Nierite wrote:
Thought that has passed through my mind:
Whole Tier Campaign Books.
Basic outline - Each book consists of a short Sourcebook Chapter (or, at least a Domain Document) followed by 5-10 adventure modules. Each book is designed to get a character through 1 whole tier of leveling.
Living Campaign - These adventures CANNOT be played by characters currently involved in the Legends of Arcanis Campaign. However, at the end of the campaign a cert is available which allows them to port their character into the Living Campaign starting at a certain story arch. For example: You finish [insert campaign here], and can now play any adventure set in A2-Coming of the Destroyer
Storylines - This is a good way of dealing with storylines which happen at the same time (or a similar timeline) to the Living Campaign, but in parts of the world which are not involved in that storyline. For example: While the Crusade rages, the Warlords of Almeric continue to fight! The Heroes become embroiled in this conflict, leading to one of these warlords eventually gaining prominence.
Who would write these? - While these stories, of course, will need guidance from PCI (Henry specifically), they are a great way for other authors to get into the campaign! James Zwiers will have the chance to expand upon the Pirate Isles and Hinterlands, the Invisible Kings can return to their old domains and update us all on the worlds there, new people can open up new domains that thus far have been barely touched!
How to monetize them - Each of these books can sell for between US$10 and US$30, and would come out initially as .pdf documents to help drop production prices. If successful in this format, limited print runs could be done for sale at Conventions such as GenCon and Origins as a way to hook new players into the campaign. Basically, it is the free dime-bag of cocaine to get them hooked into the world and the system.
I like the general idea of paid adventures, and I really like the idea of 'Play X and end up with X level'. i think what I would prefer to see is an adventure, or perhaps a several rounder that quickly overviews Arc 1 (and later Arc 2, etc). Instead of simply making a 1.5 cert and potentially miss out on the story, people would have the option of playing through an overview of events (perhaps from a different perspective than the PCs?).
I do not think it is a good idea to spend a lot of time making pay-to-play products for people unfamiliar with the system. The market for those adventures is the established players, most of whom would gladly spend $5-10 on a quality standalone module that is campaign legal.