D20 Modern in 2007?

[jezter6]

Modern adventures are really no harder than others to write. Write the story first with all it's twists and turns and then work the mechanics from there. The very fact that you say that people might not play the ones that you would write means that you write for yourself. If you pour yourself into what you write then you will probably come out with a labor of love. Not everyone will like what you write (I know people that think even the Original Star Wars trilogy was a load of crap written by a hack who couldn't even come up with an original idea). But there will be those that do and they will appreciate your efforts. I like SUPERS, D*M, PSI-campaigns, Space Opera, and fantasy that doesn't rip off JRR Tolkein. That being said, if you wrote a UA setting, I might not give it a second glance...or I might. If it is well written and you grab my attention then you have me as a fan.

Point is...We can't read it if you don't write it.

Regards,
Walt

Agreed. An adventure is an adventure. I think the problem is the OGL and everyone wanting to make money on everything ever written. Write an adventure, shop it around, and if it doesn't go, just put it up for download for free. Making a living from RPGs can't be easy, or we'd all be doing it.

I do remember a time where people freely posted ideas without hording it all for that one shot at being published. I wish it would come back.

 

[kroh]

Agreed. An adventure is an adventure. I think the problem is the OGL and everyone wanting to make money on everything ever written. Write an adventure, shop it around, and if it doesn't go, just put it up for download for free. Making a living from RPGs can't be easy, or we'd all be doing it.

I do remember a time where people freely posted ideas without hording it all for that one shot at being published. I wish it would come back.

It only takes one... Look at Kyngdoms. Granted that is mostly fantasy based, but the guy made the bulk of the campaign setting free to anyone who wanted it. If you wanted the printed book or the adventures that go with it then you have to pay (and you got better quality). There is a lot that people are doing that are fun and free. If you like Savage Worlds, you have Savage Heroes. D20 has a bunch of people who went and threw the SRD up online in a better HTML format for Nada! 12toMidnight did it Here. A few of the Modern Dispatches for RPGObjects have some free content in them as well. One of the best non-gaming examples of how good you can get even making something for free is some of the Star Wars Fan Films you see coming out. Lucas prohibits people from making coin but these folks are doing it right and in some cases better...All free. It just sucks that even though people are making stuff available, the bulk of what you are seeing adventure wise is going for coin.

Every person that makes something free can inspire some one else to make something for free. Even a couple of pebbles falling down a hill can make a rockslide... you just have to look for the right hill. Let us know if you plan to post anything.

Regards,
Walt

 

[Prest0]

12toMidnight did it Here.

Actually, we really can't take credit for the online SRD. "Barsoomcore" put it all together and we just offered to host it.

HOWEVER, your point still stands. We do offer details on the basic Pinebox campaign setting, including city map, for free on our website.

 

[kroh]

Actually, we really can't take credit for the online SRD. "Barsoomcore" put it all together and we just offered to host it.

HOWEVER, your point still stands. We do offer details on the basic Pinebox campaign setting, including city map, for free on our website.

And the thing that says about a publisher is that they care enough about what they are doing to offer a part of it for free to entice me to take a deeper look into it. Things like free adventures, character sheets, deck plans, monsters, etc, all add to the feel of the publisher wanting people to take a second look at a product with the intention to get everyone to purchase it. A cover shot and a description only get you so far. A few pages of actually seeing what the product will be like goes a long way.

Thanks for the free stuff Prest0. Much love to 12tomidnight.

Regards,
Walt

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Just about the time I think I'm going to be back, my laptop dies and I get sent a new one ... with Vista. Blergh.

If 12toMidnight is open to submissions, let's talk, I thought you boys were mostly an in-house talent farm.

And I've seriously contemplated writing some Dark*Matter adventures and stories for free internet publication. Of course what I'd REALLY like to do is write a D*M novel or, say, five. Maybe I'll do a serial to start and release it somewhere in chapters.

It'll give me something to do while I take the next week to laboriously gather and reinstall everything and port all of my files over to a new machine. I always think: "Y'know what'd be smart, a drive image with everything just like I want it." and, invariably, my computer then explodes before I can make it.

--fje

 

[Prest0]

Send me a PM, Heap. (Edit: Send me an e-mail to presto at my company name.) A lot of what we've done was written in house, but a couple weeks ago we just released our first fantasy adventure--Marsh of the Wild Things--which was written by a freelancer. Early next month we'll be releasing a Pinebox adventure written by a freelancer and later this spring we'll be releasing another by a different freelancer. We post writers guidelines on our website.

Back to the subject at hand--wild speculation over the fate of "official" WotC material for d20M. I don't know that we necessarily need "one setting to rule them all", but I'd sure like to see them release new, innovative settings with lots of hooks for GMs to flesh out on their own. Or if innovation is too risky, they could follow the path of Mongoose and license existing media properties with proven track records. Rather than focus on movies/TV, they could create one-off campaign settings using d20M rules and based on popular science fiction novels.

 

[buzz]

...they could follow the path of Mongoose...

*shudder*

 

[eyebeams]

Any thoughts as to why this is? Maybe that d20M, being more of a "toolkit" RPG, has no one "default mode" that most of it's users are playing? I.e., there's a "core story" in D&D and some genre assumptions that insure most modules are usable by anyone; but a GM could be using d20M for anything from urban fantasy, to survival horror, to space opera.

I wonder this because my beloved HERO seems in a similar boat.

The disparity in sales between adventures and other supplements is a known quantity in virtually all RPGs. One of the anticipated functions of the OGL/D20SRD was to keep WotC from being burdened with producing adventures at the same rate as older editions of D&D. White Wolf has also commented that for the most part, adventures don't sell as well. There are always exceptions, of course; WW's trying out a more cost-effective format for their adventures and has from time to time produced adventure support in other situations, but several modules a year, every year isn't happening in most cases.

I think D20 Modern could have used an adventure path from the start -- especially one linking it to Urban Arcana. D20 Modern's problem is that it never found any way of expressing what it was *good* for. It had lots of possibilities but little direction to show an average GM what he might run. There were campaign models, but not much in the way of describing what characters do -- no core story, in other words.

 

[eyebeams]

Back to the subject at hand--wild speculation over the fate of "official" WotC material for d20M. I don't know that we necessarily need "one setting to rule them all", but I'd sure like to see them release new, innovative settings with lots of hooks for GMs to flesh out on their own.

I believe the original plan was for Urban Arcana to be the core setting. IIRC, WotC even asked companies with the advance Modern SRD to specifically avoid that kind of subject matter. Urban Arcana was even discussed as a TV property.

Unfortunately, the implementation was modular in a way that I suppose many gamers like, but it just isn't sexy* in the way an immediate hook is. I have a feeling that if Urban Arcana had been released as a complete RPG it would have been a tremendous hit and no obstacle to third party concepts for other kinds of games.



* By "sexy," I mean, "Makes players think of the games and characters they can have upon a quick skimming."

 

[buzz]

I think D20 Modern could have used an adventure path from the start -- especially one linking it to Urban Arcana. D20 Modern's problem is that it never found any way of expressing what it was *good* for. It had lots of possibilities but little direction to show an average GM what he might run. There were campaign models, but not much in the way of describing what characters do -- no core story, in other words.

Wow, I agree 100%. This is what I was getting at with my "killer app" suggestion. Being a toolkit RPG is fine, but it's good to have at least one implementation players can grab off the shelf and run. HERO has Champions for this, and GURPS has, afaik, Infinite Worlds.