It's Friday, let's link to things.
- A look at the Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan, a favorite adventure of mine.
In Search of Tomoachan
- James Mal takes a loot at While the Gods Laugh, an excellent but IMO very formulaic Elric story.
I wish I could remember who borrowed my copy of Stealer of Souls. I haven't had it in my hands in so long that I needed David Pulver to look up a line for me so I could quote it in a GURPS book.
- Here is a look at full time RPG jobs and the amount of sales to sustain them. It's probably reasonably back of the envelope accurate.
- Well, hell, let's go!
Why Travel to the Grand City of Epic Grandness?
- I've done a lot of work on Felltower - rumors, checking maps, restocking, etc. It's almost ready to go for the next game.
- I think it's very odd that people can't buy DF21: Megadungeons yet, but you can get some of the other $3 PDF books. I have no knowledge of why this would be the case, but it bugs me every time I go to link to it.
That RPG jobs article is interesting, if for nothing else because he's asserting that the sales in year 2+ are where the money is at, and almost every other publisher I've spoken to vehemently states the opposite: if you're not awesome in the first year, you're done.
ReplyDeleteI also think that they miss what I think is the biggest point of RPG publishing success, which is the proportion of the costs that are fixed vs variable.
Given my understanding of the model, where basically you get a first surge of sales, and then not much (and this 100% matches my experience, and is what SJGames usually states), the writing, art, layout, etc are all FIXED costs. Once you make them back, you're done.
Then there's the variable costs, including shipping (which is supposed to be a pass-through), handling (per package), etc.
Printing is odd, as it depends on the size of the book. Small-scale books of (say) 48 pages or fewer can be done on a near just-in time basis, affordably on copy acquisitions of 50 to 100 books.
Big books still benefit hugely from offset print runs, which are still best done in quantities of 500 or (even better) 1000+.
The former is basically near-variable cost. The latter near-fixed.
The point here is that if it's one-and-done in terms of a sales surge, there's a tipping point after which you start making most of the revenue on each sale as bankable - either income (pay yourself) or reinvestment (which keeps the product pipeline prompt).
If you see substantial ongoing sales AND are compensating your talent as you go, your cash flow situation is very different, as there's no such thing as "paid off," although you could consider it paid off but with lower income per sale.
All in all, a completely different take on the thing than I've seen in decades ... which doesn't mean either party is WRONG. Very interesting.
Doug, go back for the comments. at 5:17PM, 8 minutes after you posted this, Michael Prescott clarified in a comment what he meant by that year 2+ bit. This seems to be easily misunderstood. His clarification is that the cumulative sales from 2 years equals the value of the Kickstarter, so if you stop getting revenue with the initial shipment you are missing out on the small but continuing sales for years after, which after two years will exceed what was possible just from the initial surge. I think I repeated that correctly.
DeleteRegarding DF21 - I also found it odd that other PDFs from the 2020 Kickstarter have been released, but not this one.
ReplyDeleteI'd assumed the release of Action 6 - Hot Rides was timed to coincide with the release of the new edition of Car Wars.
Maybe so, but Hot Spots: The Incense Trail is also out now.
DeleteI suspect they're putting them out one at a time to keep a steady flow of GURPS product coming.
DeleteYou're almost certainly correct, but it feels like the 2020 Kickstarter was a long time ago.
Delete"I've done a lot of work on Felltower - rumors, checking maps, restocking, etc. It's almost ready to go for the next game."
ReplyDeleteIt feels like the lads are finally coming home...
"I think it's very odd that people can't buy DF21: Megadungeons yet, but you can get some of the other $3 PDF books. I have no knowledge of why this would be the case, but it bugs me every time I go to link to it."
Wow, glad I got mine from backing the KS.
It does feel like a homecoming. We'll back to "there isn't anything to do" and "let's check that on the way back" in no time!
DeleteHahahaha ain’t that the truth!
DeleteHahahaha ain’t that the truth!
Delete