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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bagpuss" data-source="post: 333512" data-attributes="member: 3987">Hope you don't mind me picking up on this quote. Just joining the topic.Lets see of the D20 products I've bought, and bought again...Scarred Lands Setting stuff.Creature Collection got me hooked. It came out first I liked it even with its problems the Monsters were interesting. I can't afford to get into to many settings and I liked this one so nothing has persuaded me to look outside this campaign world yet. Plus the strength of the other products I've bought have kept me hooked, particularly the main setting book and the Hollowfaust sourcebook. I've still not bought 'everything' for it just focus on the area my players are in.Witchfire TrilogyBought the first one mainly for the cover and interior art work, having read it I liked the 'Steampunkish' setting and although I thought the adventure was too rigid (and "Dragonlance" like, IE. Too much story to little player input), I bought the rest again mainly for the art work and setting. Looking forward to Iron Kingdoms, can anyone tell me how it won the "2001 ENnie best setting" yet its now late 2002 and its still not been published?.AEG's Tall and Thin one shot adventuresHey they are cheap and just sitting on the counter by the till asking to be bought! They are like sweeties in the queues are supermarkets. Darn clever bit of marketing.Monte Cook's stuff (also other PDF publishers)Online purchasing of downloadable D20 products, there and then EVEN AT WORK! New sales method direct to your screen, no trip across the Mersey (tunnel fees), find somewhere to park (parking fees) only to find the game shop doesn't have it in stock. Also like AEG's "Tall & Thin" things they are cheap, you don't miss a few quid at a time, but you do think about £15 to £20.Mongoose Publishing D20 Judge DreddErm its Judge Dredd. He is the law, you know, it would be a crime not to buy it. Sorry British so I grew up with 2000AD, so Mongoose are going to just take my money with Dredd and Slaine. That reminds me Slaine is ment to be this month, where's my chequebook?Dark AwakeningsAnother new idea, bought it for the novelty value, hey its got a CD-ROM! Its main book has good production values as well, still haven't got round to reading it, let alone playing it. In fact I can probably safely say I will never play it.Death in FreeportBought it because it was the first, and I seem to be the only person that didn't think it was up to much. Bad Call of Cthulhu rip off in a fantasy setting, as a 'module' it had too much setting info to use in anything but a Freeport campaign and personally I'd rather play real Call of Cthulhu not some D20 rip-off (and that goes for WotC version, why try and improve the best RPG of all time). [Rant mode off]From experience I don't use a quarter of the stuff I buy, and that's probably true of things like the Monster Manual and DMG as well. So I rarely by things because I expect to use ALL the content.So what can you learn from this....1 - Make it available. If its not on a shelf I won't buy it, unless I can get is easily online, (EASY is not waiting for international delivery).2 - It has to stand out. The extra money spent on cover art IS worth it. There are loads of products on the LGS shelves and I might spend all of 20 minutes in there each month. I'm usually going to buy a specific product, but I (like most customers) browse and shiney, pretty things catch my attention. Compare <a href="http://www.2000adrpg.com/images/slaine_cover.jpg" target="_blank">Slaine cover art</a> with say <a href="http://mysticeyegames.com/corebook.html" target="_blank">The Hunt: Rise of Evil</a> I know which one would catch my eye.3 - Have a gimmick! Its sort of a repeat of the 2nd point, it doesn't have to be a new format or a CD, have read about "The Hunt - Rise of Evil" (for the first time) its sparked my interest (the "nightmares and dreams manifest" bit) so I might look for it next time I'm in the LGS if I remember (see next point).4 - Product awareness, everyone has heard of Coke, and Mars bars but it doesn't stop them advertising, its to keep them in your mind so that when you think you need a snack you'll think "hmm not had a Mars in a while". Advertising works (even on the people who say it doesn't work on them) otherwise they wouldn't spend millions on it. You best bet here is Dragon (about the only wide circulation gaming magazine there is) or this place, not the Forums the front page in the news.5 - Quality - hmm maybe this shouldn't have been 5th. Then again looking at Wizards stuff that sells so well maybe it should be 8th. Decent interior art that sparks the imagination, and a great opening two pages, back two pages and middle few pages. Its all you normally look at in the shop. Darn I'm not talking about quality am I I'm back to point 2 again.6 - Okay Quality, well written minimum of errors and if they are there make them unimportant ones. DON'T miss label maps. Make sure everything you need to run an adventure is there or point to where it is. (One thing I hate about Scarred Lands is when they give Prestige Class / Magic Item / Feat to NPC's but the thing isn't in that book and they don't mention where to find it.)  Good binding, and a solid cover.7 Content - You need at least 2 or 3, really useful things that most people will want. The rest can be filler. Now another persons content is my filler and visa versa so you are bound to get some cross over, but you will probably need 2 or 3 things that some leafing through the book will go "that's cool". Since there leafing through, you might want to have an illustration or big text to highlight your "cool thing" and mention it on the back cover, contents page (and even the front cover).8 - Don't worry too much about online reviews if you can still get it on the shop shelves, most people still don't read them anyway. BUT If you do get an award or get a great review a sticker on you book to say so. This goes back to point 2.9 - See Point 2.10 - There is no 10.This is all IMHO (although not only mine, advertisers and publishers seem to have the same ideas).</blockquote>

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