|
Laphroaig posted:I feel like its going to be Bad Gaiman the RPG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cK-8jnub5Q oh god this is hilarious
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 10:31
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
So one of my friends recently got into 5th edition D&D and am I missing something or is WotC really so stupid as to have no official pdfs? I was expecting stupid, but isn't this something they learned about being burned on back in the 3rd and 4th edition days?
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 10:35
|
|
|
Terrible Opinions posted:So one of my friends recently got into 5th edition D&D and am I missing something or is WotC really so stupid as to have no official pdfs? I was expecting stupid, but isn't this something they learned about being burned on back in the 3rd and 4th edition days? Yes, 5th Edition still does not have any official PDFs. They didn't really learn anything from 4th Edition - the PDFs of the initial core getting leaked and pirated was what scared them off of PDFs to begin with. What's stupid is that the pirated copies of those PDFs were never from consumers in the first place, they were printer proofs, so the leak came from the printers. They're probably still holding out on plain PDFs for 5th so they can leverage the tie-in with Fantasy Grounds.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 11:29
|
|
|
What's doubly dumb is that they had inadvertently stumbled into the steam model. You fight piracy by offering a better digital product, e.g. The online builder and dragon. That got thrown out with the bathwater by Mearls because he wants books that can never be updated by design.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 14:20
|
|
|
Odd, because rule-wise the Dragon content is about on the level of what Mearls is capable of doing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 14:50
|
|
|
Their policy is that they don't print PDFs of things that are still in print, or close enough that bookstores/game stores would still have a lot of copies. (Granted my local B&N still has a few core 4e rulebooks and that's on PDF now.) It's not an especially good policy, but I can imagine that they're like "We don't want to anger the distributors" even if other companies are offering both physical and digital without ruffling feathers.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 17:44
|
|
|
It's neatly symbolic of just how backwards 5e is, even as they try and have their own digital store for supplemental content.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 18:06
|
|
|
Alien Rope Burn posted:It's neatly symbolic of just how backwards 5e is, even as they try and have their own digital store for supplemental content. Third-party content though, they don't give a poo poo about what happens to that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 18:28
|
|
|
Kai Tave posted:Third-party content though, they don't give a poo poo about what happens to that. Nope. The DM's Guild is now used to distribute all their organized play material, too.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 19:41
|
|
|
Maxwell Lord posted:Their policy is that they don't print PDFs of things that are still in print, or close enough that bookstores/game stores would still have a lot of copies. (Granted my local B&N still has a few core 4e rulebooks and that's on PDF now.) That is probably the second worst policy to have there. Of course, it's only beaten out by their immediately previous policy, which was 'NO PDF EVER!"
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 19:44
|
|
|
Fantasy Grounds seems to be an attempt to reproduce MTGO with D&D: A poorly implemented, expensive proprietary way of playing the game online, developed by people who don't really understand digital content for analog games.
Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Aug 20, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 20:55
|
|
|
Terrible Opinions posted:So one of my friends recently got into 5th edition D&D and am I missing something or is WotC really so stupid as to have no official pdfs? I was expecting stupid, but isn't this something they learned about being burned on back in the 3rd and 4th edition days? Didn't we discover that the entire Dungeons and Dragons development team is like, three people, though? It's no wonder they're loving up nearly every opportunity handed to them. For all the new customers Critical Role and shows like it may be bringing into the hobby, they could be selling ten times as much stuff if it was available electronically, better distributed, and consistently interesting/well written. How many $2.99 spellbook or character sheet apps do you think they could sell if there was an OFFICIALLY LICENSED one on the itunes store? They'd be out selling all the third party ones in a week, if the app was even slightly well designed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 23:29
|
|
|
Paladin posted:if the app was even slightly well designed. It's the same reason why nobody's done a smartphone-integrated tabletop RPG. Automate chargen and combat mechanics and all that, have easy to access rules in the app, and all that stuff. If you coded it right you probably wouldn't even need the "tabletop" part thanks to video calling. It'd be perfect, yeah? Except most RPG designers don't code, and most coders who can do professional stuff can make ten times as much in any other industry. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 23:46
|
|
|
Lightning Lord posted:Fantasy Grounds seems to be an attempt to reproduce MTGO with D&D: A poorly implemented, expensive proprietary way of playing the game online, developed b6you people who don't really understand digital content for analog games. Aside from the "officially licensed for X" tag, is there any real selling point over roll20? It seems like most of the fantasy grounds sub bennies you also get with roll20, plus a big free library so you don't even need the sub if you don't want it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 19, 2016 23:53
