Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

DCC has inspired many folks to produce their own supplements and adventures for the game. This is the place for discussion of all 3PP products for DCC RPG.

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ThickSkullAdv
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Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by ThickSkullAdv »

Hello folks,

As I continue to grind out the new upcoming Haunting of Larvik Island, I ponder some of the elements I may or may not include in it and wonder what lessons I can learn now that DCCRPG is approaching it's birthday. I thought I would take this opportunity to do a little marketing research for those interested in responding.

What influences your decision to buy or not buy a 3PP DCC module like Attack of the Frawgs. Here are some factors that may get your creative juices flowing?
  • Price Sensitivity? Is there a sweet spot for you in terms of cost where a certain $ is a safe impulse buy?
  • Game System? Did the mere fact that it's a DCC RPG game help make the purchase?
  • Marketing Description?Did the description of the module help? Hinder?
  • Length of adventure? Do you have an expectations of how many pages of adventure you should get for each RPG gold piece you spend?
  • Artwork? Was the cover art an influencing decision?
  • Platform? Was not having it optimized for a certain platform (i.e. an iPad friendly version) a factor?
  • Do you print? Assuming you did buy the PDF, do you print it once it's in your position? play it straight from your PC? Your iPad?
  • Reviews? Does/did reading a review influence your buying decision?
Looking forward to getting some feedback. If you don't feel comfortable answering in public please shoot me a personal message in the forum.

Thanks everyone!

EDIT: PS, I asked this same question on the DCCRPG G+ Forum and I'm getting some interesting responses there as well.
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by MrHemlocks »

ThickSkullAdv wrote:Hello folks,

As I continue to grind out the new upcoming Haunting of Larvik Island, I ponder some of the elements I may or may not include in it and wonder what lessons I can learn now that DCCRPG is approaching it's birthday. I thought I would take this opportunity to do a little marketing research for those interested in responding.

What influences your decision to buy or not buy a 3PP DCC module like Attack of the Frawgs. Here are some factors that may get your creative juices flowing?
  • Price Sensitivity? Is there a sweet spot for you in terms of cost where a certain $ is a safe impulse buy?
  • Game System? Did the mere fact that it's a DCC RPG game help make the purchase?
  • Marketing Description?Did the description of the module help? Hinder?
  • Length of adventure? Do you have an expectations of how many pages of adventure you should get for each RPG gold piece you spend?
  • Artwork? Was the cover art an influencing decision?
  • Platform? Was not having it optimized for a certain platform (i.e. an iPad friendly version) a factor?
  • Do you print? Assuming you did buy the PDF, do you print it once it's in your position? play it straight from your PC? Your iPad?
  • Reviews? Does/did reading a review influence your buying decision?
Looking forward to getting some feedback. If you don't feel comfortable answering in public please shoot me a personal message in the forum.

Thanks everyone!

EDIT: PS, I asked this same question on the DCCRPG G+ Forum and I'm getting some interesting responses there as well.

What influences my decision to buy or not buy a 3PP DCC module? All of the above but have zero interest in having a game compatible with iPad or any similar device. If it is not sold in print form...I will not buy it. Hate pdfs and the like. Do I plan on buying Fwags..yes the printed pamplet.
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by beermotor »

I bought the pdf and printed it. I use three ring binders. I like it just fine but haven't run it yet, it doesn't quite fit in my arid geography without some tweaking, haven't gotten around to it yet.
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Colin
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by Colin »

I bought the pdf because I love the DCC RPG, I love Bullywugs, and it looked (cover art) and sounded interesting. The pdf was priced appropriately ($5.00 is a reasonable impulse-buy price for me for something this slim), though I'd prefer a printed version and don't give a monkeys about iPad compatibility. The only thing I'd say is it needed to be a bit darker and more gonzo (for my tastes), but is otherwise very nicely done.

Colin
enoto
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by enoto »

There's a certain level of silliness/goofiness at which I don't think a product will fly with my group and the title seemed to fall past that line.
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by bholmes4 »

enoto wrote:There's a certain level of silliness/goofiness at which I don't think a product will fly with my group and the title seemed to fall past that line.
This. The name immediately had me turned off.

