Valley of Frozen Tears 3rd best "city/location book" at RPG now [Humor]

[mroberon1972]

Joy of joys! It's the 3rd best product in the city/location boot section of rpg now after less than a week...

The bad news is that I only sold ten copies to get there...

Note to new publishers: Might want to avoid setting books. If what I'm seeing is correct, they don't sell well at all...

 

[Nellisir]

Joy of joys! It's the 3rd best product in the city/location boot section of rpg now after less than a week...

The bad news is that I only sold ten copies to get there...

Note to new publishers: Might want to avoid setting books. If what I'm seeing is correct, they don't sell well at all...

Hey, does this mean I'm on your Christmas card list?

I haven't thoroughly read through the book, but I'll post a review on RPGNow when I do. From the skim-through I've done, though, I'd probably give it a 4. My biggest disappointment was reaching the section on the elves, and finding "more in a later product". The monsters, however, are imaginatively fabulous.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[mroberon1972]

I understand about the eldalar, but I had a quandry when writing the book:

I am planning to build a series of three modules based on the valley, covering a major event that takes place when the PCs are there...

If I tell the actual backstory on the eldalar, then much of the fun of discovering it during the module would be lost.

It's one of those: "How the heck am I supposed to entertain when I have to give everything away in the first fifty pages?", things...


Then again: You do have eight other creatures to torture your players with... And the eldalar are still usable as they currently are. All stats and information are there. I just did not provide about a half dozen pages of history on them.

You really want a x-mas card?

As a side note, if the drop in setting does not sell well enough to warrent the modules, which is possible, I will write up the information of the eldalar as a added PDF for free.

Either way, people will get the data...

 

[Nellisir]

I understand about the eldalar, but I had a quandry when writing the book:

I am planning to build a series of three modules based on the valley, covering a major event that takes place when the PCs are there...

If I tell the actual backstory on the eldalar, then much of the fun of discovering it during the module would be lost.

It's one of those: "How the heck am I supposed to entertain when I have to give everything away in the first fifty pages?", things...

The thing is, it goes against the idea of a convenient, drop-in setting if pertinent information is spread out over 4 books (incidently, I think adventures barely sell at all, let alone ones that rely on a particular setting). It certainly handicaps the DM - if she really wants to run her own adventure involving the eldalar, she's forced to make a decision at this point. She can either create her own backstory (invalidating yours), set aside her plans and wait in the hope yours will be out in a "reasonable" amount of time, or move on to something else. None of them make you, as the publisher, look particularly attractive.

The buyer is almost certainly a DM. DMs aren't reading settings for the thrill of the "story" -- they want something to share with the players. You're not "giving away the story" -- you're giving the DM the information they need to run an informed campaign.

Understand, from what I've read it's a good product. 4 is above average, and I'm not scared to give a 2 or 3. But I do feel it's a flaw in the product. My -opinion- would be to add the 1/2 dozen pages to the product, perhaps with a sidebar explaining that eldalar history should not be revealed to players, update RPGNow, and send out revisions to the buyers.

Cheers
Nell.
Who hasn't sent out Christmas cards in years, and would feel guilty about getting one.

 

[tensen]

Joy of joys! It's the 3rd best product in the city/location boot section of rpg now after less than a week...

The bad news is that I only sold ten copies to get there...

Note to new publishers: Might want to avoid setting books. If what I'm seeing is correct, they don't sell well at all...

That chart is only for the month... not the all-time best sellers.
You can note, #9 on that chart is City Guide 1. Which is #14 on the chart for all-time.
While #11 on the city/location section... is down at #61 of the all-time chart.

 

[mroberon1972]

That chart is only for the month... not the all-time best sellers.
You can note, #9 on that chart is City Guide 1. Which is #14 on the chart for all-time.
While #11 on the city/location section... is down at #61 of the all-time chart.

Ah!!! Now it makes sense...

Well, I'm still number 3! I have to take my good news where I can.

 

[mroberon1972]

The thing is, it goes against the idea of a convenient, drop-in setting if pertinent information is spread out over 4 books (incidently, I think adventures barely sell at all, let alone ones that rely on a particular setting). It certainly handicaps the DM - if she really wants to run her own adventure involving the eldalar, she's forced to make a decision at this point. She can either create her own backstory (invalidating yours), set aside her plans and wait in the hope yours will be out in a "reasonable" amount of time, or move on to something else. None of them make you, as the publisher, look particularly attractive.

The buyer is almost certainly a DM. DMs aren't reading settings for the thrill of the "story" -- they want something to share with the players. You're not "giving away the story" -- you're giving the DM the information they need to run an informed campaign.

I really do understand what you are saying, and I am not going to argue with you on the subject. In fact, I agree on several of your points:

Now let me make a couple:

The eldalar are ment to be a gateway to the modules I was building for the setting. As is, they are perfectly usable by a game master. The GM has the overall history of the eldalar already, since that was covered in much of the book. What they don't have is the way they are going to be used as a plot device in the modules.

I, for one, DO read modules to be entertained. I love a good plot twist better than anybody. If a module does not entertain me in the inital read, I probably won't use it. I buy setting by the same criteria: Entertain me or be left on the shelf.

Mind you, I'm not trying to convince you that you are wrong. Far from it. I understand your issue and hope you can understand mine. This was the best way I found to leave a spot open for the modules without it making a GM's personal changes 'obsolete'.

There is a history for this kind of thing in many setting: Alternity's Star*Drive, Dragon-Lance, the drow in Vault of the Drow. I was just using a system that has been used before to good effect.

Hope that helps you to understand the comprimises I made. I will be more wary of such things in the future.

Thank you,

John Bowden
The Fool
Mr. Oberon