that was written/released at the same time as the new rules system is being written <em>sucks</em>. With PF1, Starfinder, PF2, and 5e, that remains true across all RPG editions that engage in AP design & publishing. But WotC kept with it and has come out with more and more adventures since. Indeed, for a company that insisted adventures don;t sell "<strong><em>because they don't</em></strong>" -- being humbled in 2012 taught them a lesson. Yes, adventures do sell very well if written well and packaged and sold as a premium product.</p><p></p><p>And THAT is where we are now. There's been no real difference in the types, style, and kinds of adventues written since 2008 and <em>Rise of the Runelords</em>. The only real change has been in length (make them about half as long) and in terms of the business side of the adventure in terms of sales (multi-part via subscription, or one hardcover book bought at a store or via Amazon.) But really, that's it. Most of them -- and all of the most successful ones -- follow the same narrative overarching plot first created by TSR in March of 1984 with DragonLance.</p><p></p><p><strong><em>tl;dr:</em></strong> Plot matters.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Steel_Wind, post: 8851438, member: 20741"] I'm sorry, but your approach here is misguided. The Eras of Adventure Design closely follow and track structural changes in the RPG business and in the editions of D&D -- [U][COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]except for one singular event [/COLOR][/U]that occurred in the middle of an edition. That's because that one singular event changed adventure design forever. [B]1. OD&D Era - 1974-79[/B]: Few modules released, but there were important in-roads in creation and sale of modules and settings, particularly by Judges Guild. That model of support for an existing game by a 3rd party played a significant role in the shaping of the RPG business itself and echoes to this very day in terms of the OGL and SRD. Judges Guild and its City State products are, therfefore, [I]extremely important[/I]. [B]2. 1st Edition, Phase 1: 1979- March 1984:[/B] This era was dominated by 32 page adventures which were notionally set in the World of Greyhawk, but were portable to any generic AD&D game world. The maps were comparatively poor by modern standards and the story almost invisible by modern standards as well. While subsequent editions have came back and revisited these modules, it's a gimmick and essentially trades primarily on name recognition. All revisitations of these classic modules change the adventures in a major way in that they add story, plot and narrative to adventures in which those things were essenitally absent when first published. [B]3. 1st Edition, Phase 2: March 1984 to 1989:[/B] This era begins with the most important adventure series to have ever been released by TSR - DragonLance. The classic DL modules were entirely a 1st edition phenom. They changed all adventure design -- by giving a series of interlocking adventures a strong narrative metaplot, strong NPC characterizations and a variety of marketing tie-ins. The initial novels, in particular, sold very well (NY Times bestsellers) and TSR made a [I]boatload of cash [/I]on DragonLance. The railroady designs of the first 2 modules, when combined with the blow-by-blow unfolding of the adventure in [I]Dragons of Autumn Twilight[/I] created a monster of great power -- but it also eventually created more problems than it solved. There were lessons to be learned here. All subsequent adventures path series avoided strong novelizations of their plots, settings and characters and toned down the rail-road. That is true whether they were published by TSR, WotC or Paizo. The point to take-away from this, however, is that interlocking adventures with strong stories and an over-arching metaplot SELL EXTREMELY WELL. [B]4. 2nd Edition: 1989-1999:[/B] In a series of vain attempts to find "the next DragonLance", TSR creates a multiplicity of settings. This fractured their player base, and leads to fractured adventures, which, when combined with the market disruptor that was Magic:The Gathering, lead to the death of TSR. The adventures from this time period that did comparatively well were set in the Forgotten Realms, which was the setting which was most generic and transferrable to anybody's homebrewed world. However, because the market was so fragmented, [I]even those[/I] didn't sell well enough. The adventures that were sold for 2nd Ed DragonLance, Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun and Birthright did NOT sell well at all. While the adventure style had been forever altered by DragonLance's narrative story approach, what the market, TSR and later WotC "learned" from this was that [B][U]adventures don't sell and you can't make money on them.[/U][/B] [I]"Because they don't". [/I] It was never, ever true, but that fundamental business error would be repeated by WotC until 2014 as a tenet of RPG business faith. [B]5. 3.xx 2000-2008:[/B] During this time period, the OGL was created so that 3rd parties could write the adventures (which, according to WotC, didn't sell) while WotC would focus on selling rules. And rules and a few settings books is what WotC mainly did. Yes, there were some adventures sold, again -- all with a narrative approach -- but not much that would attempt an interlocking series of published adventures. Those products were seen as too high a risk and best left to the OGL publishers to do. So 3rd Ed was the time in adv design which was dominated not by the rules publisher, but by 3rd party publishers under the OGL. The most successful of them was Paizo, which using the magazines [I]Dungeon[/I] (and [I]Dragon[/I] in support) revived the interlocking adventure path concept from DragonLance and put it into effect with [I]Age of Worms. [/I] (Note: [I]Shackled City[/I] was designed, assigned, edited, conceived and written by WotC -- on a completely different basis than [I]Age of Worms[/I] and all subsequent Paizo APs were). [I]AoW[/I] and [I]Savage Tide[/I] were [I]immensely popular [/I]and re-established the narrative Adventure Path founded by DragonLance. When execs withiin WotC told Lisa Stevens it wouldnt' work, because such adventures don't make money? "[I]Because they don't[/I]" Lisa did what she had always done -- she ignored that advice and did what she thought best. It worked. [B]6. 2008-2014 Pathfinder:[/B] This was not the age of 4e. 4e and WotC is a [B][I]minor player [/I][/B]in adventure design and publishing in this era. Paizo dominates the market with its adventure lines and a subscriber base which buys them every month, directly from the publisher - with no middleman. The PF Adv Paths and the rules become so successful that 4e is basically forced off of store shelves in 2012 and D&D vanished from the marketplace for ~2 years. That should tell you all you need to know about how "right" WotC execs were in their opinion that "[I]adventures don't sell - because they don't.[/I]" They were wrong. [B][I][COLOR=rgb(251, 160, 38)]Dead wrong[/COLOR][/I][/B]. The adventures which DID sell were all interlocking narrative adventures based on the DragonLance model. That model continues to this day in 2022 from Paizo. They have, here and there, modified the length of those APs so that they can be played and finished sooner, but that's about it. The model hasn't really changed since 2008. It is that same model which WotC decided to follow in 2014. [B]7. 2014- Present:[/B] WotC re-enters the adventure market, timidly at first, later with confidence. WotC takes the AP design of Paizo and initially puts out two hardcover books -- written by 3rd parties Wolfgang and Co at Kobold Press but published by WotC. The idea was good, but like every AP in the history of ever, the first one that was written/released at the same time as the new rules system is being written [I]sucks[/I]. With PF1, Starfinder, PF2, and 5e, that remains true across all RPG editions that engage in AP design & publishing. But WotC kept with it and has come out with more and more adventures since. Indeed, for a company that insisted adventures don;t sell "[B][I]because they don't[/I][/B]" -- being humbled in 2012 taught them a lesson. Yes, adventures do sell very well if written well and packaged and sold as a premium product. And THAT is where we are now. There's been no real difference in the types, style, and kinds of adventues written since 2008 and [I]Rise of the Runelords[/I]. The only real change has been in length (make them about half as long) and in terms of the business side of the adventure in terms of sales (multi-part via subscription, or one hardcover book bought at a store or via Amazon.) But really, that's it. Most of them -- and all of the most successful ones -- follow the same narrative overarching plot first created by TSR in March of 1984 with DragonLance. [B][I]tl;dr:[/I][/B] Plot matters. [/QUOTE]
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