Greetings,

I've been mulling over a little venture to potentially generate a small additional income and I'd really appreciate it if you fine folks could give me your tuppence worth of thoughts (or your ten cents depending on geographical location!) and feedback.

The idea is to produce a series of RPG adventures/scenarios which would be ready-made whilst being non-rules specific. Content such as traps/encounters etc which require some form of stats for any given system will be accompanied by the author's guidelines as to challenge/difficulty level and left up to the end user GM to customise as needed.

I'll summarise the key elements that I have planned for the packs:

The focus will very much be on creating a strong and compelling NARRATIVE. Although there will be dungeons and other traditional settings included, the plan is to avoid two dimensional crawls. This approach can be especially time consuming for those GM's writing their own material. Each adventure will have a consistent and fluid writing style, aiming toward real literary merit whilst still remaining appropriate for the genre.

All packs will be made available as PDF's and will contain all the illustrated maps, floorplans, player handouts, etc required.

Some adventures will operate as one-off stand alone packs, whilst others will form part of a larger connected story campaign.

Initially the setting will be a generic fantasy one, easily inserted into any existing game world. If the interest is there, a number of different gam environments will be developed (e.g. Hard Sci-fi, Space opera, Wild West, Modern horror, historical etc).

Packs will be available via download and priced extremely cheaply, I'm looking at around $2.50 USD, £1.50 GBP – slightly more for longer works.

A free beginning adventure will be made available for folks to try out the writing style and format to see if they are use to them before parting with any cash.

OK, well that's the outline anyway. Please do let me know of you think there would be a market and a decent level of interest in such a product. I'm not expecting to retire a wealthy man through this project, I simply enjoy writing and although I don't really have the time/gaming group to get games in myself these days, it would be lovely to earn a little extra whilst indulging my creative urges!

Many thanks,

Mark
damnrightigottheblues at googlemail.com

If they are cheap enough then that would be an interesting idea.

You would probably need to give a very short summary of the NPCs (Large Bandit, Quick Thief, Wise Head Man) to give an idea of how to use them in different systems.

Hi Soltakss,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes that's certainly the way to go, sorry I didn't make that clear in my OP. I will include descriptions of the NPC's and monsters, also providing guidance on what challenge level traps, creatures etc should pose (I'll probably include a standardised system at the beginning of each, so players can equate my suggestions to their system requirements).

Mark

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730208The focus will very much be on creating a strong and compelling NARRATIVE. Although there will be dungeons and other traditional settings included, the plan is to avoid two dimensional crawls. This approach can be especially time consuming for those GM's writing their own material. Each adventure will have a consistent and fluid writing style, aiming toward real literary merit whilst still remaining appropriate for the genre.

:popcorn:

I don't think there is too much of a market for completely generic modules. Probably better to create some simple statlines for at least one of the most popular systems.

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730208The focus will very much be on creating a strong and compelling NARRATIVE. Although there will be dungeons and other traditional settings included, the plan is to avoid two dimensional crawls. This approach can be especially time consuming for those GM's writing their own material. Each adventure will have a consistent and fluid writing style, aiming toward real literary merit whilst still remaining appropriate for the genre.

My bet is troll.

Is this the same post as http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?716669-Feedback-needed!-Cheap-ready-to-rock-Narrative-adventure-packs!-) on RPG.NET?

Hello all,

I'm afraid I'm not really much of a forum frequenter normally... I'm not really up on the emoticon/gif symbolism.

I guess the popcorn guy is expecting a series of (apparently entertaining) 'interesting' responses?

As for the rainbow-vomiting gnome, well... you just plain don't like my post.. or my username perhaps lol? (ps. the name is my one man band performance stage name here in the UK - https://soundcloud.com/rainbowbluespixie)

Daztur: Cheers for the input. You may well be right for a large segment of the market, once I'm in the flow I'll look into doing just that (though I am wary of ecountering IP issues). I have had very positive feedback from people who are playing in a more casual approach and also those who play with families - whether that interest would be sufficient to justify the time sink remains to be seen I guess.

Mark

Quote from: soltakss;730234Is this the same post as http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?716669-Feedback-needed!-Cheap-ready-to-rock-Narrative-adventure-packs!-) on RPG.NET?

Yes matey, it is. Before I divert my limited free time from other writing projects (I work full time as an archaeologist in the UK and I'm also a performing musician) I just wanted to test the waters to see if there would be any interest at all, and also to see if I needed to modify my intentions to make them worthwhile.

