10 Reasons Why Adventures Don't Sell "Well"

[FireLance]

Like Eric said, the reason why I don't buy most adventures is the (real or perceived) lack of reuse value. This is particularly so if it's going to cost me more than the local equivalent of US$10. I can glean ideas from a monthly magazine for less than that, so an adventure has got to be really good or truly stand out to make me buy it. On the other hand, I would be more inclined to buy an adventure if it had something "extra" that I could reuse - player handouts, cardboard counters, etc.

 

[Ed Cha]

Some thoughts...

1) I see adventures as "buy it once, use it once, and now it's no use to you anymore." So to me, depending on the price, there is a percieved lack of value in some sense. On the other hand, an adventure that is well-written and really "fits" into whatever plans I had already is "valuable" because it saves time.

2) The longer the adventure is, the more likely it will stray from ideas or needs that I have. However, if a long adventure is fairly modular, then each module could potentially be useful to me.

Since I generally read adventures for fun rather than to actually run them, the "buy it once, use it once" doesn't really apply to me. Although there are a lot that I've only read once or not at all. But I do think a lot of people are like you and at least the majority consider adventures more temporal in nature than some other products like sourcebooks.

That's partly why I've designed adventure settings which you can use over and over. It's sad to see adventures sitting on shelves unloved. So, I try to include information that is re-useable.

I agree about long adventures. Some are great, but most I just can't read through the whole thing. I've never been able to use a long adventure myself. There's too much of a commitment. Also, it's harder to pick bits and pieces from them, at least from my experience.

 

[Ed Cha]

There's also the spoiler effect: Some players, like Brian of KoDT, will buy up all the adventures he suspects the DM might use, commit them to memory, and use this information to breeze through it. Some people are more subtle about it and can avoid being caught doing this, but the adventure value is still detracted from.

That's terrible. I could never understand this. Funny though.

You bring up a good point that I didn't quite detail in the part about adventures being geared primarily towards GMs. Adventures do tend to have this "secret information" quality.

 

[Ed Cha]

hardcovers generally have steak and potatoes content.
softcover please cardboard are popcorn. So of course the hardcover sell better.
Correct on the number of modules out there. It use to be you lurked you gaming shop for each new module that came out once a quarter if you lucky. Now with the mass of modules you all sorts of choices so you can pick and choose the the adventure. And still you may lose money. Also the old library is here also. Why should I buy Freeport when I do a fast and loose City of Invicible Overlord since I bought 15 years ago and still haven't use all of it. Or you have a module which you never played.
What needs to be checked if the new gamers to D&D are buying modules not us old farts who remember the blue scale (so you can copy them) modules.

Well, I have to admit that I buy far more out-of-print stuff than newer product even today.

You're right. It can be hard for a consumer to pick up a good adventure when there are so many that are currently sitting on the shelves. The fact that there are a lot of bad ones makes the choice even more difficult. Overall though, I think the quality is getting better and better.

 

[Ed Cha]

Why are you doing a limited print run?

I mean, if it sells out and people are clamoring, nay, demanding copies, you would not do a second printing?

Where's the business logic there? Or is this just marketing hype?

It's not marketing hype. The Village of Oester has somewhat mature content, so it may not have quite the appeal of a mainstream product. I could be wrong though. Anyhow, a lot of the questionable material is being edited or removed, so it's not going to be that big of a deal.

Second printings of adventures (or any products) are rare these days for all the reasons stated above.

 

[Ed Cha]

Heck, a campaign setting doesn't even have to be a sourcebook covering a full world; books like Ghostwalk or Freeport are excellent resources that stimulate many ideas without telling you how to run your adventure. IMHO they provide a lot more bang for your buck than any adventure I've ever seen.

Everyone works in different ways, but personally I like to see how an adventure is done so it can give me a better idea on how to do my own. I also like to just read them for fun, as I've mentioned before.

 

[Ed Cha]

What about PDF mdoules?

PDFs are a great format for producing adventures! However, they are also difficult to make a profit from in many cases.

From what I understand, a PDF will generally sell about 1/10 the quantity of what a print product would. So, there just isn't enough of a budget there for the kind of art I want and it certainly can't compensate enough for the time spent on the text.

They are a wonderful way to make adventures available to consumers though.

 

[Ed Cha]

While some of your other points have merit, this one is utterly ridiculous. It's insulting to the many talented freelancers who work hard and take pride in their work to suggest that, as a rule, they produce needlessly verbose and poor prose. There are both great and terrible writers on salary and who work by the word. That's the nature of the business.

The reason that a lot of poor adventures were "pushed out" has nothing to do with this, and everything to do with the success of the first wave of d20 adventures. People smelled money and they thought they could slap the d20 logo on any old thing and make bank. You'll notice that the first wave of d20 adventures stand up rather well (Death in Freeport, Three Days to Kill, Ne'Moren's Vault, Crucible of Freya), but things quickly went south after the publication of the Horror Beneath.

