What should come next?

If you cast your gaze to the upper-left corner of the blog, you'll see a new poll up there, asking opinions as to what you'd like to see next. With the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Bestiary moving into the art stage, I'll have quite a chunk of writing time freed up. I'd like to get your opinion as to how best to fill it up. Nothing's binding, of course, but I'd like to get a sense from you guys.

The first option is something I've talked about before; Adventures Great and Glorious™. It would cover rules for large-scale warfare, large-scale economics, political maneuvering, and dynastic considerations. Intended for use with Adventures Dark and Deep™ but compatible with most OSR-type games, of course.

The second is a full-blown fantasy setting with gorgeous poster maps, a gazetteer-type guidebook, and so forth. Since the World of Greyhawk Fantasy Setting seems to be closed to the gaming public for the foreseeable future (officially, anyway), this would be my attempt at making something similar in concept, but taken to its logical conclusion. Again, it would be lite enough in mechanics to be usable with most OSR-type rules.

The third is a series of smaller adventure modules. Some would have arcs connecting them, some would be location-based adventures that exist more or less in a vacuum, some would be larger and some would be smaller.

And, of course, there are probably a dozen things folks might be interested in that I've not listed here. Feel free to make your suggestions in the comments.

Thanks for your input!

Update: Obviously the polling gadget is the work of the devil, and doesn't function properly. I've seen votes disappear before my very eyes. So just sound off in the comments here. Thanks!

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My Dream Campaign

This month's RPG Blog Carnival theme is "campaigns I'd like to run". I've been lucky to have been able to run some fantastic campaigns in my time, but there is something that I would love to be able to do that just hasn't jelled for a variety of reasons.

My dream campaign isn't based on some outre concept, or weird and wild setting. There are no mutant elves with mohawks riding down Cthulhu-worshiping orcs with steampunk cyborg parts or anything. That's not my cup of tea.

Rather, my dream campaign is different because of scope. I want to have a lot of different stuff going on, simultaneously, on different scales, all interacting with one another.

There would be at least two bands of adventuring parties, separate from one another, co-existing in both the same area and time. Actions taken by the one would have an impact on the other, but balanced so that a full-blown confrontation is held off.

There would also be a group playing various nobles. They'd be playing what I call The Power Game, which is much less about going forth and looting dungeons as it is about manipulating various factions in the realm. They'd all be playing the power centers of a kingdom; some would be nobles, some would be guilds, prominent churches, the local Scarlet Brotherhood, etc.

There would be interaction between the two levels. If some noble sent his army marching across the river in the direction of one of the PC groups, they'd have to deal with the consequences. Too, if one of the PCs looted the main temple of one of the churches, that would have an impact. Self-generating random events.

It'd be set in the World of Greyhawk, naturally. Probably CY 577 because that's when everything is starting to head in interesting directions, but before everything gets hopelessly mired in a half-dozen full-scale wars. This is when the foundations of those wars is being laid. There are skirmishes, sure, and even full-blown military campaigns in places, but it's not Greyhawk Risk just yet.

I'm thinking Ratik would make a great setting for this game. It's small and relatively self-contained, with lots of pressure from the barbarians to the north and humanoids to the south and west. Bissel could work as well; I'd love to get into the scheming between Ket, Veluna, and Keoland that permeates the place.

The only thing holding me back at the moment is time. This would require a huge investment of time to pull off (even playing via the Internet). Just don't see it happening, but man it would be glorious.
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Also, please don't forget the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary Kickstarter going on right now! 900 monsters, suitable for most OSR-type games, all under one cover. Can you help get us to having an illustration for each and every one?

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The Plan

Step 1: Successful Kickstarter of Players Manual
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!!!

Now that the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual has been successfully funded (thanks again to all who backed it!), I thought it would be a good idea to give a little insight into where I think things are going, business-wise, and what I'm looking at for a business model and so forth.

It should come as no surprise that BRW Games, LLC, the company I started to publish my gaming stuff, is not my primary source of income, nor do I expect it to be in the near future. It's a hobby, something that I do in my spare time (in and around my everyday job, my family, my religion, and other things). I confess I like the creative aspects like planning and writing considerably more than I do the tedious business aspects like promotion, accounting, etc., but that doesn't mean it can't be approached in a somewhat organized manner.

The "big picture" is that I want to get the ADD rules published and out of the way so I can get to work on new and more creative stuff. I've got a mess of adventure modules I'd like to publish, and a setting (Erseta) that I think has a lot of potential.

First, I want to finish up ADD. If I know the Players Manual is on schedule to go out the door by March of 2013, that lets me have the Kickstarter for the Game Masters Toolkit in March. Assuming that is also on the same schedule, I can have it out the door by June and do the Bestiary Kickstarter in June. And that means that I can have the Bestiary out in  Q3 of 2013, which is something I'd very much like to do.

I've been working on these rules for more than two years now. I'm ready for the project to be complete, because I can't do the adventures and other fun stuff until the rules are done. And that will also mean the Kickstartering will be done for a good long while. (Yay!) Frankly, I only want to do Kickstarters for big huge things that I can't fund myself, and the Bestiary will be the last one of those for quite some time.

Once the rules are done and out, I can focus on writing adventures and setting type material. Some of it will be free stuff that I put out here (like the Gazetteers for the Lands Beyond the Flanaess that I still want to get to, plus one or two Greyhawk-specific projects that I've been wanting to do for years), and others will be sold on RPGNow.com and its sister sites.

That brings up a point about the business model. Everything is done on a shoestring, and everything is as self-sustaining as possible. By using print on demand, I'm able to significantly lower my up-front costs, which in turn makes everything possible. It is true that RPGNow takes a cut of my sales, but for my situation the cost is worth not having to deal with the hassles and costs of shipping, warehousing, and up-front printing. I figure my time not spent going to the post office (figuring my hourly rate from my day job), plus the money not spent on storage space for stock, is worth the minor chunk that RPGNow takes from each sale. Plus it's pretty much profit from day one; I don't need to worry about selling X books to recoup the cost of a print run.

What sort of other stuff do I have in mind? Well, there are a lot of little adventure ideas that I'd like to commit to paper. Some of the stuff will be spinoffs from Castle of the Mad Archmage (publishing in the first half of 2013 by Black Blade Publishing), some will be completely stand-alone adventures that can be plugged in just about any campaign, some might be specific to Erseta. They'll need a few pieces of art, but nothing near like the art the rulebooks need, and I can fund that with the profits from the books and such. The whole thing then becomes self-perpetuating, and all is right with the world. No more Kickstarters unless something huge rears its head.

I do have at least two other games on the drawing board, in various states of completion; Adventures Great and Glorious (a combination of "domain management", mass combat, and political intrigue that can be played separately or in connection with ADD) has not been forgotten, and Sail the Solar Winds (a space opera RPG) is still knocking at the back of my mind. But new games are way down on the list. Like 2015 or later. I just want to relax and write some fun stuff that shows off the rules I've already got.

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