TG As An Industry - Past, Present, Future - The Something Awful Forums

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clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I have a question about RPG source books: what type of source book sells the best in general? I'm thinking about the first source book for my upcoming superhero RPG, Base Raiders, and I have a bunch of ideas, but I'm not sure which one to do first. RPGs in general tend to have the following types of source books:

For players:

Equipment Lists - new weapons, items, spells, etc.

Player Addons - new and improved classes, spells, skills, options for player characters

For both players and GMs

Region/Theme sourcebook - covers a particular region in the setting or a theme/subgenre - offers new material based on the region/theme

Campaign setting - provides a new campaign setting based on the game system

For GMs

Adventure anthology - multiple scenarios, usually one shots

Campaign - multiple linked adventures with a specific path

Monster/Enemy/NPC Manual - statted out NPCs/foes etc for a game

GM specific campaign book - setting material meant for GMs

# ¿ Apr 24, 2013 05:47

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 12:32

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Leperflesh posted:

I have no data about sales, so this is an aside. But, I wonder if there isn't a way to break the mold a little here. It seems in recent years (decades?) the standard format has been one to three general books that describe your game's core rules, for players and GMs, which may include a standard separate "enemies" book (the D&D model of PHB/DMG/MM). Subsequent "source books" are then either highly focused on specific things - a book of new stuff for one or a handful of character classes, a book of new items and equipment, a book of new enemies - or focused on adventure/campaign settings (modules, campaigns, worlds).

What if you broke the mold a little and released add-ons that have something to appeal to everyone in the game? Is that viable? Like, a book which contains new items, new character options, new enemies, new settings, new a-bunch-of-stuff. Your game can be sold as some core books plus a series of add-ons which most players and GMs would maybe want to grab.

I realize that there's a feeling that GMs need their own books, so players don't see the secret stuff behind the GM's screen, but this approach has been well-established as very problematic in terms of costs and sales: one can generally assume correctly that there are far fewer GMs than players, so a book for GMs only will sell far fewer copies. Especially given that many GMs like to write their own material, whereas most players prefer to stick to published content.

Maybe focus on supplements that appeal to everyone all at once? No "Book of Magic Users' Additional Spells: Cantrips and More", and no "Compendium of Sweet Guns and Armor III". Just "GameSystem X Compendium I", which has new spells, and also new guns and armor.

An alternative approach might be to give GM stuff away for free or nearly-free, in the form of online PDFs. Go ahead and print campaign sourcebooks that contain lots of stuff for both players and GMs, but things like adventure modules aren't going to sell well anyway, especially for a niche game, and so if you can sell them at or near cost in online PDF format they'll be more appealing to GMs (who have to carry a higher cost burden anyway, usually, since they have to also buy player supplements to keep up with what their players are doing) and use less of your resources as a publisher.

Several games already do that - Eclipse Phase comes to mind - Gatecrashing for example contains setting info usable by both player and GM, new gear and traits for players and some GM only material.

I think the first book will go this route - focus on an important area of the game (the superpowers black market) with lots of player specific stuff but offer an adventure and material for GMs to use as well.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2013 19:33

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

As a new RPG publisher (Base Raiders) would it be crass to ask if anyone wanted to write new adventures for my game here? It will be paid. I've published a few books already and I've always been on time paying my artists. PM me with a link to your portfolio/writing credits and I can send you pay rates and details.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2013 21:48

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Fred Hicks weighed in on this issue as a publisher http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2013/11/pay-on-publication-needs-to-die-a-rant/ which was a response to this G+ post https://plus.google.com/+DavidHillJr/posts/ch4okgS8TzR

# ¿ Nov 30, 2013 20:04

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

For the record, Arc Dream and Posthuman Studios are great about paying on time.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2013 01:59

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

2 things:

Saw this on a Facebook group post about a job opening at FFG: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Fantasy-Flight-Games-Reviews-E107648.htm

In other news, I recorded a panel on indie boardgame crowdfunding at PAX East this weekend http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2014/04/panel-discussion/indie-boardgames-design-and-crowdfunding-panel-at-pax-east-2014/

# ¿ Apr 17, 2014 01:56

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

MadScientistWorking posted:

So apparently Fred Hicks deleted an entire website that was important to his business. How does that happen?

which site?

