D&D 5E New Luke Gygax adventures!

[Matrix Sorcica]

This is a 2-hour adventure. But my point was that I find the price high compared to other offerings. Of course, if the eleven pages or so of content is pure gold, it's a bargain. We still don't know if it's quality, though.

 

[Morrus]

It's almost like WotC wants to pay it's author's a decent wage for a week of work:

To be fair, they already paid their authors a decent wage for an entirely different purpose. They're requisitioning previously paid materials here for additional revenue.

Not that I disagree that an adventure is worth that much. The value per hour of entertainment is way higher than most other hobbies.

 

[Jester David]

To be fair, they already paid their authors a decent wage for an entirely different purpose. They're requisitioning previously paid materials here for additional revenue.

???
But authors of current AL adventures are only paid via royalties.

Prior to the DMsGuild, WotC paid for the authors to make adventures, but now it's entirely handled by the Guild. WotC even increased the percentage of revenue to AL authors (it's higher than the normal 50%) to ensure they relieved fair compensation.
And the above mentioned adventures are convention games, penned by people for a specific convention via an agreement with Baldman Games. WotC is pretty uninvolved with this adventure. The only money the author will see from this is via sales revenue.

 

[Morrus]

???
But authors of current AL adventures are only paid via royalties.

Wow. Really? I did not know that. That's terrible.

 

[Jester David]

Wow. Really? I did not know that. That's terrible.

It can be.

If they adventure sells poorly, the author is out money. But if it's a hit, they can make more money over the longterm.

In the blog I linked earlier, the author mentions one of his Cure of Strahd season adventures selling 470 copies for a revenue of $936.65.
(http://alphastream.org/index.php/2016/02/15/what-is-an-adventure-worth/)
Throwing my copy into Word, yanking out the boiler text and monsters, it's around 12,000 words. From the article you wrote earlier, WotC pays around $0.06/word. So he'd have been paid $720 for the adventure. So he's up $215 because of the DMsGuild profit sharing.

And that was updated two months back. He's sold a good 50 copies (at *least*) since then.

But it remains to be seen if future seasons will sell as well and continue to pay the authors comparable amounts to WotC.

 

[Morrus]

Not that they'd ever ask me, but there is no way I'd write an adventure for somebody for royalties only.

I wrote an article on freelancer rates a year or so back. Looks like I need an updated version!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2301-What-s-a-Freelance-RPG-Writer-Worth

 

[Jester David]

If asked, I'd write an organised play adventure for revenue for WotC/ Adventurer's League. Because I *know* those are played regularly enough that there's lots of groups buying the new adventures each month, who are keeping pace with the release schedule. Public play groups who schedule game days for the new releases.
So it's guaranteed sales.

Well... Adventurer's League maybe Pathfinder Society. But the latter has more of a back catalogue, so new sales are probably sluggish and dependant on reviews. But AL has fewer options at the moment.

But, then again, back in 3e Organised Play adventures were done by volunteers. So you were writing them for nothing. I did one for Living Greyhawk and I'm not even sure I retain the rights...

 

[Morrus]

I
So it's guaranteed sales.

If the sales are guaranteed, WotC can afford to pay for them. Again, not that I'm a candidate for such things, but royalties only based on how well WotC markets your work is exploitative. I'm trying to imagine how that management meeting went.

Pay a decent amount per word, and then their marketing is their own business. If they're nice, they'll add a royalty bonus for successful products.

 

[darjr]

CCC's I think can be a little different. For instance I think (stress the "i think" bit, i'm not positive) Baldman Games pays something upfront and then shares royalties. But they are the publisher on the DMSGuild.

 

[Jester David]

If the sales are guaranteed, WotC can afford to pay for them.

I think WotC is trying to separate themselves a little from the Adventurer's League, since it's operated/ managed by Baldman Games more than them. So Baldman Games would have to pay, and that might be beyond them.
It's "official" in name only, as WotC just reviews and rubberstamps the adventures.

Again, not that I'm a candidate for such things, but royalties only based on how well WotC markets your work is exploitative. I'm trying to imagine how that management meeting went.

Prior to 4e, it was all volunteers. And many organised play programs still use volunteers. The adventurer writers get nothing. They're not even doing it for exposure...

CCC's I think can be a little different. For instance I think (stress the "i think" bit, i'm not positive) Baldman Games pays something upfront and then shares royalties. But they are the publisher on the DMSGuild.

Not that I see:
http://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/DND/AL_content_creation.pdf