More stand alone modules, please.

[Steel_Wind]

On a side note, aweomse Soth icon, SteelWind.

Glad you like it, as it's a one of a kind. It was drawn for me by Henry Martinez. He used to draw Ghost Rider/Blaze and some other comics for Marvel back in the day.

I was going to change it a few years ago when a lot of people on ENWorld were asking what the hell it was supposed to be but enough people persuaded me that it was just fine so I've stuck with it. I've had it for six or seven years now -- too long a time to dump it now.

 

[James Jacobs]

While our Adventure Path line is doing VERY well, our modules line is not as robust. There's several reasons for this, I suspect... but I think the two big ones are:

1) 32-page adventures lack a spine and thus can't be displayed easilly on shelves, so many bookstores don't stock them. No spine = no interest for a LOT of bookstores and distributors, and thus the modules are for sale in a lot fewer stores.

2) Folks really REALLY like the serialized adventures. A LOT.

That said, our modules line is still profitable, so we'll keep doing them for now. And on top of that, don't forget our Pathfinder Society adventures; we produce two of these a month, and they're a real treasure trove of short, fun adventures, even though they're PDF only!

 

[Reynard]

1) 32-page adventures lack a spine and thus can't be displayed easilly on shelves, so many bookstores don't stock them. No spine = no interest for a LOT of bookstores and distributors, and thus the modules are for sale in a lot fewer stores.

Out of curiosity, do you think that if they did have a spine -- i.e., was a 96 page module plus supplement -- they would do better. If you combined one of the Chronicles or Companions material with a module (that, of course, were related in some way) would that improve the "robustness" of the standalone module and/or the supplementary material? Which I guess begs the question of what sells better: modules or companions?

2) Folks really REALLY like the serialized adventures. A LOT.

I find this interesting. While I *like* the APs (I justed started getting them with Kingmaker, but own and have read the first 5 parts of RotRL) and there's lots of good stuff in there, the fact is that my gaming group is not the "Adventure Path" type. None of us want to "know" what the campaign is going to be or be about. Or, more to the point, the idea of the "story campaign" isn't a draw. That said, as I get older with more responsibilities, and the rules sets get more complex, having well designed pre-written modules is becoming more and more valuable to me. I can shoehorn Realm of the Fellnight Queen into my D&D-ized post-Roman Britain campaign setting (and have!) but it is a lot harder to pull out just the brief "6th leve bits" of say RotRL. Sure, I can use individual encounters and stat blocks -- which *is* helpful, don't get me wrong -- but the APs are less modular than I would like. Again, though, I am not complaining about quality, just grumbling that Paizo doesn't plan their publishing output around my personal preferences.

That said, our modules line is still profitable, so we'll keep doing them for now.

And I'll keep buying them. A good module can sit on the shelf for a long time until an opportunity to run it comes up.[/quote]

And on top of that, don't forget our Pathfinder Society adventures; we produce two of these a month, and they're a real treasure trove of short, fun adventures, even though they're PDF only!

Right you are, sir. Is there a good, concise listing somewhere of these modules -- the basic plots, whether they are event or site based, etc..?

 

[JoeGKushner]

Boxed set.

A series of short advneturers linked together that allows the GM to run independ advneturers with sidebars for using other official published advnetuers with several high quality maps, player hand outs, illustrations of main NPCs, and new rules specific to that boxed set.

 

[joebobodo]

1) 32-page adventures lack a spine and thus can't be displayed easilly on shelves, so many bookstores don't stock them. No spine = no interest for a LOT of bookstores and distributors, and thus the modules are for sale in a lot fewer stores.

Just as a fun tidbit so that you know there are those of us out there fighting the good fight: I'm a manager at a Barnes & Noble, and one of my pet projects is the RPG section. D&D 4e has done really well for us, so we have a pretty big selection of that stuff, but I really wanted to branch out a bit, and as a big Pathfinder fan, I thought I'd give that a go in our store.

