I'm nuts
So... in less than two weeks I get to reopen our D&D group - that stands for Dungeons & Dragons for the uninitiated - and I am very excited about that.
I decided to run a "campaign module", one of those monster books that take characters all the way from level 1 to level 20. The success of the last campaign, which used Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (RttToEE) as its cornerstone, convinced me of the fantastic value of a inherently consistent story - and that's when it was not even a full campaign, just a really large module.
So I scoured the various role playing review sites and internet forums, and came across Shackled City, published by Paizo. After reading more about it, I decided it would be the campaign, and ordered it. At over 400 pages, the book cost over $40, but it seemed like it would be well worth it.
I've had it for a few weeks now, and oh boy, is it ever. This... module... is the most amazing role playing adventure I have ever seen in print, bar none. Extremely effectively written, with tons of story elements, various events, and basically just a lot of stuff designed to make the game FLOW without requiring hundreds of hours on the DM's part to prepare (unlike RttToEE). Excellent work there. It really does succeed in its mission, as stated in the introduction, to provide a "huge adventure series that made the DM's life as easy as possible".
But why this post? and why the title?
Well... this book has impressed and excited me so much, that I decided to do it justice and get as many of the monster minis as I possible could. Now, for a 20-level adventure, that means a LOT of minis. Today I completed my eBay binge, tracked by an immense spreadsheet, matching minis to monsters as best as possible... while I had quite a few before, I now have have several hundred more making their way here from five different sources over the mail in the next two weeks. Oh yes, I will have something cool for pretty much every encounter.
So why am I nuts? because not only did I spend the rational, logical $45 or so on the module itself, I just spent another $300 or so on minis to run it. Oh my, how life has changed since college.
Before you choke, as I did when I totaled my expenditure, consider this: I will be running this monster once in my life (well, possibly again when the kids are old enough in about 8 years or so, if they are interested, but unlikely). In my estimate, it will take over 2 years to complete. I want it to be as much fun as I can possibly make it. And those D&D minis are simply awesome. They make battles come alive for us jaded old farts who have lost so much of our imagination over the years. Looking at it that way, the cost effectiveness is rather phenomenal.
But I still shudder at the thought of having done this. I do think, though, that there is a potential business idea here. Now that D&D has been around for 30 years, and some of us old farts have a lot more discretionary income, it might make sense to sell "adventure mini packs" - basically a series of those D&D minis that are fit to a published module. In the case of Shackled City, they could be sold in "chapters", based on the 12 chapters in the book, or as one monster collection. I know I would spend an extra $300 to buy them, since I just did. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Wizards of the Coast, what say you?
I decided to run a "campaign module", one of those monster books that take characters all the way from level 1 to level 20. The success of the last campaign, which used Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil (RttToEE) as its cornerstone, convinced me of the fantastic value of a inherently consistent story - and that's when it was not even a full campaign, just a really large module.
So I scoured the various role playing review sites and internet forums, and came across Shackled City, published by Paizo. After reading more about it, I decided it would be the campaign, and ordered it. At over 400 pages, the book cost over $40, but it seemed like it would be well worth it.
I've had it for a few weeks now, and oh boy, is it ever. This... module... is the most amazing role playing adventure I have ever seen in print, bar none. Extremely effectively written, with tons of story elements, various events, and basically just a lot of stuff designed to make the game FLOW without requiring hundreds of hours on the DM's part to prepare (unlike RttToEE). Excellent work there. It really does succeed in its mission, as stated in the introduction, to provide a "huge adventure series that made the DM's life as easy as possible".
But why this post? and why the title?
Well... this book has impressed and excited me so much, that I decided to do it justice and get as many of the monster minis as I possible could. Now, for a 20-level adventure, that means a LOT of minis. Today I completed my eBay binge, tracked by an immense spreadsheet, matching minis to monsters as best as possible... while I had quite a few before, I now have have several hundred more making their way here from five different sources over the mail in the next two weeks. Oh yes, I will have something cool for pretty much every encounter.
So why am I nuts? because not only did I spend the rational, logical $45 or so on the module itself, I just spent another $300 or so on minis to run it. Oh my, how life has changed since college.
Before you choke, as I did when I totaled my expenditure, consider this: I will be running this monster once in my life (well, possibly again when the kids are old enough in about 8 years or so, if they are interested, but unlikely). In my estimate, it will take over 2 years to complete. I want it to be as much fun as I can possibly make it. And those D&D minis are simply awesome. They make battles come alive for us jaded old farts who have lost so much of our imagination over the years. Looking at it that way, the cost effectiveness is rather phenomenal.
But I still shudder at the thought of having done this. I do think, though, that there is a potential business idea here. Now that D&D has been around for 30 years, and some of us old farts have a lot more discretionary income, it might make sense to sell "adventure mini packs" - basically a series of those D&D minis that are fit to a published module. In the case of Shackled City, they could be sold in "chapters", based on the 12 chapters in the book, or as one monster collection. I know I would spend an extra $300 to buy them, since I just did. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Wizards of the Coast, what say you?
posted by Blinkered at 11:49 PM
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