That said if it was totally gonzo I may have bought it, but it seemed to have a semi-serious tone to it that was only confirmed (in my opinion) by the cover, which was boring and uninspiring . This sort of thing is everywhere on the internet for free or easily made by any self-respecting DM. I want stuff that will inspire me. Now I have nothing against using frogmen but make it seem interesting, something I haven't seen or something I just have to have. I suppose if it had been dirt cheap I would have bought it simply out of curiousity but that's about all. I had no real desire to own this product.

For example if I had seen a frog in an astronaut suit, shooting a raygun at helpless medieval-looking villagers, with a flying saucer in the background I probably would have bought it. Or if it contained the Frog Hunter and Swamp Croaker classes, 12 new spells, the Frog King patron and the inspiring Temple of the Frog adventure I would have bought it. Since it just had your typical froglock guy and a baby-talk name (Frawgs?!) I wanted nothing to do with it.

Sorry if this offends, I figure it's better to be blunt and possibly help an aspiring publisher/writer out.
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Crimsontree
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by Crimsontree »

I bought it but have not run it. I felt $5 was overpriced for what I got. The graphics were uninspiring as were the names of locations & characters. The adventure felt like it was written for a modern edition of DnD instead of for DCC. The only thing DCC about it was the DCC logo. Overall I was disappointed by the product & it felt like 3rd/4th edition DnD with the numbers filed off. I doubt I'll buy any more Thick Skull adventures if this is the standard.
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Colin
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by Colin »

If it helps anyone, he has noted on his blog that it was produced when DCC RPG was in beta, is an adaptation of an earlier D&D module that did very well for him, and that now, having had and run the finished DCC RPG for some time, he'd be making sure the future modules were much darker and more gonzo. Me, I like the occasional "normal" scenario here and there as it helps contrast nicely with the dark and/or gonzo we normally expect, but that's obviously my personal taste.

Colin
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by ThickSkullAdv »

All,

Thanks to everyone who responded. Even if the mod wasn't to your taste it's still helpful to me to learn what folks are looking for expecting. I'll write up a longer "lessons learned" blog later on but wanted to thank everyone for their feedback.

-S-
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Re: Why did you buy (or not buy) Attack of the Frawgs?

Post by Gameogre »

Price Sensitivity?

$5 or less with a good looking cover or at least remotely interesting premiss and I buy it.I buy 2 or 3 of these per month depending on game play.
$9+ I look for reviews and might even ask others what they thought of it. I buy one of these a month unless I'm hard up for ideas or adventures for that level range.
$20+ I read reviews,talk to others who bought it,ask myself"Do I really Need to buy this?" Often answer myself "No". This level of investment interferes with my out of control rpg game buying hindrance! 1 per month at most.

Game System? Did the mere fact that it's a DCC RPG game help make the purchase?

Yes. Although I buy many differant rpg's DCCRPG gets special attention.

Marketing Description?Did the description of the module help? Hinder?

Helps if its something that grabs me. Some iconic darkly wicked adventures description gets the most drool going for me.


Length of adventure? Do you have an expectations of how many pages of adventure you should get for each RPG gold piece you spend?

$5 should keep my players at bay for a night. Anything more than 3-5 hours play is a bonus and drives up the buying factor for the next purchase by that same company.
$9 should keep those demonic voices busy for 2-3 game nights.
$20 should let me sleep comfortably for weeks and weeks without having to worry about much game prep.
$40 SHOULD let me actually watch TV again and maybe even let me go on a small vacation. The Demons are kept at bay,I might even pick up a book series and have the time to read the entire thing before the nasty buggers(The Players) force me to once again enslave my mind towards there ever hungry rpg needs.


Artwork? Was the cover art an influencing decision?

Yes! Cool artwork has a advantage almost as much in fact as the description! Note that on a actual physical copy of the adventure that I'm holding in my hand the artwork probably has MORE of a pull to look at it in the first place. On pdf sales probably a lot less than the description.


Platform? Was not having it optimized for a certain platform (i.e. an iPad friendly version) a factor?

PDF's I can use to print out,on my Nook,on my computer. To be honest I don't know a lot about this area of knowledge.

Do you print? Assuming you did buy the PDF, do you print it once it's in your position? play it straight from your PC? Your iPad?
Reviews?

If its a single night type adventure I 70% only print the maps. On larger adventures I print the entire thing.


Hope that helped!
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