GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1: Mirror of the Fire Demon

[Langy]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

First sentence: yes. Second sentence: no. You say this often, but that doesn't make it true. Indeed, the top 20 e23 releases includes four Spaceships PDFs, two Low-Tech, and even City Stats, the last of which distinguishes itself by being dry but handy. None of these remotely count as silly, nor do the rest of the top 20, the nearest being Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, which isn't a GURPS supplement. Tactical Shooting, a supplement with an approach to gun combat that is realistic, has outsold the action movie-inspired Gun Fu, even though Gun Fu came out in 2009 and Tactical Shooting came out in 2011. (There is a strong tendency for e23 sales to be higher with time for obvious reasons.)

If anything, the sales show you are saying the opposite of truth, that GURPS players shun silly supplements for serious ones. I don't buy that either -- Action has sold well -- but at least the sales might back that up. For all the ado that the whimsical Dungeon Fantasy gets around here, the ultra-geeky Spaceships has outsold it.

He didn't say that GURPS players like silly, slapstick stuff. He said that those adventures catered towards the GURPS players who like silly, slapstick stuff - and that's simply the truth. Both the Lair of the Fat Man and Big Lizzie are silly adventures, and would require complete rewrites in order to be anything but silly.

And you are correct that sales show that GURPS players shun silly supplements - both LotFM and Big Lizzie had pretty low sales figures.

[b-dog]

Originally Posted by Langy

He didn't say that GURPS players like silly, slapstick stuff. He said that those adventures catered towards the GURPS players who like silly, slapstick stuff - and that's simply the truth. Both the Lair of the Fat Man and Big Lizzie are silly adventures, and would require complete rewrites in order to be anything but silly.

And you are correct that sales show that GURPS players shun silly supplements - both LotFM and Big Lizzie had pretty low sales figures.

Yes, MotFD seemed to be written in such a way it could be run as a serious adventure and for this reason I really liked it. The other two adventures seem to be too silly and quirky for me to purchase. If there are more adventures like MotFD then I will happily buy them.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Langy

He didn't say that GURPS players like silly, slapstick stuff. He said that those adventures catered towards the GURPS players who like silly, slapstick stuff - and that's simply the truth.

He did?

Originally Posted by b-dog

The other two adventures are too geared toward the GURPS crowd which tends to like silly, slapstick stuff.

I suppose it depends on whether "GURPS crowd" and "GURPS players" is equivalent or not.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by b-dog

DF is a popular genre aimed at people who like D&D and other high powered fantasy. The other two adventures are too geared toward the GURPS crowd which tends to like silly, slapstick stuff.

Ah, no. The GURPS crowd really tends to traditionally NOT like silly, slapstick stuff. That's one reasone why such adventures would sell poorly. If you were going for the traditional GURPS crowd I'd think you'd want more realistic adventures. For a fantasy adventure it would be more grounded and less cinematic than a DF adventure. More in the 150 point level. However, DF is a very popular line which taps more into old school D&D style gaming. In GURPS terms it's very cinematic.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Yes, MotFD seemed to be written in such a way it could be run as a serious adventure and for this reason I really liked it. The other two adventures seem to be too silly and quirky for me to purchase. If there are more adventures like MotFD then I will happily buy them.

OK, I definitely agree with that statement.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

He did?

I suppose it depends on whether "GURPS crowd" and "GURPS players" is equivalent or not.

Technically it really doesn't.
I understand why you read into his statement what you did because of some of his posts, many targeted at DF that call it silly.
However saying that Big LIzzie and the lair of the Fat Man were written towards silly slapstick is as accurate whether you say it was written to the GURPS crowd who like that or the GURPS players who like that.
I think those are probably fair assessments also.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by b-dog

The other two adventures seem to be too silly and quirky for me to purchase. If there are more adventures like MotFD then I will happily buy them.

Alright, I don't have an issue with this.

[sunstone]

As sales are discussed here:

Why is no one raising the issue of piracy? It's so easy as a click to download an adventure or any other pdf supplement. I don't honestly know if someone can do something against the 4shared of this world.

So who buys? People who like convenience, honesty, supporting SJgames and the whole rp-life. In my roleplaying group it is exactly one person: me.

Maybe thats just how this works...

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by Greg 1

The generic nature of GURPS is indeed a problem here, I think.

It doesn't have to be. GURPS the Roleplaying SYSTEM can be used to implement a Roleplaying GAME. And that game can have a premise that allows authors to write specific adventures for it.

Dungeon Fantasy implements GURPS for a specific type of fantasy and does this well. Which is why it not a surprise to me that Mirror of the Fire Demon is selling better than the other 4e adventures.

[Greg 1]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

It doesn't have to be. GURPS the Roleplaying SYSTEM can be used to implement a Roleplaying GAME. And that game can have a premise that allows authors to write specific adventures for it.

Well indeed, but GURPS fans play an awful lot of different games, which makes writing adventures that will appeal to GURPS fans difficult. You can run any game you want with GURPS, and we do, which means that an adventure that is just right for me is very likely to be of no interest to many other people.

The beauty of Mirror of the Fire Demon is that it is written for a genre that is hot with a lot of GURPS players right now and can easily be set on a variety of different gameworlds within that genre.