Starfinder Here's the cover of INCIDENT AT ABSALOM STATION, the first adventure in Starfinder's DEAD SUNS AP!

The first Starfinder adventure path, launching in August along with the core rules, is the Dead Suns AP. Following the same model as Paizo's Pathfinder adventure paths, it's a 6-module series. The first adventure is called Incident at Absalom Station, and here's a look at the cover by David Alvarez, depicting the leader of a notorious street gang on Absalom Station! The Dead Suns AP will be released every other month (taking 12 months in total), and each adventure contains a new planet, a new starship, and new monsters.

 

[Grimstaff]

Very cluttered design

This would have been a good opportunity to change up the old "stick a big npc portrait in front of the art" design their ap's all feature.

 

[Morrus]

.
You want a lot right at the start, because there's nothing. So you want a fast release schedule. But, once you get the initial offerings out, you don't need as much (or anything), so the release schedule has to ramp waaaay down or you bloat the game.

Except that your sole reason for existing is to sell products as opposed to not selling products.

 

[Jester David]

Except that your sole reason for existing is to sell products as opposed to not selling products.

Which is the catch. If you start with a fast release schedule you want to keep that schedule. And that's what you have the staff to support. If you ramp down, people get upset st the change and you need to risk letting staff go.

 

[Morrus]

Which is the catch. If you start with a fast release schedule you want to keep that schedule. And that's what you have the staff to support. If you ramp down, people get upset st the change and you need to risk letting staff go.

It's not really a catch. That implies there's a second option. You sell the amount of product you need to sell to stay profitable and sustain any planned growth. You don't worry about people complaining you're selling too many things. If people are buying the things you make, you continue to make them. This applies to RPG companies, teapot manufacturers, and ice cream vendors. The thing you don't do is stop selling products, given that's the one thing you exist to do.

All the business advice in this thread to sell less product than customers are buying is the diametric opposite to business advice.

 

[Jester David]

It's not really a catch. That implies there's a second option. You sell the amount of product you need to sell to stay profitable and sustain any planned growth. You don't worry about people complaining you're selling too many things. If people are buying the things you make, you continue to make them. This applies to RPG companies, teapot manufacturers, and ice cream vendors. The thing you don't do is stop selling products, given that's the one thing you exist to do.

All the business advice in this thread to sell less product than customers are buying is the diametric opposite to business advice.

Customers complaining that you're selling too many things quickly becomes customers buying fewer things. If you're releasing a product faster than it can be consumed, you'll eventually go out of business.

You need to find a balance between not releasing any product, releasing too little product, and releasing too much product. Again, one ways is to vary the amount of product with a heavy initial release schedule and then a slower schedule.

 

[Morrus]

Customers complaining that you're selling too many things quickly becomes customers buying fewer things.

Does it?

You produce the amount stuff that's selling. You don't worry about people on the internet complaining you are selling too many things. I mean, I think Ford sells too many cars*, but they're just going to produce the number of cars which sell.

If you are lucky enough to have an awesome subscription, which people appear to be not cancelling, you continue with it.

*I don't really. it was a stupid example.

 

[Jester David]

Does it?

You produce the amount stuff that's selling. You don't worry about people on the internet complaining you are selling too many things. I mean, I think Ford sells too many cars*, but they're just going to produce the number of cars which sell.

*I don't really. it was a stupid example.

Funny thing, in the 1950s car sales slumped. Because everyone who wanted a car and could afford one pretty much had one. The solution: new models of cars. Regular redesigns of cars every years to encourage people to upgrade. The rise of car culture.
Car makers do make more cars than necessary. Because they've managed to create the market.

In the case of adventures, if you're releasing 1 every six months but they take a year to play, after a year everyone has to choose between the current adventure (that's about to start) or the one they missed. After two years you have a choice between the current and the two you missed. After five years you have to choose between the current and five other adventures. Each successive years, the odds of a customer passing on the current adventure increase.
It's not sustainable.

 

[Morrus]

Funny thing, in the 1950s car sales slumped. Because everyone who wanted a car and could afford one pretty much had one. The solution: new models of cars. Regular redesigns of cars every years to encourage people to upgrade. The rise of car culture.
Car makers do make more cars than necessary. Because they've managed to create the market.

In the case of adventures, if you're releasing 1 every six months but they take a year to play, after a year everyone has to choose between the current adventure (that's about to start) or the one they missed. After two years you have a choice between the current and the two you missed. After five years you have to choose between the current and five other adventures. Each successive years, the odds of a customer passing on the current adventure increase.
It's not sustainable.

It's worked for 8 years. I'm sure Paizo will adjust their output to match demand. For now, it appears they're still selling APs just fine. They have a big inherited subscriber base.

 

[God]

Does it?

Ask TSR how over-production worked for them.

 

[Morrus]

Ask TSR how over-production worked for them.

The snide comment is delightfully charming, charismatic, and dismissive, which is utterly lovely of you, but "over-production" (if it *has* a definition) means "producing more than demand" which is completely not what's happening here. Paizo is producing to demand, partly by virtue of a useful subscription model. Claiming (by inference) that you know Paizo is currently "over-producing" is an extraordinary claim, and it requires some pretty solid evidence. "I personally don't want the latest Pathfinder adventure path" isn't evidence.

There will come a point where people cancel their subscription to the APs and stuff, sure. And I'm sure Paizo will adjust accordingly. They're not looking at message boards to see if armchair generals recommend they produce less stuff while people buy the stuff.

Though I'm sure they're giggling at us internet idiots throwing our expert advice into the ether and pretending we know better than them what their spreadsheets say.

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