# ¿ May 6, 2014 23:32

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Anyone got any idea what Fred Hicks is referring to in this tweet? https://twitter.com/fredhicks/status/479285245704167424

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 18:17

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

ravenkult posted:

Yeah, do this.

cannot wait to see the additions to grog.txt after it goes live

# ¿ Jun 29, 2014 23:23

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Promo work is hard for indie RPGs - I get a lot of requests for interviews/promos/etc to cover new games and I would like to do it, but I simply don't have the energy to do it. Maintaining the podcast and putting out some kind of creative work on my own is about all I can manage. I've tried to get my co-host and the regular RPPR players to help, but outside of Caleb, I have yet to see anything from them. It's frustrating on my end as well.

You could send out requests for reviews with offers of review copies. That helped Base Raiders get some reviews, I remember. If you know particular game designers/writers/etc you could ask them for reviews/coverage. There's also this: http://rpgkickstarters.tumblr.com/ and Purple Pawn http://www.purplepawn.com/

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 06:15

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Saw a great post on Adam Jury's tumblr about getting into the TG industry: http://adamjury.tumblr.com/post/101976180682/good-day-jessica-my-name-is-corbin-im-writing-to

# ¿ Nov 7, 2014 05:10

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Bringing this thread back for a good post about the costs of making a rpg book from Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press: http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2348-Pie-For-Everyone-Just-Sliced-Very-Thinly#.VN45gEJbT9G

# ¿ Feb 14, 2015 09:41

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Alien Rope Burn posted:

What bewilders me is how much easier it's become to research other cultures and history in general in the past ten years. When I'm reviewing old Rifts books I do realize that it was still kinda hard to find information on some cultures or societies, not that such is necessarily an excuse, but within my lifetime all you had were the books you can find and if you couldn't find the book you needed... you were just out of luck. And reading is certainly no substitute for talking to the actual people involved, but sometimes when doing stuff for an RPG I need to know what it's like to live life in a different way or in a different place, and I'm amazed at how much you can find. I recently made a blind PC, and didn't want to fall into the usual traps of stereotypes, and you can go around finding a lot of threads where people talk honestly about the subject on SA and elsewhere. I ended up reading a lot more than I needed just because it was good reading, in fact.

Dismissing the experiences of other people these days is just plain callous and lazy, and seeing somebody like Cordell double down on it is pretty disappointing to see.

I'm running Masks of Nyarlathotep and one of my players has a PhD in History. It's been enlightening, to hear his comments about this issue. For example, Masks calls the indigenous people of Australia the Koori, but that only applies to one ethnic community.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2015 07:45

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

grassy gnoll posted:

Regardless of Georgia's social politics, GenCon will never be in Atlanta because the DragonCon holding company has been moving to stomp pretty much any other nerdy kind of convention before it can take root and challenge them in the slightest. Like, they literally created a comic convention for a year just to block attempts at a ComiCon South or some other drat thing.

Atlanta itself isn't bad, but man, the state assembly is almost as terrible as Texas or the Carolinas these days.

Wow, nerds find a way to make everything terrible

# ¿ Mar 26, 2015 06:20

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Serf posted:

Yeah no reasonable person expects GenCon to suddenly pull out of Indiana and relocate right now. I mean there's a process to these things. I doubt they'll even break contract, and come 2021 this law will be gone and they'll have no reason to stick around unless the governor is still in office and they want to protest his decision. I think this is more important as a symbolic gesture, of how GenCon actually does want to promote progress and inclusiveness, which are key factors in whether or not I will give money to things.

Oh and GMS is a huge whiny manchild who namesearches himself and picks fights with Internet nobodies when he should be finishing his stupid RPG.

>reasonable
>gamer

No, don't you see, we're enabling bigotry by not immediately canceling our plans. A con that costs millions of dollars to organize and years of planning in advance should run itself into the ground because of a divisive piece of poo poo law passed by politicians who won't care if Gen Con does well or not. Punish businesses that have nothing to do with the law and oppose it anyway.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2015 23:37

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Pope Guilty posted:

Every protest action that consists of anything other than protesting quietly in a place where the protestors can be neither seen nor heard has idiots insisting that it's bad because it inconveniences or annoys people. I'd like to think that most people understand that said idiots are, well, idiots.

