Steve Long Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 We’ve got something cooking for the Pulp Hero line that I hope y’all will enjoy. While I was writing PH, I had some ideas for scenarios that I want to write up. For the next several months my workload basically involves editing and rewriting, and I can only do that for so many hours a day before my brain begins to hurt. So, during the little bit of “free time†I try to allow myself each evening when I’m not laboring under a tight deadline, I prefer to work on a short writing project — it exercises different creative “muscles,†and keeps me fresh and focused on each day’s editing work. To fit that particular bill, we’re launching a new type of Hero Plus product called Dime Hero Adventures. DHAs are short, simple, no-frills PDF scenarios that will sell for $3-5. By “no frills,†I mean they’re not going to have any fancy layout tricks (I’ll do the layout using Andy’s standard templates), illustrations, or other artistic touches. If maps or the like are required, I’ll create them using Campaign Cartographer — they won’t be particularly slick or pretty, but they’ll get the job done. There may be some new characters, but DHAs will mostly refer to published villains and such when possible. The whole point is to keep the adventures short (suitable for one game session’s quickly-prepared play, typically), easy to create, easy to use, and fun. That’s why we can afford to sell them for three to five bucks. They won’t make enough for us to retire or anything, but it will be a cool way for me to keep my Pulp creative juices flowing. I’ve been working on a couple DHAs already, and I hope we’ll have the first one available for sale in another day or two — pre-release of the genre book, oddly enough, but why should we deny you, our faithful fans, such rollickingly fun adventures? Here’s what I’ve been creating: DHA #1: SPEARS OF THE TISANGANI: When they learn that the lost half of an antique map has been discovered, Our Heroes must journey into the heart of darkest Africa in search of the long-lost city of Tisangani! But they’d best beware, for one of their enemies seeks to thwart their efforts to find the fabled city. And if they do reach it, they’ll find themselves plunged into a political battle between the king and his warlord, with the fate of all of Africa perhaps hanging in the balance.... Spears Of The Tisangani is a Pulp Hero adventure designed for characters built on a total of 150 Character Points or less each. The optimal number of PCs is four to six, but you can scale it up or down based on the number of opponents you pit against the heroes in various encounters. The adventure includes one full-page map and one NPC. As some of you may recall from playing in it or hearing me talk about it, this is the adventure I ran at Origins this year. DHA #2: SOLAR SMITH AND THE SKY-PIRATES OF ARCTURUS!: Imagine, if you will, a world where Hugo Gernsback and Robert Goddard team up to make space travel to distant planets possible, and bold adventurers journey forth to find new worlds and encounter aliens. That’s the Aetherial Earth of Solar Smith, a Pulp SF setting inspired by the likes of John Carter of Mars, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon. You can join the brave men and women of the American Space Travel and Reconnaissance Agency (ASTRA) as you investigate strange alien planets, keeps the spacelanes safe from pirates, ride zarks across the swampy terrain of Venus, fight zeppelin battles in the Jovian skies, oppose the might of the alien Dracon Empire and its wily ruler Krogan III, and struggle to contain the forces of Nazism and Bolshevism. Solar Smith And The Sky-Pirates Of Arcturus! details the Pulp Hero and Star Hero mini-setting of Aetherial Earth and its universe (in other words, it’s not a scenario per se, unlike your typical Dime Hero Adventure). It’s not described in as much detail as, say, Terran Empire or Chapter Three of Pulp Hero, but there’s enough information for a GM to get a fun campaign up and running. So check your electric pistols and get ready to blast off to adventure! Solar Smith features: —a history of Aetherial Earth’s pulp era —descriptions of the major planets in and outside the Solar System that PCs might visit (including details on the natives and their cultures) —information about Aetherial rocketships and technology (including five example ships and several gadgets) —scenario ideas and a GM’s Vault of secret, GM’s eyes-only information —six NPC heroes (Solar Smith and his crew), and five villains (including Krogan III and his daughter, the beautiful Princess Aluria) —two simple illustrations by Maestro Steve himself! Beyond that, I have lots of ideas, but none of them have specifically grabbed hold of my imagination yet. I might expand on the example randomly-rolled adventure in PH, or on the four scenarios I had published in Adventurer’s Club #21. I have the barest scrap of an idea for a sort of Horror/Weird Menace scenario, and one for a Crimebusting sort of adventure that’ll have to waiting until after Masterminds And Madmen is out so I can use the insidious Lord Fang in it. At present I’m focusing on Pulp Hero adventures, but it’s possible that in time we may expand out to other genres with the DHA concept if it works well. If y’all have any ideas about short adventures you’d like to see, please let me know! We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! I'll buy 'em. Don't know when I'll use 'em, but I'll get 'em anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MitchellS Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Wow! These sound cool!!! I can't wait to start buying them! I'd buy some of these short pdfs for Champions Universe too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhamin Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Oh! I'm in. I hope this can expand into other genres as well. (I'd love some martial arts tomfoolery or space opera, nevermind more Champions stuff!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teh bunneh Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Ah hell yizzy! About time! MitchellS is right; I'd love to see a few of these for Champs, FH, and SH too. Bill. (Shouldn't be hard to convince the wife to let me spend $3 for an adventure...