Companies you wish would do better

[JoeGKushner]

Now this isn't a thread to bash companies but rather one that puts out the question, which companies do you reguarly buy from that you wish would do just a little better? For me:

Monkeygod: Some of their adventures are great and others are so-so. If art quality increases a little and the adventuers get just a touch more solid, sold!

Trolllords: Now I'm going to state off the bat I thought Gaxmoor was okay, Canting Crew was bad, Dark Druids very bad. I'm also going to say that I liked Erde, liked Malady of Kings, liked their first smaller module based offerings, and like The Heart of Glass. I'm hoping that their able to get a more unified feeling to their products and move up a few notches.

Bard's Production: I like the ideas of Common Ground but I didn't care for the execution. More details and information with a better layout. The graphics for the locations are good though and it does do what it sets out to. I've used the Inn and Thieves Guild set ups on more than one occassion.

Avalanche Games: Some solid history research with some shoddy rules, bad layout, generally bad intenral art. I'd like to see them move up greatly in terms of rule use and spend some budge on the internal art as well. Products aren't cheap so they should justify it outside of the "Because we can" theory.

Fast Foward Entertainment: Great potential here. Dungeonworld could've been brilliant. Demons & Devils 2 is better than the first one, but look what the first one was eh? They've got a lot of products out though so either people are buying them and hating them or I'm a nut for thinking they could be much better.

Citizen Games: Didn't like their first series of A Heroes Journey but Sidewinder is supposed to be real good. I'm reading through it now and haven't gotten too deep so I'm going to save comment on it. The Masterscreen is a no-brainer idea that I'm glad is out. Their new books, Way of Witch and Path of the Magi have great potential but cost and size seem a little off.

Otherworld Creations: Didn't like Diomin but thought Forbidden Kingdoms was fun if typo filled and in need of a solid edit. I guess Mercenaries: Born of Blood will be another big step for 'em.

I hope this hasn't come off as bashing or 'sux' type of thread as that wasn't the intent. I see lots of potential in the above and wonder what other people think.

 

[Dragongirl]

Avalanche Games: Some solid history research with some shoddy rules, bad layout, generally bad intenral art. I'd like to see them move up greatly in terms of rule use and spend some budge on the internal art as well. Products aren't cheap so they should justify it outside of the "Because we can" theory.

Forgot bad company icon...

Edit : I mean, I love history and would love to see more GOOD books on history in D20, but the covers of Avalanche press stuff puts me off. Are they trying to sell sex or historical information? Personally even if their stuff was good, I would not pay a dime just because of the covers.

 

[Dinkeldog]

Here's a good ground rule: If you're going to name specific company in this thread, keep the criticism constructive. Point to good things the company has done and what you wish they would do more of.

Oh, and I'm going to move this to the Publishers forum.

 

[Heathen Oracle]

Goodpoint, one should really use a template when doing constructive criticism though that could be taxing unless you like writing ALOT. Like:

Art: Interior/Covers What I like.....how I feel it could be improved
Editing: Formating/Words....easy to read? easy to reference?
Storyline: What I liked/where did it go......Complex? easy to follow?

etc... I am rather vague huh? well just a general idea. But for example I looked at Avalanche's covers. Although most were technically well executed, I have to honestly say the subject matter didn't lend itself to the theme of the topic of book in question. Some of the titles brought images to mind that were vastly diferent.

As far as interiors not being up to par for most books, thats a matter of $$, even if you got an artist for a the amount of $20 per b/w if you have 15 interiors, thats $300. Will teh PDF at $5 a pop pull that back in? that doesn't even include the writer, printing if thats involved etc.... So alot of Publishers go with the "to be published artists" and get thier art for little to nothing. But some say you get what you pay for.

Heathen Oracle for example consists of 2 people, a prof. published writer and a prof published artist. Basically we have no overhead for writing nor art $0 just time. So our stuff will have LOTS of art and Lots of writing of good to excelent quality, at least we hope everyone will think so

That will keep our PDFs within reason with huge all you can eat material, practically that is (in a 56k world for the most part).

