Publishing modules that don't slot into existing campaigns

[Bayushi_seikuro]

That said, I agree with the "how does this matter to the adventure at hand?" approach. You don't need to say "there are no dragons" if it doesn't have any effect on the adventure.

Agreed. I think the only reason to mention 'there are no dragons' is if the naval survey ship is supporting a Darwinian expedition to test someone's theory about a lost 'dragon's graveyard' and it benefits the Crown to humor the assertion.

 

[aco175]

You say it right here.

It's set in a pastiche regency world, focussing on the voyage of a naval survey ship to a mysterious island. For various reasons, it's important that certain things are true - guns have supplanted bows, dragons are extinct and the list of ancestries is limited. Essentially, it's a mini homebrew setting intending to evoke Hornblower, Sharpe, Master and Commander and so on.

Just use a sidebar like what @the Jester says above and people will get it. Maybe lists some ways to change things for no guns or how adding other classes will change certain encounters. Encourage other DMs to change it how they see fit.

 

[ninjayeti]

From the perspective of someone who buys a fair number of indy/3pp adventures I would say an adventure that was designed for an author's homebrew setting rather than one that was designed to fit into a generic campaign setting would almost certainly be a hard pass for me. This is particularly true if it was a first time author. As a first time author I am already taking a chance on your work - if you are telling me that the adventure is not going to work in my own setting you are just giving me a great reason to skip it and look a the dozens and dozens of other indy adventures available.

If you are writing it for fun, by all means write whatever is fun for you! I applaud your efforts to put something out into the community. But if you want me to spend my money on it then make it a product that I am going to be able to use as seamlessly as possible.

 

[bloodtide]

You should write and publish what you want to and like. Don't fall into the trap that everything must be One Way.

The market is full of generic stuff that can be plugged into a generic game. If you sell that you will make a "small and steady" income.

But what the market has much less of are unique ideas. That is what many buyers are looking for, not Keep on the Borderlands XXXVI.

The vast majority of all DM will alter a published module anyway. There are DM that have Judges Guild Modules from the Time Before Time, that they alter to 5E. Earthshaker is an old D&D module I have use for lots of games: because the giant fantasy mecha is a fairly unique idea.

You can always add a conversion section too...

 

[dragoner]

My experience is to say get it done and publish it, expanding the scope is something for another edition.