Lately I've been having some friends tell me I should get back into writing. Game stuff, or maybe fiction...
I love writing. LOVE it. The problem is, my time is dear, and unless it is a) something I can use in a game (which isn't happening now, as I'm on hiatus from running games) or b) something I can make money by writing, right now, there are other things I can likely better spend my time doing. So if I'm going to write for money (got all sorts of subscribers to pay back, yet), I gotta ask...
So what, if anything, is anyone actually buying these days? I peruse the blogosphere, and it seems like everyone and their cousin are doing fanzines again (hmm). Lots of megadungeons to choose from (and plenty of these are very good, I've bought a few myself). There are plenty of good, old fashion regular dungeons and adventures available (such as the adventures from Eldritch Entertainment, the folks of which have kindly sent me a couple PDFs to review). Even a few campaign settings here and there. And that's not counting the countless projects up on Kickstarter...
The RPG market seems saturated. I'm thinking of making the jump to writing fiction... as though, of course, that area were not already oversaturated. But it would be something different.. I'm thinking, maybe, a short story plus adventure material that would enable the reader to reproduce the events of the story as an RPG session/campaign. Maybe a short story or novella (10,000 to 40,000 words) along with the maps and game details about characters, locations, monsters, etc. (Labyrinth Lord and/or Castles & Crusades, I figure). This time, just go through DTRPG and LULU, no mucking about with self-publishing in print...
What genre would go over best these days? I've got a bunch of old campaign settings I can use...
High Fantasy (Arthurian-style)
Medium Fantasy (Greyhawk style)
Low Fantasy (Ice and Fire style)
Sword & Sorcery (Conan pastiche)
Sword & Planet (John Carter pastiche)
Post-Apocalypse (Mad Max style or Gamma World/Mutant Future style)
PA Fantasy (Thundarr/He-Man style)
Let me know what you think. Would any of you buy such a Frankenstein creature, half-story half-adventure?
Sounds like an excellent idea James and I can't think of an example where someone has done it before in a single volume. Yes I would buy such a beastie. My vote would be for Sword & Sorcery, although I'd happily read/use any of the first six in the list.
ReplyDeleteI'd throw my vote behind sword &sorcery as well.
ReplyDelete