From a design perspective, I'm sure that makes sense. From a publishing perspective though, it is well known that high level modules don't sell as well (though that may well be do to a lack of quality). Interesting thought though.
I think a long-form high level adventure has great potential, especially if it is a follow-up to a popular adventure path or any other linked series. It would be a risk the first time, but then we would have better data to make projections about future products.
The Witchwar Legacy is a 17th level module that came out last year to an overall very positive reception. I recommend you check that one out as a quality, high-level adventure done right within the 32-page structure.
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It seems to me that higher level modules should have a bigger page count: stat blocks are longer, new magic items, new spells, etc. These all take more space.
Is it realistic that 32 pages can do the trick?I was looking at "Tomb of the Iron Medusa" and wondering how much is being trimmed to make page/ word count...
I'd pay more for bigger modules BTW.Thoughts?
The next possible size is 48 pages. Because of the printing process, the number of pages must be divisible by 16. 48 pages is the size of the adventure part of the AP volumes, so just getting book 6 of an AP is the same as what you're asking.
(not trying to be snarky, its been a long day.. )
Chief Technical Officer
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Subscribers to this line have an expectation that they'll be paying a certain price every couple of months, and we're not keen on suddenly charging more sometimes (which we'd have to do for a larger book).
Plus, increasing the number of pages means increasing our production time, and that's not something we have the bandwidth to do.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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As the developer on Tomb of the Iron Medusa, I can assure you, it's jammed full of stuff. The amount of encounter areas, monsters, puzzles, traps, and other cool stuff in that adventure continues to blow my mind. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. But if you're not, I'd welcome that feedback as well, so give it a look when it comes out and stop back in and let me know how we did.
While I would have loved to have a bigger word count for Iron Medusa, the limit was a very helpful guideline for framing the adventure and frankly, I need the discipline (my tendency is to be rather long-winded). Even with the limit (18K words), I found myself trying to squeeze in (much) more than would fit. Without a doubt, I was forced to re-organize and eliminate several encounters, and the editors left some stuff on the cutting room floor after my turnover. But having seen the final product, I am glad some of it is on the cutting room floor, because that's where it belonged. Mark and others did an awesome job fixing and polishing my rough manuscript into what I think is a really solid module. I think the length ends up being just right for this level adventure.
Now if people want to clammer for me to write another 32-page module in the future, I would support that whole-heartedly. ; )