lawrence.whitaker

The only real targets are small independent booksellers. The issue with them, is that they often have similar cash flow issues as small game companies.

Very true. My local gaming store is 'Dan's Books and Games' in Cobourg, Ontario (I post resumes of my games there on FB and G+ - I'll start posting them here, too) and his main business is, in this order...

1. Second hand books

2. Magic & Yu-gi-oh cards

3. Boardgames

5. Collectable games, like X-Wing

6. RPGs, a few figures and dice.

Dan works hard, and he manages to maintain a small staff, pay himself a living wage and keep the bills paid. He does this by having frequent game nights, game weekends, and a free to use games library where you can pick a game off the shelf, get a coffee, sit at a table and just play. I run a fortnightly game that attracts about 9 people, none of whom had ever heard of RQ before, and 3 of whom had never role-played before. I've sold 4 copies of RQ through Dan's place, but that's really immaterial; every other week, 9 people turn up to game, have a great time, and, I know, tell others - to the point where we're looking to establish a separate RQ campaign. Having RQ on Dan's limited shelf space is fine, but it's the gaming that helps the most.

PS: Oh and by the way, some of us have jobs that require we work weekends, so some of us can't support the convention circuit quite as much as we would like. 

So do many writers and game designers. I work full time, sometimes have to work weekends, have a family, and I both write material and run Design Mechanism.

It doesn't need to be a convention. Run games, as I do, at your local game store (if you have one; many don't). Doesn't have to be weekends - weekday evenings are often the best time to do it. If that's impractical, write a short review of a d100 supplement that's impressed you. Post a review on Drivethru. But be proactive.

The point is, this is, and has to be, a community effort.

Loz, I'd be glad to post some online reviews. That was an excellent suggestion.

Thanks Aelwyn - I look forward to reading them.

 

No,  I improved our exposure by going there every other Sunday and running games. Getting the game on the shelf is only part of the battle. 

Here's the thing about steps 3 and 4...

3.  Compile a current national list of game shops, town by town, state by state.  Don't rely on old, outdated lists that you may have had to purchase.  Contact these folks directly, let them know that you and your product exist, ask them to stock your stuff.

Most retailers deal exclusively through distributors and cannot/will not deal direct with individual companies. We're fortunate that Design Mechanism also deals with Alliance and Warpath, the two biggest, as does Chaosium, but a direct approach is not guaranteed of shelf space or sales. I have two game stores within 30 minutes of where I live. One will carry my books without going through a distributor, but because the other deals with Alliance North, they won't deal with me directly. They are also highly selective over what products they will stock because RPGs overall only account for about 10% of their revenue. The rest is Warhammer, Magic, trading card and comic book sales.

4.  Solicit reviews in small sci-fi and gaming magazines as well as in online venues.  Small publishers and bloggers need copy.  They might as well be talking about you!

This is far easier said than done. Soliciting reviews means finding a suitable reviewer, and one that will genuinely take a book and review it, rather than take a book and chalk it up as another fine freebie. The latter is far more common than the former. We do actively pursue reviews and have been reviewed on Black Gate, RPGnet, Penguin, and in a Dutch New Media magazine; but really, we also need fans and people on the BRP Central community to review too - and not here, but RPGnet, RPGsite, Drivethru, ENworld and RPG Geek. Honestly, relying on 'professional' reviewers is hit and miss.

So BRP Central regulars need to see themselves as part of the marketing effort. Run games. Go to cons. Review and post (especially Drivethru, which accounts for 50% of our sales). Don't wait for someone else. Don't wait for official. Don't moan there's no exposure. We publishers work very hard to market our work, but it isn't easy, isn't cheap and is a continual process.

Instead of constant speculation as to whether the BRP Essentials will be RQ6 based (it is, and I'm saying no more about it at this stage), or moaning about what you think it SHOULD be, get out there and write some reviews of BRP, RQ, MW and Cthulhu supplements and channel your energies into something positive...

Sigh,

Seneschal, with all due respect, you might think that everything you suggest is easy, doable and guaranteed of success, but most, if not all, of your suggestions require massive investments of risk, time and cash that very, very few RPG companies have, can find or can afford. The retail markets do not work in the way you think they do or would like them to. It has nothing to do with attitude or complacency, and everything to do with the way the world works. If you think, for one second, that I'm going to invest time, energy, money and stock in putting copies of RuneQuest and supplements into every truck stop across North America, in the hope that there'll be a sudden, mad rush to buy them, then you're quite simply deluded. There's no denying that products must be marketed, and there's no denying that innovative ways need to be found, but just about everything you suggest is expensive (hugely) and high risk.