A Gen Con boycott accomplishes nothing. Salesforce, a multi billion dollar already canceled expansion plans as a result of this law. They have a larger economic impact than Gen Con ever could. Destroying Gen Con is not going to change their minds. These are the kind of republicans that thrive on martyrdom and conflict and this just feeds their persecution complex. Support legal challenges to the law and donate to politicians that will run against Mike Pence et all in the next election cycle. Support Indy businesses that oppose the law.

Mike Pence probably wants Gen Con to leave the state anyway, since we're all Satanist freaks to him.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 05:32

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Pope Guilty posted:

I'm not saying that boycotting GenCon is good or right or that it matters, just that "but it'll inconvenience innocent people!" is a dumb response to boycott calls.

Well, yeah. I was pointing out that a larger economic sanction has already been implemented (Salesforce) and it didn't have an effect. A Gen Con boycott is meaningless because it won't work. The legislators who made the decision are far too ideologically driven and removed from the consequences of their actions. After all, the boycotts aren't targeting the smaller and more conservative districts that voted for these assholes. They're targeting the city, which is more liberal than the small towns and suburbs. Look at the 2012 election map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Indiana,_2012

edit: a rebuttal from a liberal resident of Indiana: http://www.shakesville.com/2015/03/stop.html

clockworkjoe fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Mar 28, 2015

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 19:54

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

MalcolmSheppard posted:

I hear that when teachers strike little children--children yet!--don't learn. Better call that poo poo off too. Right? I have no sympathy, because this is standard issue, slippery slope capitulation. The notion that one only takes an action when the action itself will provide the total effect, and only if no precious innocent people are inconvenienced, is such blatant foot-shooting soft liberal self-defeat that it only deserves addressing because of the number of people who seem to hold these sorts of errant opinions.

I get that nerds hate to hear that a small band of people don't make a difference, and that change doesn't happen according to an unambiguous narrative around a single action, but it's the truth. It doesn't matter that refusing to go to Indiana in spite of Gencon will not bring the state to its knees. It matters because it's one gesture in an ecosystem of them that supports and strengthens others. It doesn't matter that the Cool People of Indy stand to lose--their inconvenience is in fact as likely to drive change, because they are far more like to take matters up at the state level than people committed to anti-LGBTQ segregation.

Once again though: This year? Things are too locked in. But as long as Indiana remains a state with legally sanctioned homophobic segregation, I believe you should avoid it in 2016, and limit your economic support of the state generally.

That was a terrible metaphor and missed my point entirely. My point is any generic boycott of all of Indiana won't influence Mike Pence and the GOP legislators that passed this law. They didn't care that Salesforce canceled their expansion plans and they won't care if Gen Con leaves. It won't hurt them at all. I think they WANT Gen Con to leave. They want everyone that disagrees with them to leave the state. They want a theocracy, which is easier to do if there's no opposition.

Boycotts only work when they put pressure on the bad actor. When Rush Limbaugh insulted Sandra Fluke, a boycott of advertising companies hurt his bottom line and he was forced to apologize.

If you want a meaningful boycott, find out what corporations give money to the politicians that voted for the law, publicize it and boycott them.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2015 23:41

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Nuns with Guns posted:

lmao quoting Shakesville as if it has any kind of legitimacy. She thinks red-heads are discriminated against and says she gets gay people because she has a gay brain.

Really? I'd never heard of her before someone linked to her on the metafilter discussion about the RFRA.

Also Mike Pence is backpeddling, kind of: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/indiana-religious-freedom_n_6977170.html

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 18:37

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Evil Mastermind posted:

Eh, my cynical theory is that Pence did this so he could point at the inevitable pushback and say "see how persecuted we are for our beliefs!" and then run with that.

Mike Pence is not a smart person.

quote:

There are very few members of congress with whom I�ve ever had the opportunity to discuss a substantive matter of public policy. But as it happens, one of them � the one with whom I�ve had the second-longest exchange � is Mike Pence (R-IN) who I�ve seen on television today repeatedly discussing the Republican Study Group�s �plan� for the financial crisis. And I can tell you this about Mike Pence: he has no idea what he�s talking about. The man is a fool, who deserves to be laughed at. He�s almost stupid enough to work in cable television.

