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Types of products wanted
http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1720		 Page 1 of 3
Author:  PCIHenry [ Mon Mar 30, 2015 10:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Types of products wanted
Hello,

I split this off from the original thread so as not to derail....

Southernskies wrote:
A:CSE I feel is the opposite direction and could use 1-2 more produce releases per year (Origins and another around Christmas or January).


This brings up an interesting question.

It was mentioned in the aforementioned thread that Pathfinder had bloated rules-wise requiring a large number of splatbooks (rules) to stay competitive. That leaves only two other types of books: Adventures and sourcebooks.

Since we're giving away adventures, it's been shown that they normally don't sell well.

Sourcebooks are fine, but they are usually purchased by GMs or completists. They are thus of more use if said GM was running a home campaign, but I have been told that those are few and far between.

So given the above, what type of products is it that you want to see/buy?
Author:  Southernskies [ Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
A 32/48 page sourcebook running about 2/3 fluff to 1/3 crunch. The key is to keep the price-point low enough for impulse purchases.

* Nationalities
* Race (non-human)
* Locations (The Blessed Lands is done; Carnival of Swords sort of does this)
* "Grand Campaign" event; major war or conflict, such as the 5th Crusade or a Ssethregore incursion. Just a list of high-points with a 'gm box' of suggested encounters (no stat blocks).

Any new rules items can be collated and re-published in a later 'Codex of Heroes 2'.

My favourites for this sort of thing is the old AD&D "blue book' series.

:edit: and the Battletech "House" series of books (the original 3025 ones!)
Author:  Nierite [ Mon Mar 30, 2015 11:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
Hello, my name is Cody, and I'm a sourcebook whore.

I love the things, where you have lots of fluff, history, conspiracy theories, character bios, force levels, etc. I personally would love to see more of the Codex Geographia type books like the forthcoming Blessed Lands, the rerelease of Ssethregore, and the promised Kio book. As a fan of Battletech, I loved the Field Manual and House Book series as it let you look into a society, with all the biases that it shows. Hell, there is no need to break from the present paradigm of only giving biased half-truths for history, just have a detail of their culture and their own view of how it got there.
Author:  Dante [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
Nierite wrote:
I love the things, where you have lots of fluff, history, conspiracy theories, character bios, force levels, etc. I personally would love to see more of the Codex Geographia type books [...]

I agree with everything Cody said!

I also appreciate Henry's stance on not wanting too much bloat with too many new rules too frequently.
Author:  wilcoxon [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
Sourcebooks are great. More adventures would be good too (either more current mods or the long-mentioned rereleases of the older mods updated to A:RPG (like So Shall Ye Reap)).

I agree that 2/3 fluff and 1/3 crunch seems to be a good ration in sourcebooks. The two sourcebooks I am most awaiting are the two already promised (Ssethregore and Kio). Others I could see being interesting: Dwarves (either all or one per clan), Elorii (but it seems like a lot of things are intentionally kept secret about them), Undir, region books for the various nations, etc.
Author:  val Holryn [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
Hi Cody, my name is Eric. I share your addiction.

@ Henry. I can appreciate not wanting to bloat the campaign with a collection of books that have crunch which eventually few will use ... or want to keep track of. At the same time Arcanis as a system is far away from such a point. IMO. We have (hard backed) 2 books. Not two dozen (which would be too much). I think its safe to say there is some room to grow.

Top 2 picks of things I would like to see:

(1) A book of magic (again). This would contain plenty of splat for players (new spells). It might also talk about the Arcanum and recover some of the "onion theory" put forward by Nerius. The is definitely room to expand what it means to practice a tradition. Something on the awakening ceremonies for psions. And exploration of primal powers (as it stands now both an infernal worshiping witch and a nature oriented shaman work off the same spell lists...that feels wrong to me). You could also look at alternatives to how magic is practiced in the known lands. Were the Myrantian Necromancers eldritch? Primal? Something unique to themselves? Could also be a place for the Suromar to resurface as a path. Final something on combined casting out of caombat in a ritualized manner.

(2) A second monster manual. This time with rules for creating traps and environmental hazards. IMO a serious omission from the rules set that should be filled in. There are lots of things already stated from the campaign that could go in there so I suspect content should be fairly easy to produce.

