Possible HERO System Supplement Kickstarters From Steve -- What Interests You?

[Steve Long]

Howdy folx! As I promised over on the "Changes At Hero" thread, I figured I'd toss up a brief thread discussing HERO System supplements I'm considering doing as Kickstarters (see www.kickstarter.com if you're unfamiliar with the "crowdfunding" concept of Kickstarter and would like to know more). This isn't a formal poll or anything, but it never hurts to test the wind, so to speak.

Caveats: (1) I won't do any of these until after Hero Games decides what it wants to do with its own Kickstarters; no sense competing for the same dollars. (2) Some of these ideas may not pass muster with Hero; it may want to reserve some ideas or topics for itself. (3) My brief descriptions below don't discuss the "reward" involved (e.g., what level of contribution is required to get a hardcopy of a book); for purposes of this thread, please assume that the pledge required to get a book would be roughly the same as the book would cost retail.

Anyhow, here are some ideas I've had:

Mythic Hero
I've already gotten some work done on this book, and it's a topic I love and a book I'd dearly love to finish. However, it's likely to be pretty big, and thus to require a lot of my time.

Do you like this idea? Would you be willing to pledge $25 to see it done? $50? $100? Some other amount?


Cyber Hero
I love doing genre books, and this is one Hero hasn't done yet that I'm prepared to do. It's a limited enough topic that it shouldn't be a huge project to undertake.

Do you like this idea? Would you be willing to pledge $25 to see it done? $50? $100? Some other amount?


Dark Champions for 6E
This would be an update/revision of Dark Champions to the 6E rules.

Do you like this idea? Would you be willing to pledge $25 to see it done? $50? $100? Some other amount?


STORMlords
I've blogged about this setting of mine a bit; it's an Urban Fantasy/Dark Champions sort of thing. The short pitch is: "Take the Gun Fu from Desperado and Equilibrium, the mental powers from Push, the magic from the Harry Dresden books, the martial arts from The Matrix. Mix them together in a blender with The X-Files and some Tom Clancy novels." The PCs are highly skilled individuals working for the US government agency in charge of monitoring and making use of "powered" assets and threats. They face a web of global conspiracies and personnel competing for power, wealth, and whatever else there is to compete for.

Do you like this idea? Would you be willing to pledge $25 to see it done? $50? $100? Some other amount?


That should be enough ideas to chew on for now. No doubt more will occur to me as time goes by.

[Lord Liaden]

Of this group, Mythic Hero is the one I really want to see. I will definitely pledge $25.00 to the project, and would gladly pledge more if more of my income was disposable right now.

[Steve Long]

I should've added -- this isn't necessarily a "just pick one" thread. Feel free to respond that you'd like to see more than one. I won't ever run more than one Kickstarter at a time, of course, but it for planning purposes it never hurts to find out in advance what interests people.

[Manic Typist]

I would be welling to pledge at least $25 for each, probably $50 for Dark Champs and STORMlords to get hardcopies plus PDFs, maybe more if the incentives were good enough.

[patransom]

I will definitely pledge for Mythic Hero. How much depends on the incentives, but at least $25.

Of the others, only STORMlords seems really interesting to me.

[djkester]

Steve,

I have been currently running High Fantasy games and will continue to run a fantasy game for several years. I am wrapping up my DnD Dark Sun campaign this week and start my Fantasy Hero campaign next year. I normally spend $100-$200 per month on gaming stuff.

I am willing to buy a subscription to content if someone could get to a solid pace of output. Even if this content production is fairly minimal.
I am willing to buy most anything you or someone you recommend produce for Fantasy campaigns. I'm slowly buying everything you guys have had on the Hero store.
I am willing to invest from time to time in other Genres.
I love source books like equipment, weapons, vehicles, etc... Anything that has lists of pre-made stuff for Hero so I don't have to create it. One book I would love to see is a book of different builds of races and templates that represent the training of different fantasy backgrounds. Something much more involved than what is in the Fantasy Hero book. I'm willing to supply the builds I'm creating for my own campaign to anyone who wants to put this together.

I'm willing to support product development for Hero System products in general. I am willing to minimally invest in the product an amount equal to the purchase value of the product. However, for the right concessions I'm willing to invest more. Something more than $100 wouldn't be outside with the correct incentives.

Other than that I'm willing to personally put time in on a project to help get it along. Likely the best use of my time would be around the project management sense that is what I am the most efficient at.

[Derek Hiemforth]

In order of interest...

1. STORMlords ($25; $50 if I'm employed by then)
2. Mythic Hero ($25; $50 if I'm employed by then)
3. Cyber Hero ($25 if I'm employed by then)
4. Dark Champions 6E ($25 if I'm employed by then)

[ngross]

Since 6E came out, I have been buying almost anything that is not Champions or Pulp. My preference is pretty much Fantasy and Science Fiction (or some combinations/parts of).

As far as what I would like to see in Hero. Pretty much in my order of preference.

