The Future of the DFRPG

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

So what would people want to see down the line for the DFRPG? Let the irresponsible speculation and unreasonable demands begin!

Around the time of the DF Kickstarter I got back into GMing. As DFRPG has moved into more of a solid product I've become more interested in running long terms DF campaigns.

I looked at how much I've spent getting prepped for DF, its coming close to $500USD!, which when compared to the amount spent on the ten plus hardcover books for GURPS 4E I own or the 4E PDFs I, also, own is a pretty hefty amount.

yet only about $100 of that $1000 is on DFRPG and some of that was just on the postage.

so what else makes up the other $900?

• Minis (incuding Flat Plastic Miniatures)
  
• Terrain
  
• Maps
  
• Mats
  
• Dice

It would be nice to have spent some of that money with SJ Games.

So what would be some areas for potential?

I don't think getting into mini or terrain would be a productive or necessary step. There is a possibility of licensing or contracting to let someone who does produce minis to produce some of the DF monsters. Deadlands and other RPGs seem to have licensed to Flat Plastic Miniatures. It would be neat if I could pick up DF Monsters on plastic rather than white chipboard.

Not that I have any problems picking up more variety of chipboard DF Monsters. A pack of chipboard monsters would even be a competitor to the Pathfinder equivalent.

Bases too, I wouldn't mind more hex bases. Gloomhaven is now using hex bases. I could imagine Gloomhaven customers plundering the DFRPG bases and leaving none for DFRPG customers.

I'd love to see bases optimised for horizontal creatures and monsters, 2x2 and 2x3 and so on.

Also a dungeon/cavern floors upgrade onto chipboard with new room configurations would interest me.

[knarf]

In terms of following up the Dungeon Fantasy box set, I think adventures are the way to go. Something that groups that have played through the material in the box can simply add to their game immediately. These can be dungeon crawls or sandboxes or whatever gets written and published. At least 64 pages or so, mostly to avoid the staple binding and allow them to be seen on the shelf.

In terms of setting, I don't think you need much more than the implied Dungeon Fantasy background. There's already a perfectly serviceable fantasy world in GURPS Banestorm and coming up with another setting might be more work than it's worth. Besides, I have no doubt that many gamers have adapted D&D modules (and other dungeon fantasy-style adventures) for play with that setting (I know I have).

It's thoroughly possible that enough adventures in the implied setting will create a de facto setting, sort of like D&D's Mystara or Known World, that can be developed.

I wouldn't worry much about developing dedicated crunch books to follow up the box set. Players can either pick up the DF PDF line, or go full GURPS with the Basic Set and other supplements.

However, I do think that each adventure should contain some bit of player-facing material. One of the challenges of selling adventures is that they are largely a GM-only sort of product and a solution to that is dropping something that players can use into the mix. Maybe there's an NPC of a new minor race and hey, there's a template so you can play one too. Or the adventure is a quest for a new magic item and here's what it does when the players get their hands on it.

The other big hurdle of selling adventures is to fit them within whatever people are already doing with their game. Part of the point of Dungeon Fantasy (in a box or PDF) is to enable a specific kind of campaign and adventure, so this is a lower bar than GURPS typically had to deal with.

[lachimba]

Im assuming everyone in this thread has already backed the new DFRPG adventure Kickstarter and is out there touting it as the future of the DFRPG.

[DouglasCole]

Heh. We're 80% funded 10 hours in, which ain't bad at all.

Hall of Judgment: A DFRPG Supplement by Gaming Ballistic

[Raekai]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Heh. We're 80% funded 10 hours in, which ain't bad at all.

Hall of Judgment: A DFRPG Supplement by Gaming Ballistic

Can you say, "Hey, SJGames, the people have spoken! They want to spend more money on DFRPG!"? I just backed a little while ago. Looks excellent, and the theme would be enjoyed by my entire GURPS group.

[DouglasCole]

You guys are awesome.
11.5 hours and we've funded already.

Some notes from my prior work:

Thus far, we've raised more in the first day than each of my first three Kickstarters.

It took 18 days for Dungeon Grappling to raise more than $3,000, and that was for 5e, The Pathfinder RPG, and Swords and Wizardry, which together comfortably occupy 80-90% of the RPG market.

It took almost the entire campaign - 24 days - to hit over $3,000 for the adventure Hall of Judgment is based on: Lost Hall of Tyr

Dragon Heresy, a 288-page full RPG based on 5e . . . well, it did do $4400 by day 2. I wonder if we'll beat THAT too?

Well, we're in it now. There's still more coming, as alluded to in the prior update, in terms of potential reward levels and nifty stuff. Mostly, though, the big stretch goal revolves around the question of*how many print copies will be ordered?

The print quality upgrades are strictly volume-based, within reason (I like nice books and I cannot lie, so I often cheat when it comes to that).

But the money thus far means I can start talking to Glynn Seal about even more maps, likely four more (a zoom in around the Hall itself, two monster lairs, and a creepy ruin).

But really what this means? It's time to get to work. I've got a Fantastic Dungeon to make for y'all.

Thanks again!

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Can you say, "Hey, SJGames, the people have spoken! They want to spend more money on DFRPG!"? I just backed a little while ago. Looks excellent, and the theme would be enjoyed by my entire GURPS group.

No... but he can pretty much say, "Hey other writers, the peeps have spoken and they'll totes get on board with you writing more stuff for DFRPG!"


From there? It rather depends on creators creatin.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Raekai

Can you say, "Hey, SJGames, the people have spoken! They want to spend more money on DFRPG!"?

Nobody doubts that some people (including me) will spend more money on DFRPG. The question SJG faces is "Will enough people do that?"

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Nobody doubts that some people (including me) will spend more money on DFRPG. The question SJG faces is "Will enough people do that?"

Do that relative to resources spent! If they can go to someone like me and say "Yeah, you can go do this, and we'll take a cut, and both be happy" it's free money to them so long as they don't have to spend money on it.

If they have to promote it with actual expenditures (as opposed to using social media or the DI), or store books in their warehouse, or do fulfillment, or provide editorial or art resources . . . then it's a return-on-investment thing.

Right now, the ROI is darn close to infinity for them. that's always nice.

[Wonazer]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Do that relative to resources spent! If they can go to someone like me and say "Yeah, you can go do this, and we'll take a cut, and both be happy" it's free money to them so long as they don't have to spend money on it.

If they have to promote it with actual expenditures (as opposed to using social media or the DI), or store books in their warehouse, or do fulfillment, or provide editorial or art resources . . . then it's a return-on-investment thing.

Right now, the ROI is darn close to infinity for them. that's always nice.

Did you have to get permission for this project? I'm just curious what is preventing others from doing something similar for the rest of the GURPS ecosphere -- is DFRPG licensed differently to allow something like your project?