Marketing Possibilities?

[tommybahama]

There was a Kickstarter recently for a deck of pregenerated characters with original artwork on each card. You could try finding that Kickstarter and seeing how successful it was.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Patreon can be a good place to sell your stuff. But you are restricted to OGL stuff.

I'm not sure that's true. I think if you want to create and share a GURPS character using GURPS rules, that seems pretty straightforward, as long as you are not including any copyrighted art and not using the actual text from the books.

 

[LordEntrails]

I'm not sure that's true. I think if you want to create and share a GURPS character using GURPS rules, that seems pretty straightforward, as long as you are not including any copyrighted art and not using the actual text from the books.

True, but the OP has already implied they are working with D&D 5E characters. So I continued the implied assumption. Let's suffice it to say that with Patreon you have no special access or license to anyone else's Intellectual Property. On the DMsG you do.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I generally don't draw a distinction between PCs and NPCs. I build the latter as if they were the former, and don't treat the former as if they're more special than the latter.

You'll need to make that distinction in your pitch. I don't think , "A large selection of pre build charaters with well written backstories and characterization that people can play as" would sell well. However, "A large selection of pre builded NPCs with well writtren backstories and characterization that a DM can use to populate their town/adventure/world" may fare better.

 

[GrahamWills]

The mechanics require actual work, number-crunching and cross-referencing and so forth; background and story is literally just making stuff up (or stealing from your favorite TV shows). I'm not trying to put anyone down, but are there really people who find it impossible to imagine a basic character backstory? You sit down to play a Paladin, you pick out your Paladin oath based on its mechanical effects which interest you - do you not then IMMEDIATELY think "my guy has the Oath of Vengeance because orcs wiped out his village" or some such?

Some people do design characters the way you suggest -- build a mechanical game piece and then add on a background which explains the game mechanics. But many people are more story-forward, thinking up a character's story and then trying to work out how to make it work mechanically. For me, I usually mull over a story for a few weeks. Building the character takes maybe half an hour, and nearly always changes after playing a few sessions.

More worrying also for your plan is that the people who ARE mechanics-first are the people who like to make characters themselves and so are most unlikely to use your service. I'd think you actually need to appeal to the players who think exactly opposite to you -- the people who say "I was driven to be a paladin because I felt an inner calling from Desna that despite trying to avoid, I could not resist -- find me the mechanics to make that work".

Honesty, since I think your appeal will be limited to a certain style of player, I thin you'll need to cast your net broadly. You just won't attract people from one system to make it worthwhile. To be successful, you need to be "the site" that people go to for characters; I would suggest that each character you produce needs to be provided:

• In both PC (long) and NPC (short) format. maybe split the NPC into a "serious" NPC with background and info, and a "throwaway" version. Fate has a good supplement explains how to do this.
• For at least three or four systems. 5E, PF2, BRP, Fate would be my suggestions, but if you limit to fantasy, maybe a different list would be appropriate.

If you started with maybe 40-60 characters across 3-4 systems, that might be an attractive point for people to buy into. You can give 4-6 away for free, and hopefully attract them to payoff the other 90%

 

[Lanefan]

If at all possible, I'd suggest including a not-cartoonish simple portrait as a part of each character's write-up. Doesn't even have to be in colour, as long as it a) gets the general idea across of what the character looks like, b) doesn't have the silly over-the-top weapons and armour that ruined so much 3e-era art, and c) agrees with the character's write-up.

By c) I mean that if a character is written up as a master swordswoman, for example, then make sure the art doesn't show her waving around a mace.

Most of us aren't sketchers or painters or other-visual-artist-types, and finding decent character art can be a (sometimes expensive) headache and time sink.