# Timeline for Remaining Adventures



## DItheringFool (Feb 4, 2008)

I was wondering if we could get a timeline for the remaining adventures. When the subscription first came out I was pretty excited to get a super-awesome adventure every month.  While I am still very excited about getting the super-awesome adventures, the release schedule has been very disappointing. I believe expectations could be better managed with more information.


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## Sunaj2k3 (Feb 4, 2008)

From what I've seen DitheringFool, this is En Publishing's inaugural try at an adventure path and there have been hiccups.  I get the impression that unlike Paizo that starts thinking about a path a year out and gets the manuscript for editing and layout 4-6 months before release, Ryan and his crew have been working on the modules sequentially, meaning that when they publish module 5, they then start the layout and finishing of module 6.  Combined with the fact that some of the modules may not have even been finished with writing, its bound to introduce delays into the system.  

If they do another adventure path (and I hope they do), I suspect they'll do it differently.  In the interim, Ryan and his crew are to be congratulated for turning out an adventure path that has a broad scope and has felt epic at times (and doesn't rely on an outsider, undead, or dragon as the bbeg).


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## DItheringFool (Feb 4, 2008)

Yeah. I hate compaining since it gives such a negative vibe. I love the adventures! I just wish they could keep us informed - tell me it'll be another X weeks and then change it to Y as soon as you fear that may be the case.


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## Sunaj2k3 (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm not psychic or psionic DitheringFool, but I suspect Ryan and his crew may not know when the next modules are going to be released.  They seem to be trying hard to hit the once a month release dates, but last minute delays and other obstacles look like they're getting in the way.  Should they do a path for 4th ed., they need to make sure as much work as possible is preloaded and complete, so they don't get bit on the back end as they have this time.  

Ryan did mention that the last 3 did not have as much writing as the first nine, so that boded well for making the schedule.  However, given how long, wonky, and tricky high level stat blocks can be (even Paizo's 3.5 adv paths usually don't go above level 15 now), that may prove to be optimistic.

I hope he does manage to get them out.  Also, I, for one, would be curious to find out what the now cancelled side adventures (read the main page for WOTBS to see what I mean) were going to deal with.  I can certainly come up with my own, but it would be nice to have a idea or two from "the Ewok...er....man".


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## SolitonMan (Feb 4, 2008)

I subscribed to the AP prior to its release, and I've noticed as well that it's been less than regular in its releases.  Also, I received email notices when a new module was released for the first few modules, but for the last three or four I've more or less stumbled across them by accident, since I'm not always the best at keeping on top of this kind of thing.  Has anyone else not been receiving email notices lately?  I found them very convenient in the beginning, since I just clicked the link and downloaded my product.  Now I have to search for the page, hope I remember my password to log in, and then download the latest module, if I'm even aware one is out there.

The quality of the publications is not in question, and I'll certainly continue to be an avid customer of future releases, but that bit of customer service would be nice...

Thanks!


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## RangerWickett (Feb 4, 2008)

I'll keep specifics vague because it's not my place to discuss the financial end of things, but we went into the campaign saga with a fair expectation of how many sales we'd get, and how much we could spend on the design of each adventure. And we were doing fine until 4th edition was announced and people pretty much stopped buying from us. Our income stream is way down. In hindsight, I think perhaps we should have charged more for the subscriptions.

We don't want to keep releasing adventures if we can't pay the people who helped us make them. We also don't want to abandon the series so close to the end, and we're not going to deny people who subscribed what they paid for. So basically right now I am waiting for Russ to give me the green light to go ahead, which will mean we've gotten enough money to pay for the final 3 adventures.

As for not sending out email alerts, I'm sorry to hear about it. I always assumed the pdf stores did that for subscribers automatically. Russ would have to address that question, since I just help make the adventures, and don't handle the business end of things.


