Making it Better

By Jim Butler

August 21st, 2003

We used to spend a lot of time back at Wizards of the Coast talking about what things we could do to make roleplaying products better. More useable. More versatile. More... essential.

The problems are pretty obvious when you take a look at RPGs versus that of the CCGs, miniature wargames, or clicky-base businesses. The biggest names in this industry have games that require the same gamers to purchase the same item again and again and again. With D&D, you only have to buy the three core books and then you can run off and do whatever you want.

As a company, we knew that Wizards could only produce so many products in a year, and that the needs of some of the gamers would get passed along for more lucrative opportunities. A new monster book would sell better than an adventure, so adventures took a back seat. The realization that Wizards couldn’t do everything to meet the needs of the audience spawned the creation of the Open Gaming License (and more specifically, the d20 System Trademark License). With so many companies producing D&D materials under license, the needs of the largest numbers of gamers could be met. That meant that they would keep playing D&D instead of migrating along to other games.

The OGL has made the D&D experience more complete—it made D&D better. But the nature of how information is presented hasn’t changed much, nor has the requirements for playing (you still need only the three core books). Sure, you can put out full-color books... but that doesn’t make things better. Just colorful. And from Bastion’s experience, full-color didn’t equate to higher sales versus competitor books—just significantly higher costs.

So, what can be done to make books better? That’s been on my mind a lot lately, and we’ve been trying to put more effort into making each Bastion Press book better then the last. Better artists, layout, content, and topics. Better gaming goodness.

Artists: We’re trying to bring together at least four artists in each book that have complimentary styles. We’re putting in border treatments that suit the subject matter. Artwork is all crafted from the product itself (so no generic art filler pieces).

What it Means to You: By tying together multiple artists, you’re much more likely to find an artist’s style you really love and whose art brings the product alive for you. The complimentary border treatments should make it easier for you to become absorbed with the product.

Layout: Starting with Oathbound: Arena in October (yeah, we’re late), you’ll see that we’re doing things like Running Headers and Indexes. We’ve even released some free indexes for Torn Asunder: Critical Hits and Into the Green. We’ll also be identifying the artist for each piece of artwork.

What it Means to You: Running headers make finding particular sections a lot easier (especially when topics run on for a few pages). In addition to always being able to find the chapter name, you’ll be able to zero in on sections of interest. Indexes are something that we’ve received *a lot* of feedback on, so you’ll see those as standard components for all of our releases from now on. By tying the name of the artist to each piece, it will become a lot easier to identify your favorite artist (instead of trying to guess at whose initials those really are).

Content: The members of the Bastion Press Development Team (Kevin Melka, Todd Laing, Brannon Hollingsworth, Darrin Drader, Steve Creech, Kevin Ruesch, Sam Witt, Bryon Wischstadt, and Tom Knauss) have been checking and rechecking galleys looking for errors, hoping to eradicate every bug and error that somehow escaped the eyes of the editor.

What it Means to You: This should all equate down to fewer errors and more enjoyable content for you. While I’d love to be able to promise error-free content, I’m not aware of any company in the world that can release 100,000 words of material that’s error-free. But we’re working hard to produce as error-free products as possible.

Topics: We continue to strive to bring content to your game that’s relevant for both players and DMs. The Design Team (plus outside contributors) are sending boatloads of ideas and manuscripts my way. We’re latching on to the most interesting (while largely trying to avoid topics that have been done to death…. Yeah, no Bastion Book of Elves).

What it Means to You: This should all boil down to cool concepts and original roleplaying material for you and the rest of the gaming group that inspires your campaign to new heights. And if you don’t see what you’re looking for, let me know what you want to see. Or better yet, check out our Writers’ Guidelines and submit something.

And So it Goes…

Bastion continues to work hard to produce materials that you’re willing to spend your hard-earned gold on to add to your gaming collection. But all the brain-storming in the world won’t do any good without your opinions and feedback about how we’re doing. Please visit our Message Boards and let us know what you think of our current stable of gaming products. Check out the Making It Better thread and provide some good generalized feedback about what you think is missing in today’s gaming products.

And above all, have fun. That’s what we’re all here to do!

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