1. Turakian Age world details/supplements. The detail maps seem to have a lot of things that are never mentioned in the book (That or I need to go back and re-read it again). Maybe something like djkester suggested... a 10 part subscription on details of various parts of the world.
2. STORMlords. I love the ideas in the summary and would love to see the various powers/magics/martial arts written up/fleshed out.
3. Post-Apoc fantasy/modern/science fiction campaign setting. Maybe more Valdorian age stuff. While not post-apoc, would not take much to change into a Thundarr the Barbarian type of thing. Bought The Day After Ragnarok and its supplements, but have not taken the time to read it yet.
4. Cyber Hero - I have the old 4th Edition book around here somewhere. At least I think it was Cyber Hero. Interested in seeing more street level/Dark Champions level type of thing. Some of the power levels in Kazei 5 just seem really high, but it is more of the genre feel that Susano was going for (and I think that he nailed it). Not sure if I would prefer it from the viewpoint of the old 1980s genre (Cyberpunk and old Shadowrun) or take some of todays tech/science fiction and extrapolate.
5. Dark Champions - While a sub-genre of Champions, I always saw this as a more Heroic level. Batman and Robin, Dark Angel, Buffy, etc.

I do plan on buying Mythic Hero when available. It is not on my list as a priority because I would probably use it as a reference here and there. Would maybe buy Book of the Empress, but not sure. Only reason that I would consider it seems to fit into Science Fiction and the ideas of running huge, galactic organizations. Almost seems to have a Stargate feel to it for me (from descriptions).

As far as price, that would depend on if it is PDF, print, or PDF/print combo. Where possible I buy PDF/print combos. $20 to $25 for a PDF, $40 to $50 for a book, and $60 to $70 for a PDF/print combo is not out of my price range. But, money is not tight right now and that can always change.

[Ranxerox]

Mythic Hero and STORMLords. I'm less interested in updates of earlier books. Cyber Hero has a double strike in that Kazei 5 covers much of the same area.

[Steve Long]

I am willing to buy a subscription to content if someone could get to a solid pace of output. Even if this content production is fairly minimal.

There are some issues with a pure subscription-based sort of thing that concern me, so the odds are that I, at least, won't go that route. (I can't speak for other potential licensees, of course.)

However, assuming I were able to do a steady stream of HERO-based books via Kickstarter, that is sort of the same thing... it just involves paying for the content periodically rather than once a year (or whatever).

But the flip side of that coin is that a failed Kickstarter means I've lost out on having any immediate income for a period of time, which may make me less likely to want to take that risk in the future.

It's a brave new world, and I'll just have to keep my spyglass and machete handy as I attempt to navigate the treacherous jungle paths to the Hidden Fortress of Revenue.

[Steve Long]

Turakian Age world details/supplements. The detail maps seem to have a lot of things that are never mentioned in the book (That or I need to go back and re-read it again). Maybe something like djkester suggested... a 10 part subscription on details of various parts of the world.

There's more in that book than you may remember. I haven't considered doing anything further with the Turakian Age setting because the demand seems relatively slight, but I might be willing to run something small up the flagpole and see what happens. If a small PDF covering something-or-other earned enough, that would undoubtedly encourage me to do more of them.

[steriaca]

Let me think...I would say $25 MAX for any one book (seeing that my budget is rather on the pore side). As for what I want to see, I proably would buy a new version of Mystic Masters/Mystic Champions, then prehaps Dark Champions 6ed. What I want to see, but proably would not from you is Champions of the Rising Sun (a Champions setting book about Japan). I would write that myself, but since I am a novice who has not writen ANYTHING for a while, and hasen't writen a book before (let alone an adventure...only two Digital Hero articals), by the time I get started with the research for such a thing, you would proably have it already writen up.

Yes, I know you dislike anime...but Champions of the Rising Sun is not anime, or manga. It is a setting book, filled with culture and history.

Beyond that, I can't think of anything except prehaps The Champions Grimour (a book about magic in the Champions setting). But thoes are my ideals which I am spilling on the ground to see if anyone is intrested in picking up.

Humm...another thought...a bunch of 'no frills' suppliments on the cheep...no artwork, just text. You think such supliments could sell on Kickstart for the equivlent of $20 MAX?

[Teflon Billy]

Steve,

You know me, I'm a pretty firm "One of everything, please." when it comes to Hero Games products (and regardless of the contractual arrangements between yourself and DoJ,inc. I will always consider your stuff to be part of that.) That being said: I will gladly pay $50 for any of these books, provided that it includes a hardcopy AND a PDF.

So, pretty much, for yours and Jason's planning, always count me as a guaranteed sale ;-)

TB

[Steve Long]

I will gladly pay $50 for any of these books, provided that it includes a hardcopy AND a PDF.

I can't say anything for certain of course, but generally the way RPG Kickstarters seem to be structured, the odds are by the time you get to the $50 range you'll get a PDF and hardcopy book... possibly more, depending on the project. So I don't think you have anything to worry about on that score.

[gojira]

Stormlords and Mythic Hero, for around $35 to $45, the price of one regular book. I'm not into PDFs of books that I own in print form, so the PDF would be at best a small bonus.

I wonder if Kickstarter would work well/better for small projects. Smaller hero adventure sized PDFs, for example. Smaller dollar amounts might allow more people to participate and let projects hit their "buy out" number sooner.