The Future of the DFRPG

[The Cardinal]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Thanks. The idea is compelling enough to consider doing it systemless, so that one could bolt on stats to a pre-existing hex-and-contents later.

Hmmm, how about this for a "Hex-Isles" setting: the planet is about Earth-sized but covered in a "super-ocean" with water depths of up to several dozen miles, maybe up to 60 miles at the deepest trenches! In this ocean there are no true continents or even islands, just enormous floating islands of 10 to 20 miles "thickness" or total height. True volcanoes would be rare to non-existent but there might be occasions where giant underwater volcanoes grow high enough to merge with one of those islands for a few centuries or millennia.
The effect of these floating islands - which could follow all kinds of weird currents and streams within the ocean - would be that even the local neighbourhood of islands could change over time. In a world with gods and magic maybe even on an almost regular basis! So any DF campaign could pick and choose a handful of islands from the official set, and thus build their own mix of adventure locations...

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by The Cardinal

Hmmm, how about this for a "Hex-Isles" setting: the planet is about Earth-sized but covered in a "super-ocean" with water depths of up to several dozen miles, maybe up to 60 miles at the deepest trenches! In this ocean there are no true continents or even islands, just enormous floating islands of 10 to 20 miles "thickness" or total height. True volcanoes would be rare to non-existent but there might be occasions where giant underwater volcanoes grow high enough to merge with one of those islands for a few centuries or millennia.
The effect of these floating islands - which could follow all kinds of weird currents and streams within the ocean - would be that even the local neighbourhood of islands could change over time. In a world with gods and magic maybe even on an almost regular basis! So any DF campaign could pick and choose a handful of islands from the official set, and thus build their own mix of adventure locations...

I don't think that's required, and GMs will mix and match anyway.

That being said, let's keep such brainstorming out of this particular thread, since it's its own topic and would clutter up the post. I think that yes setting, what kind of setting, setting requirements, and types of supplements that might follow or branch from a boxed set are all on topic, but the nuts-and-bolts of a casual idea tossed out by a non-staffer should migrate elsewhere!

[Anders]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

That being said, let's keep such brainstorming out of this particular thread, since it's its own topic and would clutter up the post. I think that yes setting, what kind of setting, setting requirements, and types of supplements that might follow or branch from a boxed set are all on topic, but the nuts-and-bolts of a casual idea tossed out by a non-staffer should migrate elsewhere!

Maybe someone should start a thread over at RPG.net? :o)

[dbm]

Originally Posted by philreed

I am not stating that anyone can do this with GURPS or any of our games. Steve Jackson Games could do this. If someone were to go through channels for a license it could possibly be licensed out to someone else.

Building on this idea, Phil, I would happily pay serious money for such a product. More than I would pay for Pyramid, for example. It could kind of be a 'Dungeon Magazine' or 'Adventure Path' for Dungeon Fantasy.

EN World has done two adventure series on a subscription basis (War of the Burning Sky and Zeitgeist). I would love SJG to do something like this for Dungeon Fantasy. A linked series of high quality adventures mixing in dungeon delves, hex crawling and urban intrigue would be great.

[GM Joe]

Originally Posted by dbm

Building on this idea, Phil, I would happily pay serious money for such a product. More than I would pay for Pyramid, for example. It could kind of be a 'Dungeon Magazine' or 'Adventure Path' for Dungeon Fantasy.

EN World has done two adventure series on a subscription basis (War of the Burning Sky and Zeitgeist). I would love SJG to do something like this for Dungeon Fantasy. A linked series of high quality adventures mixing in dungeon delves, hex crawling and urban intrigue would be great.

I would subscribe to a DFRPG adventure series.

I would also subscribe to a DFRPG setting series.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by dbm

Building on this idea, Phil, I would happily pay serious money for such a product. More than I would pay for Pyramid, for example. It could kind of be a 'Dungeon Magazine' or 'Adventure Path' for Dungeon Fantasy.

EN World has done two adventure series on a subscription basis (War of the Burning Sky and Zeitgeist). I would love SJG to do something like this for Dungeon Fantasy. A linked series of high quality adventures mixing in dungeon delves, hex crawling and urban intrigue would be great.

Originally Posted by GM Joe

I would subscribe to a DFRPG adventure series.

I would also subscribe to a DFRPG setting series.

Count me in as well.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by GM Joe

I would subscribe to a DFRPG adventure series.

I would also subscribe to a DFRPG setting series.

Originally Posted by Anders

Count me in as well.

I'm with ya. :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Buzzardo

I'm with ya. :)

I am curious why this kind of periodical content would be useful to you, but isn't useful when it is published in Pyramid? What would be the difference?

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I am curious why this kind of periodical content would be useful to you, but isn't useful when it is published in Pyramid? What would be the difference?

I said this:

Originally Posted by Buzzardo

I think that depends on the audience. Some folks (including you and me) might be satisfied with a few pages. Others want a whole book or even multiple books.

Also, if the goal is to bring new blood to GURPS via a setting for DFRPG, the setting needs to be something SJG can get onto retailers' shelves. That means a book (perhaps a thin one, but a book) rather than an article.

I think making a setting is worth a try. No, it won't sell as many copies as DFRPG, because there are always people like me who prefer to make their own settings. But it would get the attention of the folks who want a pre-made setting and others who like to read settings. I think that, to really succeed with DFRPG, SJG has to find ways to get the attention of the folks who wouldn't otherwise consider it. A setting is one way of what I hope will be a multi-pronged approach.

I didn't say I wouldn't read it in Pyramid. I'd read it in Pyramid and on its own. Neither is actually all that useful to me. I make my own worlds and adventures (an adventure or two a week, in fact, for my weekly session). I read adventures and settings in Pyramid and when published on their own out of curiosity more than anything else. Getting an idea or two for my own adventures would be a nice bonus.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I am curious why this kind of periodical content would be useful to you, but isn't useful when it is published in Pyramid? What would be the difference?

Connected themed content that all works together would seem to be a big draw. Perhaps it starts with a general description of the Kingdom of Foo (overall geography, locations of monster hot-spots, listing local factions and the like). Later publications expand on that: the monster-filled sewers under Foo City, the Brotherhood of Dudes With Swords which provides training and support for adventurers across Foo, a detailed look at the course of the fraught Royal Highway which is often attacked by monsters and could use some adventurers to clear the place up, maps and descriptions of the Temple of Really Bad Stuff which is just a few miles off the Royal Highway, descriptions of the Riders of Bar, the kingdom of Foo's implacable enemies, and so on. It's basically taking a campaign source book (or books) and spreads them out over a set of encyclopedia articles.

Ironically, though, it seems like this sorta-kinda recreates a core problem that web-Pyramid had. People could buy a one-year subscription, download everything they wanted from the archive, and let it lapse for another few years until they felt like downloading another batch of a few years' content. Not a free rider problem, perhaps, but a cheap rider problem where occasional subscribers would essentially be subsidized by long-term ones. Perhaps it'd work better if the platform hosting it could limit a subscriber's content to stuff posted during a subscription period. If you subscribe this year but not last, you have to go and buy the last-year compilation separately.