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## Morrus (Feb 4, 2008)

SolitonMan said:
			
		

> Also, I received email notices when a new module was released for the first few modules, but for the last three or four I've more or less stumbled across them by accident, since I'm not always the best at keeping on top of this kind of thing.  Has anyone else not been receiving email notices lately?  I found them very convenient in the beginning, since I just clicked the link and downloaded my product.  Now I have to search for the page, hope I remember my password to log in, and then download the latest module, if I'm even aware one is out there.




That, unfortunately, is completely dependent upon RPGNow; we've no control over it.  As I understand it, as new adventures are added by me to the subscription package, the system automatically emails everyone with the new download link- and it tells me it has done so (and I received my own email just fine).

My guess (and this is only a guess) is that it's being blocked by your spam filter or somesuch, because they seem to be going out just fine.


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## SolitonMan (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm sorry to hear about the financial problems, that totally sucks.   The quality of the adventures is awesome, so I'm not sure about the motivation behind stopping purchasing...unless it's a budget issue, and folks are trying to start saving up for 4e supplies.

IIRC the pre-release price was about $36 for the subscription.  Which works out to an overly generous $3 an adventure, which is pretty low by any current standards.  If (hopefully when!) you decide to do a 4e AP, I'd suggest looking at a print price in the $20-25 range, and maybe $12-15 for the pdf on an adventure by adventure basis.   Subscriptions could then go for around $100, or about $8 an adventure, which would still be a great deal.  Just my opinion, but if the market would support it, it might be a more reliably sustainable cost structure.

Thanks for the insight into the email thing, I'll check it out at the RPGNow end of things.


Dave


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## DItheringFool (Feb 5, 2008)

For the record, I got all my email notices from RPGNow.com


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## amethal (Feb 8, 2008)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> I'll keep specifics vague because it's not my place to discuss the financial end of things, but we went into the campaign saga with a fair expectation of how many sales we'd get, and how much we could spend on the design of each adventure. And we were doing fine until 4th edition was announced and people pretty much stopped buying from us. Our income stream is way down. In hindsight, I think perhaps we should have charged more for the subscriptions.



Thanks for the info.

The original subscription price was very low, especially for those of us paying in sterling. I think it was intended as an introductory offer, but I'd probably have been willing to pay double.

I'm happy to give you another thirty six dollars if I need to in order to get the last three adventures.


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## RangerWickett (Feb 8, 2008)

Hmm. Maybe we could have some sort of special fund-raiser item. We obviously wouldn't charge people more for what they've already paid, but if I can think of something interesting that people might buy as a somewhat overpriced extra, we could do that, I think.

By the way, if anyone who has subscribed wants the full outlines of the final adventures so that you don't get stuck by our unfortunate tardiness, just ask.


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## DItheringFool (Feb 14, 2008)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> Hmm. Maybe we could have some sort of special fund-raiser item. We obviously wouldn't charge people more for what they've already paid, but if I can think of something interesting that people might buy as a somewhat overpriced extra, we could do that, I think.
> 
> By the way, if anyone who has subscribed wants the full outlines of the final adventures so that you don't get stuck by our unfortunate tardiness, just ask.



Alright, what do we, the disenchanted subscribers need to do to help get the ball rolling?


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## Morrus (Feb 14, 2008)

DItheringFool said:
			
		

> Alright, what do we, the disenchanted subscribers need to do to help get the ball rolling?




#10 is due to go into layout on the 18th.


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## DItheringFool (Feb 14, 2008)

Morrus said:
			
		

> #10 is due to go into layout on the 18th.



That is truly great news!  

...I was talking about your suggestions to help raise funds.  Is there anything we (your fans) can do?


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## Angel Tarragon (Feb 14, 2008)

DItheringFool said:
			
		

> ...I was talking about your suggestions to help raise funds.  Is there anything we (your fans) can do?



Buy the print versions through Lulu.


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## Starglim (Feb 24, 2008)

SolitonMan said:
			
		

> IIRC the pre-release price was about $36 for the subscription.  Which works out to an overly generous $3 an adventure, which is pretty low by any current standards.  If (hopefully when!) you decide to do a 4e AP, I'd suggest looking at a print price in the $20-25 range, and maybe $12-15 for the pdf on an adventure by adventure basis.   Subscriptions could then go for around $100, or about $8 an adventure, which would still be a great deal.  Just my opinion, but if the market would support it, it might be a more reliably sustainable cost structure.




