What gamers want

[GRWelsh]

I was thinking tonight about what gamers want. What are most gamers looking for, these days? There seem to be a lot of sourcebooks and peripheral stuff, but not too many adventures. I don't see many short, cheap modules designed for low-level characters. I also don't think there's enough gritty, low fantasy adventure with a Dark Ages feel to it. Goodman Games and Hackmaster have tapped into this market gap, to some extend (Grrr...), but I still think there's some potential here. What does everyone else think?

[dcas]

I think for the most part the market is untapped. What I am looking for is combination sourcebook and adventure, I guess -- detailing a small town, having wilderness encounter areas, and a standard dungeon crawl. Other adventure hooks would be nice in order to create a mini-campaign.

If our 'Dark Ages' assumption is correct, there should be literally hundreds of hamlets, thorps, and villages scattered throughout the countryside. So there's definitely room for hundreds of such 'modules'.

[Scott]

Ahhh, tha's exactly the idea I was considering. Something along the lines of T1, but with more wildernesss area detailed, including several small lairs, and one main dungeon.

[GRWelsh]

This is why I want you, me and Eric to collaborate together on some projects. I think we share a lot of the same sensibilities about the swords & sorcery genre and what we would like to create. Unfortunately we also seem to share some of the same faults: laziness, and an inability to finish anything we start. So it was my idea that if we work together maybe we will spur each other on to actually finishing some worthwhile stuff. I think you have a lot of potential to be a good writer of game material and fiction.

[geneweigel]

I'll tell ya what gamers want, one word: Whores.

Now the way I...wha-...?

Oh wait, that's just me.

I'll come in again.

Seriously, I'm working on the notion that gamers want "new" no matter what it is.

It just has to rock. Period.

[GRWelsh]

Hmmm... A whore with every product. Gene, I think you are on to something.

When you buy "Tomb of Whores,"and "Tower of the Ghost-Slatterns" by Brazen Strumpet Games, you get to walk out of that game store with a tart on each arm, and a smile on your face.

I think Gene W. might be our marketing department.

[geneweigel]

I think that gamers don't really know what they want because of the long standing deficit of anything with content of redeemably broad interest or quality.

The easiest thing to adopt is a geekish (read: shallow and vapid) appreciation of fantasy games to keep it firmly rested above all to still be associated with the far distant RPG development past.

The RPG immersion isn't as appealing as it once was crawling out of the 1970's "trip mentality" because of the lack of coherently detailed and intelligently "living" content for the evening's simulation. Every product became too self-devouring and developed an "anti-novel/pro-tradition" mentality rather then bring us to new places and reimagine the quasi-medieval landscape through "quasi-actual" detail.

Gamers aren't sure what it is they want but perhaps they need rather than want certain elements back.

Elements like detailed locales and tons of new portable physical content rather than linear undetailed "story hooks" that the "moron majority" of RPG writers loves so much.

[billchamb]

grashyewl said:

I don't see many short, cheap modules designed for low-level characters.

Apologies for butting in to your conversation, but...
Although designed around the d20 system, are you aware or familiar with the mini-modules that have been published over the past few years by AEG and Fantasy Flight Games? They typically cost <$3 and are the size of an 8.5x11 page folded in half.


Edit: A caveat: I've never bought one of these or really examined one, so I can not speak for quality.

[geneweigel]

billchamb said:

grashyewl said:

I don't see many short, cheap modules designed for low-level characters.

Apologies for butting in to your conversation, but...
Although designed around the d20 system, are you aware or familiar with the mini-modules that have been published over the past few years by AEG and Fantasy Flight Games? They typically cost <$3 and are the size of an 8.5x11 page folded in half.


Edit: A caveat: I've never bought one of these or really examined one, so I can not speak for quality.

I've read everyone of those and they really don't appeal to the classic mindset. It could be the format alone (short and shallow) but format is one of my major complaints that I'm sure others would agree with.

[grodog]

admin said:

Ahhh, tha's exactly the idea I was considering. Something along the lines of T1, but with more wildernesss area detailed, including several small lairs, and one main dungeon.

This locale was why I enjoyed NG's Crucible of Freya adventure so much---the wilderness downloads for that module really rounded out the adventuring environment. The town needed work, but that's not a big deal to detail.

I hear that Yggsburgh is supposed to offer this kind of environment: anyone have a copy yet?

[GutboyBarrelhouse]

I think something many, many gamers want is Free Stuff: good ideas and material they can use in thier campaigns, easily got from other gamers in online communities. Unfortunately, this is anathema to publishers; even those who are putting out high-quality stuff suffer because of this.
Many of us older gamers have a specific memory of picking up a splatbook in a FLGS and saying, "Enough. They're putting out too much stuff and they've gotten greedy." This has to still be hurting publishers as well, the good and the bad.
It's got to be tough to be in RPG publishing now, fighting for shelf space against a big sea of dreck, and worrying that the day you release a new title, it could wind up on a torrent that night.
So it's tough for us to get the kind of products we'd like to buy.

[kennethmcdonald]

;D ;D ;D ;Djust how many of us gamers would like to actually buy a fort.here's you're chance right now.head on over to ebay and type in fort montgomery.