|
|
|
Desiden posted:Aside from the "officially licensed for X" tag, is there any real selling point over roll20? It seems like most of the fantasy grounds sub bennies you also get with roll20, plus a big free library so you don't even need the sub if you don't want it. It's on Steam, that's about it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 00:11
|
|
|
Desiden posted:Aside from the "officially licensed for X" tag, is there any real selling point over roll20? It seems like most of the fantasy grounds sub bennies you also get with roll20, plus a big free library so you don't even need the sub if you don't want it. There is a much more robust engine under the hood for Fantasy Grounds - it's a full(ish) implementation of lua so you can do very complicated procedures beyond (XdY+Z). The problem being that you actually have to be a reasonable lua programmer to build a rules module, and by and large anyone those people have better things to do with their time to devote 30+ hours to a programming project that 20 people will ever use. And that's before we get into the medium-hot garbage that is trying to work with the UI elements. Fantasy Grounds has enormous potential but there is no business case for actually exploiting it. Writing modules for Exalted 3rd and Eclipse Phase is on my list of things to do if I ever become independently wealthy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 00:15
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:What's doubly dumb is that they had inadvertently stumbled into the steam model. You fight piracy by offering a better digital product, e.g. The online builder and dragon. to be fair, they were going to do another computer-based character builder, but they managed to hire the most incompetent people in the universe to do it
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 01:26
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:You know, I'm a "True Fan" of Greg Stolze and Evil Hat, to the point where I'd back pretty much anything they put out sight unseen. They're people who I know will deliver something I'm more than likely going to really like. This. This would be a goofy and questionable call from better designers. Monte Cook ain't one of them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 20, 2016 01:50
|
|
|
stupid browser cache, duplicate post
|
|
#
?
Aug 22, 2016 15:47
|
|
|
Traveller posted:This. This would be a goofy and questionable call from better designers. no this is clearly a brilliant marketing campaign that belongs in the top tier of marketing campaigns https://twitter.com/leftytwylite/status/767941595765182465
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 12:01
|
|
|
It is getting people talking...
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 13:09
|
|
|
Has that talking been of much more than "this is dumb and the people who are backing it are fanboys with more money than sense"? At least, that's the feel I've gotten of the response in the places I hang out. Though I was darkly amused when I first looked at the comments and saw someone posting about how they were offput by all the lack of info but were still trying to stay hyped about the project. The name looked familiar from somewhere. It took me a while, but I realized it was a guy who had been a prolific supporter/poster in the Far West kickstarter, though after five years he was finally trying to get his money back.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 16:52
|
|
|
Desiden posted:Has that talking been of much more than "this is dumb and the people who are backing it are fanboys with more money than sense"? At least, that's the feel I've gotten of the response in the places I hang out. One argument I keep seeing in defense of the game in regards to the price point is how it's a luxury item, therefore the price point doesn't have to be something most people could afford because . It's a bullshit argument, of course, because just because something's a luxury doesn't mean that the price point doesn't matter.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 17:01
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:One argument I keep seeing in defense of the game in regards to the price point is how it's a luxury item, therefore the price point doesn't have to be something most people could afford because . It's a bullshit argument, of course, because just because something's a luxury doesn't mean that the price point doesn't matter. It's the weird "know just enough about microeconomics to gently caress it up" issue I see pop up a bunch. It's ignoring that we don't live in Free Market Happyland where all the rules you learned in Econ 101 applies completely. In the real world, like in all cases, there is no perfect luxury where all the people who want it will pay whatever price they're given. Obviously, for those who payed 5k, gaming with Monte Cook has no price.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 17:59
|
|
|
I find it kind of interesting in an experiment of exclusivity marketing, or at least trying to be. In a certain way, its just pushing the envelope of what a lot of higher tier pledges in kickstarters do, in offering unique bennies. The flip side is that exclusivity or rarity are mostly valued so much as other people who don't have that thing would want it. Maybe the current backers imagine others will be envious; hell, maybe their social circles actually will be. At least in the places where I see gamers talking about it though, I can't see the word of mouth making any prospective backers in those places go "yeah, people will think its cool I got this special note for 500 bucks".
