Foolish Ventures Publishing
I agree, let us rock indeed gentlemen.
There are not many publishers that foray into the adventure business. This means there is more potential untapped market. What is needed is a standard of quality adventures that are so very usable, that purchasers must think of reasons NOT to buy them.
Here is my suggestion. For those that think that publishing adventures would be foolish, I present. . .
Foolish Ventures Publishing
A company run by freelancers using innovative, collaborative techniques to produce quality adventures using as little capital as possible.
Officers:
Grand Poobah- The CEO, the person who invests in the necessary software to make everything happen. Handles all financial matters which are published in an open report quarterly. Also serves as final editor on all products (best someone up on their English grammar.) Receives two shares from every product. Technically, this is his company, because all the paperwork is in his (or her) name.
Webmeister- Person responsible for handling the webpage and all web-related matters and publicity. Must purchase necessary web software. Receives two shares from every product.
La Artiste- The Layout Editor who is in charge of the layout team. She receives two shares from every product they work on.
Project Leaders are temporary officers in charge of individual projects. They get two shares from every product they produce.
That's the officer list. Other workers include writers, artists, layout people and playtesters. Here's how it works.
The mission is to make adventures in a PDF format that do the following:
Use a collaborative writing process with vigorous playtester feedback to ensure quality.
Has a strict balance of role-playing opportunities, puzzle-solving and combat.
Contain new and interesting encounters that could be "lifted" into other adventures.
Contain a high degree of new "crunchy" content" such as feats, spells, prestige classes, etc.
Complete environments that easily allow for a high degree of player freedom. No garden path adventures.
Interesting settings and NPCs that could easily be used out-of-context from the adventure.
Flat counters and "Cardboard Heroes" style paper miniatures for all NPCs and monsters.
Make tiles for miniatures or make maps compatible with other another company's tiles (like
Skelenton Key's new PDF tile series)
Many visual aids that can be printed separately, including NPC portraits and unusual rooms, etc.
Use of the "Arcane Artifacts" by Vshane for all magic items, all of which are defined with a background on the reverse side.
Use of Game Mechanic's Initiative Cards for all critters (with their agreement, of course.)
Three different copies per product. A standard color, a graphic-light black & white printable, and a landscape (horizontal) color for easy reading on the computer.
Cool layout and artwork, of course, complete with bookmarks and thumbnails.
Perfect appendix and index, including combat sheet (if you don't use the Initiative Cards), encounter EL list, and so on.
All products are produced to be "canon" with an adventure writing bible gleamed from various sources.
All products will be compared to best-selling products from other companies to ensure quality.
Whew, that's a lot. I further recommend that adventure be made part of a series, such as a mega-dungeon or an "adventure path" series that increases the chance of repeat business. They need to become "must haves" Each adventure is written so that it is playable completely on it's own as well. OR adventures could be linked to other OGC settings, such as Freeport, which have built in audiences already.
How can we do all that? Teamwork and a well-defined process. Think Monster Garage here, with a pirate ship pay system.
Each project starts as a concept. Concepts are given (or made by) a Project Leader. The Project Leader then forms a "concept team" (each of whom will receive a finished copy if greenlighted). The concept team write a proposal according to an outline that looks a bit like proposals for the movies. The company officers, the playtesters, and a public vote on the web then review this proposal. If all three parties vote positive, then the project is "greenlighted" and the Project Leader may proceed.
Then comes the writing stage. The Project Leader selects a team of writers, which should include at least one proofreading editor. Starting with the Project Leader, each writer will get turns in a round-robin fashion on the manuscript. No writer may have the manuscript over a week, anything may be re-written between drafts, each draft is copied to the Project Leader and Grand Poobah for documentation and guidance. This process continues until the draft is finished. The Grand Poobah establishes a set deadline for the project. If the deadline is not reached, then a new Project Leader may be assigned. Writers are encouraged to communicate with each other via a private messageboard.
Writers are paid ten shares total, split among the writers as the Project Leader sees fit. If a writer did 75% of the work, they get a 7.5 share. If the Project Leader worked overtime on the project, the Poobah must decide if they get a portion of these ten shares.
After deadline is met, then the playtesters get to hack into it, providing as much feedback as possible. We will need a small army of playtesters, BTW. This feedback is given back to the writing team who then turn out the (hopefully) final draft. All playtesters receive a copy of the final product.
La Artiste (the Layout Editor) now takes over with her chosen team. This consists of at least two computer layout people with the same software and two or more artists. Poobah gives them a deadline to complete. If not completed, the Poobah may take over the project and assign a new team.
Layout team gets ten shares split as La Artiste directs according to the level of work involved by each person. If La Artiste had to work overtime to complete the project, the Poobah must decide if they get a portion of these ten shares.
A final product is given to a few other playtesters and given a once-over by the Poobah to make sure they are perfect.
The final product is ten sold on RPGnow.com for a price of the Poobah's decision. All profits are split according the share count. 30 shares total (10 for writing team, 10 for layout team, 2 for Project Leader, 2 for La Artiste, 2 for Web-meister, 2 for Grand Poobah and 2 that go to the company for future capital.) So, if a product costs ten dollars, then eight is the initial profit after RPGnow.com takes it's cut (I think that's how it works.) Of that eight dollars, each share is worth around 27 cents. Thus, if we sold 100 copies, then a share would be worth 27 dollars. If we sold 300 copies, it would be worth 81 dollars. So high sales are the goal, providing motivation for everyone to do well and make a kick-ass product. No, the pay is not high, but the process is fun and freelancers get to make a name for themselves.
What say you gentlemen? Shall we rock?
