What Kind of Books are You Interested In?

[danskmacabre]

Engine publishing have a book called, Masks 1001 NPC's. The only thing you have to do is the game specific stuff, i.e. statistics.

That's cool, but it's the statistics I'm most interested in.
It'd be nice to have a list of stats for each of them so I don't have to make it all up on the fly and keep things move quickly.

 

[warlock1971]

Engine publishing have a book called, Masks 1001 NPC's. The only thing you have to do is the game specific stuff, i.e. statistics.

That's cool, but it's the statistics I'm most interested in.
It'd be nice to have a list of stats for each of them so I don't have to make it all up on the fly and keep things move quickly.

It may be an idea to create a thread where everyone can add interesting NPCs for everyone to use, as they need?

Maybe Mongoose could hold a competition for the most interesting NPC created? Compile them in a Legend pdf?

 

[Loz]

I quite like the flexibility of a selection of scenarios where there are enough threads to link them if the GM fancies a long campaign tailored to his group and his own style of GMing.
(No surprise given my recent writing projects)

You mean like some sort of book with several quests in it? Maybe with a lightly unifying theme and background that means they could be played as a campaign or as standalones or adapted into an ongoing campaign.

What a neat idea 8)

I agree: a very neat idea. If only someone would publish such a thing that GMs of Legend and RQ6 could use with equal ease...

:wink:

 

[DamonJynx]

I quite like the flexibility of a selection of scenarios where there are enough threads to link them if the GM fancies a long campaign tailored to his group and his own style of GMing.
(No surprise given my recent writing projects)

You mean like some sort of book with several quests in it? Maybe with a lightly unifying theme and background that means they could be played as a campaign or as standalones or adapted into an ongoing campaign.

What a neat idea 8)

I agree: a very neat idea. If only someone would publish such a thing that GMs of Legend and RQ6 could use with equal ease...

:wink:

Cheeky!

 

[soltakss]

I agree: a very neat idea. If only someone would publish such a thing that GMs of Legend and RQ6 could use with equal ease...

:wink:

Time for a conversion of RQ6 to Legend, using the SRD and OGL then ...

 

[GamerDude]

for me:

1. Expanding current... professions and such
2. Genre's... the toolkit for doing anywhere from Stone Age to Intergalactic Tech. The applicable skills, professions etc
3. Settings brought into Legend via #2. New settings have to be really unique, something new/in a different way/and well written. But get some popular settings brought over to Legend and you might have something there.
4. Gear, Equipment, etc. for #2/#3. Not stuff that is wild and crazy for the target genre but stuff that would seem from common place to unusual. In my four years of running Traveller demos at cons and stores, the #1 thing people do is dive for whatever equipment lists I've made available. Heck if WotC can make a "book of gear" that is 90% magic items, and then toss in a 100% modern snorkel set to be used in a fantasy setting (yes, they did that in the 3.0 equipment guide) and have it sell, then a well done similar book done by you should sell like hotcakes.
5. Adventures... for #1/#2. OMG how many tired old plot lines have been recycled into 20 different systems. Don't add Legend as #21. And unique adventures, at least something different in the plot line some twists, not linear give options.

A note on some things

• Page Count. Give me some bang for my buck. Too many things out especially as "PDF Only" are short on pages, resulting in a very high cost per page. When I can buy full color hard back RPG books for 10-12 cents per page, why am I paying 30 cents or more per page for some bland little PDF that's got no original artwork, done in two columns, and has horrible paragraph sizing?
• Artwork. Please nothing from some collection of "stock genre generic" art. A *little* of that is fine but artwork should reflect the setting and styles in the setting. Then again mostly stark pages very little art is a bit bland for me.
• Layout. keep page layout simple.. overly done borders with background colors etc kill me. Use layers that let me turn off the background & border. I love the Digest format of the Legend books (the MGP Traveller ones aren't laid out for their size). When I printed out the PDFs I didn't realize they were printed digest and so instead of two book pages per sheet of paper it was one-to-one. Do Digest size/layout but put a note on the title page. Also do "front cover, back cover, title page..." with front cover starting at page 1 (as the PDF counts things) so the page numbers are just 2 off for those who to front-to-back printing.
• Fonts. A well chosen typeface can enhance the product bot choose the wrong ones and forget it. Watch the colors remember people on inkjet printers want to print in good old B&W getting something readable, and on Laser's many colors don't translate well. There needs to be good contrast between background and fonts for on-screen reading. SAN SERIF! Serif fonts have been scientifically proven to put more strain on the eyes/be harder to read... especially at smaller sizes (I use to do DTP on the side back in the 80's/90's and did a lot of reading on this).
• Screen/print. Somethings look great on screen, but suck when printed... some things look great printed but suck on the screen. You have to balance both.

