Fantasy Race book project...thinking out loud

[Scott Ruggels]

Hello folks,

After a long absence here because of a  serious medical emergency, and a very looooooong hospital stay, I am back. This same emergency, somewhat resolved, has forcibly retired me, giving me a lot of free time.  In that free time I have been with a group on Roll20.net happily playing games on weekends.  

 

Discussions with a friend, and a few players, motivated me, to take the remains fo a failed  comic idea from a few years ago, and  use the ideas  for a Fantasy Race.   So I floated the idea to the other players, and managed to make them work in Pathfinder (1), and and D&D5e.  The results worked better than expected and they became an appealing choice for several of the players in both game systems. The race were "The Lupines" , a race of "beast men"  based on Wolves, though their origins were obscure.  We had Lupine Barbarians, Magic Users, a unique rogue, and a rather successful Paladin.  Discussions lead to the possibility of making this an RPG book, with the stats a bit of write up in each system, and including example characters.  Well, my first love is the Herosystem, and I wanted to include Hero stats. his leads me  to some questions for those that are Herosystem experts.

 

The current idea is to put the states and write ups for each system in their own sections,  For ther Hero Section( and for prospective players),  what would be most useful in a book that details a fantasy race?

 

My deepest familiarity in the Herosystem myself, is The Big Blue Book, and before. I may own 5th edition, but it was at the tail end of my old Gaming period ( that ended in 1996) and I don't think I ever used the books. 6th Edition came out and faded from store shelves before I came to Revisit the table top hobby.  Would it be acceptable to release the racial package deals in BBB format?

What point levels are people mostly playing Fantasy Hero these days?   In general most "racial Package Deals". would be 0-5 points, with cultural package deals  around 10-15 points, or so.

 

Other than a general descriptive text, what else would people like?  We have  had some successful PCs and those might become example characters (and NPCs). If so, How many?

 

the page look, layout and formatting of Pathfinder and D&D are known and often generally dupicated for effect on Imgur, and Deviantart. These tend to be specific fonts, backgrounds and "painted" art. On the pages for D&D5e and Pathfinder, I will follow the  "look" of the parent systems. That means full color digital paintings of the NPCs  and example.  What format for Herosystem should I follow? As it was in print in 1995? Is there a preferred formatting for the "current year"? Should I go full color?

 

The Objective is a high quality, though probably not very long PDF.   If I wanted to charge for it: Should I?,  If so, How much? ($12.00 US too much?).  And if I finish this PDF, what sort of distribution is there available? I have heard of Drivethrough RPG, but have never shopped there. Any hints?

 

Hopefully my co-author, and myself will be able to put out an attractive package for Hero as well as other systems. We may use this as the cover, depicting the previous mentioned Paladin.

[drunkonduty]

Very nice cover art.

 

As for presentation for the hero  section - I'd say stick as closely as possible to the one style throughout the pdf.

There's no need for separate art for instance. Stat blocks can be presented much the same way throughout.

 

I'd keep the stats relevant to the latest version of the game. You won't boost sales by making a product for a version of the game that's more than 20 years out of date.

 

As for what you charge for it, compare what you're doing to similar things on RPG net and see what others are charging. But keep in mind multi-system booklets are of lower appeal. Most people play one system. Therefore they don't get much value out of multi-system products and are less inclined to part with money for them.

 

NPC stat blocks are always welcome for any system. The more complex the system the more welcome. High level Pathfinder stat blocks are a pain to do up; anything that saves me work is worth it to me.

 

Good luck!

[Duke Bushido]

Given the current results of this poll:

 

I'd say that the current version is favored only by two percent more than the edition-before-the-previous-one.  I can't speak for everyone else voting "3e and before, [paraphrased], but I know 4e would be a lot more useful to me.  Even 5e, really.

 

Though again, to get approval, you will most likely have to focus on the current version.  

 

With that being said, a "text only" block write-up of any characters presented in your book, details-light, in even 5e, perhaps at the end of the Characters chapter, would effectively double your appeal.  You know: you have the fancy names and descriptions and all that in the "primary" write-up when you introduce the character in the current version, then just an appendix of quarter-page "this is what it looks like in X edition."

 

And even before I post this I can hear folks scoffing at my foolishness because it can't be done, but quick show of hands-- am I the only one in the history of this board who keeps recurring NPCs on index cards in a little box?

 

[Scott Ruggels]

 thank you for the advice. Part of this is to make te PDF partially a portfolio piece, so there will be a fair amount of art. I will need some assistance on making the 6the stats as I don't own any of 6e, but putting the 4e stats in the back in stat blocks is a good idea.  Something to think about, though.

[John Desmarais]

Quote

My deepest familiarity in the Herosystem myself, is The Big Blue Book, and before. I may own 5th edition, but it was at the tail end of my old Gaming period ( that ended in 1996) and I don't think I ever used the books. 6th Edition came out and faded from store shelves before I came to Revisit the table top hobby.  Would it be acceptable to release the racial package deals in BBB format?

What point levels are people mostly playing Fantasy Hero these days?   In general most "racial Package Deals". would be 0-5 points, with cultural package deals  around 10-15 points, or so.

 

While I'm sure there is a market for 4th edition material (it remains many people's favorite version) my personal preference tends to always veer to "current release" as it tends to where the most likely customer base growth is (yes, Hero does still attract new players, and the current release is what they find the easiest to purchase). That said, for existing Hero players (the grodnards), specific version is pretty irrelevant as conversion between recent editions is pretty easy for anyone already familiar with the system.

 

With regards to point base, I have almost always done Fantasy Hero at whatever point-base was "standard heroic" for the edition I was playing.

[Ninja-Bear]

I believe (and you should check with Hero Games) but anything that’s going to be official even third party is supposed to be 6th ed.

[Scott Ruggels]

Who should I check with?

[Ninja-Bear]

I would think dropping a line on the Company Thread would work.

[Scott Ruggels]

Thank you. I wil

I will be posting the stat blocks for critique as I finish them. Now off to buy the 6th edition PSD so I have half a clue of what I am doing.

[Chris Goodwin]

On 9/7/2018 at 2:09 PM, Scott Ruggels said:

Who should I check with?

 

Jason Walters, whose board username is @Jason S.Walters, would be the one to ask.

[Scott Ruggels]

Thank you very much

[Scott Ruggels]

Okay, so the project has had a bit of a stall, while me and my collaborators now go over Pathfinder 2, so ass to either add it, or replace the Pathfinder 1 materials. As such this gives me time to look over and rewrite some of the Hero related stuff. Now I need a bit of  advice.  Of the fantasy Hero supplements, which in terms of writing, were the best  Racial packages done for the various iterations of Fantasy Hero? I need some examples to  look at, as I trim back my somewhat purple prose. Which races seemed the most interesting, of it the entire supliment had decent write ups for multiple groups.  Also how much variety to people want. I know they need example PCs and those are being worked on,  and I can assemble the package deals, but I am looking for either informative, or inspiring examples of writing.

On another note, here's another character portrait, of Waya, the Lupine Wizard.