Vanquisher Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Why not sell a campaign source book with a collection of adventures. I'm thinking a collection of 12 or more related adventures with groups, teams, organizations and maps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoloOfEarth Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 There was a product, Champions Battlegrounds, which had a number of separate adventures that IIRC could fit together into a long-term plot arc. And Blackwyrm Games (www.blackwyrm.com) has put out several excellent books that similarly contain multiple individual events that could be run as one-shots, or combined into a longer plot arc. (I'll let mattingly or Balabanto toot their own horn there.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Currently, Hero Games doesn't have the means to do anything beyond what Kickstarter can do. Currently, other companys are providing adventures and suppliments for Hero System/Champions. There was, during the late life of the 4th edition the Champions Presents series (I might be misremembering it). I think they didn't sell well. Of course I am not on the inside of the company, so I can't speak for them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Thank You, Bolo of Earth, for the name (Champions Battlegrounds... why have I not remember that name). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Well, the last such attempt by Hero Games was Champions Battlegrounds in 2003, for Fifth Edition. It featured five adventures which could be run separately or linked as a mini-campaign. As I recall, it didn't sell too well. Reportedly, adventures generally don't, unless they're relatively cheap "splatbooks" like old D&D "modules." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 I remember and love all the $5 adventure books Hero did for 4th edition. To bad nowadays to do a $5 adventure, it would be a half a page. (Curse you, inflation and material shortage!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanquisher Posted August 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I know adventures haven't done well. That's why I want to combine them with a campaign source book. Something like strike force or kingdom of champions with an collection of adventures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steriaca Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 I know adventures haven't done well. That's why I want to combine them with a campaign source book. Something like strike force or kingdom of champions with an collection of adventures. Well, "haven't done well" is basically up to the company's judgment. As for adventures, there is always writing for second hand companies who use the Hero Games license. The disadvantage is, you can't use the Champions Universe, and all the characters and things inside it. Instead, you have to use a generic superhero universe (in other words, your own campaign, with the Champions Universe refences dropped if you use them). Blackthorn Games is a good place to start. Another option is to 'self publish' it. Again, you must remove the Champions Universe refences (unless you WANT to get sued, even if you do not profit from it), then find a way to distribute it to those who want it. This is why I don't do anything besides a little character thread work on this board. 1) It gets distributed to fans by those reading the bboard. 2) Hero can't sue me for posting my original characters. 3) I get input from the fans. I don't think I truly have fans of my work (I need to be a better speller than I am now). I wish Hero could be a healthy company, so I can at least sergest (or even work on) some supplements for them. (By the way, I don't need to have payment for them beyond a hard copy of my work.) I have a few ideals for such works. (Champions of the Rising Sun, Enemies of the Rising Sun, Orochi: The Eight Heads, Rookie Enemies, etc., etc., etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 The industry, not just Hero, has moved away from adventures. Paizo seems an exception, as their Adventure Paths do quite well (or so I believe), but they have the ingrained "20 level life cycle" of the d20/Pathfinder system to frame the books around. It seems like adventures are largely to sell other books (the system, the latest expansion this adventure features, the setting sourcebook, the player splatbook elated to it, etc.). It hardly seems surprising. If we assume a playing group has five members (d20 being based a lot around 4 players and a GM), that's five possible buyers of the system, sourcebooks with player info, etc. The GM splatbooks/soucebooks may attract more than one if there are multiple GM's in the group. However, two or more GM's won't run the same adventure in the same group, so only 20% of the group is a market for the adventure. Drop off the DIY GM's, who probably still buy some sourcebooks, splatbooks and rules books, and the picture is worse. 25 years back, D&D products were pretty much all modules. Now? Maybe a big adventure or two a year, but a bunch of player options, settings, rulebooks, etc. Rulebook sales slowing down? Time for a new edition! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 There have been a few of these in the past and I think they are great. But someone would have to write it and publish it themselves. I would love to do this as a sort of "pathfinder" style storyline full campaign thing but I doubt I'll ever get to it. Whether things sell well or not really isn't an issue any longer. Its basically free to put things up on the shelf and they stay forever without worry about being lost or taken off for another product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted August 27, 2015 Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 Whether things sell well or not really isn't an issue any longer. Its basically free to put things up on the shelf and they stay forever without worry about being lost or taken off for another product. It is, actually. There are only so many hours in a day. If you want to make a viable business of publishing, those hours have to be focused on products that generate revenues. Of course, if someone wants to self-publish a vanity project, then whether it sells becomes irrelevant, but they will have to somehow earn a living doing something else to fund that vanity project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted August 27, 2015 Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 Sure, producing the product is expensive in terms of hours. But putting things on the shelf, the publication is basically free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Villiany Amok was neat ad it had 8 genre staples. Each had a ready made adventure and random charts to get the juices flowing. Down side is that some of those said charts were not published in the books but can be down loaded from the errata section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 One thought though is it that Hero hasn't sold adventures well because of the implied thought that if you can build your own characters and world why should buy a premade adventure? You should be smart enough to design your own adventure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Villiany Amok was neat ad it had 8 genre staples. Each had a ready made adventure and random charts to get the juices flowing. Down side is that some of those said charts were not published in the books but can be down loaded from the errata section. Can you still download the book Errata on this iteration of the website? I didn't find them from quick glance around. I mean, I copied them all before, but new people might be interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunatic Fringer Posted August 30, 2015 Report Share Posted August 30, 2015 My all-time favorite supplement for Champions is Challenges for Champions. But, Villainy Amok ranks a very close second. My absolute favorite supplement is Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads for Cyberpunk 2020... LF Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted September 5, 2015 Report Share Posted September 5, 2015 While looking up adventures at a list of all Hero products ever put out, I discovered that there are about 6 times as many adventures that have been published over the years than I was aware of. This suggests that part of the reason these didn't sell as well as might be expected is that people were unaware they existed. Now its cheaper to put products up and publicize them through social media and sites like this. For example, I have three fantasy Hero adventures in the catalog and on RPG Drive Thru: The Lost Castle, Elenthar's Tower, and Two Kings Keep. You might not have known about those, thus reducing potential sales, but now you do and it cost me nothing. The modern age makes reaching out to people so much easier and cheaper. And its super easy to target a potential audience. What I'm trying to say is that perhaps sales of these items wasn't as great as they could have been because they were unknown and undistributed. But in today's internet market, distribution is super easy and costs nothing, while getting word out is much easier and more effective. By the way, I liked Challenges for Champions so much I rebuilt the characters in the back for 6th edition Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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