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mith_narya
Joined: 16 Jul 2007
Posts: 42
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 Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:25 am Post subject: Pending Adventures (split from Adventures Available) |
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MOD Note: Split from original topic to keep that as an announcement-only thread.
| KittyCurtis wrote: |
And at least 9 more adventures in progress!! - If they are ready before the launch of the next campaign arc, they'll be released as they become ready. If they aren't ready by the start of the next campaign arc, it will be up to the authors to decide whether they want to re-tool for the next arc or set them aside.
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Okay, before I begin, I want to state very clearly that I am not pointing fingers, placing 'blame', whining/complaining, or any of the like. I'm also not volunteering, yet. 
On with the topic.
With the chance that some adventures - which authors, editors, statmonkeys, and a lot of others have put a lot of time and effort into - potentially going *poof* (i.e. - "set aside"), I have to ask the obvious question: why? It seems to me an awful waste if adventures end up getting shelved because they weren't released in time to see the end of the story arc.
Was it a case of real life getting in the way? Someone or a group of someones "biting off more than they could chew" - that is, taking in and working on more mods than was rightly and truly possible? Did some of the modules just end up in the churn for longer than expected?
Again, not asking these questions to place blame, but to get at the root of the issue so that it can be corrected. How can we, the LA community, work with the campaign staff to make sure that 1) LA has the copious amount of mods we're used to having, and 2) good modules don't get lost due to timing? |
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Njal Val'Assante
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 207
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:16 am Post subject: |
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Sometimes it's real life of the campaign staff, sometimes real life of the authors. Sometimes it's length of edits, or ideas that are being saved for specific times. The Soft Point coming out at Origins is a good example of this: it's been edited and been sitting in the queue and is being released at Origins because I believe the campaign staff thought it thematically appropriate to fit with the HPs coming out. I could entirely be wrong about this.
(Necessary Caveat: I do not speak for the campaign staff)
Sometimes ideas are good ideas but don't work with the current story arc, so they're shelved until after (but still being worked on so there will be something to be released after the Crusade, for example).
Speaking as an author, sometimes we hit mental roadblocks. Speaking as an editor, sometimes there's times you have to dialogue with the author to get an idea of what they intended/were thinking, or clarifying rules points, or rebuilding stat blocks, and that takes a while.
I do have suggestions for streamlining the processes, but I do understand a lot of the reasons why things are the way they are right now, so I shall table my suggestions for later discussions. *wry grin*
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Anthony Nijssen
Instigator. Causer of Chaos. Nobody Important. |
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EricGorman
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 428
Location: Portland OR
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:52 am Post subject: Re: Crusade Arc Adventures Available |
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| mith_narya wrote: |
Was it a case of real life getting in the way? Someone or a group of someones "biting off more than they could chew" - that is, taking in and working on more mods than was rightly and truly possible? Did some of the modules just end up in the churn for longer than expected?
Again, not asking these questions to place blame, but to get at the root of the issue so that it can be corrected. How can we, the LA community, work with the campaign staff to make sure that 1) LA has the copious amount of mods we're used to having, and 2) good modules don't get lost due to timing? |
Hi there.
I can't speak for anyone else but I am one of the potential authors who ultimately didn't deliver so I can tell you about what happened with one of the proposals. I had an idea I called "Snowed Inn" that would have been a murder mystery where "who did it" changed each time the mod was run based on a Larissan Tarot reading at the start of the module. Sort of like a (very) scaled down version of the old TSR mod Castle Ravenloft. Part way through PCI asked me to move the module's location to a crusader supply ship and I'm sorry to say it fizzled out from there - I didn't really feel that a ship had enough variety for creating 4 different final battles. I still very much want to write for PCI so it won't be forever before I send in another propsal.
Perhaps I shouldn't speculate about anything else written by others but I feel safe noting that writting a mod is (at least for me) more than 40 hours of work...which is not to be sneezed at. I don't *know* but suspect that some proposals never were completed due to real life getting in the way of writers. Also, writing a "good mod" that avoids the pitfalls of railroading the PCs, understanding and accounting for many different PC reactions and/or dodging two dimensional portraits of NPCs is a whole other issue entirely...there could be a submission or two held up in the need for editing.
I wrote modules for the Invisible King program and found the feedback from other players very rewarding...if anyone thinks they have a good idea for a module I would Strongly recomend going for it and sending in a proposal. That's a plug for you to write a submission. 
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~Eisener val'Holryn. Holy Champion of Nier and haunted veteran of the crusade
~Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn, gave his soul to help free King Noen from the LLT Banner |
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StatMonkey
Moderator
Joined: 31 May 2007
Posts: 1282
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| Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:10 pm Post subject: Re: Crusade Arc Adventures Available |
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Eric,
with the new story line you may be able to go back to the original concept.. email me off list.. you know how to get to me.
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Pedro C Barrenechea
Paradigm Concepts, Miami
And all you need to know about Arcanis
New player: "You know, I'm not really sure we *should* win. I'm not sure we made the right choice."
