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Various posts on various forums and social media this week about money and tabletop games. So here are a bunch of random thoughts on the topic in no particular order. Ya'll can get angry in the comments.
1 - Charge what the work is worth to you. I die inside when I see someone put their hard work into a 250 page book with original artwork and then meekly ask if its okay to charge 3 dollars for it.
2 - Writing RPG stuff is a much bigger potential audience but a lot of that audience won't pay for games.
Mini's gamers are smaller but are willing to pay reasonable prices. Draw whatever conclusions you want.
Mini's gamers are smaller but are willing to pay reasonable prices. Draw whatever conclusions you want.
3 - No matter the pricepoint someone won't pay it and someone would have paid twice.
4 - If you want to make money, you need a back catalogue.
I've never seen more Five Leagues sales than when the 5P announcement went up.
I've never seen more Five Leagues sales than when the 5P announcement went up.
5 - You are under absolutely no obligations to make anything available for free, but a cool intro version IS very player-friendly.
I have seen no evidence personally that it helps sales though.
I have seen no evidence personally that it helps sales though.
6 - Don't be afraid of charging a nominal sum for a beta version. In my experience you get feedback from people who actually care that way.
This is predicated on the beta being actually playable as a small stand-alone though.
This is predicated on the beta being actually playable as a small stand-alone though.
7 - Whether to charge for a new edition is up to you. If the new content warrants it, go for it. Im about half and half with free updates vs new versions.
8 - As a writer, you want to cultivate a core audience that is interested in something because you wrote it. Once you have that, you'll be able to actually make something looking like livable money. This usually means being nice to people.
9 - While appealing to fans in hard times is fine and human, we've all been in the shitter, anything you write should be worth purchasing because it's a good game.
10 - As a player you are under absolutely no moral obligations to purchase games you don't need to "support the industry".
If you enjoy buying games just to read, go for it, but creating a culture of mandatory pity-purchases will be corrosive to the hobby.
If you enjoy buying games just to read, go for it, but creating a culture of mandatory pity-purchases will be corrosive to the hobby.
11 - Writing games that are only meant to be read by other game writers and never played is going to make indie gaming more impenetrable than it already is.
If it has no actual purpose, blog it.
If it has no actual purpose, blog it.
12 - You can't compete with D&D or 40K so don't bother.
13 - D&D and 40K are not helping you either. That may have been different once upon a time, but that's not the world we currently live in, in my opinion. Trying to lure in their fans is a waste of effort. Create things that are good on their own.
14 - There's not always a correlation between what you think is good and what people pick up on. Eat your pride but also stick to your guns about what you want to write.
15 - Be lucky.
16 - Be kind.
