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Here's a stray thought I had.  I'll throw it into the mix and see what you-all think of it.

It would have to be a boxed set package (and if you have suggestions on how to avoid that, I'm all ears).  Included in the box would be:

a) Worldbook - Setting details suitable for player handouts, -preferably- original source style (newspapers, guidebooks, and the like)

b) Plotbook - A book for the GM, including stray secret bits of the setting, but more importantly, a series of seven or so adventures and a slew of in-between plot ideas, knitted together to be a big epic story.

c) Supplements - A collection of pamphlets for mission briefings, or clues/plot points that the characters pick up, also original source like.

d) Rulebook (optional) - the components above could stand alone in a system-less format, or you could add a separate Rulebook.

The idea here being a stand-alone world, complete with metaplot (I'm a strong believer that any good plot includes and changes the setting).  If made system-independant, it could be done with GURPS, Fudge, Silouhette, or even (sorry) d20.  You could open the box and have a whole game, complete with cool handouts to give your characters.

Does anybody think this is feasible, intriguing, or a total effort in futility?

Hey,

Welcome to the Forge. Where to start, where to start.

Minor thing first: don't apologize regarding D20, 'cause it ain't a big deal. The Forge is D20-neutral. Some love it, some don't, but all blather about it is strictly individual.

More importantly, about your suggested publication.

1) What KIND of publication? Distributors and game-stores, as suggested by your "boxed set" description? If so, then realize that this strategy has been tried, and tried, and tried. Sometimes it's been successful and sometimes not.

You may consider other forms of publication as well, most notably as a PDF direct-sold from a website. Monte Cook is setting a fine example right now for D20 stuff.

2) What sets your product or idea apart from the rest? You're probably going to get a HUGE diversity of response from folks at the Forge (some of us are setting-fanatics, some of us are decidedly not), but the one thing I think will be consistent is this: "just another setting" is not going to float anyone's boat. Hell, not even great art can liven it up (e.g. Earthdawn).

Some of us, NOT all, but definitely including me, are going to be interested in something called Premise, which is a crisis or concern that interests the PLAYERS directly, not just the characters.

3) Regardless of how you're going to distribute it, a very real question is how you're going to drum up interest at the customer level. (a) Print ads are totally worthless; so are internet banners and search engines. (b) Distributors and game-store owners do NOT rep/sell material to customers. (c) Most industry mechanisms like GAMA are flawed at best.

A lot of people on the Forge have spent a lot of time considering and solving these questions, but much of it depends on the individual's own desires. Let us know a bit more about yours.

Best,
Ron

As an aside - here's how to do this without printing a boxed set.

a) Get a website with a name based on the setting. cedant.com can handle you for $12.95.

b) Put samples of your setting books, a good description of the setting, and the latest newspaper (more on this in a second) on the site for free.

c) Sell the actual setting books on the site. In addition, when you buy the books you get on the site, you get an account where you can see the archives.

d) If you want a living setting, or a metaplot, update the site weekly with a "newspaper" of what happened in the last week. This includes plot hooks, news articles GMs can use, and new nifty bits. The archive mentioned above would have all these to look through.

Unfortunately, I don't think I was clear on a few points.

At its most basic level, this is a pick-up-at-your-FLGS product.  It could very well be done with pdf and downloadable, however.  Either way it is a 'package' and the question I have is whether folks think the package is a viable unit.

The Plotbook -is- the plot, the whole plot, and every single bit of the metaplot.  The package is conceived as a self-contained product, to stifle all the people who complain about buying every installment of 'the Damned Metaplot'.

As for the Setting and Premise -- the Setting would hopefully be something unique, and the Premise engaging and directly tied to both the Setting and the Plot.  I'm not asking about the viability of a specific product, but a format for a product.

That said, I think this package would be a great vehicle for said engaging Premise.  Everything in the package can be geared and fine-tuned for (say) officers in a military campaign or a special ops group.  Perhaps an example is in order.

Example: a military space campaign.  The setting -is- generic for purposes of the example.  In a 'real' product, it'd be something flashy and unique.

Worldbook: the Basic Handbook given to all enlisted men, detailing history of the Space Marines, etiquette among soldiers, proper use and handling of general-issue weaponry and an overview of vehicles commonly used by the service.  A map or quick run-down of important (or representative) worlds would be essential.  After reading this book, the player should know everything they need to know (setting-wise) to start playing.