Veteran player: "Welcome to Arcanis!" |
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Deviknyte
Joined: 17 Jun 2009
Posts: 1351
Location: Allen Park, MI
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 2:05 am Post subject: |
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@ Eric: That module sounds awesome. If only for the varying endings based on the players. I take it the players were suspect too?
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-Devin Redd, Detroit Harvester
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Current- Vaerdos kyr'Taliis, Ardakene Elorii Chanter of the Rebirth and the Bright People
Retired- Elysian, Ardakene Elorii Hierophant of Belisarda |
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Nierite
Joined: 20 Jan 2010
Posts: 1720
Location: Edmonton, Canada
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| Deviknyte wrote: | | @ Eric: That module sounds awesome. If only for the varying endings based on the players. I take it the players were suspect too? |
Seconded! Now I feel bad about the creativity of my own offerings 
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Cody Bergman
aka = Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Priest of Nier (Divine 1.
aka = Dyabe val'Abebi, Templar of Althares (Divine 1.3)
aka = Jorma Ostoman, Battlemage of the Coryani Empire (Arcane 1.2) |
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Harliquinn
Joined: 09 Aug 2010
Posts: 1514
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 3:08 am Post subject: |
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I'll rid the coolness factor of that mod!
John
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KittyCurtis
Joined: 16 Jun 2010
Posts: 264
Location: Denver, CO
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 4:23 am Post subject: Re: Crusade Arc Adventures Available |
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| mith_narya wrote: | | Okay, before I begin, I want to state very clearly that I am not pointing fingers, placing 'blame', whining/complaining, or any of the like. |
Thanks for that.
| mith_narya wrote: | | With the chance that some adventures - which authors, editors, statmonkeys, and a lot of others have put a lot of time and effort into - potentially going *poof* (i.e. - "set aside"), I have to ask the obvious question: why? It seems to me an awful waste if adventures end up getting shelved because they weren't released in time to see the end of the story arc. |
Most of the adventures can be re-written for a new setting; it's a matter of whether the author wants to or not.
| mith_narya wrote: | | Was it a case of real life getting in the way? Someone or a group of someones "biting off more than they could chew" - that is, taking in and working on more mods than was rightly and truly possible? Did some of the modules just end up in the churn for longer than expected? |
All of the above. A lot of it was real life hitting authors and campaign staff alike: first in turn, then in waves, then area of effect. It's been a pretty tough year for most of us. Sometimes the author would get approval and never be heard from again. Sometimes a file would get sent to the wrong person and sit there for a month before we realized what had happened. Sometimes all the adventure playtest groups had real life pop up so that we couldn't get a playtest scheduled for a month. And in a couple cases, it was flat out my fault for trying to do too much myself and failing to hit a deadline. (And in those cases, I will do everything I can to get the adventure out in one form or another.) However, we've learned a lot in the past year, and we plan to use that knowledge to improve the running of the campaign in the coming year.
| mith_narya wrote: | | How can we, the LA community, work with the campaign staff to make sure that 1) LA has the copious amount of mods we're used to having, and 2) good modules don't get lost due to timing? |
We are still looking for:
* Editors (If you aren't fluent in stats, just let us know, and we can have a separate pass done for just stats.)
* Cartographers - InDesign, PhotoShop, Campaign Cartographer, or any other graphics programs
* Adventure Playtesters - groups that can run an adventure on a fairly regular schedule and get us feedback on a timely basis (how tough were the fights, any logic holes, questions that your players asked but the adventure didn't give you enough info to answer, etc)
* If you have an idea, but aren't sure how to flesh it out, or don't have the time to do so yourself, you can always contact our Author Liaison (writing@shatteredempires.com) and let her know that you have an outline it's okay to farm out. Conversely, if you're itching to write, but can't quite decide on an idea, let her know you'd like to write from an outline. (With some notes about what type of adventure you'd like: crawl, investigation, social mod, horror, urban/wilderness) A couple of our authors are starting to work on stacks of outlines, with their fingers hovering over send as soon as the new campaign blurb is released.
| Njal Val'Assante wrote: | | (Necessary Caveat: I do not speak for the campaign staff) |
But thank you for including many of the reasons so they weren't left hanging.
| EricGorman wrote: | | Perhaps I shouldn't speculate about anything else written by others but I feel safe noting that writting a mod is (at least for me) more than 40 hours of work...which is not to be sneezed at. |
Wow, I think I put over 100 into all the adventures I wrote, and to be honest, they were all really lousy. (I've said from day 1 that I was an editor, not a writer, so just be glad I never subjected this campaign to that travesty.)
Okay, sleep now. Up for a 14-hour work day in 5 hours. 
Can't sleep, VOs will.... ::snore::
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~Kitty Curtis~
Legends of Arcanis Campaign Director
director@shatteredempires.com
**We are looking for stat monkeys & cartographers - Message me if interested!**
Origins: Gathering HQ Staff |
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Njal Val'Assante
Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 207
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| Posted: Tue May 01, 2012 5:03 am Post subject: |
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VOs will what? VOs will what?! *panics* Oh no! They got Kitty!
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Anthony Nijssen
Instigator. Causer of Chaos. Nobody Important. |
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