You are also labouring under the (mistaken) assumption that we (that is, Chaosium, Moon and Design Mechanism - and most other game companies) haven't already looked, very carefully, at the costs, logistics and practicalities of different modes and methods of marketing and distribution and come to some sensible conclusions, and are exploring other avenues. But please, until you have worked in this industry directly and have some experience of its economic and practical realities, refrain from lecturing on what should and shouldn't be done, and how we're clearly doing it wrong.

Conversely, I wholeheartedly agree that running games at local stores, promoting at conventions, and arranging demonstrations, is of enormous help - as are reviews, social media exposure and so on. This has more practical value than a ton of unsold, unsellable games languishing on the bottom shelf of The Dollar Store, close to the air filters in Fifth Wheel, or next to the cut-price hair dye in Walgreens.

Getting into  any national chain,  like B&N,  requires a distributor or buying agreement with the company at a corporate level. Distributors protect their markets,  demand a hefty discount and book stores at this level rarely,  if ever,  deal directly with a publisher. Most also work on a sale or return model,  meaning that a small publisher has stock tied up,  is only paid when it sells,  and may even find large volumes coming back if sales don't transpire. If a publisher wants a store to promote a title,  it costs  money. 

This is one of the main reasons why selling RPGs through the book store method is a road to ruin.  You need substantial resources to get the agreements in place,  will likely lose money,  and you have stock tied up that actually works against you. Sadly it simply isn't good business sense  to go down this route. 

The method of calculating base Skill Stats based on combining Characteristic scores may be simplified a bit for newbies who want to save time not having to calculate much. 

SIMPLIFY? You add two numbers together! That hardly counts - pardon the pun - as complicated. Either to explain or actually do... 

 

Oh, it will be a nice hardcover. Rod's work deserves nothing less.

Not really. Jason lives in Berlin, games with Jeff and Kraken's a German con.

I've seen some of the unpublished material and really all I can say is that it was unpublished for a reason. Also, publishing this stuff on the web is going to require the consent of the authors and, in several cases, that has been lost or is out of date. Sadly, it must remain in this mysterious, eldritch state (which is kind of appropriate for Stormbringer, really).

I love your optimism and can do spirit. Let me know wwhen you have a spare $500k available, plus the time and resources required to achieve this. Seriously, and without wanting to sound facetious, your plan and ambition is incredibly laudable but also incredibly expensive and high risk.

RuneQuest 6 or its reintegrated Gloranthan version, no matter how wonderful it is, can't remain an elusive prestige product.  It must become a well-distributed mass market commodity that can catch the public's eye and enthusiasm.

Nor is it. We are distributed by Alliance and Warpath in the US. We have our own online store and have physical product warehoused at the Bang facility in Minnesota. However, nclarke is completely correct in his summary. Distribution is complex, expensive and difficult to attain. We have just - after 5 years of trying - received a listing with Esdevium in the UK (they completely control UK distribution; without it, you're screwed over there). You cannot simply dump product down somewhere and hope it will sell, because it won't. Your inventory represents an investment and when it becomes untrackable or unsold, it's a loss. You need to control your sales channels very carefully.

Roleplaying games will never be a mass market commodity. Their appeal is too limited, their (apparent) complexity too weird for the mainstream consumer. This is a simple reality and publishers have to live within its economics.

Example: in MRQ2 Strike Rank add together SIZ, INT and DEX.

That was an error made by the editor, who worked from an earlier Character Creation file than the final version. We dropped the SIZ element following play test feedback.

Pete and I completely wrote Mongoose's RuneQuest II, which later became Legend. The conversion to Legend was handled by Gareth Hanrahan, and he made some alterations to a few mechanics, but I don't know precisely which ones.

So Legend is largely mine and Pete's work, with some changes by Gar.

so lazy that Mongoose RQ1 was nothing to do with us...

We will be publishing Classic Fantasy exactly as planned.

I'm pretty sure I've stated this before, but just for clarity:

RuneQuest stays using RQ6's mechanics. There is no, and will be no, 'RQ7', despite what people might want to term it.

Tweaks, obviously, for Gloranthan specifics but we're not rewriting anything. We're too lazy, for one thing.

