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Alien Rope Burn posted:A long time ago, I dreamed of working for a game company. Nowadays I just want to self-publish. Though I wouldn't mind writing other people's RPGs for a living, it doesn't seem like a steady way to actually make a living. Thanks to places like Kickstarter and DriveThru, it's easier than it's ever been to self-publish, so working for big RPG companies comes off as less of a desirable thing than it used to be.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:47
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Well also the idea of the "Big RPG Company" has become really devalued. I mean, like, there's Paizo left? I don't know how big Catalyst is. Some have reasonable staff with a bevy of freelancers at best, it seems, but the notion of having a bunch of people in one office making RPGs seems to maybe be outright defunct.
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Aug 30, 2016 01:53
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well also the idea of the "Big RPG Company" has become really devalued. I mean, like, there's Paizo left? I don't know how big Catalyst is. Some have reasonable staff with a bevy of freelancers at best, it seems, but the notion of having a bunch of people in one office making RPGs seems to maybe be outright defunct. Yeah after typing that I had the same train of thought. We don't have the D&D side as the juggernaut it once was and now operates out of a broom closet, White Wolf is basically Onyx Path now, and Paizo seems like it's going to collapse under its own weight in the near future. Evil Hat's kind of a big deal, I guess?
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Aug 30, 2016 01:57
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How big is Pelgrane Press?
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Aug 30, 2016 01:58
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well also the idea of the "Big RPG Company" has become really devalued. I mean, like, there's Paizo left? I don't know how big Catalyst is. Some have reasonable staff with a bevy of freelancers at best, it seems, but the notion of having a bunch of people in one office making RPGs seems to maybe be outright defunct. The idea of making a living as a freelancer is terrible, especially if you don't like living out of a cardboard box (or aren't, say, Matt Forbeck). Every freelancer I know in the industry (Forbeck being the exception) works a day job. Hell, most game company employees are part time and work day jobs. In terms of big RPG companies to work for - there's always Fantasy Flight, or PEG, or Green Ronin (although they only have 3 full time employees, the rest are PT), but even if you work for the company, you're typically not an individual creator, you're an editor or a marketer or a project manager or producer. Honestly, if you really want to write games and do it full time and you're willing to put your heart and soul and sweat into it, you're way better off going the kickstarter route. I know it's not a total 1:1 comparison since it's board games, but what Michael Coe has done with Gamelyn Games is nothing short of amazing. That's a kid to emulate.
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Aug 30, 2016 02:06
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gradenko_2000 posted:How big is Pelgrane Press? Like 4-6 people with about an equal or larger number of freelancers at any given time? I think I've met nearly everybody who actually works for the company outside of their webmaster. Peas and Rice posted:The idea of making a living as a freelancer is terrible, especially if you don't like living out of a cardboard box (or aren't, say, Matt Forbeck). Every freelancer I know in the industry (Forbeck being the exception) works a day job. Hell, most game company employees are part time and work day jobs. There are some that manage for a living, but you have to be somebody like Robin Laws that's unquestionably in demand, I think, and willing to work your fingers to the bone for poo poo pay to stay afloat. There's something humbling when even a guy like Heinsoo can't be guaranteed work.
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Aug 30, 2016 02:13
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Fair enough, Robin and Ken Hite are probably the exceptions - but they're also in their 50s (like Matt F) and spent literal decades building their reputations.
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Aug 30, 2016 02:24
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Matt Foe has the right idea: find a gimmick and ride it all the way. Tiny Epic X has been a goldmine for him.
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Aug 30, 2016 03:40
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Zurui posted:find a gimmick and ride it all the way 
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Aug 30, 2016 04:14
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moths posted:I'd make a Mike Mearls joke here but I think you just beat me to it. Zurui posted:Matt Foe has the right idea: find a gimmick and ride it all the way. Tiny Epic X has been a goldmine for him. I mean technically d20 is a gimmick, right?
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Aug 30, 2016 04:17
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Gotta respect the hustle
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Aug 30, 2016 04:17
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Error 404 posted:Gotta respect the hustle I do not.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:24
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Alien Rope Burn posted:A long time ago, I dreamed of working for a game company. Nowadays I just want to self-publish. Though I wouldn't mind writing other people's RPGs for a living, it doesn't seem like a steady way to actually make a living.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:27
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Like 4-6 people with about an equal or larger number of freelancers at any given time? I think I've met nearly everybody who actually works for the company outside of their webmaster. I'm pretty sure their only full time staff writer is Ken Hite. He's one of the few game designers that just writes games and games fluff material for a living. Robin Laws is an editor and creative director at Stone Skin Press.
