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| mightymongo |
 Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:58 pm Post subject: Re: Adventure Design Book |
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Patron
Joined: 20 Jun 2010
Posts: 1028
Location: Portland, OR
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Written and Edited by our Benevolent Scaly Overlord himself. I own it. I highly recommend it....! |
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| Blackwarder |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 11:10 am Post subject: Re: Adventure Design Book |
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Patron
Joined: 18 Feb 2011
Posts: 103
Location: Israel
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Just started reading on my iPad.
I must say that the layout is excellent and the fact that the book weight only 1.5M makes it blazingly fast on the iPad, courts usually take a second to load pages.
Warder |
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| metatsu |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 22 Nov 2009
Posts: 104
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| It is availabe in PDF? The impression I had from the web page was print only. |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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Kobold Overlord
Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 4988
Location: The Mines
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Yep, PDF versions are available for all the Kobold Guides.
I'm hard-pressed to think of an Open Design release that isn't available in PDF. Well, other than the late, lamented t-shirt.
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Wolfgang Baur
Publisher, Kobold Press |
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| Neal |
| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 19 Dec 2008
Posts: 105
Location: Baton Rouge
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Count me in on the heroic tier stuff.
Here's the deal for me: I like Open Design, and I like that they can pay me money to edit things. On a closely related note, I also support the kinds of work that they do.
Maybe my take is influenced by the fact that I like to think holistically and that I want to see the company grow, but I just don't see a possible world in which publishing an epic tier adventure is going to be as good of a business decision/brand decision as doing, well, virtually anything else.
Third party publishers are already operating at a disadvantage in the market because, well, they're not Wizards. So I want Open Design to publish the kinds of adventures that can be marketed to the new players being brought into D&D by D&D Essentials.
Has Open Design already designed amazingly good Heroic Tier stuff? Absolutely. Are any of these amazing adventures available for sale in the Open Design/KQ Store? No, because of the nature of early patronage projects.
I think for the company to grow, we - as customers and patrons - need to do our best to show the world the kinds of work patronage can generate in terms of adventure design. AN epic tier adventure COULD do that, certainly, but such a project would have a limited audience by virtue of the fact that most gaming groups don't adventure at Epic Level - and many of the groups that do adventure at that level have DMs who have hopefully gained enough experience and are telling such unique stories that their campaigns don't require published adventures at that point.
Part of this is ego, too. I think everyone who's read Wrath is aware that there simply hasn't been a heroic tier adventure written that's better than Wrath of the River King - and it's a travesty that the rest of the world doesn't get to see the final product of hundreds of man hours worth of work.
So yeah, what I want to see is the kind of talent that created Wrath of the River King being put on the open market to as large of a potential audience as possible. There are several reasons for this:
1. I would buy the finished product and could use it by starting a new campaign.
2. I would make time in my schedule available to edit such a product, being available during the design process as well as once text is generated (and thus earn a paycheck doing it).
3. I would be able to show everyone what Open Design is capable of and show off the design work our patrons generate that is, in many cases, superior to what Wizards can do by, and this is key, giving it to a new DM and telling them that all they need to play is this adventure and a DM's kit.
4. It would give new customers an entry point into Open Design adventures, thus building a foundation for a great Epic Level adventure down the road (building a larger fan base is necessary to market an adventure that only appeals to the niche of a niche of DMs who'd buy such an adventure). I'm all for fan service, but if we're going to do fan service let's grow the fan base a little bit more!
I'm not poopooing anyone's ideas or desire for a great epic level adventure by any means. But I know that, were I in Wolfgang's shoes, I would be dying for a way to show the world what Open Design can do by releasing a product that would appeal to the vast majority of gaming groups. As someone involved on the design/production end, I can also state that patrons are designers - so why not maximize exposure for the cash spent on having the opportunity to earn a design credit?
But that's my two cents. Others might disagree.
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Neal Hebert
Editorial Assistant
Kobold Quarterly |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:27 pm Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 06 Apr 2008
Posts: 775
Location: London, UK
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Hi Neal,
That's a very well reasoned argument and I'm sure a heroic tier adventure from Open Design would sell well in the wider market.
I'm looking at this from the point of view of a long term patron - what do I want to sponsor Wolfgang or other designers to write for me to use in my campaign. This was the original concept behind Open Design and while this has now evolved considerably, is a key selling point for me. I want stuff I can actually use in my game. I don't mind if it's going to be available to the general gamer and, although I'd like Open Design to continue to thrive , the commercial success of a patron project to the wider audience isn't really my concern. In fact, I'd like to think that Open Design's model allows it to do something uncommercial if there are enough patrons to put up the money to support it. Open Design patron projects should be at the cutting edge, not producing the same obvious stuff as WotC and Paizo.
I have two long-running 4e campaigns - one is currently at 8th level; the other is at 11th. I've run Wrath of the River King, we're 2/3 way through Halls of the Mountain King and both Courts of the Shadow Fey and The Lost City are on the list to appear in the paragon tier. As I'm not going to wind these campaigns up and reset to 1st level, I have no use for low level adventures but I am on the look out for high paragon and epic scenarios. That's what I want to invest my money in and patronize..
Cheers
Richard |
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| Blackwarder |
| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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Patron
Joined: 18 Feb 2011
Posts: 103
Location: Israel
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Hi Richard and Neal.
I must say that for a large part I agree with Neal, mainly because I'm a late comer to OD and I can't find the early adventure every where (and I have a very high internetwise skill) and the lack of early adventures is annoying (for lack of a better word).
I agree that I would like an adventure that I could run right after courts but tbh I would also like to see some heroic tier advantures that will raise the bar for early heroic adventures (HS1 being the best so far but it too was mostly combat oriented)
Ideally we could start 2 projects simultaneously one for early epic late paragon and one of early heroics.
I would buy them both.
Warder |
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