Lots more adventures from Wizards?

[Waylander the Slayer]

Good adventures sell well and maybe even better than other products. The design cost's might be higher is all. For Example, The Shackled City HC is probably one of the best sellers over the past few months. Dungeon magazine does extremely well.
Both Necromancer and Goodman Games seem to be doing fine publishing adventures- I don't think you would find any of their products in a bargain bin.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Both Necromancer and Goodman Games seem to be doing fine publishing adventures- I don't think you would find any of their products in a bargain bin.

You also won't find the owners of those companies (well, Clark and Bill anyway, I don't know about Joseph) giving up their day jobs...

 

[MerricB]

But at the same time, I don't think those games would be at the local book store anyway. Heck, even Barnes & Nobles and Borders usually only have the "Big Books" so to speak. I've sene GURPS and one of the Call of Cthulhu books there, but it's up to the game companies to get into those channels. It's unfair to say it's d20 success as opposed to White Wolf's success or WoTC's success. For example, I don't see a lot of Mongoose products at the standard book store or Bastion Press, both of which are d20 publishers.

My FLGS has recently purged itself of most of its non-Wizards RPG products. Quite rightly, too. Wizards (and particularly D&D) is a proven, consistent seller. Other RPG products go in faddish cycles: a group will get interested for a while, pick up a certain numbers of books, but that will be it.

Just because one group plays Shadowrun doesn't mean anyone else will - and you can't bank on their attention staying with it forever.

D&D, on the other hand, has enough of a gaming population here in Ballarat to keep on selling.

My FLGS will get in other games if you ask for them, but we don't have the population base here for anything but D&D. (Ballarat has about 90,000 people.)

Cheers!

 

[Grimstaff]

I think that for confirmation of the "adventures don't sell" line, all you have to do is drop by your local RPG book seller.

Chances are that if they've got a bargain bin, it's not full of rules and rules supplements (except the truly awful ones...) - it's full of adventures.

Wow, where's this store at? I want to pick up some kewl mods for cheap! All the game stores I freguent in New York and Florida fill their bargain bins with Slayers guides and Swords/Rings/etc of Power's and various other books about monsters and feats and PRCs.

 

[Arnwyn]

So, do you think we'll be seeing a lot more adventures from Wizards? Will they be releasing them at the rate of one a month?

I don't know, but I sure hope so. I'm (finally) pretty exciting about the direction WotC is taking, especially in terms of their move into publishing some adventures (though I'm not currently impressed with their current offering, as those "adventurelets" with terrible maps aren't what I find valuable).

But Sons of Gruumsh looks acceptible from what I've skimmed so far (if a little short) and I'm really looking forward to Red Hand of Doom, which looks considerably larger (128 pages?).

That, plus Dungeon, plus Necromancer Games is what I buy nowadays. (I haven't bought a rulebook in almost a year.)

 

[Warbringer]

You also won't find the owners of those companies (well, Clark and Bill anyway, I don't know about Joseph) giving up their day jobs...

Which makes you wonder about the medium.

The adventures are small, which suggests either an extended book, with multiple unconnected adventures, or a pdf release. using freelancers at about $250 an adventure. 10 hours editing per adventure, 10 hours design per adventure, 5 pieces art per ($50 ea), and cover art ($500)...

Soft costs about $13000
Hard Costs based on 5,000 run ($3.50)

Costs $31,000

At 40% margin for Wizards, 20% for dis, 50% for retail looking at a product that sells for $24.99

10 adventures... I'd go for it, and $30K is a small investment. They could easily do that once a qtr chasing themes...

Of Fire and Rain 10 adventures featuring elementals of varoius sizes and natures
Time to Kill 10 adventures set exclusively in a small city where the party becomes embroiled in local events as they wait for their next adventure
Along came a spider and ... From ancient forests to the depths of hell comes 10 adventures to change even the most hardened Paladin into an arachnophobe.
Tales of the Wood 10 adventures of 'Animals Gone Wild"....

 

[rgard]

I think that is where my bard got his nasty sword...black razor? Yes, a 1st Ed manly bard where you had to work your butt off to qualify!

I'm probably alone here, but I'll call BS on that claim that they had great classics compared to the stuff now. Back then they were original and new for their time, but a lot of them suffer horribly in comparission to the stuff out now. I love White Plume Mountain, but it's not a good adventure by any stretch of the imagination. Some great magic items, some neat puzzles, the giant crab. Good adventure? Why are the PC's there? Who are they giving the items back to? How do they find out more about the ruler of the mountain? What was that undead dragon bit?

Lots of originality for it's time, but not today.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

The adventures are small, which suggests either an extended book, with multiple unconnected adventures, or a pdf release.

I don't think they're planning to publish any of the adventures from the design test (though they say they might send them over to Dungeon). I think it really is just a test. If they like it they'll give you a longer assignment, but they'll probably be get hundreds of these, so to ease their sanity they want to keep them as short as possible.

 

[Altalazar]

I'd love to see more adventures. How many people are doing this contest here who are on the boards now? I have an idea I'm working on, but I'm not sure I'll have time to implement it.