Poll about 3PP planar products for the Great Beyond

[kenmarable]

After a few years away, I'm getting back into RPG writing again and was thinking of taking a stab at producing some planar products for Pathfinder since it's often an under-served niche and I just love that stuff (plus Paizo has opened a fair amount of their cosmology - thanks!). But I'm that player who writes up 4 different PCs at the beginning of a campaign and then has to randomly pick which one to use because he can't decide. Same thing happening here, too. So I figured I would ask and see if there is more interest in any of these ideas over the others.

I'm leaning towards a hybrid sourcebook/adventure anthology format maybe in the 96 page range, but that's entirely flexible. They would be Pathfinder compatible, but heavier on the fluff than the crunch most likely - lots of locations, NPCs, plot ideas. Also, if there is interest, I am looking to build these into a line (tentatively) called Planar Frontiers. Planescape focused heavily on Sigil, and I'm looking to counter that with focusing more on the "wilds" of the Planes. Ruins, and small settlements far from big civilizations. Planar prospectors, bordertowns where two planes bleed into each other, those sorts of things.

A) Caravans of the Mercane
Adventures start innocently enough as caravan guards for traveling mercane merchants, but of course there is far more to their agenda - and their selecting the PCs - than at first appears. Include information on the mercane race as well as several planar trade companies. Several locations that feature planar bazaars. Information on various forms of planar travel beyond the traditional spells and magic items - from shifting your beliefs while travel to shift planes to "backroads" that only traveling merchants now about.

B) Pirates of the Silver Void (or just Sailing the Silver Void)
Fleshing out the Astral Plane with locations, organizations, and plots enough to support an entire campaign. Would also possibly include magical ship information (although I'd love for Sailing the Starlit Sea to get funded and be able to use or reference their ideas in a complimentary way).

C) Unnamed book on traveling planar circus/carnival/freakshow
Been burning through names on this one trying to find something with a lot of character but not too cheesy. I'll get there. But a sourcebook/adventure anthology on a traveling performance troupe that could be enemies, allies, or even the PCs themselves. Just an FYI - back when I played Warhammer 40K, I was Eldar Harlequins every time. So I love this mash up of bizarre circus/carnival and gaming.

D) Book of Elemental Fire
The first of 4 building up the elemental planes with locations, organizations, NPCs, plots, adventures, etc. Could see a bit more crunch creeping into this one with some definite new archetypes, support for the Ifrit, etc. I think there's plenty of great stuff that could be done with all of the elemental planes, but fire is of course an easier one to make exciting and help build initial interest. The elemental planes are an area that even Planescape didn't go too deeply into. A while back I even sketched out ideas to make an all elemental plane campaign viable with conflicts between genies and elder elementals, etc.

So, do any of these 4 appeal to you?

Lastly, on a related note, I am looking to use Kickstarter to get this funded (Claudio Pozas is already slated to do the cover artwork), but for a primarily digital product what sort of rewards would be enticing? I will probably include limited edition soft and hardcover options printed through Lulu for the higher backers. Otherwise, is varying levels of input into the design enticing? Or more tangible rewards better?

Thanks for the input!!
-Ken

(Note: Cross-posted from Paizo boards, but that thread didn't catch anyone's eye yet, plus we can do polls here! )

 

[Shemeska]

All of it?

D sounds really cool though.

 

[amethal]

All of it?

D sounds really cool though.

Yeah, all of it. We aren't being much help here!

Of the four, the one that appeals most to me is A, and the one that appeals least is D. (I also don't think "cool" is quite the right word to describe D )

As far as Kickstarter goes, I've signed up to a couple (although they are both running months if not years behind schedule, unfortunately ), and I'll happily sign up to yours, but I'm not interested in having any input into the design.

 

[Eleclipse]

They all seem interesting, having to pick one i'll take Pirates of the Silver Void, i like the concept and i would really love to have some good material on "planar-ship"

 

[afstanton]

I think you'll find that you can't use Planescape or Sigil in any way, as those are property of WotC, and not Open Content, to the best of my knowledge.

Plenty of regions to explore and create detail for, just not that.

 

[Lwaxy]

I voted just traveling but all of it would work, too

 

[kenmarable]

They all seem interesting, having to pick one i'll take Pirates of the Silver Void, i like the concept and i would really love to have some good material on "planar-ship"

Thanks! I'm pretty excited about it, too. However, with "Sailing the Starlit Sea" now being worked on, I want to see what they are doing first so that I can compliment it rather than overlap it well since the "flying ships" concepts are similar, but I do know we will put definite different spins on them. However, I'm a Kickstarter backer of the project, so hopefully I'll get that info sooner rather than later. Then I can see whether it would work well to do something to be released very shortly after to get some synergy, or wait and let them have their time and then build off of it slightly later. *shrug* Guess we'll see.

Kinda funny comparing results here and at Paizo.com. Here the Pirates of the Silver Void is most popular, but over there almost no one has shown interest.

Well, at least it's nice to know that none of the ideas have zero support. Might have to instead just decide based on more logistical stuff (like what I have the most stuff fleshed out for already, what has the lowest artwork needs, etc.)

Also, as plans get more concrete, it's looking like I will be writing some shorter products first whole the larger ones are being worked on in the background. But we'll see. And once I have firm plans, I'll come back and discuss them. Right now it's definitely in the "Throw a bunch of stuff out there and see what sticks" brainstorming stage.

 

[kenmarable]

I think you'll find that you can't use Planescape or Sigil in any way, as those are property of WotC, and not Open Content, to the best of my knowledge.

Plenty of regions to explore and create detail for, just not that.

No worries, I'm well aware of what is Open Content and what isn't. I've been freelancing and following the OGL discussions very closely since Ryan Dancey was floating the draft version around. (Some days I followed far too closely - you wouldn't believe the number of electrons spilled on industry email lists debating whether PI is a subset of OGC - that is unusable - or if it is a separate type of content. *yawn*)

I wanted to focus on the wilds of the planes so that I could compliment the old Planescape material if anyone wanted to use it, but was distanced enough that I can get away without addressing any of it and not feeling like something was obviously missing. I don't want to dance around with references like "the big city with lots of portals ruled by some mysterious lady" that are legally iffy at best, and lame either way.

Also, one reason why I really like using Pathfinder is that Paizo has opened up the basics of their outer planes. Some names are swapped out with public domain names, but enough basics are there that I can write stuff that is OGL compliant and still fit in pretty obvious ways with their cosmology (which is similar enough to the old WotC Great Wheel that it's not too hard to translate between them as well).

I just reference the Planescape stuff in my message to get the idea across quickly. Official company products and advertisements will be suitably clear of WotC's IP.

So no worries and thanks for the interest!