Charles Ryan speaks - Fantastic Locations

[Treebore]

WOTC can re-enter the modules market if they want to, I can always use more good modules. Necromancer, Goodman, and TLG just aren't putting them out fast enough for me. Of course that is just for me to read them and steal whatever parts I want. I tend to use only Necromancer and Goodman Modules in their entirety. Besides, I like how Necromancer is making their adventures more of an adventure/sourcebook combo, rather than just a straight up adventure. This will become much more obvious with their release of Glades of Death and Mesopotamia is a great example of this that is already in print.

As for pdf versins, it depends on how many are available for free on drivethrurpg. I much prefer print versions.

Who says TLG is getting away from modules? Granted they aren't d20, but they still contain maps, plots, and NPC ideas. Like their "Assault on Blacktooth Ridge", I have a nice "library" of 3E NPC's saved up, that I could easily use this for a 3E game if I wanted too.

 

[Pramas]

Guess Sun Tzu wouldn't have been much of a small businessman, neh?

My extensive studies of Sun Tzu indicate that he would say the following about this situation:

"How is competing against Dungeon Magazine, which offers 96 pages of full color adventure support for a price you can't possibly match, any better?"

 

[Vocenoctum]

You know, while I don't believe that PDFs are "the future of the hobby"--there will always be a place, and I firmly believe a much larger place, for the printed word--I'm starting to think that PDFs may be the future of modules.

You know, I'd agree, if the electronic media was used, rather than simply putting a book in a PDF. It's like the Grim Tales PDF's with the worktables to do the work for you.

Adventure PDF's need to take advantage of the fact they're not paying for paper, and also include some uniqueness that a paper dungeon can't match.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Personally, I would love to see more adventure modules out there. I can't remember the last time I bought a pure crunch book, probably the 3.0 WotC splats. There's enough material out there that I can make practically any sort of character I want, so I just don't need a third book on rogues. And I'm a player who likes his rogues, too.

I'm picky about my modules, though. Most of the ones that I bought came from either Monkey God or Atlas, because those companies had a lot of well-thought out modules with good flavor to them. Most of the modules I've seen out there have been generic dungeon crawls with the typical undead or demonic adversaries. After a while, that get's really old. I know, everyone in the industry wants something "unique." It makes designers beat their heads against the wall. All I'm saying is, we don't need any more mega-dungeon modules full of undead any more than we need another book on rogues.

Dungeon magazine definately falls into the generic category for me. Pretty much the only time I've bought a copy of Dungeon has been for the minigame. The modules just don't do anything for me. So I'd agree with Chris, Dungeon has the generic dungeon crawl portion of the market pretty well sewn up. I just think that there's more to the adventure market than that, and some experimentation might find some other niches out there for people to explore.

 

[Lord Rasputin]

Charles Ryan:
So, last year we put out a couple map products (the Map Folios I, II, and 3-D). They were kind of an experimental product, and frankly they didn't turn out the way we would have liked--but they did really well. So we thought "heh, what if we made a really good map product?"

We put our heads together and thought about what sort of map product would be interesting and most useful to players, and the Fantastic Locations series is what we came up with.

Essentially, what they are isn't just a set of diagrams of interesting locations, but a set of diagrams that you can actually use in play. Then we added some material for both RPG play (interesting encounters and a mini-adventure) and minis skirmish play (scenarios).http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?p=5899353#post5899353

Sounds vaguely like the Book of Lairs of yesteryear.

 

[twofalls]

I see a lot of speculation on what the "market" will bear but very few facts, and I'd want to know the origins of the facts. I suppose its safe to speak in generalities, but it seems to me that there are a lot of adventures on the market, unless my FLGS just carries all of them that are out there. I have so many OD&D and 1edD&D modules that are easy enough to adapt that I really don't need any more. I bastardize modules when I use them so much that they are really just outlines for me anyhow. I suspect the same is true of a lot of us old dog GM's that fly the game from our chairs.

 

[fanboy2000]

The lack of adventures is annoying to me. Particularly the lack of d20 Future and Modern adventures. When I go to RPGnow.com, I see lots of cybernetics stuff and deck plans, but if I want a PL 7 adventure, I have to grab an Alternity adventure and convert it. For Paranoia, I bought Crash Priority as a PDF, but have yet to get The Mutant Experance in either hardcopy or PDF because an adventure book is simply more useful to be. I don't need yet another campaign setting for Mdern or Future I need adventures!

 

[Eosin the Red]

Charles Ryan:


(Philosophically speaking, back in the day we figured the d20 community would jump all over adventure publication, and we'd focus on the core rules and high-end products we're uniquely qualified to produce. But the d20 publishers quickly abandoned adventures in favor of competing with us in the realm of rulebooks and supplements (Sun Tzu would not be proud), leaving that part of the market underserved. So we're going to serve it!)

Amen brother! (meaning, looking forward to some adventures)

 

[PatEllis15]

I'm a D&D Miniatures guy, and since Harbinger went out of print, I've been clamoring for WotC to grab the bull by the horns, and make a NEW Market segment.

Sounds like they are straddling the fence more than anything. High quality modules, that include battlegrid sized maps for miniatures sound great, and I'll certainly buy some.

But WotC can create a new market, but boxing up 1 rare miniatures that is in high demand on the secondary market (anyone see the Drow Cleric of Lolth that is retailing for $54.00, or the Displacer beasts that sell regularly on Ebay for more than $40!), thatis now out of print (so for the moment that would any of the figures from harbinger, Dragoneye, and Archfiends), throw in some commons and uncommons. Print the module to be the same size as the current D&D Mini's skirmish rule books, instead of a blank battlemap, print up a map of the adventure locale.

if Wizards did this they would have a hit on their hands. Fixed Miniatures that part of the market has been asking for (but out of print, so that it does not effect demand for new mini's). Collectors looking to get those hard to find older pieces, modules, ready for use by new players, who are unfamiliar with adventure writing, etc. etc.

I figure If I keep posting enough, maybe Wizards will finally write them up....

Pat E