If I ran an RPG company I would make_________.

[Frostmarrow]

If I ran an RPG company I would make hardbound four-color adventure modules. Yes, I wasn't the first to say so but it bears repeating.

I'd make it a book for the retailers hate boxes and I can see why. They break, and customers can't flip through them.

... And then I would release the maps, as a stand alone product in 1" is 5' scale!

(Wouldn't it be great to get all the maps on transparent vinyl?)

 

[Neo]

Hmm I would produce FALLOUT d20 for sheer Pipboy, Vaultdwelling goodness... and not some game that can be used for Fallout, or some other games that similar but the real PIPBOY loving deal...

 

[obiwanchunn]

I don't know if I would want to do it, as it's a lot of work, but I know it would buy it:

o A book with Expanded NPC tables like the ones in the DMG. One or more for each class and one or more for each Prestiege class (PrC). Currently 90% of the PrCs are worthless dreck to the players (I mean you can only have *so* many PCs). A DM could use most of them, however -- it just takes too much time to come up with a PrC NPC.

o Along the same lines: I would love to see a monster book with all the SRD monsters pre-advanced and stated-out. It is too hard to make high-level versions of monsters and it is especially annoying when your 15th level party kills the critter you spent a couple hours stating-up with a hold monster or similar annoying spell.

Anytime anyone makes a new PrCor monster, if it came with an NPC tables and/or advanced stats, I would not hesitate to get it. I don't know how many products I have bought just to get the NPC/creature stat blocks.

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Two things, one simple, one nigh-impossible.

1. D&D Lite. It shouldn't be that hard to take the SRD, rip out the complex pieces, put the whole back together to form a simplified set of rules for beginners. I honestly don't know why no one has done this yet.

2. The ultimate DM's electronic toolkit. I use several electronic aids to prepare my games, and still don't have anywhere near everything I need. I especially don't have it all in one place (program). I would attempt to create a single program with the following features:

*Character creation/management
*Spell creation/management
*Item creation/management
*Creature creation/management
*Town/Kingdom creation/management
*Organization creation/management
*Stock npc's
*Campaign organization tools
*Complete copy of the SRD, searchable via hypertext and search-word
*Ability to handle house rules
*Various outputs, including characters, stat-blocks, maps, spell-sheets, combat charts.

I know some of the products currently available have many of these features, but we still don't have one easy-to-use, all-encompassing tool. For example, no one offers a tool that allows me to create characters using all the SRD classes, races, creatures, templates, armor, weapons, magic items, and equipment. And then gets the numbers right. And then allows the easy addition of new classes, races, items, etc. And then outputs the info in the specific format I want. And doesn't require me to be a programmer to do it.

Like I said, nigh-impossible.

 

[Morpheus]

I would make a book that was absolutely incomprehensible to the average gamer. Then, I would mock them when they asked questions about it by saying, "What are you, stupid? My 3 year-old daughter can figure this out!" And, I would laugh all the way to the bank...Wait, this has already been done. It's called...

 

[bubbalin]

--- A booklet about playing the game, not just the rules. The metagame, the elements of playing a role in a group of different individuals, common tendencies and patterns found in people and groups when playing such games, etc. A real orientation. It would also include a very basic intro to how statistics/probability/dice work within a game, and a basic intro to personality psychology (like maybe Myers-Briggs personality types and their contribution to one's appreciation for different characters and players).

-- A similar booklet for DM's.

I can't agree more on these, but I would make it slightly generic. Maybe for the d20 system, and not jsut D&D. May as well get as much of the market as possible...

 

[drothgery]

I'd somehow convince WotC, Robert Jordan, and Tor Books to let me make a revised, extensively playtested, OGL edition of d20 Wheel of Time, because I rather like the system (and almost all the novels), even if it has some kinks that need straightening out. And then I'd release the classes, with Jordan's copyrighted material stripped out, as open gaming content, for anyone who wants to play in a rare magic item (but certainly not low-magic) game.

 

[Paladin]

...Custom Dice Bags like the old Bag of Dice Holding

Are you talking about these?

 

[Azazyll]

well, not many people reading this anymore, and it's very clear most people don't share my views, but anything to put off research:

1) A book on Law and Chaos done to the level of BoVD and BoED. Flesh out incarnates and Slaadi (although they aren't OGC, but hey, we all like fantasy or we wouldn't have this hobby), give spells to people with the Law and Chaos domains, generally bring the ethical axis up to the moral axis in terms of importance. And really define that chaos isn't evil. I mean really this time.

2) Instead of all these books on how to roleplay, which are incredibly heavy handed, how about a book on how to make a society that could reasonably function, like "A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" but instead of basing it on a particular culture just give some general guidelines of how an economy and political structure works. Maybe it would mitigate the pain I feel when I read most campaign settings and realize how totally infeasible even the low magic societies are. Or maybe I just read too much Ravenloft. Anyway, just because magic exists in a society doesn't mean all rational rules for it go out the window. Someone should sit down and think rationally about how it would affect an economy and society. Looks like Eberron is a step in the right direction this way, but that's just hype until we see it in print.

3) Flesh out turning, please! We get this great snippet in the PHB about all the things turning might be able to do other than turn undead, but very little ahs actually come out of it, just a few feats really. I would like to see the cleric move away from spellcasting and get his own system based around turning, which would be better called channeling once it's potential beyond getting you out of the graveyard is discovered.

just some out-there thoughts that no one else seems to have thought of

 

[scourger]

If I ran an RPG company (not the company making the core books), I would make products like the ones I buy and love the most:

1) portable adventures (i.e. Dungeon magazine and Goodman Games Classic Dungeon Crawl)

2) mini games based on D&D (i.e. Polyhedron's Omega World & V for Victory and Fantasy Flight's Horizon line (especially Spellslinger!))

3) adventures with counters and pre-generated characters (i.e The Giant's Skull)

4) game settings based on D&D with adventures (i.e. Judge Dredd & DragonStar; Skull & Bones to a leser extent)

My dream product would be a campaign adventure book with elements of the foregoing. First and foremost, it must be based on d20 D&D. The idea can't stray too far and only as much as is really necessary. No change just for the sake of change. 2) A concise set of new rules to enable the camapign; meaning only a few new races, classes, skills, feats, equipment & rules (if any). These things should add to the core game, not seek to supplant it. 3) A brief setting or backstory. A little of this goes a long way. 4) A series of short, connected adventures for easy campaign play. 5) Pregenerated characters. 6) Counters for all the PCs, NPCs and foes. 7) One page of advice for the DM running such a game. 8) As few pages as possible; 128 is probably reasonable. About 200 is acceptable.

That's my input.