RangerWickett
Legend
This thread is in response to the amazing lack of activity on this board. 
Let's get some discussion going. I plan to post this thread, and another thread asking gamers what supplements they want to see. Consolidate the whole thing.
Nothing stinks more than realizing that your cool idea for a product is already being made by another company. Sure, for the customer, having three possibilities, such as there will be for Superhero supplements, is a good thing, since they can read reviews and figure out which they like best. But for the publisher and writer, you'll often want to have unique products so you won't have competition. It's a give and take, and it might be hard to balance the publisher's desire to have the only 'Big Book of Bugs' against the gamer's desire to have several big books of bugs to choose from. But I think there are enough products overall that even wildly different books are competing. Mongoose's Slayers Guides might steal purchases from Fiery Dragon's adventures, if for no reason other than that gamers like all kinds of stuff and they can only afford so much.
Regardless of whether you have direct competition, a publisher should want to produce the best product possible in order to be competitive.
So I've already established that in a perfect market, everyone would strive for the best, and you wouldn't need topical competition to make you work hard. Thus, the gamers' interests are already covered, since they want to buy the best games around, and publishers are trying to make the best ones they can. So let's focus on the publishers' desires. It can be worrisome that someone might beat you to the punch, so let's all be honest, and admit what we have on our schedules, and what we would like to publish in the future.
Natural 20 Press
Supers: We already have scheduled a book on characters with superpowers, like in many comic books. We're trying to make it as flexible as possible, so you can have superheroic characters in fantasy, modern day, sci-fi. . . . Practically any setting that uses d20 rules.
Mythic Earth: Scheduled for this Christmas, Mythic Earth will present guidelines for using real-world myths in your D20 gaming, and suggestions on how to create your own world's mythos. With Mythic Earth, you'd be able to run a game in pre-Columbian South America, the mystic voodoo lands of Haiti, the world of the fey, or in the lands of any other notable mythology from Earth history.
Future Ideas: I know I want to eventually write a book with a lot of different locations for combats, and advice for running varying styles of fights. Go for Epic, a la Braveheart, or do Swashbuckling a la The Princess Bride, disgustingly manly like in Excalibur, or fast-paced and elegant as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
We'd also like to release a time travel product, since it seems from Mongoose's PR that their own Chronomancy book won't actually involve altering history. It's a common enough theme in stories, so it seems like a waste to neglect its possibility.
We're planning to avoid campaign settings and adventures. Even though we're a community publishing company, our main goal isn't to help people make their own games public, but rather to provide products that many gamers could make use of. Of course, if we see something great, we could be convinced to publish it. I'm trying to convince Russ to let me write and publish a fantasy comic, but I think it will take a little more convincing before he agrees.
So, what do all of the publishers plan or hope to release?
Let's get some discussion going. I plan to post this thread, and another thread asking gamers what supplements they want to see. Consolidate the whole thing.Nothing stinks more than realizing that your cool idea for a product is already being made by another company. Sure, for the customer, having three possibilities, such as there will be for Superhero supplements, is a good thing, since they can read reviews and figure out which they like best. But for the publisher and writer, you'll often want to have unique products so you won't have competition. It's a give and take, and it might be hard to balance the publisher's desire to have the only 'Big Book of Bugs' against the gamer's desire to have several big books of bugs to choose from. But I think there are enough products overall that even wildly different books are competing. Mongoose's Slayers Guides might steal purchases from Fiery Dragon's adventures, if for no reason other than that gamers like all kinds of stuff and they can only afford so much.
Regardless of whether you have direct competition, a publisher should want to produce the best product possible in order to be competitive.
So I've already established that in a perfect market, everyone would strive for the best, and you wouldn't need topical competition to make you work hard. Thus, the gamers' interests are already covered, since they want to buy the best games around, and publishers are trying to make the best ones they can. So let's focus on the publishers' desires. It can be worrisome that someone might beat you to the punch, so let's all be honest, and admit what we have on our schedules, and what we would like to publish in the future.
Natural 20 Press
Supers: We already have scheduled a book on characters with superpowers, like in many comic books. We're trying to make it as flexible as possible, so you can have superheroic characters in fantasy, modern day, sci-fi. . . . Practically any setting that uses d20 rules.
Mythic Earth: Scheduled for this Christmas, Mythic Earth will present guidelines for using real-world myths in your D20 gaming, and suggestions on how to create your own world's mythos. With Mythic Earth, you'd be able to run a game in pre-Columbian South America, the mystic voodoo lands of Haiti, the world of the fey, or in the lands of any other notable mythology from Earth history.
Future Ideas: I know I want to eventually write a book with a lot of different locations for combats, and advice for running varying styles of fights. Go for Epic, a la Braveheart, or do Swashbuckling a la The Princess Bride, disgustingly manly like in Excalibur, or fast-paced and elegant as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
We'd also like to release a time travel product, since it seems from Mongoose's PR that their own Chronomancy book won't actually involve altering history. It's a common enough theme in stories, so it seems like a waste to neglect its possibility.
We're planning to avoid campaign settings and adventures. Even though we're a community publishing company, our main goal isn't to help people make their own games public, but rather to provide products that many gamers could make use of. Of course, if we see something great, we could be convinced to publish it. I'm trying to convince Russ to let me write and publish a fantasy comic, but I think it will take a little more convincing before he agrees.
So, what do all of the publishers plan or hope to release?