We understand this, and it's the reason why RQ6 was setting neutral from the beginning. The Chaosium RuneQuest book will not be a different system, and we shall continue to produce material that is non-Gloranthan with appropriate documents and tools to separate setting and system from the future release.

Believe us when we say we remain committed to everything we began with RQ6.

The recent news that Moon Design Publications’ management team (Rick Meints, Jeff Richard, Neil Robinson and Michael O’Brien) would be taking over at the helm of Chaosium has naturally created a lot of interest and speculation. It has clear implications for the Design Mechanism, and Pete and I would like to issue a statement making clear to everyone where we stand as a company and where RuneQuest stands as a game system. We cannot and will not speculate or discuss Chaosium’s existing game systems such as Call of Cthulhu, Basic Roleplaying or Magic World.

 

We (Design Mechanism) license the RuneQuest trademark from Moon Design Publications. We entered into a licensing agreement that comes up for renewal around this time next year and part of the contract and business plan I proposed when first negotiating the license was to insist in a full review and assessment of our progress with RuneQuest as a property. Our license is not perpetual, and that review process had already begun before the recent announcement.

 

With Moon Design now becoming part of Chaosium, the RuneQuest trademark transfers to Chaosium – its place of birth. Until the license we have expires next year, RuneQuest will continue to be published by the Design Mechanism and the core rules will remain in print. From July 2016, the following will take place:

 

1.     RuneQuest reverts to Chaosium.

2.     Pete and myself will become the new lead writers for RuneQuest as a Chaosium brand line with specific responsibilities for developing the system and its supplements.

3.     The Design Mechanism as a company will continue. Chaosium and Design Mechanism have signed a new contract whereby we can continue to write, produce and distribute our own RuneQuest supplements, and can continue to support the lines we have already started to develop.

4.     The RuneQuest 6 mechanics remain the core of the system, but as the trademark is now held by Chaosium, we have been contracted to develop a new version of the game based in Glorantha called, simply, ‘RuneQuest’. This game will appear in July 2016 (or possibly earlier). This new version will roll together all the work we have done on ‘Adventures in Glorantha’ into a standalone RuneQuest game.

5.     At that point, RuneQuest 6 will go out of print as its own title. Design Mechanism will find ways of ensuring full compatibility across our supplements, the new version and RQ6.

6.     Effectively immediately, Chaosium will sell Design Mechanism’s existing (and future) books through its various channels. Indeed, this increases Design Mechanism’s exposure, extends its reach and removes a huge administrative burden from the shoulders of a two-man team.

 

Pete and I are delighted to be working with Chaosium. We are pleased to be able to return RuneQuest to Chaosium stronger than it has been since it left home for Avalon Hill back in the mid 1980s. Even better, it comes back to a revitalised Chaosium that carries a clear mandate of excellence, transparency and commitment to its fans and creative contributors. We are especially happy to have the opportunity to work closely with Rick, Jeff, Neil and Mike and to become part of the Chaosium family. But what makes this even more special is that the Design Mechanism carries on as a company, continues to publish and support RuneQuest, and will always engage with its loyal and faithful fans.

 

More details will emerge as various pieces come together. We will communicate and discuss them with you just as we always have. Pete and I really are excited and happy with the new direction and we hope you will share our enthusiasm and optimism for the future!

 

Long Live Design Mechanism!

Long Live Chaosium!

Long Live RuneQuest!

 

Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash

July 31^st, 2015

The new RQ will be RQ6 set in Glorantha just as RQ2 was. Same system, different emphasis, firm setting. Sorry, but it won't be Magic World based.

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?762340-Moon-Design-Takes-Over-Chaosium

I was at the GenCon press conference and so can confirm that the Moon Design team are now the chief operating officers of Chaosium.

Design Mechanism will be making a press statement in the next day or so, but we wish the new Chaosium every success and look forward to working with them very closely in the future.

 

I think Eddy's talking about The Guide to Glorantha rather than RQ6 (which is, of course, an utter bargain at any price). And yes, GtG IS expensive - but By God, it's worth it.

And SF/contemporary with Kewl Powerz is covered in the RQ6 supplement 'Luther Arkwright'.

Guide to Glorantha is in:

Best Cartography

Best Production Values

Product of the Year

 

I couldn't find it in any other category.

I think it's in Best Supplement, too.

 

More importantly, did you cast your vote for DM?

First of all, you should all go and vote for Guide to Glorantha...