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Aug 30, 2016 04:43
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Error 404 posted:Gotta respect the hustle
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Aug 30, 2016 05:23
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Steve Jackson apparently has some regrets that his company has become "the Munchkin company" but no part of having a lucrative nigh-evergreen nerd kitsch cash-cow should be preventing him from continuing to ride the Kickstarter train like they did with Ogre and yet isn't he late on some Car Wars revival? It seems like if you were in possession of something like Munchkin that would be the perfect opportunity for you to crank out lovely card games to pay the bills as your day job and then just pursue all the passion projects you want with a healthy dose of crowdfunding so that you aren't even dipping out of your own profits to do so, but I'm not a successful tabletop game publisher myself, so.
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Aug 30, 2016 06:05
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Ewen Cluney posted:I've wound up becoming Internet Friends with a few RPG freelancers, and the way their eyes bulge out when I offer to pay a whole 5 cents a word for Kickstarter stretch goal pieces is worrisome. I've occasionally written stuff for my "industry" buddies, but otherwise I've pretty much only ever done my own thing, and while I'm not exactly making bank, the freedom and spontaneity of self-publishing is really nice. It's not a huge seller or anything, but I can truthfully say I published a game about kaiju who feel kinda sad. Oh I ran Magical Fury the other day for RPPR Actual Play - not sure when I will post it, but it was quite fun. One of the players was new to RPGs and she liked the game. It's very good as a starter RPG. Anyway, I basically make my living through tabletop RPGs, but that's more due to my Patreon and podcast than my published and Kickstarted work https://www.patreon.com/RPPR I still freelance outside the tabletop RPG industry but that's not much of my income since the Patreon got as large as it did.
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Aug 30, 2016 06:47
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Well also the idea of the "Big RPG Company" has become really devalued. I mean, like, there's Paizo left? I don't know how big Catalyst is. Some have reasonable staff with a bevy of freelancers at best, it seems, but the notion of having a bunch of people in one office making RPGs seems to maybe be outright defunct. Luckily Kickstarter/crowdfunding and print-on-demand removed two of the big reasons why companies were often dragged under during the 80s and 90s, but it still hasn't quite made it a big industry.
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Aug 30, 2016 07:08
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Kai Tave posted:Steve Jackson apparently has some regrets that his company has become "the Munchkin company" but no part of having a lucrative nigh-evergreen nerd kitsch cash-cow should be preventing him from continuing to ride the Kickstarter train like they did with Ogre and yet isn't he late on some Car Wars revival?
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Aug 30, 2016 12:37
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A week isn't really late by TG standards.
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Aug 30, 2016 12:50
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Alien Rope Burn posted:A week isn't really late by TG standards.
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Aug 30, 2016 13:00
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Error 404 posted:Gotta respect the hustle Countblanc posted:I do not.
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Aug 30, 2016 13:46
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dwarf74 posted:If someone kept backing dump trucks full of money into my driveway for terrible games, I'd go ahead and keep making terrible games. Hey if it's good enough for Michael Bay to keep making Transformers movies that he hates, it's good enough for anybody.
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Aug 30, 2016 13:48
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Asimo posted:Palladium is literally run out of Siembieda's garage,
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Aug 30, 2016 14:05
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Last I heard his office was just built into his house, but I may be misremembering urban legendish stuff yeah. It's not exactly a palace in any case, no.
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Aug 30, 2016 14:28
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Pretty much, Palladium has offices and a warehouse, but they're down to five staffers with no in-house writers aside from Siembieda- they have regular writers and artists, but all on a freelance basis these days as I understand it.
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Aug 30, 2016 14:31
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The hell is the warehouse for?
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Aug 30, 2016 14:33
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Luke Crane in being unprofessional to his backers shocker: http://ferretbrain.com/articles/article-1098 Short version is that Crane used a 'cranky wizard' schtick for the marketing of his burning wheel kickstarter. While it's delivered on time (!) the very drawn out shipping process has meant some customers had books in hand while others weren't even aware shipping had started. This, understandably, led to people asking what was going on, for which Crane engaged in mockery and in some cases just refunding people and cancelling their orders for the temerity of daring to ask where their stuff was.
