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An idea for Adventures

One of the nice things about (A)D&D was the amount of adventures available for the less-creative DM. Maybe some of them had poor quality (I don't know myself), but they were there. Plus, (A)D&D has been for a long time supported by Dungeon Magazine.

The reason this probably wouldn't work as well with Traveller is that D&D has enough players that will buy at least a few of the things. Traveller has a smaller following and most people probably make up their own stuff.

But to attract new players and keep them, T5 will likely need a fair number of adventures.

But too many, and you'll outrun your credit when the public fails to buy.

Here's what I'm thinking: Release adventures in Volumes.

Each volume will have 5 adventures: the main adventure, 2 short ones, and a couple patrons, ala 76 Patrons (man, that's good format!).

Make sure you cater to a variety of interests, like merchant, scout, and so forth. A healthy mix of adventures with a fair amount of combat and combat-lite or combat-free adventures will probably be a good idea, too.

Slap a price of $15 or so on it.

This way, you get the psychological satisfaction of five adventures along with generally at least one that'll work for you, and four to fall back on in times of need.

What do you think?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Slap a price of $15 or so on it.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For 5 adventures? When most single adventures today sell for at minimum $9.95?

Hunter
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
For 5 adventures? When most single adventures today sell for at minimum $9.95?

Hunter
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Do you really want to count the patrons like that when figuring economics?

Look at it this way: One $10 Adventure + 2 $2.50 adventures + 2 patrons. This is actually _more_ than WotC charges for an adventure plus Dungeon Adventures, seeing as how the latter contains about 4-6 adventures of a longer length than we're probably looking at here.

So, from the buyers standpoint:

"Wow, 5 adventures for $15!"

From your standpoint:

"A full-length adventure plus the content equivilant of an overcharged magazine."

It doesn't seem that bad now, does it?

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-J. Jensen
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TCHarrison:
Do you really want to count the patrons like that when figuring economics?

Look at it this way: One $10 Adventure + 2 $2.50 adventures + 2 patrons. This is actually _more_ than WotC charges for an adventure plus Dungeon Adventures, seeing as how the latter contains about 4-6 adventures of a longer length than we're probably looking at here.

So, from the buyers standpoint:

"Wow, 5 adventures for $15!"

From your standpoint:

"A full-length adventure plus the content equivilant of an overcharged magazine."

It doesn't seem that bad now, does it?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

My bad. I missed the part where you broke down the adventure 'types'. That's what I get from reading through to many posts at a time
wink.gif


Yes for a book with adventures the length of the CT style adventures (24 pages for full, 12 pages for each short, and a couple pages of Patrons) it could be done for that amount.

I was thinking 5 'full' adventures of 32+ pages each.

Hunter
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
Yes for a book with adventures the length of the CT style adventures (24 pages for full, 12 pages for each short, and a couple pages of Patrons) it could be done for that amount. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Glad to hear it!

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-J. Jensen
 
You should like the Quadrant books we will be doing for Ley/Gateway Domain. These will contain info on a subsector worth of worlds (about 2 pages each), A meta-adventure among the worlds, some amber-zones, patron encounters, and other goodies. About 128 pages, should retail for $20-$25 (a little more than $15, but more info also)

Hunter
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by hunter:
You should like the Quadrant books we will be doing for Ley/Gateway Domain. These will contain info on a subsector worth of worlds (about 2 pages each), A meta-adventure among the worlds, some amber-zones, patron encounters, and other goodies. About 128 pages, should retail for $20-$25 (a little more than $15, but more info also)

Hunter
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You mean indepth world-detail? I don't know if I'd like that. I guess it's kinda necessary, considering adventures have to be written set in the worlds, but I sitll kinda like creative freedom.

Anyway, I like the Fornast Sector. I'm tossed between wanting adventures there and wanting not to have anybody touch it, so I can create my own stuff for it.

Are there any plans for M200 to do much with Fornast?

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-J. Jensen
 
The mix sound good as well as keeping a moderate price. If you put them out for different time lines you could have a great setup. Something like the old Judges Guild monthly modules could get quite a few people buying these things.
 
I'd buy a "Dungeon"-style magazine for Traveller, if I found one. Coming up with decent adventures is always the hardest part of any RPG campaign for me.

