Over on his blog today, Sean Patrick Fannon offered an invitation to the fans of his Shaintar setting:

If you would be part of the Next Great Adventure…

If you would like to truly participate in the future of Shaintar…

If you feel its pulse in your blood…

If you think you can sing in its voice…

Come join the Consortium

This is the next step in the Journey.

More to come.

Fannon has created the Shaintar Consortium, where he’s made some interesting comments.  “The RPG Hobby and Industry as we know it seems to be in trouble. It certainly could use a shot in the arm… Sustaining a fan base that truly supports you over time is the real key to longevity and reasonable business success for a niche market like ours. This will kick the crap out of any model that is based on selling thousands of books all at once.”

He goes on to say, “RPG fans, like any group of geeks, have massive respect for and interest in the creators of the worlds they connect to. This desire to connect with the creator is a powerful opportunity to expand and extend the life of a property.  Game Masters are the life or death of an RPG property. Understanding their role and developing a plan based more purely on that role is essential to success, and to innovation. You don’t reach the players without them…”

He identifies three key elements to the RPG industry:

• The Culture of Content – create it, sustain it, exploit it. You won’t go far without it.
• The Cult of Continuity – the entire point of putting an RPG world on the market is to exploit this. Go all the way.
• Shared campaign experiences = long life. Bring them all together if you are serious about what you’ve created and want to go the distance.

“Your world is meant to be played with. You know that. Acknowledge what they’re doing to it, and let it matter. You won’t believe the magic of that until you see it for yourself…Yes, Web. Yes, the Internets. Blah blah blah – stop! Wake up. They aren’t just sales and PR tools. Make them, and the other tools out there, part of the game and you get “Keep on the Borderlands, welcome to Greyhawk,” 21st Century style.”

Fannon wraps his comments by stating, “I am full-speed-ahead on applying these ideas to my own efforts.  As well, I am interested in seeing others in the industry benefit in any way they can from what is shared here.”

It rather appears that Brother Fannon is letting web-folks onto his playground to develop more Shaintar content.

I am intrigued!