As I said above, i'm definitely seeing a more positive response from an older demographic for this type of product. All the reasons people have supplied for doubting the viability of the project are totally sound, I guess it's just about reaching those people who simply have different needs. Anyone know any FB groups or forums where the more old-school approach is popular?

Ta,

Mark

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730236Hello all,

I'm afraid I'm not really much of a forum frequenter normally... I'm not really up on the emoticon/gif symbolism.

I guess the popcorn guy is expecting a series of (apparently entertaining) 'interesting' responses?

As for the rainbow-vomiting gnome, well... you just plain don't like my post.. or my username perhaps lol? (ps. the name is my one man band performance stage name here in the UK - https://soundcloud.com/rainbowbluespixie)

Daztur: Cheers for the input. You may well be right for a large segment of the market, once I'm in the flow I'll look into doing just that (though I am wary of ecountering IP issues). I have had very positive feedback from people who are playing in a more casual approach and also those who play with families - whether that interest would be sufficient to justify the time sink remains to be seen I guess.

Mark

Considering the words that The Butcher red-coloured, was words that on this site tends to be ... used by guests that comes from another site on here only to annoy, flame, or have a general trollfest, he uses the popcorn-smiley to show that he expects things like the response from Black Vulmea .. and worse.

See, to many people on this site, narrative tends to equal either Storygaming and/or Railroading and/or that the game is no more than a Play, as in theatre-play, where the Players are just there to play their parts ... or, essentially, worse than railroading, with no actual Gaming involved.
Or rather, they think you might be one of those who think that way ... which is really worse if you actually do.

If you disagree, well, don't try to tell hem that your opinions on how the words should be interpreted, because that will indeed turn this thread into the shit-and-trollfest that was expected by the popcorn smiley.
It might turn into a trollfest anyway, but now you have a little better chance at avoiding it becoming one, i think.

_________________________________

On topic:
Several people like different things.
Some like a strong Narrative, others like strong NPC's that they can add wherever they see fit.

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730208Greetings,

I've been mulling over a little venture to potentially generate a small additional income and I'd really appreciate it if you fine folks could give me your tuppence worth of thoughts (or your ten cents depending on geographical location!) and feedback.

The idea is to produce a series of RPG adventures/scenarios which would be ready-made whilst being non-rules specific. Content such as traps/encounters etc which require some form of stats for any given system will be accompanied by the author's guidelines as to challenge/difficulty level and left up to the end user GM to customise as needed.

I'll summarise the key elements that I have planned for the packs:

The focus will very much be on creating a strong and compelling NARRATIVE. Although there will be dungeons and other traditional settings included, the plan is to avoid two dimensional crawls. This approach can be especially time consuming for those GM's writing their own material. Each adventure will have a consistent and fluid writing style, aiming toward real literary merit whilst still remaining appropriate for the genre.

All packs will be made available as PDF's and will contain all the illustrated maps, floorplans, player handouts, etc required.

Some adventures will operate as one-off stand alone packs, whilst others will form part of a larger connected story campaign.

Initially the setting will be a generic fantasy one, easily inserted into any existing game world. If the interest is there, a number of different gam environments will be developed (e.g. Hard Sci-fi, Space opera, Wild West, Modern horror, historical etc).

Packs will be available via download and priced extremely cheaply, I'm looking at around $2.50 USD, £1.50 GBP – slightly more for longer works.

A free beginning adventure will be made available for folks to try out the writing style and format to see if they are use to them before parting with any cash.

OK, well that's the outline anyway. Please do let me know of you think there would be a market and a decent level of interest in such a product. I'm not expecting to retire a wealthy man through this project, I simply enjoy writing and although I don't really have the time/gaming group to get games in myself these days, it would be lovely to earn a little extra whilst indulging my creative urges!

Many thanks,

Mark
damnrightigottheblues at googlemail.com

Honestly?

I don't think there's much a market for that at all.

People buy modules partially for ideas, yes - but mostly because someone else has done the mechanical heavy lifting for them. People buy modules because they want to run their weekly game without having to do all of the paperwork themselves.

Look at it this way - if I'm running a more rules heavy game like D&D3/Pathfinder, or 4E, or even Savage Worlds and I still have to stat up all the monsters, all of the traps, all of the challenges then your pre-fab storyline isn't going to help me anymore than my own will.