Specifically, way back in 2005 I got to talk to him about Social Security privatization at a Heritage Foundation event. Obviously, I have my perspective on this and conservatives have theirs. But Pence had a truly peculiar idea. His idea was that the government ought to reassure people about the risks of losses under a privatization plan by having the government guarantee a minimum annuity level pegged to what�s promised under current law. This plan would, according to Pence, save money relative to current law because most people�s stock/bond portfolio would outperform the level needed to provide such an annuity, so the government would only need to kick in for a minority of people. I said I thought this would create a moral hazard problem for bad investors. He had no idea what I was talking about. Seemed unfamiliar with the term. Then I tried to explain it to him, I said that if the government guaranteed to bail you out in case of losses, then investors would make riskier investments and the number of people who need bailing out would rise. He just flat-out denied this, said the presence or absence of a guaranteed bailout would have no impact on investor behavior. He seemed unaware that some portfolios are riskier than others, or that higher average rates of return are associated with greater risk taking. He didn�t know anything at all, in short, about investing, financial markets, or, seemingly, the basic terms of public policy. And yet there he was speaking on the topic at Heritage. He�s a total fraud.

From: http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2008/09/26/189704/mike_pence_2/

# ¿ Mar 31, 2015 23:17

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Saw this on Facebook and thought of this thread: https://www.facebook.com/James.MDC/posts/10206625097447365

quote:

If there ever was a parasite (scumbag) in this Tabletop/Hobby industry that needed a calling out, it is Ken Whitman. Well now after some 15 years of not delivering and killing companies, he even has his own memes page...

https://www.pinterest.com/jasper0796/dont-fund-d20-entertainment-kickstarters-or-ken-wh/

# ¿ Jun 1, 2015 06:50

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Megaman's Jockstrap posted:

The thing I also love about Paranoia 2e is that they basically say "if your players are typical roleplayers (MMJS note: this was in the 80s so by definition this means super-serious dungeon crawlers) they're going to go crazy and blast the poo poo out of each other and act like gibbering apes once this hits the table. This is ok, for a while. Let them do this, then try to get them to take this whole thing semi-seriously because it's funnier when they do."

Edit: Paranoia also has the best player handouts which are dumb gags/jokes in-and-of themselves.

I want to run Paranoia and I own the XP edition but I can never get through the rules - something about it just bores me. I have played 2e and I loved it, partially because it was a quicker read. I wish I could get my hands on a copy of 2E again. Too bad they're rare and expensive.

# ¿ Jun 9, 2015 23:17

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

In other TG industry news, Ken Whitman of d20 Entertainment blocked Jolly Blackburn from the KODT Live Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/jolly.blackburn/posts/10203949857901408

Why does this matter? Jolly Blackburn runs Kenzer Company, the people that own the Knights of the Dinner Table. The KODT web series is supposed to have a screening at Gen Con this year. It will be very interesting if Ken shows up for it.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2015 00:33

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

It gets worse: http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2015/07/kickstarter-ken-whitman-redefines.html

quote:

But hey. At least the backers at $450 are going to get front row seats to the Premiere, time with the actors, a Q&A and an after party, right?

Jolly - So Ken just posted this apparently;
"All three episodes of KODT will be premiered at Gen Con in various states. They are not done, and a work in progress. (this poo poo was supposedly done earlier this month I thought)
We are working on having them done, and ready for download in August.
We will then produce and ship the DVDs as soon as we can.
For those of you with Premiere tickets, there will be a second line at the show for you. You will be seated first.
There will be no actors at the show and therefore no Q&A, and there will be no afterparty. Sorry for the problems."

I backed the KODT live at a low level - like 10 or 20 bux because I enjoy KODT but holy gently caress I feel bad for the people who spent hundreds for the Gen Con party level.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2015 01:15

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Generally RPGs that print in China are doing offset runs (print a bunch at once, usually 1,000 copies or more) instead of print on demand. They are also doing full color interior pages, instead of black and white. If you want that, the best price are Chinese printing companies and that includes shipping pallets of books on a ship and paying custom fees.