Others things I'd like to see:

(A) The Kio book we've been promised through Kickstarter.
(B) A geographic volume/book for Almeric
(C) A geographic volume/book for Khitan

Finally...adventures. It's still my belief that the biggest challenge of the new campaign is lack of adventures...so...
(i) Adventures like Carnival of Swords (I know these haven't sold well in the past, but I suspect you could kickstart/indiegogo them now and have them a profitable endeavor).
(ii) The BIs that are no longer going out to the public could be sold as PDFs. I know in Portland there is some sadness that they'll never be part of the fight at Tultipet.
Author:  acurrier [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
As others have pointed out, there are still lots of things the player base would love to see expanded, whether it is races, regions or histories. 2/3 fluff and 1/3 crunch sounds right to me. There is always benefit for a system like this in adding additional backgrounds/flaws/paths/etc.

While Arcanis should continue offering modules for free, I do think that there would be a market for paid 'mega-adventures'.

I'm not certain exactly what has caused publishing delays up to this point, but whatever it is this would need to be addressed. Henry, have you considered having others write for you, under your guidelines? I have seen you state repeatedly that you do virtually all of the sourcebook writing...can't imagine it is a quick process to do it all solo.

With the pseudo-rabid fanbase (meant in only the nicest way) you have for Arcanis, I guarantee that there would be people interested and capable of helping you with something like this.
Author:  PCIHenry [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:17 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
Hello Akira,

acurrier wrote:
With the pseudo-rabid fanbase (meant in only the nicest way) you have for Arcanis, I guarantee that there would be people interested and capable of helping you with something like this.


I agree that there is an excited fanbase, but that doesn't equate to people producing material. If so, we'd be awash with adventures and that just isn't the case.
Author:  The Vault [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:28 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
What I want is everything that has been promised and things in the rumor mill. I think you have great ideas already and you've experimented with other products that didn't work, and have already moved away from them.

Racial, national or city, sourcebooks.
Like what you have in the pipeline. Ssethregoran and Kio.
The old campaign had ones for Dark-kin (Sealed Lands), Cancari, Nishanpur, Old Coryan, and Ssethregoran.
Nishanpur had a 3 year storyline and a Bi.
Old Coryan had a 3 year storyline, then was turned into an Invisible King Domain for the last 2 years.
I don't know sales but those city books (that also had an adventure in them) sounds like they were fan favourites.

The Magic of Arcanis and Psionic Unbound were great source books. They were built for players and GMs.
I heard talk about 2 books the Codex of the Divine and Codex of the Arcane, to give both types of magic their own book.

Personally I'd love the old BIs in their 3.5 format. I run my friends through the old campaign, some had to leave Arcanis early, came back with A:RPG and are looking to fill in the gaps, some a want to pick up on those Easter eggs you find in the new arcs, but because they are brand new players it goes over their head. I run the 3.5 campaign to let them know what happened 40 years ago. What ever you would charge for those unreleased BIs, I'd open my wallet in a heart beat.

I know there are plans to re-release the old arc in the new format. But I'd buy that up as well when it comes out. Because each format has their uses.
Author:  acurrier [ Tue Mar 31, 2015 9:35 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Types of products wanted
PCIHenry wrote:
I agree that there is an excited fanbase, but that doesn't equate to people producing material. If so, we'd be awash with adventures and that just isn't the case.

I'm not suggesting that everyone who plays Arcanis should rush out with book proposals, but I have a hard time believing that there aren't at least a small group of people in the campaign you could trust to co-author with you. I don't want to put anyone on the spot, but a few names spring to mind for me quite quickly.

I'm not certain what your creative process is currently, but I suspect that were you to write up a detailed summary on a topic (for instance, a dwarven enclave) you should be able to then send it to someone you trusted to flesh it out for a source book. Surely by reviewing/approving their work the end result would be a quality book in a much faster time frame.

I know that you don't have the luxury of devoting your full time to the campaign, what with working on a career and 'real-life'. It is understandable that you would want to maintain control over the direction of the campaign, but I know that I am not the only person who would be encouraged to see more people be permitted to work with you on it.

Don't try to do everything yourself :)
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