I've bought enough bad settings for other systems, and then they were horrible (the problem of buying PDF's based on the hype written by the author or publisher. "This comes from our 10 year long campaign - so of course its all great stuff".. no it wasn't, newer stuff by freelancers was the good stuff. "These were our hit D6 campaigns brought over to X"... Actually the two campaigns were so horrible that I should write reviews of them but I didn't buy the conversions, I value my cash more than just collecting junk.

Well that's my 2 pennies for what it's worth.

 

[soltakss]

• Page Count. Give me some bang for my buck. Too many things out especially as "PDF Only" are short on pages, resulting in a very high cost per page. When I can buy full color hard back RPG books for 10-12 cents per page, why am I paying 30 cents or more per page for some bland little PDF that's got no original artwork, done in two columns, and has horrible paragraph sizing?

• 
  
  Well, at £9.99 for a 250 page book, at $1.61 to £1, Legend works out at approximately 7 cents per page, for the physical book. Even halving the page count at the same price gives 14 cents per page, so you should be OK there.

 

[pachristian]

I have to agree about settings; there are so many on the market now.

I'd like a bestiary of beasts from earthly mythologies, with references to where said creatures are from.

But most of all, some adventure books. I'd like short, simple ones of one or two adventures each. Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics series is a fine example; the adventures are simple, independent, and some of them link together into a common thread.

Not that DCC works very well with Legend - I converted one of their modules, and found that the attitude one approaches the adventure with is very different.

I'd like to see the Necromancy and Empires books reprinted in Legend format. Or how about a linked book: One that presents a new guild or faction, and two or three scenarios linked to them?

 

[danskmacabre]

It may be an idea to create a thread where everyone can add interesting NPCs for everyone to use, as they need?
Maybe Mongoose could hold a competition for the most interesting NPC created? Compile them in a Legend pdf?

Good idea Is there a thread for that yet?
(I'll have a look in a mo)

 

[The Wolf]

I always said to Matt that I should do some generic system-agnostic locations for people to plug in where they want. Recently I've actuallly partnered up with my wife who is a cartographer for Glorantha and produced the first of a few locations just like that.

 

[warlock1971]

There are so many books I would wish for as I have such a little free time.

I would really enjoy a fantasy city book that one could slot in to your homebrew world with little to no fuss. Perhaps along the lines of a Greyhawk or Waterdeep ...

Really keen to sink my teeth in to the Spider God's Bride but only buying it next week.

 

[The Wolf]

I've a few of those projects lined up for various folks in the next year. They're one of my favourite things to do, which is probably why I enjoyed Sommerlund so much since I got to detail places like Holmgard and Anskaven.

 

[JP42]

The book that I want (and am currently considering writing for RQ6) is one that takes the rules as written and presents all of the questions that a GM has to answer to flesh out his setting. It starts early, in character creation: what system will be used for determining characteristics - rolls or point buy? - and goes on to escalate from there to include cultures present in the world, magic systems in use by those cultures, cults and other organizations, races that are present versus those that are playable versus those that do not exist at all...

A book that served as a "Game Masters' Guide", for lack of a better name, would be lovely.

 

[Loz]

Would you perhaps drop me a PM or email me concerning the RQ6 GMs' Guide?

Thanks!

 

[rustorod]

Engine publishing have a book called, Masks 1001 NPC's. The only thing you have to do is the game specific stuff, i.e. statistics.

That's cool, but it's the statistics I'm most interested in.
It'd be nice to have a list of stats for each of them so I don't have to make it all up on the fly and keep things move quickly.

It may be an idea to create a thread where everyone can add interesting NPCs for everyone to use, as they need?

Maybe Mongoose could hold a competition for the most interesting NPC created? Compile them in a Legend pdf?

I like that idea :!:

 

[Asyme]

Been said above but a well fleshed out and generic-Ish setting would be great. Runequest has always had hundreds of what felt like novelty campaign worlds ("this setting is a realistic look at the Hittite empire" or "this is a 18th century setting meets silence of the lambs!") but precious few gateway settings for me to lure people away from pathfinder and dungeons and dragons.

While I love all the unique stuff my players like dusty tombs, flagons of mead, dragons, loot and all the other trappings. I can sell them on a hook or theme to a campaign such as the world is cold, old, at war, etc but any more and they get grumpy...