-The Gneech


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http://www.suburbanjungle.com - The life, loves, and career of aspiring supermodel and ferocious predator, Tiffany Tiger

"I pity da fool, thug, or soul who tries to take over the world and then goes home cryin' to his momma!" -Mr. T
 
It's nice to know other people out there want published adventures too! I used some of the original CT adventures years ago and they were a big help.
The only problem with this line of thought is the old "adventures don't sell" mentality; adventures don't make as much money as suppliments which don't make as much money as core rule books and sales of core books makes or breaks the game. GDW tried doing something about this with the MT folios but its hard to say it was economics or MT sputtering out.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Vargas:
It's nice to know other people out there want published adventures too! I used some of the original CT adventures years ago and they were a big help.
The only problem with this line of thought is the old "adventures don't sell" mentality; adventures don't make as much money as suppliments which don't make as much money as core rule books and sales of core books makes or breaks the game. GDW tried doing something about this with the MT folios but its hard to say it was economics or MT sputtering out.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I have heard this before, but how one squares it with TSR's phenomenal success with D&D in the 80's, when pretty much all they published were scenario's, I don't know. My personal belief is that adventures DO sell, but they are harder to produce both effort and time wise. So games companies prefer supplelements and core rules. Also I suspect the margins are better on supplements and rule books...
 
There's some basic math as to why adventures are a losing proposition. The core rule book, everyone at the table is likely to buy it at some point. Supplements that contain player information will be bought by signifcant numbers of both players and GM's. But, for adventures only GM's and only a small percentage of players will buy them. For D&D the player base is larger than other games so adventures can turn a profit more easily.

I think price point is a problem too. Big, expensive adventures might not be appealing, since they are basically 1-use items.

I think small, low-price adventures might be smarter. BITS seems to be able to put out a Little White Book for about $8, if you could get some "cheap ass" adventures out for $8-$10 along side the other stuff, it might serve the need some GM's have and not involve as much financial risk.

I guess that ends up being a "Dungeon Magazine" kind of idea, especially if fan-generated adventures are what would appear.

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Dave "Dr. Skull" Nelson
 
(A)D&D adventures were also very detailed, AND came in a kind of pamphlett format making them reasonable to purchase. They had a book describing the encounters, usuall there was a map of somekind, (which might be a full scale map for the players). There was a good amount of character description, and usually a well written narrative for the adventure as a whole.

This verse CT's rather bland, yet still enticing, flavor. CT had ranged weapons and technology described in great detail, but the adventures were akin to walking in the park during Autum; a nice idea, but really, once you've seen the colored leaves there isn't much else to do.

The (A)D&D adventures were also plentiful and malleable in terms of story. The players went down into the caverns (or wherever) and came across a number of traps and other encounters. As confining as the dungeons were they were far more colorful and interactive than a lot of the Traveller adventures.

I'd like to see fully detailed Traveller adventures a-la the old (A)D&D style, but with a distinctively Traveller flavor. And how they come isn't so important to me as the content inside of them. I don't mind having to create things for my group, nor doing a little improvisation here and there, but the CT adventures (with the exception of a handfull) demanded a lot of this.

Things I'd like to see for adventures;
1) Exotic Worlds; by this I mean cities on vaccum worlds, or an alien civilization (say our equivalent of Classical Greek/Roman period) thriving in a world with a chorosive atmosphere. Underwater ruins that must be explored, or some strange phenomena on a Gas Giant. Heck, I may write a few and publish them for the new Traveller system.

2) More adventures. Period. Enough said.

3) Adventures with action; what good is it running around in pyramid complex with an autorifle if you can't shoot at anything? There needs to be some action, which doesn't always include violence, of some kind. And I'll add that violence is a staple for adventuring, as long as it has a purpose.

4) Detailed encounters. A good author of either a book or adventure will create colorful characters, right down to the shoes they wear. This was sorely lacking in Traveller.

5) There needs to be a disclaimer stating that such and such a modual is only a setting for the Referees own creations. That is say a world modual is created, but contains no adventure, but is published as one. If I bought the thing expecting a plot and/or story, I'd be sorely dissapointed with the content. But if the modual explained to me that this was just a packet of info to create a setting for my own created adventures, then I'd be satisfied.

Any other thoughts?
 
What about an epic adventure like:
Traveller Adventure
Knightfall
Flaming Eye

Were these not successful? I stand in the crowd for epics. One of the things that Traveller seems to have lost was its scale. Small mini adventures are easy to run but ought to be restricted to some gaming mag. Adventures that usually sell have some sort of larger drama behind them. They also have have lots of different types of adventure. If it is just save the princess on Planet Nazi, it is not going to be fun but a cliche.

Traveller has lost the art of telling a good story. MJD speaks to this larger canvas. Hope that we can see something akin to great epics of the past.
 
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