A while back SJG announced there would be a Magic Items 2. As someone who wrote Magic Items 1 and Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 3, I've got an interest in seeing this come out as soon as possible.
SJG put up a note about when it will start on Kickstarter buried in a different update.
Basically, a week-long Kickstarter in the beginning of September. So . . . 9/9? That seems like it would fit the bill if 9/2 is out. I'd keep an eye on 9/2 anyway. I have subscribed to updates but for years they haven't actually arrived in my email Inbox like other Kickstarter updates do.
If you see it, feel free to comment on this and let me know. I'll post up as soon as I notice it's up for pledging!
I think this short term crowdfunded PDF for DFRPG is an interesting development.
ReplyDeleteFestival of not so dangerous ideas.
When DFRPG came out there were a lot of not very intelligent predictions and expectations.
(I think I mostly avoided making them but other, probably more intelligent people fell over themselves)
People were hoping for a new SciFi setting, an action box and so on.
Many of them were hoping for this before DFRPG even came out.
We didn't get some mass inspired revival of GURPS or even a mass DFRPG.
But I really think this is one of the most positive times for GURPS. There's an abundance of books available in PDF and POD at least.
And at least for DFRPG there is at the least a cover costs 'virtual preordering' system that works.
That's on top of a contracted out production for more books.
Sales of GURPS books aren't what they once were - at least mine aren't. So it doesn't feel quite as positive.
DeleteI'm personally curious why a one-week Kickstarter is seen as the way to go. It doesn't need to be drawn out, but geez, a week? You could miss it outright thanks to a simple vacation.
I think it might be because KS has become such a major sales venue, and with hype, interested people pretty much do all their ordering in that first week. Look at all the high-end ones where they're like "Funded in 3.56 Seconds! Maxed out Stretch Goals in 2 hours!" (hyperbole, but you know what I mean) and then sit.. and sit.. and sit.. until the whole month has gone by. Maybe a week would be too short, but if they're open-ended on their numbers, they'll probably get the majority of their sales in that week (all packed into one order) then be able to pick up the stragglers when it goes on sale in W23.
DeleteThoughts with my usual disclaimer that I have no inside information.
DeleteExperiment.
Also SJ Games pays a percentage of what kickstarter and Backerkit raises. Sure they have to pay fees for what they normally sell, but it's less than that.
If Kickstarter front loads and brings in new sales that's worth it, but if I just buy the PDF direct from SJ Games two weeks later it's just as good.
Long term I think games could consider their own preordering system where they just take the money then commission it. But I don't think GMs should give business advice to SJ Games.
As for the author, SJ Games and customer triangle.
I think the reality is GURPS will continue to be a smaller percentage of a bigger market.
It looks like D&D 5E is really dominating RPGs both in sales and games played. I can't think of anything similar in hobby board games or video games where one game is well over 50% of actual games played within 20km of me.
I almost only buy GURPS, but I spend more and more of my gaming budget on minis, maps, entry fees and paint.
I've had players buy DFRPG and even DFRPG Monsters 2, but no one other than me is actively publically GMing in Sydney. If I stopped that would be it for open GURPS games in Sydney.
And I have more GURPS available to buy than I have ever had at a lower relative portion of my income (though the rising USD is seriously going to reduce my $ spent).
"I'm personally curious why a one-week Kickstarter is seen as the way to go."
DeleteI did get an answer though:
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.php?p=2282585&postcount=8
"It doesn't need to be drawn out, but geez, a week? You could miss it outright thanks to a simple vacation."
I KNOW RIGHT!?!?!?
Like I thought two weeks was extremely short, but 5 days?