If you're doing a black and white book with less than 1000 copies, it's fine to use a local printing company or POD company like Createspace. Get quotes from multiple companies though and ask for sample books to check their printing quality.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2015 04:59

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Covok posted:

This makes a lot of sense, honestly, but there is limits on its effectiveness. If you are a one member LLC, it essentially provides no benefit as you are taxed like a sole proprietorship: business income is your income. For multi-member LLCs, you would just be taxed on the income you receive personally which lowers the individual burden. That said, CCA 201436049 from the IRS makes LLC's distributive income subject to self-employment tax so it isn't as protective as it might have been prior to 2014. See, LLCs aren't separate legal entities for tax purposes so, depending on structure, you still declare a share of its income on your returns and that amount depends on the amount that passes to you, like a partnership.

This also makes me wonder even more about things like Paetron. I wonder how many people know they have to double their social security dues if they are supporting themselves solely through paetron, which would make them self-employed, and other such little legal technicalities. Heck, I wonder how many people know they owe social security as that is normally taken out by their employer in a piecemeal fashion. For non-US users, since Kickstarter and Patreon are US companies, I wonder if this makes them subject to US Income tax for the income they earn there. I believe it does and I wonder if the users know this, if true.

What I'm getting at here is I wonder how an audit of their returns would go for a lot of people who use crowdfunding.

Maybe I'm underestimating the tax savy of crowdfund users.

This is why I pay for an accountant to do my taxes. They can help out by letting you figure out what you can deduct as a business expense and what you can't. If you work at home, you can deduct part of your rent, internet bills, etc as a deduction.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2015 22:59

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Covok posted:

"But doctor...I am Pagliacci.�

What I mean is that I am an accountant who plans to focus on tax myself and am asking more from a professional curiosity standpoint. See, my prior internship experience didn't give me any clear cut rulings on how to handle crowdfunding. I was more asking, like I said, because this tangentially related to the field of employment that I'm going into to within a year and thought someone here might be able to satisfy my curiosity. Just for the record.

Edit: Also, yeah, you're right. You can deduct some of your living expenses if you work from home, but not all the KS money reserved to life expenses would be deductible.

I treat it as self employed income and I deduct as much stuff as I can - I pay writers and artists ASAP, web hosting, printing costs for books, new computer equipment, services like remote backup hosting, travel to Gen Con, and so forth.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2015 04:21

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Leperflesh posted:

I don't' know why RPG books have to be treated differently than just books. I feel like if publishers started just putting their stuff up as kindle versions on amazon for a typical kindle-like discount, that'd be that. The one drawback is that looking at illustrations on a kindle still kind of sucks, but if every other book publisher can figure out how to work with that restriction, RPG publishers can too.

A novel or any other pure/mostly text book in Indesign is fairly easy to export as an ebook now. It only takes a few hours of work. For most RPGs, you would essentially have to re-do the layout because RPGs typically have 2 or 3 columns of text per page, plus lots of illustrations and other features like sidebars that do not translate well to ebooks. That's a lot of work for RPG publishers who may not have the budget or access to a talented graphic designer who can make that happen. Plus, there's relatively little demand from customers.Most RPG customers don't even like PDFs and only get the print versions.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 18:03

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Leperflesh posted:

It can't be that hard, there are slews of independent "novelists" self-publishing incredibly terrible stories and novels on Amazon for Kindle constantly. I really think it's mostly just a lack of bothering to learn how to do it.

e.

Ehhh, yeah that's a good point I suppose, although desktop publishing software makes layout pretty straightforward to do these days. I do think there's demand, though: the only reason most RPG customers don't like PDFs is because they tend to be done very badly - especially the bad old "scan every page to be a huge graphic" PDFs that were ridiculously huge in file size.

RPG customers do still love their print books for use at the table, of course, but if an e-book version was priced reasonably ($8 vs. a $35 book, for example), the demand would be there.

ebook prices are going to be identical to PDF prices. If the print book costs $35, then they won't make any money from an $8 ebook. Most of a book's costs comes from the production of the text and art, not the print and shipping costs.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 18:42

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Terrible Opinions posted:

I don't know where you're from but as soon as something is popular enough to say be in Barnes and Nobles instead of some indie print run the ebook will be 30-50% off of the physical book's cost.

