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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 5:17 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:08 am
Posts: 1473
Hello Tony,

I agree. I would LOVE to do a Monster Manual 256 page hardback, but the economics just don't seem to be there.

USUALLY, GMs are the ones who purchase such a book and that's about a 5:1 or 6:1 ratio of buyers. Additionally, every monster needs to be illustrated, which makes this type of book expensive to produce.

My solution to that was to release the first Arcanis Bestiary and the forthcoming Bestiary II, in the hopes of reaching that large size but in installments.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 5:22 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:47 am
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Location: Central Alberta
Well, in that regard we are getting the Bestiary Volume 2 in the Kickstarter, which should help that regard a little bit!

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:04 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:06 am
Posts: 2109
Location: Portland OR
I'm another person who is primarily interested in the Living Campaign. Again for me the best part of the campaign is slowly peeling the onion of truth to find out the secrets of the campaign world. If I were to judge a home campaign I'd have to figure out and detail all those secrets of my own. And deal with both the divergence from my campaign from the shared world campaign ... and perhaps judgement between the two similar offerings. I'm not sure off the top of my head I could "do it better" than the living campaign. And if i couldn't then really what would be the point.

If I was really going to do campaign it'd be my own world.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:48 pm 

Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 11:09 am
Posts: 78
Has there been there thought to take the creatures created through the modules, and collect them, get a review/edit, and publish those? That may be a way to get another Bestiary completed.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:59 pm 

Joined: Sat Oct 05, 2013 12:46 pm
Posts: 1353
For me I don't have an Arcanis home campaign. We have a Sunday night group that cycles campaign seasons ~ every 6 months with some light fluff filler type stuff in between. The two active campaigns have both completed 3 or 4 seasons, so going back roughly 3+ years. There may be an opportunity to run a campaign in the world starting in another 6 months or so depending. We'll have to see.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul


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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:07 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 7:06 am
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Astroliar wrote:
Has there been there thought to take the creatures created through the modules, and collect them, get a review/edit, and publish those? That may be a way to get another Bestiary completed.


There's an idea. Probably not until the "Crusade!" arc starts to sunset.

"The 6th Crusade Campaign Guide (Tier I play)- Events and adversaries".
1/2 page per hardpoint summary of events (8 pages) - list of 'foes encountered' for the GM.
8 pages of fluff and gm sub-plot ideas.
16 pages of monsters (2-4 per page, depending upon artwork decisions).
Note in the blurb that "The Legends of Arcanis Adventures for this campaign will be available from 'x' in 'y' format at 'z' cost."

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:26 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:47 am
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Location: Central Alberta
Honestly, speaking as me I wouldn't mind seeing a "Crusade!" book similar to Year of Ill Harvest and Year of the Fall. Pick a curated list of 5-10 adventures, XP them accordingly to get the player to Tier 1.10 by the end, and release it as a stand alone book while retiring all the adventures which went into the book from the website. It shouldn't be TOO hard to 'port' them into that format, and it gives the people looking for a standalone storyarc something to chew on and get into the Living campaign.

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Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Divine Holy Judge of Nier
Ruma val'Vasik, Martial Crusader and Master of the Spear
Jorma Osterman, Arcane Coryani Battlemage


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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:51 pm 
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Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:34 am
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Location: Southwestern Ohio
One thing that would help a home campaign would be the Chroniclers Guide that is spoken of in the core rule book. Something to assist the home GM would be most helpful. Also what about something along the lines of an adventure path like they do in Pathfinder? By breaking the campaign into chunks you give people the option of perhaps playing the whole thing or only parts. For example we are currently playing Skull and Shackles for Pathfinder on every other Saturday but are considering stopping at around 12th level since many of us don't care for high level play. The AP format gives you a mix of fluff and crunch, with an adventure, some relevant background material, some magic items, monsters and a piece of fiction. For example lets say we have an adventure path set in Milandir. This particular one involves a corrupt Hurrianite priest who is working with the Mourners of Silence. You would have the adventure, a piece detailing the worship of Hurrian in Milandir, perhaps a monster or two related to the Silence, some relevant magic or mundane items, NPC profiles, and a piece of fiction loosely tied to the overall adventure path. Not a bad little package. You could even set it up for Organized Play credit in some fashion. I know this is something that I would find attractive.

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 11:47 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:23 am
Posts: 46
Henry,

I am no expert and i haven't done the research as you most likely have... i have to say i disagree with those ratios. Out of the 25+ odd gamer's i know many of which are here playing Arcanis, they all buy the monster manual every time in every edition. Its the holy trinity of RPG gaming books.

DM or not. People like the illustrations they like reading about the things which maybe hiding in the bushes ready to waylay their characters when they go searching outside the abandoned castle...

Once a Players Guide and DM Guide come out the books i think that sell the best are the monster manuals... Pathfinder has made 5 or 6 Bestiary's now... I have to think they sell very well for them to make that many. I suspect Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition will follow suit they have in the past i have the books on my shelves!

But like i have said i haven't done the research. Its just what i really feel is missing right now. And i do hope that the new bestiary is a bigger better book with those monsters we are dying to know about which originate within your imagination!

~Tony

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 Post subject: Re: Home Campaigns
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:02 am 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:08 am
Posts: 1473
Hello Tony,

Yep, I've done lots of research, spoken with other companies, etc. That ratio is about right.

I'll give you some insights into the money aspect of the RPG industry:

Let's say the 256 page Monster book has 200 monsters with the other 56 pages containing rules for monster creation, new powers explanation, etc. For argument's sake, let's say they have no art (which wouldn't be the case, but...)

Now, at minimum, a B&W monster illustration not drawn by my cousin Mike, is $75. Multiply that by 200 and that's: $15,000.

To further simplify the numbers, let's pretend that the writing and layout are free.

Printing such a book is about $10k. (Closer to $11k, but let's stick to round numbers).

Giving us a grand total of $25k in costs.

Let's say we charge top dollar for such a book ($50). We would need to sell direct (i.e. for full price) 500 copies to break even. That's not going to happen in a 90 period, let alone 30 days, when the printing bill is due.

So, we need to sell through the retail chain. We get about a third of the price of the book or approximately $16.50 a copy.

So let's do some quick math.

We sell a whopping 200 copies of the Monster book at Cons and the website for a total of $10,000. We would then need to sell 910 copies of the book through the chain just to break even.

In today's current market, that would be very, very difficult to do.

And that's why, without something like a Kickstarter or some other crowd funding vehicle, Monster books of that size are not feasible and why I decided to make the smaller Bestiary books.

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Henry Lopez
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