Goodman Games

I have to say at first I was all set to get the Underdark Adventure Guide but I just looked over the details on the site about it and have discovered that:

1) this will be Goodman Games's most expensive proiduct so far ($27.00)

and

2) it will be Goodman Games's first hardback book

I liked the Aerial Adventure Guide because it was broken up into three parts (and I only bought the first one which apealed to me the most with the flying ships and new character races/classes), but based on the UAG, it looks like the AG series is going in a different direction.

Just to try to open up a discussion:
Jospeh, what made you want to go for such a radically differnet format for this guide? Was it so that people wouldn't have to wait for the next two parts of the trilogy to come out and have them buy the guide all in one fell swoop? Is this how any future AGs will be published?

Personally, however you decided to do it was fine. I'll probably buy the guide eventually if I ever think about running an Underdark campaign. I can definitely see why you'd want to publish one large book, rather than multiple smaller books. The UAG looks to be a good value, based on the table of contents.

But still, I have to wonder why you chose hardback for the book. I like the softback books that most game companies publish (in fact Wizards of the Coast is the only major publishing for d20 hardback books that I can think of right now), but if hardcover is what you wanted, then that's fine. I'm just sort of interested in your reason for doin the guide as a hardback.

Well, I definitely went back and forth about it, but I finally decided on hardback. Originally I had asked Mike Mearls to write the Aerial book in three parts because I thought the modular format would appeal to people. And it does appeal to some people, including you, evidently! But I got mixed reviews. Some people liked being able to pick and choose, but those who wanted "the whole kit and kaboodle" preferred a single volume because it's cheaper that way. And it IS cheaper to produce something as a single volume than three separate volumes (you need one cover painting rather than three, only one binding, only one print run, etc.). In the end, I got more responses from the "I want it in one volume" camp than from the "I prefer multiple volumes" camp, so I opted for that. Democracy at its best. And, on a page-per-page basis, it will be cheaper as one volume versus three.

As for the hardback decision, I've also gotten feedback that a lot of people prefer hardbacks. I know that I personally do, but my preferences don't always match everyone else's. But I'll find out soon enough...

I have to say that i agree with you decisions on the UAG. The whole book is not only cheaper than all three Aerial ($27.00 vs $33.00), but it also has more pages (160 vs. 96).

I guess I'm just more willing to buy a small sooftback 32 page book for $11 rather than a much larger book for nearly thirty dollars.

I was really just interested in the whys. I am definitely interested in the UAG (just something about it appeals to me).

Tim