What's he smoking? There is no shortage of short "module" adventures, even without going to third-party publishers. If you do go to third-party publishers, you can quickly drown in short adventures.
D&D General Matt Colville on adventure length
Shardstone
Hero
Short modules sell like ass on the dms guild.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Well, he is saying what he wants in his videos, but as a business he has to go with what is feasible.
Individual ones, maybe, but that's just because there are so freaking many of them. I bet their collective sales rival if not beat those of campaign-length adventures.
mamba
Legend
GDQ started as individual adventures, DL was conceived as one story arc, so they stand alone better. Even so the DL adventures have a focus on a few locations and a main goal per module, find the staff in Xak Tasaroth, free the slaves on Pax Tharkas, find the Hammer in Thorbadin, and so forth
mamba
Legend
he may be making big books, but they are not adventures...
J-H
Hero
For myself:
2 campaign-length items for sale, total sales 171
6 short modules (one is a 1-7 "campaign" but reasonably short as it's goblins defending a lair), total sales 66
The oldest one (Castle Dracula) is my bestseller and accounts for over 90% of the campaign sales. It's close to 4 years old. If I limit it to the last 6 months, 26 campaign sales and 31 module sales.
Of course, the modules are much cheaper, so campaign still generates more dollars.
overgeeked
B/X Known World
Yes, and? Not everything has to do as well as WotC to be viable.
LesserThan
Explorer
I think the meaning was independent authors do better on DMG than WotC products there, and in some cases DMG products sale better than WotC physical books.
WotC is the low bar, not the high one.
I think Merric is the one from ENWorld that has a large following on DMG, or was that M Blackman?
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
I'm confused. You say it doesn't work, then give two examples of how it does work (Don Quixote, Pickwick Papers).
I think the word "epic" is causing the confusion here. This thread uses the word Epic to describe "a big, campaign-length adventure," so that's the definition I'm going with--not the narrative genre like the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Odyssey. So by this thread's definition, I've been chaining small modules together to create entire "Epics" since high school.
Here's one of my favorites; I must have done this one a half-dozen times over the decades:
- The party of adventurers meet up and run through module B2, The Keep on the Borderlands. They meet (and defeat) the Cult of Chaos, but the cult leaders escape. The Duke charges the party with bringing these evildoers to justice.
- They chase the cultists east toward the Sind desert, but get lost in a sandstorm and stumble upon the entrance to a pyramid. (Run module B4, The Lost City.) Here they find the first clues of a mysterious "Master" that is rising to power in the east. The Cynidiceans thank them for their help and send them on their way.
- The party picks up the trail of the cultists once more, and follows them to a village deep in the desert. The link between the mysterious Master and the Cult of Chaos is confirmed, and the party discovers that the Master is building an army. They race across the Great Pass to avert an invasion. (Run module X4, Master of the Desert Nomads.)
- The party arrives in the land of Hule, makes their way through the Dark Wood, and faces off against the mysterious Master. (Run module X5, Temple of Death.)
- With the Master captured and imprisoned, the party leads diplomatic missions to raise an army to defend the Republic of Darokin. The Master's troops, bent on rescuing their Master from the hands of his captors, lays siege to Akesoli, and war erupts. (Run module X10, Red Arrow, Black Shield).
- The war is finally over. The Master is locked away for his crimes, the party is hailed as heroes, and the nations are once again united under the banner of peace. Our heroes have gone from 1st level to 15th level, and are now ready to kick off Act II--two years have passed, and word of the heroes' fame has spread to the ears of King Ericall of Norwold. (Begin module CM1, Test of the Warlords).
Good times, good times.
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