I started bringing in some Pathfinder stuff over the past couple months. Started with the 3 hardcovers (core, bestiary, gmg), and we've done quite well there. So, encouraged, I started bringing in some of the adventure path volumes and saw immediate sales. So far so good!

Now, I've just ordered in a couple of Pathfinder modules. I feature our Pathfinder stuff in a waterfall display so that everything is facing cover out (therefore lack of spines isn't an issue), so I'm looking forward to seeing what the modules do. I'll try to remember to report back here with my findings.

 

[IronWolf]

Just as a fun tidbit so that you know there are those of us out there fighting the good fight: I'm a manager at a Barnes & Noble, and one of my pet projects is the RPG section. D&D 4e has done really well for us, so we have a pretty big selection of that stuff, but I really wanted to branch out a bit, and as a big Pathfinder fan, I thought I'd give that a go in our store.3

I started bringing in some Pathfinder stuff over the past couple months. Started with the 3 hardcovers (core, bestiary, gmg), and we've done quite well there. So, encouraged, I started bringing in some of the adventure path volumes and saw immediate sales. So far so good!

Awesome! Grassroots Pathfinder promotion efforts! Glad to hear it is doing well when given the chance in the larger bookstores.

 

[Dimitris]

Returning from a vacation trip in Paris, I could say that Pathfinder is doing well in central hobby stores there. I bought some modules I had missed, a player's guide to the first AP plus a pathfinder-compatible book (warpath). I also saw Pathfinder AP translated in French.

 

[James Jacobs]

Just as a fun tidbit so that you know there are those of us out there fighting the good fight: I'm a manager at a Barnes & Noble, and one of my pet projects is the RPG section. D&D 4e has done really well for us, so we have a pretty big selection of that stuff, but I really wanted to branch out a bit, and as a big Pathfinder fan, I thought I'd give that a go in our store.

I started bringing in some Pathfinder stuff over the past couple months. Started with the 3 hardcovers (core, bestiary, gmg), and we've done quite well there. So, encouraged, I started bringing in some of the adventure path volumes and saw immediate sales. So far so good!

Now, I've just ordered in a couple of Pathfinder modules. I feature our Pathfinder stuff in a waterfall display so that everything is facing cover out (therefore lack of spines isn't an issue), so I'm looking forward to seeing what the modules do. I'll try to remember to report back here with my findings.

This is always great news to hear! (Sorry I didn't reply sooner, too!)

I'm always curious to find out how 32-page books sell, because they're relatively easy and cheap to create. If we can figure out how to get them into more places... that's always good.

But as a general rule, since space on shelves is limited, most bookstores prefer to display the majority of their offerings spine out, since that takes up less space. And books without spines are hard to notice or even catch the eye. Gaming stores and comic stores are generally a better place to sell the spineless books, since they're set up to be able to display products cover out.

 

[joebobodo]

This is always great news to hear! (Sorry I didn't reply sooner, too!)

No problem. I like to see a quality, well-run company succeed, and this is just my little way of trying to contribute. Us big box stores aren't all bad.

I'm always curious to find out how 32-page books sell, because they're relatively easy and cheap to create. If we can figure out how to get them into more places... that's always good.

Like I said, I'll try to remember to post back here as I see how things are going. Unfortunately there aren't a whole lot of copies of these things in our warehouses, so it takes awhile for them to come in. I'm starting to see them trickle into the inventory though.

But as a general rule, since space on shelves is limited, most bookstores prefer to display the majority of their offerings spine out, since that takes up less space. And books without spines are hard to notice or even catch the eye. Gaming stores and comic stores are generally a better place to sell the spineless books, since they're set up to be able to display products cover out.

This I totally get, and can definitely see as a problem in the majority of big retail bookstores. I'm lucky in that I'm pretty much given free reign with that whole department to do whatever I want because I've shown the sales to support my actions. I do my best to make ample use of feature shelves, waterfall displays, and endcaps with the rpg stuff so that it's as in your face as possible, all face-out.

(Just need to keep on the downlow at work that I get all my APs and Modules through my Paizo subscriptions. Shhhhh... )