D&D 5E Dungeon Master's Guild: The Long Term

[grendel111111]

I think the site is useful and good, but for me the biggest disappointment is that all content is labled as from Dungeon Masters Guild. That makes it difficult to see which other products that person has produced. (so you know who gives quality and what should be avoided). Is there an option I am missing?

 

[Quickleaf]

I think the site is useful and good, but for me the biggest disappointment is that all content is labled as from Dungeon Masters Guild. That makes it difficult to see which other products that person has produced. (so you know who gives quality and what should be avoided). Is there an option I am missing?

Yes, you are. But it's because they use a smaller lighter font for the author's name. Click on a product. Look to the far right of the page under "Product Information." You'll see the author(s)' name as a clickable link so you can see other products they've written.

 

[Kalshane]

The way I look at it, anyone who previously released things for free is going to do one of two things: 1) continue to release it for free through non-official channels or 2) release it via DMGuild as a Pay What You Want. The latter option is pretty much the equivalent of posting it on their website that has a Donation button somewhere on it, only with a much higher chance of people actually seeing the content. (Whether there'll be a higher chance of them actually receiving money for it will have to be seen.)

People who are going to request specific amounts for their content probably weren't interested in "working for free" in the first place and likely never posted anything they created for public consumption before. (Or, even if they did, they'll probably invest more time into the project than they previously would have.)

 

[Gnarl45]

Internet marketing is fairly basic. You give a small product for free in exchange for the user's subscription on your newsletter. You then send an email to the people that grabbed your freebees every time you have a new product. That's what RPGNow/DriveThruRPG does. In the DM's Guild, all your products seem to be labelled DM's Guild.

I personally have a hard time figuring out how to use the DM's Guild as part of a long-term business development strategy. It might be interesting now that the DM's Guild and the Adventurer's League are married. It's going to depend on how much extra traffic this generates. And even then, the professional quality products would only be there to redirect traffic to your website (like Gauntlet of Spiragos).

I think they removed the most important feature of RPGNow from the DM's Guild. I don't think we're going to have a lot of professional quality stuff up there. Everyone makes grammar and spelling mistakes, awkward transitions, forgets whole paragraphs or explanations, etc. Authors are just too close to their creation to notice them. Just basic copy editing and proof reading costs 3 cents per word. That means if a fan wants to put an unillustrated freebee with average quality writing, he needs to spend $15 to $20 per page. I don’t think it’s sustainable without the possibility of repeat business.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

I actually think the division between the SRD and the DMsG is what makes the DMsG an intentionally poor choice for people planning to work on a larger scale.

The DMsG is intended to pull creators out of the community by giving them a little bit of a hand up, and the SRD exists so that those who want to can make their own business plan and legally create content for 5E using their own distribution methods. The DMsG isn't really a money making entity so much as it is an idea factory and talent farm.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Internet marketing is fairly basic. You give a small product for free in exchange for the user's subscription on your newsletter. You then send an email to the people that grabbed your freebees every time you have a new product. That's what RPGNow/DriveThruRPG does. In the DM's Guild, all your products seem to be labelled DM's Guild.

I personally have a hard time figuring out how to use the DM's Guild as part of a long-term business development strategy..

Exactly my thoughts as well. I do a lot of PWYW and free stuff, but it's for this very reason why in the future I will not be putting it on DMs Guild any longer, but at DTRPG instead and just use the SRD.

 

[Gnarl45]

I actually think the division between the SRD and the DMsG is what makes the DMsG an intentionally poor choice for people planning to work on a larger scale.

The DMsG is intended to pull creators out of the community by giving them a little bit of a hand up, and the SRD exists so that those who want to can make their own business plan and legally create content for 5E using their own distribution methods. The DMsG isn't really a money making entity so much as it is an idea factory and talent farm.

If I weren't trying to start my own D&D business, I would be sending my 6,000 word adventures to Morrus . Even at a crappy 3 cents per word, you get more money than what you would make on your own, you get it immediately, and someone pays for the editing, the illustrations, and the layout.

As a Forgotten Realms fan, I'm kind of hoping all of our creative minds will team up to recreate a rich and detailed Forgotten Realms. But with that many oversized egos out there, I'm not sure it's going to be possible to channel all the creative forces .

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Who gets what money and why they get it wasn't my point... but the focus on it does demonstrate part of my point. People that would have freely shared their materials before now will look to make money off it, reducing the number of people that benefit from their creation.

Have you ever heard of the free exchange of ideas? The phrase has a naturally positive connotation. We contribute ideas to our community to make it stronger. Our return on our contribution is the ideas we get back and the strengthening of the community itself. The typical opportunity cost of monitizing things that previously would have been free to share are reduced distribution, less community development and less capitalization upon the benefits derived from the previously free materials (for example, if you build an awesome Agazazi class, but I never pay to see it, it can't inspire me to incorporate an awesome Agazazi NPC into my game, to build Agazazi specific magic items or spells, etc...

And finally, there is a 100% certain reason why designing a sanctioned and licensed significantly pay for play distribution / restyriction channel is a horrible idea... and I'll share it with you for the mere cost of $5 ($2.50 will go to WotC).

Except that it has been proven that a lot of the products are complete and free (and there are still a lot of complete and free products on DTRPG, despite that being a mature distribution channel).

In addition, many of those ideas would not be produced if the person with the idea couldn't make any money off it. I'd rather have a larger pool of good ideas, including some that I have to pay a little bit of money to get than a much smaller pool of free ideas.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Except that's completely wrong. With DMG authors are given free reign and complete license to use any and all FR/5E materiel. That is not true of OGL/SRD. So your free exchange of ideas wouldn't happen in any case. We're being given license to create anything we want with their proprietary intellectual property. The catch is that it can only be published/sold on DMs Guild. That's a price I'm more than willing to pay.

And people are still free to share the ideas for nothing if they wish to do so. Personally I'm not seeing the issue.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

If I weren't trying to start my own D&D business, I would be sending my 6,000 word adventures to Morrus . Even at a crappy 3 cents per word, you get more money than what you would make on your own, you get it immediately, and someone pays for the editing, the illustrations, and the layout.

Yep, if my aim was to make as much money from this as easily as possible I would submit articles for EN5isder (well actually, if my aim was to make as much money as easily as possible I'd avoid freelance writing entirely!). You do the writing and don't have to worry about layout, art, sales, marketing, etc.