Plotbook: the GM gets to read about the two dirty little secrets of the Space Marines that will directly bear on the plot, and look over detailed character writeups for the PCs' supervisors.  The bulk of the book, however, would be a series of adventures: the first will be the backwoods assignment that the PCs start in, and where they witness the Awesome Destructive Power of the Enemy's Secret Weapon.  Then the next adventure is them chasing the ship bearing the prototype into uncharted space, dodging the meteor field in the mean time.  Then the third adventure has the PCs trailing the badguys through the streets of the alien world deep within uncharted space.... etc etc etc.  In between the big adventures are plot seeds and ideas that the GM can expand and play if he desires, either as B-plots or as full-fledged adventures between the published adventures.

Supplements: mission briefing and layout of the PCs' initial assignment, specs that the PCs steal of the Enemy Secret Weapon, secret coded transmissions received from High Command, etc etc etc.  All of these things are original source type material that the PCs could recover in gameplay.  Giving characters something that they can hold in their hands always goes over well.

Rulebook: as said before, a Rulebook isn't really necessary.  The above could be played with any system.  For the purposes of this example, we'll include a Rulebook which gives rules for firefights, spacecraft battles, interacting with alien species, and anything else that might turn up in the course of the metaplot offered by the Plotbook.

All together, the Worldbook will give the Players all they need to start playing.  The pertinent information that they will pick up in-game is already prepared and ready to hand out in the Supplements.  The GM presumably reads the entire Plotbook before starting the first adventure, so she has a good grasp of the whole world before beginning.

Ideally, this is a campaign-in-a-box.  It isn't a highly detailed setting with a plot attached.  The focus of the product is the entire, holistic game.  Without the intention of extending beyond the boxed set, the focus and planning for a good, complete campaign can be perfected.  Or, at least, that's the theory.

[ This Message was edited by: Thededine on 2001-08-20 01:44 ]

Hey,

There are two sorts of ways to assess your notion.

1) Speaking about markets, viability, and so on. At this level, everyone is speculating, because NO ONE knows what will or won't sell. The format sounds all right, but it's only format, and with only that, I just shrug. I hold the minority view that format is a very minor issue to customers, as long as it's good.

More concretely, since game stores are your chosen venue, your first priority is convincing the distributor-retailer community, as they operate in a closed community and do very little without in-community reassurance. After all, no matter how good your package, it still needs to get into the stores and repped to customers somehow ... and the past three decades are littered with the corpses of exactly the product you describe.

2) Speaking about my personal preferences, which I swiftly add are NOT representative, your suggestion leaves me relatively cold. Heavy setting and metaplot-based material are useful to me as a GM and player, but mainly for things like maps, interesting NPCs, and the occasional story element. I cannibalize pieces of packages of this kind, rather than use them as written, and therefore 50-80% of their content gets passed by. This is what I do with Call of Cthulhu adventures, especially the big ones.

If the material is outstandingly good - to the extent that I say, "Wow, why isn't this a novel, this is great" - then I enjoy it mainly AS a novel and don't use it at all, except perhaps for pictures. This is what I do with Space: 1889 and Jorune material.

I am not trying to discourage you. If you're planning to own your work, then the Forge is meant to be a resource to help you do it, and I'm totally on your side, even if the product doesn't float my personal boat.

One more thing: as a "test market poll," the Forge is not really a good place. It's too diverse in many ways (preferred means of distribution) and too focused in others (creator ownership).

Best,
Ron

Hey there;

My initial reaction is to ask: why boxed set?  With the boxed set, you pay binding costs on 3 or 4 different books (or booklets) as well as packaging costs for the overall box.  

Instead, just bind the damn thing as one big book, slap a pretty cover on it, and you have a viable product just as well.  One of the reasons I feel the boxed set went out of style is due to the costs concerned in the process.

Half of your printing cost from a printer will be for the bind type.  Even saddle-stitching 3000 booklets get costly after awhile.  

Though the idea has merit, I agree with Ron (in my own words):  anything can be made into a product that distributors and stores will attempt to sell (and I do mean anything).  What have you got that makes me, the end consumer, want to pick it up?  The total package in one book (or set) is nice, but what is in the thing?  70% of gamers (an off-the-cuff estimate) won't go past the cover and blurb text on the back, what will be there to sell them?

I would concern myself with answering those questions before even thinking about the venue for distribution of the product.

Dav