Basically a legend version of greyhawk, forgotten realms etc NOT another realistic setting or tekumel.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Designing a new campaign setting for a fantasy RPG product line like Legend is tricky - on the one hand, you want to maximise your potential audience by making it as generic as possible. But on the other hand, making it too generic means that you don't differentiate yourself from the competition, making it difficult to stand out from the crowd. If a game looks like a copy of D&D or Pathfinder, why not simply play D&D or Pathfinder?

Furthermore, you really want your main campaign setting to showcase the strengths of your own game system - and the strengths of Legend are different to the strengths of D&D / Pathfinder. For example, Legend does low-powered grim and gritty fantasy far better than the d20 system, but may not be as good at high-powered cinematic mayhem. The trick is finding a campaign style that is popular, isn't well-supported by mainstream game systems, and that shows off the unique strengths of Legend. My gut instinct is that pulp-style swords and sorcery fits the bill, as does dark fantasy tinged with a bit of gothic horror (like some of the early Warhammer stuff..)

 

[DamonJynx]

Stuff and "My gut instinct is that pulp-style swords and sorcery fits the bill, as does dark fantasy tinged with a bit of gothic horror (like some of the early Warhammer stuff..)"

All of which is true.

As for the last, Lankhmar has been done as MRQI&II as has Moorcocks, Elric of Melnibone (the MRQII version by Mssr Whittacker is most excellent) and Hawkmoon (MRQI only at this stage). All of which work exceptionally well with the system. The SGB (Spider Gods Bride, for those not in the know) provides the bones of a very Conan-esque Sword & Sorcery setting with a wealth of additional information on Xoth.net. Admittedly the latter is more skewed to D20, but the material is still good.

So, I would have to agree that the S&S genre is definitely a strength of the system.

Dan True has an excellent conversion available for Eberron if the D&D style of setting is what floats your boat.

Something that I have posted before, and I will post again, I believe Mongoose should develop Nuera, from Wraith Recon as a default 'High Fantasy' setting for Legend. Of the settings already published it is the closest to a D&D style setting and there is certainly enough scope in Nuera for this to be achievable; not everyone need hail from Dandarrick or be a member of a Wraith Recon strike team.

 

[Prime_Evil]

Stuff and "My gut instinct is that pulp-style swords and sorcery fits the bill, as does dark fantasy tinged with a bit of gothic horror (like some of the early Warhammer stuff..)"

As for the last, Lankhmar has been done as MRQI&II as has Moorcocks, Elric of Melnibone (the MRQII version by Mssr Whittacker is most excellent) and Hawkmoon (MRQI only at this stage). All of which work exceptionally well with the system. The SGB (Spider Gods Bride, for those not in the know) provides the bones of a very Conan-esque Sword & Sorcery setting with a wealth of additional information on Xoth.net. Admittedly the latter is more skewed to D20, but the material is still good.

So, I would have to agree that the S&S genre is definitely a strength of the system.

I'd love to see a generic swords and sorcery world along the lines of Xoth - maybe Mongoose could develop one in-house if it isn't possible to license that setting? The d20 Conan books contain a mountain of OGC suitable for conversion...

As an aside, I love what Goodman Games has recently been doing for the Dungeon Crawl Classics system - going back to the original literary source material and developing a new setting built around old-school sensibilities.

Dan True has an excellent conversion available for Eberron if the D&D style of setting is what floats your boat.

Dan should seriously consider stripping out the Eberron-specific stuff and releasing a Legend-compatible sourcebook as a commercial product. The bestiary of converted d20 critters is worth the price of admission on its own. I mean, what Legend campaign isn't instantly improved by the addition of a few succubi....

Something that I have posted before, and I will post again, I believe Mongoose should develop Nuera, from Wraith Recon as a default 'High Fantasy' setting for Legend. Of the settings already published it is the closest to a D&D style setting and there is certainly enough scope in Nuera for this to be achievable; not everyone need hail from Dandarrick or be a member of a Wraith Recon strike team.

I dunno. Wraith Recon is OK, but the setting doesn't exactly scream "High Fantasy" at me. There are too many artefacts of 4e embedded in the setting for my personal taste.

However, it would be great if Mongoose could license one of the defunct d20 campaign settings with a high fantasy flavour - Midnight and Dawnforge from Fantasy Flight Games spring to mind...

 

[The Wolf]

I have a Swords and Sorcery setting which has a few twists and turns. I've had it for a while now and not really done much with it barring a few published short stories here and there in anthologies.