Adventures don't Sell? Do you agree? Redman Article

[Bardsandsages]

I see it as a question of support. Adventures support a line far beyond a slew of sourcebooks. Adventures make material more accesible to new people and help attract new players. Very few people are going to buy the core books and know how to run an adventure or roleplay without some help.

Also, adventures are cheaper. People who are strapped for cash can pick them up and get new material for their games.

Too many companies are not supporting their lines. Wizards woke up and realized that the support that had once existed for D&D has dried up and their is a need for them to promote and support the game.

Well, some of us are trying

The Neiyar campaign setting comes with a complete module included in the book. At a few months ago we released a high-powered module because folks were saying they wanted something high-powered. And right now we're actively soliciting feedback in the form of a survey designed to help us determine where to go with the product line.

But ultimately, publishers are going to produce what people buy, not what people say they want. Because there seems to be a disconnect between what consumers say they want to buy and what they actually spend money on.

 

[MerricB]

So, why isn't dungeon comissioning "dungeons" that aren't just dungeons, but that follow a story arc? Not all of them, just some.

Have you bought Dungeon any time in the last two or three years? They're doing them. Oh boy, are they doing them.

* Shackled City Adventure Path
* Age of Worms Adventure Path (currently being published)

There are also a few miniseries they've done.

Also, why isn't paizo offering pdf downloads for all the the dungeons under their copywrite?

They can only offer pdf downloads for those issues that have sold out, per their license with Wizards. At present, that's issues #112 and #113. Pre-Paizo issues have confused copyright issues, although I'm sure they want to upload them.

Cheers!

 

[Turjan]

Too many companies are not supporting their lines. Wizards woke up and realized that the support that had once existed for D&D has dried up and their is a need for them to promote and support the game.

If you look at my post, you will see that I said the same . I urged 3rd party companies to support their own settings and OGL games with adventures. I just don't see any sense in publishing generic adventures for WotC books; these are published by several companies at the moment, but they are obviously not accepted by the majority of the customers. This means that WotC have to do those themselves.

 

[Warbringer]

Have you bought Dungeon any time in the last two or three years? They're doing them. Oh boy, are they doing them.

* Shackled City Adventure Path
* Age of Worms Adventure Path (currently being published)

There are also a few miniseries they've done.

Cheers!

No I haven't. But I'm not a target audience for pre-written adventures.

It sounds like dungeon is doing the right thing. Maybe this is still the best vehicle for release, maybe Paizo should look at becoming a published for full modules. They have the freelancers, the artists and the distribution.

They can only offer pdf downloads for those issues that have sold out, per their license with Wizards. At present, that's issues #112 and #113. Pre-Paizo issues have confused copyright issues, although I'm sure they want to upload them.

Cheers!

Ah, sloppy legal getting in the way of market demand. Sad.

Nice comments Merric. Thanks for the input.

 

[Turjan]

It sounds like dungeon is doing the right thing. Maybe this is still the best vehicle for release, maybe Paizo should look at becoming a published for full modules. They have the freelancers, the artists and the distribution.

Like this one ?

 

[S'mon]

These days I buy adventures more than anything else. I'm kinda sick of rules supplements. Plus Necromancer put out a lot of good adventures that are easy to fit into my campaign.

 

[Odhanan]

Because the only reason its there ...is becasue the writer thought it'd be cool to place it there. But in the cotxt of the module its just there, completely random and not making any sense. There is little reason to do something complicated when something simple will do. And just because the rules allow it is not a good reason in my mind to something.

I'm not getting it either. Does the use of prestige classes and templates for a NPC mean automatically that it fits less than something simpler? That's bull. It depends on the circumstances, the adventure, the particular character and so on. If my villain is a half-dragon blackguard, using a human ex-paladin doesn't make it better, it makes it more approximate as opposed to precise rendering.

So, why isn't dungeon comissioning "dungeons" that aren't just dungeons, but that follow a story arc? Not all of them, just some.

This is such a countersense! Dungeon does exactly that!

 

[Crothian]

I'm not getting it either. Does the use of prestige classes and templates for a NPC mean automatically that it fits less than something simpler? That's bull. It depends on the circumstances, the adventure, the particular character and so on. If my villain is a half-dragon blackguard, using a human ex-paladin doesn't make it better, it makes it more approximate as opposed to precise rendering.

There are exceptions that it works, but I'm saying most of the time it doesn't. If the writer wants to make it fit they can. It does depend on the adventure and the circumstance, but more often then not in adventures I read it does not seem to fit.

 

[Odhanan]

If it doesn't fit, I see it as bad adventure design rather than a fault from the use of templates/PrCs in themselves. In other words, there's nothing wrong with using multiclass templated stuff as long as it fits, right?

 

[Doc_Klueless]

On the other hand, about a year ago I started a pretty good thread about the "classic" modules of 3e (perhaps some Community Supporter can search for it...), and that thread convinced me to send a group of newbies thru Sunless Citadel.

Here you go:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=21189