As Seen Yesterday on Google +...
First:
I think I'm going to use IndieGoGo to get sponsorship for the upcoming Monolith adventure. I think I've come up with a few interesting perks for higher-grade sponsorship. I just need a good naming scheme for the sponsorship levels (Gold, Silver, etc is LAME).
Kickstarter is the big name in "crowd funding" but last I checked isn't non-US-resident friendly as far as payouts. Also, IndieGoGo is not all-or-nothing like Kickstarter, which is very important since the project is not dependent on sponsorship -- this is just an effort to break the "spend all the money up front and then scramble to make it back" cycle I've been on, so I can get the next thing into production quicker.
Also:
Are "how to use this adventure/how to include this adventure in your campaign" sections in modules really useful to anyone in the year 2012? Don't people largely figure that out for themselves after reading an adventure?
The adventure is basically about a valley that maybe wasn't there yesterday that has a weird thing in it. It's an alien thing so it's not supposed to fit into a campaign (therefore fitting equally well into any campaign!), so I can't think of any plot hooks that aren't just so generic as to be insulting.
Speaking of those Author's Notes:
"You don’t want to do this to your players very often, mind you. You
probably don’t want to do it to them at all. You’re their Referee,
likely their friend, and feelings would be hurt. Well that’s what I’m
here for. You’re not doing it to them, I am. You’re not responsible."
I think a "how to use this adventure" section doesn't hurt. But I would find a "how to tailor this module to different character levels" truly helpful.
ReplyDeleteThis part isn't tested yet, but the idea is that this adventure is suitable, as written, for character levels 0-∞.
ReplyDeleteIndieGoGo.com worked great guns when I did pre-orders for Crypts and Things
ReplyDeletehttp://www.indiegogo.com/Crypts-and-Things
And not half bad for the pre-order for The Company, which even though it didn't reach its goal got more exposure than if I had done it through my own website :)
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Company-rpg
A "how to use this adventure" section might have ideas I wouldn't have thought of, might be useful for new gamemasters, or for gamemasters trying to run a game in a different style than they're used to, and it shows me that the designer thought about it, which is nice to know. It might not be helpful for this module, but it is for some.
ReplyDeleteSponsorship levels? A no brainer: leather, chain, and plate!
ReplyDelete"Sponsorship levels? A no brainer: leather, chain, and plate!"
DeleteThat's brilliant! I wish I'd thought of it!
If he needs more than three levels, it could be...
Leather
Leather & Shield
Chain
Chain & Shield
Plate
Plate & Shield
And the minimum pledge level could be "Unarmored".
I'd go with level titles
ReplyDeletehttp://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/02/level-titles.html
Unarmoured
ReplyDeleteShield
Leather
Ring
Scale
Chain
Plate
As one the IndieGoGo subscribers for Crypts and Things I found the process quite easy. Easier actually than Quickstarter which wouldn't actually let me fund the project I wanted to give funds to!
"are how to use this adventure/how to include this adventure in your campaign sections in modules really useful to anyone in the year 2012?"
DeleteThey have been wasting space for 30 years with that crap. Unless there is some remarkable new ideas specific to the adventure, just leave it out please.
Jim, I would think that you could bypass this entirely and offer pre-order sales of books or even the P-500 systems that wargames publishers like GMT use.
ReplyDeleteThey solicit active, non paid pre-orders to gauge what order to publish their projects in.
At this point, you could run paid pre-orders to help defray some of your costs and many of your customers would happily buy in if it meant helping you to bring more products to market. A half expected cost or rough guess pre-order would not be that rough.
As for the "how to use this adventure" section, one of the reasons people buy your adventures is because you have a recognizable and entertaining voice and presence in your writing. So while I wouldn't miss such a section if you chose to leave it out, I'd be interested in reading such a section if it helped me see the adventure more through your eyes, or had a little twist like "how to use this adventure for maximum PC pain vs. how to use this adventure to bring a new party together" or something like that. Something that helps readers see the work through different lenses.
ReplyDelete@Steve Lawson - I agree completely.
Delete