Jeff writes:
>(2) What Avenger should be publishing, IMO, is principally adventures,
>secondarily background (e.g., (sub)sector sourcebooks and worldbooks),
>rather than things like vehicles or weapons or starships or equipment.
>Publish enough of the latter (v,w,s,e) to support the background
>material and adventures, WHERE INTEGRALLY NEEDED FOR THE PLOT (e.g., if
>an adventure requires having an air/raft, the adventure module should
>contain the stats for an air/raft), but big thick compilations of
>eleventy-twelveteen different projectile firearms, umpty-thirteen
>different capital starships (or military support adjuncts), or so on are
>just - again, IMO - examples of useless mental masturbation when a
>relatively simple design sequence is available for generating them.
>secondarily background (e.g., (sub)sector sourcebooks and worldbooks),
>rather than things like vehicles or weapons or starships or equipment.
>Publish enough of the latter (v,w,s,e) to support the background
>material and adventures, WHERE INTEGRALLY NEEDED FOR THE PLOT (e.g., if
>an adventure requires having an air/raft, the adventure module should
>contain the stats for an air/raft), but big thick compilations of
>eleventy-twelveteen different projectile firearms, umpty-thirteen
>different capital starships (or military support adjuncts), or so on are
>just - again, IMO - examples of useless mental masturbation when a
>relatively simple design sequence is available for generating them.
I'm going agree and disagree here. I *think* I agree with what Jeff is saying, but the emphasis might be off...
As a "secondary" license under Mongoose, you should probably leave the volumes of toys to them unless you have such a large and campaign ideosyncratic collection that you *need* a compilation. I would, for example, consider doing a compilation to "bring forward" the hardware you've already included in existing products published prior to the Mongoose arrangement.
Normally, however, I'd think that "adventures with crunch" are the ideal. Something a bit deeper than an Amber Zone (in terms of details pressented, not necessarily plot depth), accompanied by all the unique hardware and environments needed. The goal is to make each product useful long after the adventure itself has been played.
As an example, the recent eBooks that spend some pages detailing a ship class, then drop a subsector and a pile of hooks in after it. Some of those hooks are not simply adventure nuggets, they are *campaign* nuggets. I come back to the book for the ship even though I've already inflicted the adventures on my players. Toss in a D-Port customs building, patron/target ranch map, and some distinctive wildlife, and there is plenty to come back to. TSR's old blanket statement that "adventures don't sell" was due in no small part to there being nothing to come back to after the monsters were dead.
On the other hand, including the stats for hardware covered in the main rulebook is not called for unless you have distinctive artwork or a significant variant from the rulebook standard.
On the gripping hand, I love datasheets, and if an adventure provides an excuse to produce equipment sheets like DGP used to do for MT, I'd include them.
To further mix up my message, I'll return to the "adventures don't sell" statement. Aside from having little-to-no replay value, straight adventures are also intended for DM/Referee use *only*. That inherently limits the sales to one per group unless you've got a bunch of completists around the table. The rulebook, weapons collections, vehicle catalogs, and adventure-class starship books are NOT Referee-only, and as such sell better.
Adventures are important because they set the mode and mood of the setting. Classic Traveller was well-known for its "every ship's crew are crooks-for-hire and smugglers-by-default" because so many of the early adventures were cast that way. If Mongoose sets up in one era and publishes adventures for it, they set the mode for that era. If that mode doesn't suit you, or you choose to publish in a different era, you need to publish adventures that set *your* mode and mood. No one else will do it for you...
GC