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Solar Smith sounds like fun. I'll take 'em. (Is there more info on the Smith setting in PH?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the Evil DM Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! To fit that particular bill, we’re launching a new type of Hero Plus product called Dime Hero Adventures. DHAs are short, simple, no-frills PDF scenarios that will sell for $3-5. But DEEP7 games already has a Product out there called Dime Heroes that offers "short, simple, no-frills PDF scenarios that will sell for $3-5." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Cool Concept. I really hope this takes off. I'd love to see the same kind of thing for other genres. I know I'll be buying them all (then likely printing them and binding them but hey). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Well, that could be a problem! Dime Novels were also called "Penny Dreadfuls", but I doubt you want to hang the word Dreadful on your product Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Excellent! These sound mas cool. In fact, if it should happen that other "mini-campaign-settings" like Aetherial Earth are done for DHA over time, maybe they could eventually be collected, gussied up, and published as a "Worlds of Pulp Hero" kind of multi-sub-genre campaign setting book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beetle Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! This is a really great idea! The only drawback for me is that I have to go to a friend's house to download stuff and burn it on a cd (no home internet). So I may wait until a few have been released and buy them in bunches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! I liked it when Pinnacle did it for deadlands - I'll like them for Pulp Hero or any other genre. Its good business to have a product that people can buy without any reference to budgets etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! That sounds really cool Steve Will there be packages as well for the Solar Smith DHA? How about submitting DHAs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigJackBrass Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! To my mind this is precisely the right thing to be doing. Low cost, relatively short add-ons are perfect for PDF (I've seen 400 page rulebooks in that format and can only wonder who can afford to print them out, or why) and a growing fund of material for Pulp HERO is exactly what the game needs. I hope it's successful enough to spread over to other lines as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herolover Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! #1 I can't wait...in fact, I wish they were up right now. I will buy them all. #2 Great idea and I hope that this isn't just for PULP Heroes. I hope this extends to all genres. #3 I hope you don't do all the writing yourself. I would like to see this opened to other hero authors and maybe even (with carefull editing) allow submissions from the public. What about calling Digital Adventures? We have Digitial Hero....now we need Digital Adventures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mallet Posted August 4, 2005 Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! You said you were looking for ideas? Well, nothing screams PULP more then an Evil Mad Scientist with some sort of Fin on his head, a Secret Moon Base and a Giant Laser Gun pointed at the Earth. Now that's good times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Long Posted August 4, 2005 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Will there be packages as well for the Solar Smith DHA? By "packages" do you mean Package Deals? There are some really short-and-simple Package Deals for a few of the alien races, but none for positions in ASTRA or anything like that. If the setting sells well, maybe I'll have the chance to expand on it more and provide info like that. How about submitting DHAs? At this point I'd rather not. That would require editing, and one of the points of this project right now is to give me something to do other than edit. It might be possible at some point in the future, though we prefer that writers we haven't worked with establish a track record in Digital Hero before we give them other paying work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! SOUNDS GREAT I would use some recycled art (That you own outright and don't have to pay royalties on) just to break up the page a little, but otherwise it sound GREAT (Can we have a couple Champions ones soon...Maybe of a Golden age variety ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! "Aetherial Earth" sounds pretty cool. Is space actually Aether, in this alternate Universe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teflon Billy Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! I'm in! More money from me will be coming your way as soon as this is made available for purchase. TB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent X Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! As long as the price is reasonable, I will very enthusiastically purchase these adventures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! Aetherial Earth sounds fantastic! I think I'd have to buy that no matter what. The concept is otherwise cool, it'll depend on exact subject matter and how well previous editons turned out. Some artwork, even recycled from previous products or drawn by YT would be great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! NEED BRAINS - ERRRR PLAYERS! I like the idea. It sounds great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmOz Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! There is an idea, a pulp zombie fest, with options for champions (tougher & more zombies), fantacy (make it a village) and Star Hero (make it a starship) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister E Posted August 5, 2005 Report Share Posted August 5, 2005 Re: Announcing — DIME HERO ADVENTURES! There is an idea' date=' a pulp zombie fest, with options for champions (tougher & more zombies), fantacy (make it a village) and Star Hero (make it a starship)[/quote']Totally. The zombie game would be a big winner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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