Free or Fee?

333 Dave · 7th May 2003, 02:55 AM

I am currently debating with myself over the question as to give New Dawn away for free, or sell it via RPGNow. Free release is, for obvious reasons, less prone to piracy and easier to set up. But on the other hand, I have been putting a large amount of work into this setting (redefining my concept on how to make the crunch feel the way I want several times) and it would be nice to see some return on my investement. I suppose I could always sell it for a while and then if it flopped give it away, but that might annoy the people who paid for it. On the other hand, if I give it away to start, it basicly nullifies any chance I might have of a print publisher picking it up (ok, thats slim to none anyway, but for the sake of argument...) as anyone could just get the same content free on my website.

On a side note, I've decided that for the crunch to match the fluff best, I have decided to go with a classless feat-based system. If it turns out as well as it looks like its going to, I might single-handedly change the face of d20 as we know it

.

jmucchiello · 7th May 2003, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 333 Dave
I am currently debating with myself over the question as to give New Dawn away for free, or sell it via RPGNow. Free release is, for obvious reasons, less prone to piracy and easier to set up. But on the other hand, I have been putting a large amount of work into this setting (redefining my concept on how to make the crunch feel the way I want several times) and it would be nice to see some return on my investement. I suppose I could always sell it for a while and then if it flopped give it away, but that might annoy the people who paid for it.

If you are just doing it for yourself, then any sales make it not a flop. Personally, the only reason not to sell something that you spent a lot of time and heart on is because you have a problem accepting that other people would give you money for your work. Go for it. Especially if you plan to keep it current. No one will buy a one shot campaign world. The more you plan to keep it alive the more vibrant and salable it becomes.

Quote:

On the other hand, if I give it away to start, it basicly nullifies any chance I might have of a print publisher picking it up (ok, thats slim to none anyway, but for the sake of argument...) as anyone could just get the same content free on my website.

Print publishers no longer come to you in the PDF market. That was two years ago. In any case, if a print publisher is going to publish a setting, it will the setting they've always wanted to publish and something tells me that it ain't yours they've been dying to release. It's theirs.

Quote:

On a side note, I've decided that for the crunch to match the fluff best, I have decided to go with a classless feat-based system. If it turns out as well as it looks like its going to, I might single-handedly change the face of d20 as we know it .

With that kind of ego, you could give your stuff away? I don't believe it.

333 Dave · 7th May 2003, 10:03 PM

Maybe a compromise? Sell the setting, release the OGC for free? Sound good? Bad? Thoughts?

jmucchiello · 7th May 2003, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 333 Dave
Maybe a compromise? Sell the setting, release the OGC for free? Sound good? Bad? Thoughts?

If you are planning to release new info about the setting with any frequency, this could be the way to go. If those releases will contain crunch, you may as well charge for the crunch too. Basically, do you want to just put it out there and hope people will find it and use it? Or do you want to sell it, advertise it, make people hear about, force the to decide whether or not to buy it/use it?

Settings unfortunately don't really sell, so removing the crunch is a surefire way to reduce its sales. I'd keep it whole either free or by fee.

Good luck with what you decide.

333 Dave · 8th May 2003, 01:18 AM

Thanks for the help Joe. Now I have a bit of research to do...
Oh and it's an Ego vs Superego conflict here...

Nellisir · 8th May 2003, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jmucchiello
No one will buy a one shot campaign world.

This, I don't agree with. If it was a nice, well-executed, and well but not overly detailed setting, I'd love a one-shot campaign world, ESPECIALLY in pdf.

I have my own campaign setting, and I pick up other settings just for inspiration and ideas. A single book detailing a setting is just what I like.

Nowadays. alot of publishers* seem to be going for a "core bookSSSS" format, with an "overview" book and a "player's" book, at least. It's a method I despise.

*The Codex of Erde, Aracanis, and Midnight have NOT done this. They make me a happy person.

Cheers
Nell.

Also, consider Ghostwalk. Essentially a one-shot campaign setting.

jmucchiello · 8th May 2003, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nellisir
This, I don't agree with. If it was a nice, well-executed, and well but not overly detailed setting, I'd love a one-shot campaign world, ESPECIALLY in pdf.

I didn't mean to be absolute when I said "No one will buy..." What I actually meant was, there are more buyers of living, expanding campaigns, than there are of one-shot campaigns. You may be the exception to this generalization. But most people want to know what happens next or what's beyond the last hillside on the map.

Granted, some of the reason for creating an expanding campaign is to increase sales. But that's the whole point of business: to make money. One way to do this is to increase sales.

Nellisir · 8th May 2003, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jmucchiello
I didn't mean to be absolute when I said "No one will buy..." What I actually meant was, there are more buyers of living, expanding campaigns, than there are of one-shot campaigns. You may be the exception to this generalization. But most people want to know what happens next or what's beyond the last hillside on the map.

I didn't think you meant it absolutely literally.

However.

I'm not convinced that call can be made with absolute certainty at this time. There's really not alot of choice in the market, and I don't think it's because we've been flooded with one-shot settings. Everyone wants to do a "living, expanding" campaign. I've got Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Arcanis, Erde, Melnibone, Rokugan, Swashbuckling Adventures, Kalamar, Fading Suns d20, Scarred Lands, Star Wars, Oathbound, and Nyambe on my shelf right now, most of which (Arcanis, Ravenloft, Erde, Melnibone, Nyambe, Fading Suns, Scarred Lands, Kalamar, Star Wars) I don't ever intend to buy more than the core book.

It's my understanding that the biggest seller in almost any setting line is the "core" book, and -usually- the more books that are published in a line, the less they sell. WotC certainly recognizes this fact, have so far arranged to publish the core line books for Rokugan/Oriental Adventures, Dragonlance, Call of Cthulu d20, and Wheel of Time. There's alot of appeal to having a complete setting in a single volume.

Regardless of what you do, make the setting unique. Another medieval European fantasy setting isn't going to have them knocking down the doors. Do something -different-.

Out of words
Nell.

Who thinks Polyhedron's doing well with mini-games/settings...

The Blue Elf · 20th May 2003, 04:07 AM

Well that depends if you want to show it off then go to Gen-Con.Its a great way to get a game noticed.

KnowTheToe · 27th June 2003, 09:23 PM

I say fee baby!

People don't value what they don't purchase. There is so much free .pdf's out there that our hard drives are spewing giga-bites of crap we have never read. On the other hand I have bought several .pdf files and those I keep in a separate folder and feel more attached to. I would also suggest keep the cost under $40 bucks

Emiricol · 27th June 2003, 10:44 PM

I'd say fee. You put a lot of work into it!

I may sound like a hypocrite, since T13K is free, and took over a year for the team to complete, but keep in mind we never intended it to be for sale ever. It started out as an OGC project.

I don't think yours did, and you should get paid *something* for that.