Ninja versus Fantasy

[Citizen Keen]

Steve - Feel free to move this post, I wasn't sure where it belonged. Oh yeah, and this question is probably directed at you, too.

Why was Ninja Hero published? Not "why do we need a Ninja Hero", but why has it already been published? And, of all the genre books, why does it not have any support?

It seems to me that Fantasy Hero is a more popular genre than Ninja Hero. This can even be seen here, because we have a Fantasy Hero forum, but not one for Ninja Hero.

We also lack any support for Ninja Hero, other than the Ultimate Martial Artist, which is a great sourcebook for any genre. There is no setting, or toolkit, or anything.

If Ninja has demand, why doesn't it have support? And if Ninja doesn't have the demand for support, why was it published so quickly, even before Fantasy Hero, when other genres (like Western and Cyberpunk) aren't even confirmed?

This post is not meant as a discredit to Mr. Surbrook. I have looked over both the book and his site and am very impressed with the work that exists in both.

[Killer Shrike]

I fail to see the relevance of this line of questioning. Steve wrote FH himself; so I imagine part of it was waiting until he had time to fit it into his schedule. Ninja HERO on the other hand was done by Michael Surbrook, who is not one of the DOJ AFAIK, and I know that the TUV by Bob Greenwade had existed in a previous incarnation prior to the DOJ/FRED turn of events. Its quite possible that they were done sooner because they were available and internal DOJ resources were not as heavily taxed by them.

By the way, I picked up Ninja HERO bcs I buy a copy of each book DOJ puts out, but didnt have any interest in it. Surbrook entreated me to read it in a thread on these boards, so I did. Its really great. Funny, well thought out, and well done. I would recommend it.

[Steve Long]

NH was published because we had a gap in our schedule, and that was what was available that we felt would best fill it. We couldn't publish FH at that time because I hadn't even begun writing it; furthermore, we prefer to save a release that big for a better time of year -- GenCon. Had there been, for example, a virtually completed Western Hero manuscript available, we might've chosen that instead. But NH was in the right place at the right time, and it was something the fans would enjoy, so we went with it.

NH doesn't get support products because I don't think it needs them compared to our other product lines. In an ideal world where we had the time, money, and other resources, we'd probably publish lots of support products for it -- and many, many more for our other lines, which are more popular. But there are only so many days in the year, and we have to prioritize. UMA and NH are more than enough material for that genre for the time being.

In short -- it was a matter of logistics, mostly.

[Citizen Keen]

Like I said, this was not meant to be an attack on the book - I have, for all intents and purposes, read it (i.e. spent about four hours perusing it at my FLGS). I was just curious why one genre book beat out another. My question has been answered. Thank you.

[Steve Long]

For the genre books in particular, "logistics" is usually gonna be the answer. They're such big undertakings that one a year is about all we can manage going forward; we were lucky to get Champions and SH in one year because I had two good outside freelancers to write 'em, and NH was an unexpected scheduling bonus. ;)