Chris, I'm not implying that this is a rule, but rather that there is an overall correlation between the increase of "pay-by-two-cents-or-less-per-word" work and more verbose/poor quality writing in adventures. I do think the per word payment system, in some case, encourages more words written faster though.

Anyhow, if you read the next sentence that I wrote, you will see that I specifically stated that some publishers do invest the time and money to produce good adventures. These are the ones that are paying their writers better and/or taking the time to edit better.

In no way, did I want to insult freelancers!

 

[Dagger75]

I have bought a fair share of modules. I have bought Return to the temple of elemental evil, I have all 3 books for Rappun Atuk (spelling), I get Dungeon when it comes out and you know how many of these I have run..

ZERO.

Here are my reasons

1. Mega-Adventures: This sounded like a good idea. I thought it would be neat be able to go from 4-20 with one book. But these things shouldn't sell themselves as Mega-adventures, they are campaign settings.
Back when I first started playing D&D, the DM bought a module and sprung them on us. One week we would be playing a dungeon he drew in English class the next week we would be in Homlet. The module was just something we did as adventurers, now they are what the entire campaign is based upon.

2. Setting Specific: I am Homebrew type of guy and contrary to what these adventures say, minor tweaking does not allow these be placed anywhere. I want to read it and use it. If I have to spend more than hour trying to fit the bloody thing into my game I could make my own adventure in that amount time.

3. World Changing Events: Maybe its just the few I have picked up but why do the conclusions of some modules seem to have change the world. Banishing this god limiting the spell access of all his worshippers for 200 years type of endings. Those are campaign goals, not module goals.

What I would like

Settings- Less specific the better. The larger the area the module encompasses the more it effects my campaign world. If module X takes place around a small village near a forest, that is a lot easier for me to add it. If module Y requires it to be set in metropolis with a large thieves guild. My large metropolis may not have a thieves guild, or it may have one large mafia type guild. Now I have to work on how fit this game into my world. More work for me.

Here is an example of what I like

An abandoned temple to the God of Nature has been unearthed. Strange animals have been seen in the woods and have been attacking the farm animals of a nearby village. The villagers are fearful that they may start attacking them and ask the adventures for help.
What I want in the module is a map of the temple and encounters within. A few encounters on the way to the temple would be nice.

Here is what I don't like in a module

A large black tower appears in the middle of the harbor of Waterdeep. Lightning shooting from a large glowing green orb at it top is sinking ships as they enter and leave the busy port city. This disrupts trade up and down the entire Sword Coast. Demons are seen flying from the tower at night and the Lords of Waterdeep are nowhere to be found. Its up to the adventures to solve this problem.

This seems like a good place to START a campaign. It might have cool pictures and be hardbound but I won't buy it even if I was running a Forgotten Realm game. This would seem like a pretty major event, not something for a module. It has world shattering consquences that change the whole tone of my game.

I want to go to my game store, pick up a module read through it once and play it that night.

Ohh one more thing, if there is encounter and says go to page xxx in the monster manual I will scream. Monster stat blocks are your friends, please use them.

 

[Ed Cha]

What I would like

Settings- Less specific the better. The larger the area the module encompasses the more it effects my campaign world. If module X takes place around a small village near a forest, that is a lot easier for me to add it. If module Y requires it to be set in metropolis with a large thieves guild. My large metropolis may not have a thieves guild, or it may have one large mafia type guild. Now I have to work on how fit this game into my world. More work for me.

Here is an example of what I like

An abandoned temple to the God of Nature has been unearthed. Strange animals have been seen in the woods and have been attacking the farm animals of a nearby village. The villagers are fearful that they may start attacking them and ask the adventures for help.
What I want in the module is a map of the temple and encounters within. A few encounters on the way to the temple would be nice.

Here is what I don't like in a module

A large black tower appears in the middle of the harbor of Waterdeep. Lightning shooting from a large glowing green orb at it top is sinking ships as they enter and leave the busy port city. This disrupts trade up and down the entire Sword Coast. Demons are seen flying from the tower at night and the Lords of Waterdeep are nowhere to be found. Its up to the adventures to solve this problem.

This seems like a good place to START a campaign. It might have cool pictures and be hardbound but I won't buy it even if I was running a Forgotten Realm game. This would seem like a pretty major event, not something for a module. It has world shattering consquences that change the whole tone of my game.

I want to go to my game store, pick up a module read through it once and play it that night.

Ohh one more thing, if there is encounter and says go to page xxx in the monster manual I will scream. Monster stat blocks are your friends, please use them.

I agree with a lot of the things you've mentioned. That's what I find useful in adventures, too, so that's what I try to put in my own adventure settings that I write.

What level is your group currently playing? Do you buy adventures solely based on level and how easily you can use it or is it something about the concept or cover art that intrigues you and you read it for fun, too?