Resources, its all about resources, and taking your time to do the absolute best you can!

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I've really taken a shine to Avalanche's stuff lately. I, Mordred and Blood Prince of Wallachia are outstanding, and I know Teflon Billy has been very keen on their Caribbean/pirate book. The trouble is, their books seem too much like slightly beefier modules. I'd love to see them do something along the lines of TSR's 2e Historical Reference series, except be a lot less conservative than those books were (which are still fine references for just about any RPG).

Avalanche's covers...well, I don't mind looking at pictures of women, but I kinda figure that if they're going to do them the way they've been doing them, they might as well use photographs, because the pictures just don't look that well-done to me, for the most part. Last Days of Constantinople was their first book, and doesn't have the kind of cover Avalanche has become known for, and is probably the best-drawn of the bunch. I'd say they'd be better off doing more like that one.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Monkeygod: Some of their adventures are great and others are so-so. If art quality increases a little and the adventuers get just a touch more solid, sold!

Well, I have to preface this by saying that I've done some work, and am doing some current work, for MonkeyGod. So you should probably take that into account when considering my opinions.

That said, I really think you'll like some of their upcoming stuff. Some of the modules coming out in the next few months look really cool.

More to the point, MonkeyGod is branching out into more than just modules. "Frost and Fur" is their first Explorer's Guide, a sourcebook on gaming in specific environments. "From Stone to Steel" is a book on weapons, armor, and equipment from an enormous number of cultures from stone age to Renaissance. And it's more than just stats; it actually talks about the equipment too.

And--to toot my own horn just a little--they're publishing "Shadow Branch," a campaign setting of my design, next year.

So keep an eye on them. I think they are indeed about to "do better."

 

[Crothian]

I'm actually going to bring up a company I'm very happy with, Fantasy Flight Games. These guys do great stuff, I don't want to anyone to think I don't respect them or love their work. They push the boundaries of d20 with new options like the Legendary Classes, the ten-tiered organizations from PotS and PoM (I don't know what they are called), and all the great info in Spells and Spellcraft. Okay, enough kissing up, on to the topic.

I'd like them to go into more detail on the many great things they have. Many of the topics presented in Seafarers Handbook and Spells and Spellcraft especially, I feel could be greatly expanded upon. I felt I was getting a nibble, but not the full meal of the topic. I think many of their products could easily be twice the size they are and not seem wordy or full of filler.

 

[chatdemon]

Re: Re: Companies you wish would do better

the covers of Avalanche press stuff puts me off. Are they trying to sell sex or historical information? Personally even if their stuff was good, I would not pay a dime just because of the covers.

Sorry to hijack for a moment, but this statement demands rebuttal.

Why Avalanche?
WotC regularly depicts Mialee and Ember as scantily clad waifs, and I know it's not just me, Lidda's 'goods' get a bit bigger every time

Dragon Magazine regularly features scantily clad nymphos on the cover and interior pages (and we won't even get into the What's New? comic...)

AEG's Spycraft: Gentleman's Agreement adventure sports buxom babes in inadequate clothing on its cover.

Everquest RPG has serious cheesecake on the cover.

XCrawl's 'mascot' Oni has some serious flesh going on/

The Buffy rpg and ccg is constantly featuring SMG in tight or provacative clothing,

The list goes on and on and on...

Why is Avalanche the only one who ever gets bashed? Because it's cool to bash them for it?

Rich,
who is anxiously awaiting delivery of Avalanche's Black Flags: Piracy on the Caribbean at his flgs.

 

[JoeGKushner]

To be fair Rich, I bashed them on their poor grasp of D20 game mechanics and the poor interior art and poor layout, especially content to page ratio.

 

[chatdemon]

Oh, I have no problem for critiquing Avalanche's content, or that of any publisher. I don't even really have a problem with those who complain about the 'cheesecake' art in some products. I'm just saying that complaining about one companies use of 'sexy' art while overlooking the tendency of the entire industry to make use of that material is unfair.