That's only true for astonishingly small print runs.

RPG PDFs are commonly sold for 50% of print retail, which is way better than most Kindle ebooks I think.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2015 21:17

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

ravenkult posted:

I get $300-$500 for covers.

If you're an artist and you're posting in a TG industry thread, you should have a link to your portfolio in your user profile or link to it.

# ¿ Oct 31, 2015 21:47

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

quote:

Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter suggests the Fast and Furious star isn't much of a box office draw without his Furious family and a couple of musical bombs prove to be not only two of the worst openings of 2015, but of all-time given their theater count.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4116&p=.htm

# ¿ Jan 14, 2016 05:11

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

guys what are you talking about WOTC clearly cares about D&D look at their incredible marketing efforts http://imgur.com/gallery/5fCo1

# ¿ Jan 29, 2016 00:30

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

With a prestige movie franchise like Star Wars, Disney is smart enough to get the most talented people it can find to make the movies and get them a good deal of creative control. Thus, when the moviemakers decided to make Rey and Finn the heroes, Disney lets them because trying to dictate a major element of the story like that to appease toymakers is a good way to alienate the moviemakers and potentially ruin the film. Toys are important but if the movie sucked, no one would buy the toys anyway.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2016 21:02

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Article on this topic: http://sweatpantsandcoffee.com/what-we-love/sweatpants-pop-culture/rey/

Specifically related to Black Widow: "The industry insider confirmed that the Black Widow character is widely considered �unusable� within the toy industry. �She has a tight black outfit. Our main customer is concerned with �family values,�� said the insider."

# ¿ Feb 6, 2016 21:22

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

In actual TG industry discussions: Does anyone here have any experience fulfilling non-book physical rewards for Kickstarters? A friend of mine is planning a Kickstarter for his RPG, Red Markets, and some potential backers would like physical rewards other than the book such as:

Custom dice (red and black d10s specifically - sharp-edged if possible)
Custom playmats - the game involves keep tracking of resources, so a playmat with counters would be very useful to keep track of item charges etc - it would look kind of like this

GM Screen (I know DrivethruRPG has a POD GM Screen thing but are there other options?)
T-shirts (I know there are POD t-shirt makers but which ones do you recommend and is it possible to make money on them - seems like there is no profit margin)

# ¿ Feb 9, 2016 21:17

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2016/02/how-long-before-hasbro-buys-out.html?m=1

Interesting thought fodder but I think it is unlikely.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 09:47

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

With how Wizard's runs all their online and digital products, they probably believe it's some kind of a dark magic.

Hasbro doesn't even like RPG's enough to give D&D a regular, full sized dev team. I doubt they're going to buy a company just to cut out the middleman with a minor operational cost. This also assumes that the DriveThru people want to sell and I'm highly doubtful of that.

The most WTF line for me was "When the Dungeon Master's Guild was announced, most of the fear I heard was "it's going to be the D20 era again, with a few gems hidden in piles of dung." Now, I think the fear should be for the market shift and the potential harm to publishers that aren't in the DM's Guild Market."

I haven't seen any indication that any real publisher was going to use the DM Guild. It looks like it will exactly be the d20 glut, but to a much lesser extent. What publishers are going to be harmed by not taking such a bad deal?

# ¿ Feb 10, 2016 20:09

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?3293-There-s-A-New-Online-Gaming-Store-In-Town&s=590cc5631274316ca822868d97855f45

Billing itself as the home of open gaming, particularly D&D 5th Edition OGL products, a new online store has just opened up. It has been planned by a consortium of top OGL-supporting companies, including Kobold Press, Frog God Games, Troll Lord Games, Green Ronin, Rite Publishing, Super Genius Games, Expeditious Retreat Games, Hero Games, and more. Already it stocks 5E products from these companies, both in electronic and print form. The store is called Tabletop Library https://tabletoplibrary.com/

# ¿ Mar 11, 2016 22:24

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 12:32

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

I'm looking into the costs of manufacturing miniatures - I found this article http://www.gatekeepergaming.com/article-6-how-to-get-minis-made/ but are there any good summaries of the processes involved and costs?

# ¿ Mar 15, 2016 04:16

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > TG As An Industry - Past, Present, Future

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