I write workhorse products . . . Should I?
- Thread starter philreed
- Start date
Wulf Ratbane said:No, I just envy his hermetic playboy lifestyle.
I don't have time to write, let alone time to sit around and ponder what I'd like to write.
Hmmm. Maybe I could sell some of those "fantasy career vacations" to people that want to sit around all day and write PDFs. I mean, if doctors are willing to pay to work on a ranch why wouldn't they pay to write RPG material?
Kanegrundar
Explorer
I think you should put out what you like to write about. That said, I've bought a ton of your stuff and I'm a subscriber of the Datastream list (great material, BTW), so I think it's safe to say that I'm a fan of your current work. After seeing your alien species (which I would love to see more of), and all your work adding onto D20 Future, it would be interesting to see even a mini-campaign from you. Not saying you should, but if you did put one out, I'd likely buy it. 
Kane
Kane
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I've bought several of your products, Phil, and like others have said, their plug and play nature is great.
But I would definitely encourage you to have at least one wild and funky item in each of your multiple item collections. There needs to be a personality to your products more distinctive than "reliable." Think of customers as hot chicks -- you want to stand out and be memorable to them.
That said, there are a lot worse things in life than to turn out seemingly endless product of uniformly high quality.
But I would definitely encourage you to have at least one wild and funky item in each of your multiple item collections. There needs to be a personality to your products more distinctive than "reliable." Think of customers as hot chicks -- you want to stand out and be memorable to them.
That said, there are a lot worse things in life than to turn out seemingly endless product of uniformly high quality.
jgbrowning
Hero
philreed said:
I think you have one of the most successful rpg publishing business out there. I see no reason why you should change. However, if you're not writing what you want to write, you're only being partially successful, IMHO.
joe b.
Kelleris
Explorer
In addition to others' comments, I'd like to point out that you've got a niche going here, an identity for Ronin Arts. People turn to Malhavoc for the flashy out-there style of product, they turn to WotC for the core books that everyone knows, and they turn to Ronin Arts for the solid stuff that just makes their game better. It's your thing; if you're happy with it, by all means keep it.
If you're referring to the reviews of "Future: 13 Mecha Devices", I thought it was rather unfair of the reviewers to knock your product down simply because it filled in stuff that was necessary but not in D20 Future. I mean, really, if I haven't already got it, I generally want the basic, well-designed material that lets me run the genre at all before I go to the weird stuff. And that's coming from somebody who really likes weird stuff.
If you're referring to the reviews of "Future: 13 Mecha Devices", I thought it was rather unfair of the reviewers to knock your product down simply because it filled in stuff that was necessary but not in D20 Future. I mean, really, if I haven't already got it, I generally want the basic, well-designed material that lets me run the genre at all before I go to the weird stuff. And that's coming from somebody who really likes weird stuff.
Quasqueton
First Post
OD&D isn't OGL, is it? Couldn't he get sued for that?
Also, anything he wrote for OD&D would be, by definition, a supplement, which you've always decried as ruining/lessening that game.
Kind of a catch 22.
Quasqueton
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Hmmm, workhorse is good.
Perhaps some stuff aimed at particular types of campaigns.
A Dozen Mysteries
A Dozen Steam Tech Inventions (hint, hint
)
A Dozen Unique Golems
A Dozen Horrific Murders
That kind of thing. (Though ideas are never really the sticking point, making the time to actually write things down is...)
The Auld Grump
Perhaps some stuff aimed at particular types of campaigns.
A Dozen Mysteries
A Dozen Steam Tech Inventions (hint, hint
)A Dozen Unique Golems
A Dozen Horrific Murders
That kind of thing. (Though ideas are never really the sticking point, making the time to actually write things down is...)
The Auld Grump
Kelleris said:If you're referring to the reviews of "Future: 13 Mecha Devices", I thought it was rather unfair of the reviewers to knock your product down simply because it filled in stuff that was necessary but not in D20 Future. I mean, really, if I haven't already got it, I generally want the basic, well-designed material that lets me run the genre at all before I go to the weird stuff. And that's coming from somebody who really likes weird stuff.
Yeah, two reviews in a few days that said basically the same thing contributed to my first post but the real inspiration was four e-mails yesterday from different people upset that the "A Dozen . . . " products they bought included twelve of each item as described in the product titles. I'm not sure what I should think when someone buys a PDF named A Dozen Drow Items and then they're shocked to find twelve drow items.
I mean. What do people expect? The product titles for that series are pretty much nothing more than examples of truth in advertising.
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