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2016 18:37
|
|
|
Evil Mastermind posted:One argument I keep seeing in defense of the game in regards to the price point is how it's a luxury item, therefore the price point doesn't have to be something most people could afford because . It's a bullshit argument, of course, because just because something's a luxury doesn't mean that the price point doesn't matter. Aren't tabletop roleplaying games already luxury items?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 01:27
|
|
|
Nuns with Guns posted:Aren't tabletop roleplaying games already luxury items? Entertainment items aren't necessarily inherently luxury items. A beat up old copy of Lord of the Rings from 1978 that smells like grandma's attic and has no front cover isn't the same as a leather bound copy with full color plates for the maps and Tolkien's art, gilded pages and a sewn in silk bookmark. Lightning Lord fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Aug 24, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 01:32
|
|
|
Lightning Lord posted:Entertainment items aren't necessarily inherently luxury items. A beat up old copy of Lord of the Rings from 1978 that smells like grandma's attic and has no front cover isn't the same as a leather bound copy with full color plates for the maps and Tolkien's art, gilded pages and a sewn in silk bookmark. Entertainment things are luxury goods in the economic sense, in that as you make more money, you spend more on those things, as opposed to necessities, on which you spend proportionally less. If your income increased tenfold, you might buy that leather-bound version of Fellowship of the Ring rather than the garage-sale paperback. You do not need it to survive either way and would cut back on your Tolkien spending either way if times got tough. RPGs are in the same category.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 01:59
|
|
|
In a more general industry question, is there a good place to point people who want to break into writing for the industry? The rpg.net freelancer forum seems to be filled with artists looking for work. I want to point out a few sites to some friends who are interested in it. Also, who was that guy on DrivethruRPG who makes a decent chunk of change by selling lists of random things?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 02:44
|
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:Also, who was that guy on DrivethruRPG who makes a decent chunk of change by selling lists of random things? Me! Although its not so decent anymore. Still pays for lunch I guess.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 02:51
|
|
|
Dagon posted:Me! Although its not so decent anymore. Still pays for lunch I guess. Whats your Drivethru publisher name and what happened? Did you stop releasing lists or did the market change?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 03:01
|
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:Whats your Drivethru publisher name and what happened? Did you stop releasing lists or did the market change? Lee's Lists. The market is really driven by new releases, and we just haven't put out anything new in a long time (equal parts lazy and busy with other things). So theres still a trickle of old stuff selling, but nothing new to drive the sales of the old stuff.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 03:06
|
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:In a more general industry question, is there a good place to point people who want to break into writing for the industry? The rpg.net freelancer forum seems to be filled with artists looking for work. I want to point out a few sites to some friends who are interested in it. Their best bet is to make personal friends with other freelancers or employees who work for reputable companies that your friends also want to work for. Strike up a conversation with Fred Hicks, or say smart things about WoD in a forum where WoD people hang out. It really depends a lot on what they personally want to do. If you want to be a bad friend, send them to the Paizo 3PP forum to work for one cent per word (or less!) in the shovelware mines. That Old Tree fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Aug 24, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 03:07
|
|
|
If someone told me that for $6,000 I'll be able to learn exclusive secrets from an occult master* and be able to Merge With the Black Cube, I'd assume they're trying to recruit me for a cult. *Who "took literally decades of study in such things—tarot, Kabbalah, Vodun, astrology, numerology, mythology, religion, the Tree of Life, and so on."
