I have been thinking for what to do with Zenith Comics in the rpg market for a while, and while Walt's Type Casting has been having some much deserved success, I had this thought;
Roster books are getting to be a bit crowded of a field, but what if instead of a full on roster book, it was a few villains with a short 3 act adventure/series of encounters?
So for example it would be a trio of themed villains let's say and their mini plot to blow up something, which is actually a smoke screen for something else.
Essentially a 3 beat plot. Probably somewhere around say 10 - 20 pages maximum.
Would that be something folks might be interested in seeing?
It might just be wishful thinking, but roster books, if well done, act as advertising and generate interest for more even roster books from the same folks.
I know in my years of superhero gaming, roster books provide far, far more value for the money spent than an adventure. Roster books allow you to pull out a villain on the fly, plug them into adventures, inspire other characters (both PC and NPC) and so on. My old Champions and V&V roster books are always with the core books. Adventures end up in storage.
Adventures are usually a use once and rarely ever again sort of deal. Especially when you consider the best adventures have some sort of unique element or twist that makes them good... but also means that twist is rarely useful again with the same game group.
Some adventures also provide a setting or strong campaign element for our own stories (specifically thinking of Escape From Stronghold) and I'd be of the opinion those are the best ones for my bucks.
Of course, my opinion may be colored by the idea that my gaming table isn't surrounded with musical chairs. I know some folks have multiple and very mutable gaming groups and would find more value in such a thing.
Now, drop in a couple 10 page plots (or longer multi-session type deal) with a typical roster book and it might be a different story. I'm reminded of the old school Champs and V&V adventures which usually had a good half dozen or so characters on roster as a minimum plus the adventure.
Well what you seem to be describing is what I am talking about on a smaller scale.
Roster book? Yes, you get 2 or more villains per book.
Escape From Stronghold style events? Well yeah, since these are great big involved multi-night adventures, but three fast acts that get you into the action and keep moving.
Want to use the villains again another time? Why not? Want to use the location for something else? Go ahead.
Maybe I am not describing it well, but in my mind this is a reusable resource as much as any roster book or event/plot point.
Personally I like these kind of plug-and-play modules. They are good for one-shots.
I think if a book has a couple of new villains, the outline of a caper they are planning, details of a relevant location plus a few extra adventure seeds then that's a pretty nifty package.
Random thought: it would be cool to detail a different location in the same fictional city in each of a series of adventure modules. Locations I would personally be interested in seeing include: airport terminal, metro station, waterside warehouse, central bank, college campus, natural history museum, asylum for the criminally insane, city hospital, underground nightclub, opera house etc.
Throw in a few adventure seeds for each location plus maybe a couple of villains and you can have my money
I would agree with doktorelektron in that a cool patch of two to four villains and a great, quick adventure plot are very useful. You get some nifty villains you can use again and again and a ready to use scenario to get started with.
Acrizer has a great point too about how useful those roster books can be. Just scanning through them is a great way to assemble a team of villains or to find one that would inspire a whole game for the evening. They are great for pulling a villain out on the spot for a hastily improvised turn of events.
I kind of did this with The Triad. A 3 villain team with 2 fleshed out adventure seeds (kind of like Savage Tales for SW), with suggestions on tying them together. So I can see this being a decent thing (especially since it allows you to release some material quickly, and not have to wait for all the art for a larger roster book to get done. Or to be able to pay for all that art, which is one of the most expensive things for such material, imho).
Of course, I'd like to later see a compilation of all the previous ones released (preferably with a PoD option, as I still like holding books)
I like how the Character Cavalcade has seeds interlinking characters with all the other ones in the book.
I do feel Roster Books are still effective. Just plain character stats in them are not as interesting as ones that include adventure ideas to help you get a feel for stories to create around the bad guys
As I mentioned earlier, I'm planning on being another voice in the crowd with a roster book. It'll take me a while since I'm doing all the writing and pretty much all new art, myself (which means I'll need to tap someone to edit - never good to edit yourself).
My plan, thus far, is to include a healthy roster of villains, each with some story ideas (maybe 2 or 3), include some "campaign elements" that people can opt to include in a setting - one example being some interplay with the villain backgrounds that can be used for inspiration, and maybe some heroes to act as allies/rivals.
I suppose there might be some use for a Nakatomi Plaza, an oil rig, a big bank, a secret volcano lair or other such settings to place an adventure in that could later be pulled out for a Narrator's own stories. I know there's a line of fantasy products that are just places like a fishing village, an inn, an arena, etc and they must sell since they keep making them. While it wouldn't get me firing on all pistons, I've no doubt there's people who would jump at it.