That's certainly a valid suggestion and opinion and, if successful, would presumably fund a series pretty well.

It would place individual EN Publishing releases in the same ballpark as Paizo _Pathfinder_. That would raise a certain expectation as to the level of quality and extra support included. I wonder, though I have no personal knowledge either way, how well those are selling to new customers, as opposed to converting _Dungeon_ subscriptions.

I'm not aware of any other adventure path subscription selling at $100+. 

I'm very doubtful that I would buy multiple PDF adventures at $12-15 each. I haven't bought any _Pathfinders_, though I've considered it, and don't recall dropping this much on any other single adventure. I wouldn't consider a subscription at that price. But, by all means, 2009 will be a new year and a different market and my preferences may easily not be representative.



			
				SolitonMan said:
			
		

> I'm sorry to hear about the financial problems, that totally sucks.   The quality of the adventures is awesome, so I'm not sure about the motivation behind stopping purchasing...unless it's a budget issue, and folks are trying to start saving up for 4e supplies.




Not to get off topic, but did this 80% drop in purchasing coincide at all with the RPGNow-DriveThru site amalgamation? I can't speak for anyone else, but I was physically unable to buy from the site for two months and only resolved it by contacting Customer Service, after two e-mails to the webmaster received no response. I'm only one customer, but I would assume other people had similar problems (in fact, I know this from the CS reply) and many people would not be as motivated as I was to fix it. EN Publishing may simply have lost a certain number of customers, and may never get them back, due to technical failure.


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## Morrus (Feb 24, 2008)

Starglim said:
			
		

> Not to get off topic, but did this 80% drop in purchasing coincide at all with the RPGNow-DriveThru site amalgamation?




Nah, it was about a year later.


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## Morrus (Feb 25, 2008)

BTW, #10 is done, and is in layout - it should be on sale in a week or so.  But if anyone has finished #9 and really needs it, feel free to email me for the basic Word file.  It's not as good as having the finished product, but it could tide you over for a few days in an emergency.


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## Rugult (Feb 25, 2008)

Morrus said:
			
		

> BTW, #10 is done, and is in layout - it should be on sale in a week or so.  But if anyone has finished #9 and really needs it, feel free to email me for the basic Word file.  It's not as good as having the finished product, but it could tide you over for a few days in an emergency.





*Halfway through Adventure 7*

Closing the distance....


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## lithicbee (Feb 27, 2008)

Questions about the timeline for the remaining adventures have me wondering also about the WotBS novel?  Is it still in the works?  Thank you.


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## RangerWickett (Feb 29, 2008)

lithicbee said:
			
		

> Questions about the timeline for the remaining adventures have me wondering also about the WotBS novel?  Is it still in the works?  Thank you.




It suffered some of the same delays as the adventure series, but the first part is about 2/3 done (~60,000 words so far). As much as I dislike trilogies as being overdone, it would be impossible to convey the whole story of the war in just one novel, so the first novel is meant to cover the start of the war, equivalent to about the first three adventures. 

How urgently we push for its completion depends on how well the Metamorphosis novels by Blackdirge are doing. Russ hasn't filled me in on the details, so the novel hasn't been a high priority. Nevertheless, I like what's there so far, and I want to see it done.


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## doppelganger (Mar 4, 2008)

Morrus said:
			
		

> BTW, #10 is done, and is in layout - it should be on sale in a week or so.  But if anyone has finished #9 and really needs it, feel free to email me for the basic Word file.  It's not as good as having the finished product, but it could tide you over for a few days in an emergency.



How many days left now? I've been finding the later adventures to be much more interesting than the earlier ones and I'm curious about #10.


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## Morrus (Mar 4, 2008)

I got the actual PDF today; it needs a couple of minor changes, but should be available in a day or so.


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