Stats are easy to write up. I've got a Legend statbuilder in Excel, so I can build stats with a couple of clicks. It's Ideas that I need.

Quote from: soltakss;730270Stats are easy to write up. I've got a Legend statbuilder in Excel, so I can build stats with a couple of clicks. It's Ideas that I need.

I stand corrected then.

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730236Hello all,

I'm afraid I'm not really much of a forum frequenter normally... I'm not really up on the emoticon/gif symbolism.

I guess the popcorn guy is expecting a series of (apparently entertaining) 'interesting' responses?

For a given value of "interesting", yes. The words I've colored red? Around here? Them's fighting words.

The site owner (RPGPundit), which should probably come along eventually, has crafted his whole online persona around constant systematic opposition of the people who want to "take over the hobby" by creating games driven by shared narrative and billing them as "roleplaying games" when they should be called "storygames" or whatever. Most of the time this means a group of designers that once gathered around a fella named Ron Edwards, who used to pontificate on game design at an online forum called The Forge.

I'd say that the majority of posters here, while not as passionate as him, definitely agree that there's no place for "story" or "narrative" (at least as Ron Edwards and the Forge crew understood it, i.e. the output of a game session should read like a deliberately construed piece of fiction, complete with literary tropes).

While I cannot in good conscience take part or support the personal attacks, the ad hominems, the sweeping generalizations and the overall tone of RPGPundit's War Against The Swine, I concur with both sides of this ridiculous little Kulturkampf that traditional roleplaying games are poor vehicles for shared narratives (at least of the formal, "artsy" or "literary" sort). "Telling a great story" is not a great draw for a roleplaying game product, for me anyway; "having cool stuff the players can meaningfully interact with" might not sound as lofty, but I've consistently found it the most useful a product can be at my game table.

Hope that helps.

Quote from: rainbowbluespixie;730208The idea is to produce a series of RPG adventures/scenarios which would be ready-made whilst being non-rules specific.

I like that format! A decent (if modest) example that comes to mind is "Hard Times in Hoxley," by the Midkemia Press people, way back in Sorcerer's Apprentice #17.

QuoteContent such as traps/encounters etc which require some form of stats for any given system will be accompanied by the author's guidelines as to challenge/difficulty level and left up to the end user GM to customise as needed.

A potential pitfall is getting too much into that, some "any system" Judges Guild products coming to mind.

I advise sticking to plain English as much as possible. You can assume that any rules set will have its own guidelines for real-world phenomena (e.g., a tiger trap, or a tiger), and you can compare other things to them.

You might want to have a rough scale of combat/adventure competence for humans and like beings: something like Green, Trained, Regular, Veteran, Elite. Keep it about that simple, and you may find that often it seems rather superfluous given what one can infer from a figure's status.

There are variations in how various fantasy games treat various monsters. If you're going to assume a version, a D&D version is most likely to be familiar to gamers. (For example, kobolds are not helpful household spirits but nasty beastly little people.)

Again, plain English may be your friend. You might indicate such things as seem needful in the course of your larger description of the situation. The Gygaxian AD&D works (books, modules, The World of Greyhawk) include some passages that convey quite a bit with both brevity and style.

QuoteThe focus will very much be on creating a strong and compelling NARRATIVE.

Depending on what you mean by that, it could be problematic for the sort of GM most likely to buy a "system free" scenario. Paizo seemed to consider stats so essential to its Adventure Path line as to warrant publishing Pathfinder when D&D 3.5 was discontinued. Maybe Clash Bowley (Flying Mice LLC) is doing something in between the situation-based and event-plotted extremes, but I really don't know.

QuoteAlthough there will be dungeons and other traditional settings included, the plan is to avoid two dimensional crawls.

A decent dungeon, even a small one, should IMO always provide a large enough universe of possible emergent histories not to warrant the "two dimensional" slam.

QuoteThis approach can be especially time consuming for those GM's writing their own material.

I can't make sense of this; what is "this approach," specifically?

QuoteEach adventure will have a consistent and fluid writing style, aiming toward real literary merit whilst still remaining appropriate for the genre.

I would recommend against making "literary" pretensions a priority. People who want literature will buy a novel; what's wanted in a game scenario product is useful information. Delivering more of that per pound is likely to be a better priority.