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 03:45
|
|
|
Dagon posted:Lee's Lists. The market is really driven by new releases, and we just haven't put out anything new in a long time (equal parts lazy and busy with other things). So theres still a trickle of old stuff selling, but nothing new to drive the sales of the old stuff. I'm still getting money from it which is cool and still kind of insane code:Humbug Scoolbus fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Aug 24, 2016 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 03:53
|
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:In a more general industry question, is there a good place to point people who want to break into writing for the industry? The rpg.net freelancer forum seems to be filled with artists looking for work. I want to point out a few sites to some friends who are interested in it. That Old Tree posted:Their best bet is to make personal friends with other freelancers or employees who work for reputable companies that your friends also want to work for. Strike up a conversation with Fred Hicks, or say smart things about WoD in a forum where WoD people hang out. It really depends a lot on what they personally want to do. Fred's usually got his attention split tons of ways, so it might not be profitable to try talking to him with the express intent of working for Evil Hat. If someone's interested in that, I'd recommend making a connection through a minion of the Hat. As fate may have it, one of my roles at Evil Hat is finding promising talent in our pool of applicants (apply here). Maybe if you send me some fine wine, I can get you to the front of the line.* But seriously, if anybody has some compelling work to show off to us—published or unpublished—or wants to hear more about what we're looking for, just send me a message. *This is a joke. Please don't fire me, Fred.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 04:38
|
|
|
Humbug Scoolbus posted:I'm still getting money from it which is cool and still kind of insane Too lazy to do "List of a Thousand Dances", even.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 05:28
|
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:In a more general industry question, is there a good place to point people who want to break into writing for the industry? The rpg.net freelancer forum seems to be filled with artists looking for work. I want to point out a few sites to some friends who are interested in it. I'd say that there isn't really much in the way of an industry to break into - or at least, not one with gatekeepers. If your friend wants to get involved in freelancing for one of the big companies/settings I don't have much advice except that Evil Hat seem really great to freelance for and regularly get new talent in. On the other hand, if you want to make your own RPG products I've found some success going down the indie/self-publishing route - writing things that interest me, running them for my friends and then if they pass muster putting a bit of polish on them and selling them. It's not second-job levels of income, but I'm making ~£150/month of sales even without launching any new products, and have been able to secure money through crowdfunding for art and layout when needed. If they want to go down that route, the biggest advice I have is to follow some of the creators who are doing interesting things in the field. Even outside discussion spaces like this forum, G+, story-games.com etc there are some blogs I get a lot out of:
Hope that helps!
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 12:17
|
|
|
What do you publish Flavivirus?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 20:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 17, 2024 23:26 |
|
|
clockworkjoe posted:What do you publish Flavivirus? So I publish as UFO Press - website here. My first published game was Legacy: Life Among the Ruins, an Apocalypse World hack whose big feature was that each player controls a family of post-apocalyptic survivors as well as a character from that family, with a big focus on how that family grows and adapts to the new world they find themselves in over years, decades and centuries. I kickstarted it a couple of years back after coming 2nd place in a PbtA design competition here, and got enough funding to make a full-colour book with plenty of art and layout by the guy who did Chuubo's Wish-Granting Engine and the Italian edition of Dungeon World. Since then I've released a supplement of various extra bits that were stretch goals for the kickstarter, and I'm currently working on a second supplement alongside a fan who contacted me out of the blue with a book outline that looked really interesting! In terms of finances, I paid £1800 for art, £800 for editing (standard per-word rate), £320 for layout. Once kickstarter fees had been deducted that left me with £800 for myself, equivalent to about a .05 cents per word writing rate - always important to make sure you get paid too! One nice thing is that as I was left with the InDesign files to play with, I could drag and drop the text for the next book into the same layout and make whatever small tweaks were needed for it to work meaning that that book only cost about £200 in art to make. I'd really recommend Shutterstock, by the way - they have incredibly cheap and good-looking stock illustrations, and group things by artist allowing you to find the pictures to create a consistent style for very little money. I've also released Ultranormal Encounters (written with two other authors as part of the Threeforged Challenge), a gm-less story game of alien abduction and FBI interrogation. It's essentially the game version of the X Files episode Jose Chung's From Outer Space - lots of contradictory narratives coming together to create a story of what actually happened somewhere between them all. I'm also currently kickstarting What Ho, World! - my Jeeves and Wooster-flavoured attempt to merge the storytelling power of PbtA games with the easy pick-up-and-play and beginner-friendlyness of card games, with game mechanics that remove the need for a GM to control character spotlight, plot pacing, subplot development etc. At least, that's the theory! It's my first venture into making a project that I'll actually have printed and shipped rather than relying on DriveThru to handle that, but I've been working with a fulfilment company to hopefully deal with any snags and wrinkles there.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2016 22:17
|
|