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Originally Posted by larsdangly
Good question. A trivial part of my answer is to urge you to continue your plans to publish the small compilations of NPCs, which I think will be super helpful and see a lot of use at the table.
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I can say this is my top priority. I'm exploring how I want to pursue this. I've got two more volumes in production right now, and at least three more ideas. Maybe more. I had a thought to how I'd crowdfund this yesterday that I'm noodling with.
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The more important question is whether to do another round of adventures or produce something else that complements the adventures. This is hard to answer because the adventures are really good, so who wouldn't want more? On the other hand, by the middle of this spring we'll have 24 really good published adventures (10 from you; 10 from the SJGames books of adventures; Tolenkar's lair; Red Crypt; DT I and II). That doesn't quite add up to what I see when I examine my compendium of classic TSR modules, but it is of the same order of magnitude. When we turn to 'meso-scale' settings, there isn't very much. We now have Ardonirane, which is superb and includes a city and its surroundings. We have the small setting found in Book of Unlife, which is also superb. And we have a couple pages in the core book. So, I think things along the lines of small sandboxes, cities and other similar regional adventure settings might be a more exciting next contribution. I just encourage you (and everyone else) to not get lost in the sauce' of a big scale setting and put out a tome of narrative text about histories and blah, blah, blah. What I love in a setting book is material I will directly use at the table. Ardonirane is great in this respect. The Goodman Games treatment of Lankhmar is another excellent recent example.
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If you have my Citadel at Nordvorn, that's the kind of setting book I like to present.
Some of the areas in the Sevantes series would be a lot of fun as their own mini-setting books.
These books take a lot of energy and creativity to get right - that's not a bad thing, but it requires the author(s) be very thorough with presenting details that are at-the-table relevant without indulging in too much "oh, let me tell you my world history" that is probably fun for the writer, but best left on the cutting-room floor until it's time to make it plot relevant...usually in the form of "the past comes back to haunt you" as the plot of a small adventure scenario.
They are my favorite type of book, though. They tend to leave a lot more hooks for the GM, and present situations rather than solutions for the party, which allows all sorts of room for shenanigans.