New venture? or a different direction?
Have you read…
New venture? or a different direction?
All about the concept!
Don’t make this mistake!
Stuff the rules!
Preamble
I’m not sure whether it is my age or just the way I work, but I can often get really excited about something, go at it full speed, just to find that after a couple of months it has slipped into oblivion. And then, as if to remind me about something, I received an email or something happens to jog my memory and I recognise that project that I started but let go.
Well it happened to be just yesterday and I thought, I need to act on this and so decided to write this blog post.
https://youtu.be/C08e9E10gXk
Breaking in …
I am always amazed about the amount of content which is actually out there on the web. You only need to type something into Google and see the multitude of suggested links to recognise this. But even when you look more specifically at content, the plethora of choices is still there. Twitch, YouTube, photography, illustrations and music are just a few of the areas that I add content to and I have become aware that I am probably like a single water molecule in a huge ocean, with people with definitely more talent and skill, rising above me.
Although I recognise that I have missed the major sailing of the RPG market, ( oh to be one of the first people to stream it on Twitch! ) I still want to make my mark in the community and provide something for it which is supportive and unique. I’ve looked at so many avenues only to find other people doing it much better than I ever could and already revelling in a good customer base. But this does not put me off, stubborn and resilient as ever, I continue to try to carve my way into and through the community which I wish to be part of.
Being an active GM (DM) I create adventures, worlds, stories and plot lines almost every day and this was something which I thought would be beneficial to share with people. So I started to put my adventure notes onto this site to be downloaded for a donation or free of charge. I suddenly noticed that I received an email yesterday saying that someone had download a copy! That was the reminder I received but also the gentle kick in another direction.
Fancy a read?
Nothing for nothing…
I completely recognise that if you put nothing into something, be prepared to get nothing out of it. Looking back, hindsight is a wonderful thing, I recognise now that this is what I was doing with my ‘freebie’ adventure notes. I wasn’t creating anything, well nothing of value in any case. I was just randomly cutting and pasting my scribbles into a document and then hoping that people would see worth in it and download/donate something for it. Yes I admit now, I was stupid!
If I wanted people to use my content then I had to put some work into it in order to ensure that it had both value and worth. I’m not saying for a moment that the ideas do not have worth – for the right GM and party, I’m sure people will enjoy them, it is more that they need to see worthy – i.e. I have put time and energy into their creation.
I’ll never be able to break into the D&D 5e market, I cant even see the doorway to that show over the sea of eager people queuing up and providing excellent content for it and even games which I started to play when the first ever edition came out, e.g. Call of Cthulhu and Shadowrun, have now blossomed into games with huge followings and experts and I acknowledge that I have missed the boat here as well. I’m creating content for the Mythras ruleset which I really love and this has really supported my games on Twitch and the content I produce on Youtube and I am so thankful for the support both the creators and community give me. But I wanted to provide something which was more generic for the whole RPG market rather than a specific rule system and that was when I took my original idea, changed it slightly and came up with a new one!
One page concepts!
I’m assuming that most GMs are like me. They really enjoy creating content for their worlds and their players but they are also probably doing a full-time job as well. Time is also so precious in this day and age, and sometimes we (as in my fellow GMs) need something which they can grab and go with. This might be a pre-generated adventure or, when our creative juices have dried up, a plot idea of concept to go with. I don’t have the time or energy to write modules, but I might just be able to support those times when you need an idea or concept but your time is limited. Enter the one page concepts!
Rather than just hashing together my notes from an adventure or idea and sticking them on my website, I’m going to create something more detailed and, well, refined! The idea is to collate the essence of the adventure and package it onto one page of a PDF document and add it to the shop area of this website. I’m still working on what the finished product would look like and I am sure that someone has already produced this (or is pinching my idea at this moment and running with it! ) but I think you can never have enough adventure ideas!
Essentially, the page would have the following content;
- An overview of the adventure
- A plot line
- The NPCs involved in the plot
- Possible events
- Conflicts
- Possible outcomes
This is just a starter list from my initial idea, so there might be some variation but I want it to content the majority of the information which a GM could use to run the adventure.
BUT WAIT! – there is more!
I’m going to try to make them as generic as possible so that they can fit into any campaign, setting or rule set. There will be no stat blocks provided, although some indication of strength of the events and conflicts with a simple ‘+’ system – more about this later. I’m not too sure how ‘fancy’ they will look, but probably just a plain PDF document. Let’s face it, its not as if it will be going on show anywhere!
Inwils
25 mins ago
New venture? or a different direction? …
@Floppy_Jaloppy night (well morning here 🙂 )…
Outro
And that’s it! My idea in a nutshell. It has some of the original idea in it, but I think I have made it more marketable and hopefully desirable. With anything like this, the idea is the easy part. I now have to put it into action, but fingers crossed I will be able to achieve this. Once the template is decided on, then the content should be flowing!
I hope you are looking forward to seeing the finished product, I certainly am, and, if you have any suggestions on how I can improve it, then please do let me know in the comments below or across the social media platforms I frequent.
Okay I’m off to start planning the first one page concept! Wish me luck!
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