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Aug 30, 2016 14:34
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Mors Rattus posted:The hell is the warehouse for? Unsold copies of the Rifter.
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Aug 30, 2016 14:40
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I'll admit that while I'm glad I got a copy of the Burning Wheel Codex, the KS was a complete pain to deal with. It didn't help that they were creating shipping labels en masse before actually sending books out. I got a "shipping label created" email notification before GenCon, but my book didn't actually get mailed out for two and change weeks. I mean, I got it, but the whole thing could have been easier all around. Especially if Luke could have dropped the stupid wizard-speak shtick that I don't think anyone besides him liked for five minutes to just say "here's what's going on with shipping".
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Aug 30, 2016 14:42
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Kwyndig posted:Unsold copies of the Rifter. I don't know if you're joking because this is close enough to be true. Siembieda is fixated on making sure they have most of their books in stock. It doesn't matter if it's three months old or three decades old. There are exceptions- for awhile they tried to do the same with The Rifter, but after five years they started to realize keeping every issue in print was madness even by Palladium standards. That's why they sell "grab bags" of books cheap every year- to clear excess stock. I remember buying a book a few years ago from their booth that had literally yellowed with age. That's also why if you ever shop for Palladium books online (not that I would know  ), their old books are cheap as hell because they've been reprinted five or more times and there are way more copies of Rifts World Book Four: Africa floating around than the gaming community could possibly ever want or need. Granted, one copy would probably still be too many, but I'm sure you get the idea.
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Aug 30, 2016 15:51
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I don't know if you're joking because this is close enough to be true. I was only half joking, I'm well aware of their insane policy of keeping everything in stock. Kev should just retool his lines to POD for the stuff that doesn't sell consistently, he'd potentially save a ton of money over keeping what is essentially pre recycled pulp around his warehouse.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:39
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I like some of Luke Crane's games, but he needs to be shocked every time he comes up with a twee new term for an otherwise self-explanatory word. The dumb wizard-speak just seems like an extension of that. And while we're on the subject, he can make very pretty individual pages, but there's not a single layout he's done that's easy to use, and that drives me up the drat wall.
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Aug 30, 2016 16:59
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grassy gnoll posted:I like some of Luke Crane's games, but he needs to be shocked every time he comes up with a twee new term for an otherwise self-explanatory word. The dumb wizard-speak just seems like an extension of that. cowards traitors
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Aug 30, 2016 17:03
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Fossilized Rappy posted:Oh, certainly not, it's just that the little things keep adding up to a picture that not everything is all that organized. It's probably just related to my pessimism over the TG industry as of late, though. I can state with great certainty that SJG's business is not all that well organized, though 'being generally functional and maintaining a positive cash
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Aug 30, 2016 17:13
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grassy gnoll posted:I like some of Luke Crane's games, but he needs to be shocked every time he comes up with a twee new term for an otherwise self-explanatory word. The dumb wizard-speak just seems like an extension of that. I got my package from Crane the other day and when i popped it open, found out i had accidentally ordered another copy of Burning Wheel Gold by mistake ( I just clicked the first thing that gave me A book and was done with it), when i already own two already. I know it's my own fault, but I am still so mad at that loving obtuse poo poo he put out that made me stay away from his kickstarter page, and ignore his updates.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:30
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Mors Rattus posted:cowards Is the information you need to draft a character in the setting chapter? Learning to play? What is an RPG? Because it's not in the character creation chapter! WaywardWoodwose posted:I got my package from Crane the other day and when i popped it open, found out i had accidentally ordered another copy of Burning Wheel Gold by mistake ( I just clicked the first thing that gave me A book and was done with it), when i already own two already. I know it's my own fault, but I am still so mad at that loving obtuse poo poo he put out that made me stay away from his kickstarter page, and ignore his updates. Send that poo poo right back and tell him to replace it with what you actually wanted, and make it clear the fuckup was caused by his word vomit. Seriously.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:51
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Man, Luke Crane sounds like an rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 30, 2016 17:59
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There's a depressing number of people defending him with "well, that's how he wants to do business"-type language, like that excuses anything.
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Aug 30, 2016 18:12
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Crane's actual defense seems to be "we're delivering on or before our KS deadline, so stop complaining". Eh, I can sort of see it. But goddamn he's being petty.
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Aug 30, 2016 18:40
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