Monte Cook's DM's Guild-style Store For Cypher System Is Now A Thing

The Cypher System Creator Program (which I mentioned before) has now been officially announced by Monte Cook Games. Like the DMs Guild, it's a partnership with OBS (which runs DrivethrRPG and RPGNow) and is designed to allow third parties create Cypher System materials and sell them. It's not clear if it will look like DMs Guild, with it's own storefront, as the announcement mentions selling the material "at DriveThruRPG and its family of sites". The plan is to go live in Spring 2016 (which is any time from now until late June). It includes free publisher resources - logos, templates, art, etc.

There's no news yet on the royalties side. WotC's DMs Guild takes 50% of your gross revenue, but that doesn't mean that this new venture will. You can read the announcement here. More information as and when I hear it!

 

[Dahak]

We tried it once before. The silence was deafening!

I didn't even notice. Well, thanks for trying when you did.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Russ, I don't think we even knew about it when it happened. If you wanted to try again, we'd be happy to make sure the community knows about it. We're strong in social media but less so in communities like this--but I totally agree that those things have different strengths, so we'd be happy to be more supportive of ENworld and similar communities.

 

[CharlesRyan]

(To be clear, that last sentence is true either way--not contingent on creating a specific forum.)

 

[mikelaff]

I thought Cypher system already had a licensing framework that involved publishers paying fees to MCG. Does this mean they're not going to charge publishers to do Cypher stuff any more? That's how I'm reading it.

I will watch this closely to see what the demand looks like. I've got a hunch that the name "Monte Cook" will always have a lot of fans.

It will be interesting to see if that carries over to 3rd party Cypher system to any degree (or not).

I vividly remember a game store owner telling me that Green Ronin and Steve Kenson have legions of fans but that 3rd party M&M products have none --which is why he stopped carrying anything other than official GR and Freedom City releases for M&M.

 

[Dahak]

There is the limited license available for the Numenera and The Strange games that allows a publisher, after paying a one time $100 fee per product, to publish products. There's a cap on how much you can make from the product ($2000, IIRC) and you can do print and/or PDF. There was supposed to be one for generic Cypher System as well, but it has not, as of yet, been issued.

The new framework, as far as we know so far, is in addition to those licenses, not a replacement. Not much info is available yet, so we don't know if you can use Numenera, The Strange or other MCG IPs as part of it, or if it's just for generic Cypher System. Other than that, there is some similarity to the DM's Guild for 5E. PDF only, as far as we know, and you pay a royalty to OBS and MCG if you sell it, rather than give it away. Probably no one time fee, if it's similar in that way to DMG.

 

[Halo_ov_fire]

I need to do more research on this, but my initial (read: knee-jerk) reaction to this was positive. I've been playing Cypher System stuff on and off since it dropped and so far, it's one of my new favorites. I know I'm actively looking into exporting my setting into these mechanics, but as others have mentioned above, I still need more details on what exactly I'd - as a publisher - be able to do with it.

If it is like the DM's Guild, it would be fantastic for designers aiming to use Monte's IP (new adventures for Numenera, The Strange, ect would certainly be cool). I suspect (I have no basis for this, mind you) that it may be different for those of us who want to publish third party worlds, settings, and material just using the setting mechanics (ie... Cypher System). I suppose we'll see once more information is released.

In either case, I'm jazzed to see this. Ultimately, it means more folks are reaching out to MCGs and the rule system is likely growing in popularity!

Cheers,
Jaye

 

[Dahak]

Margaret Weis Productions will be doing a similar program for their Cortex Plus systems: http://www.margaretweis.com/19-frontpage-articles/74-announcing-cortex-plus-creator-studio

The more the merrier, I say. It will probably help to keep royalties level with or below WotC's version to have competing platforms. Win-win, in my book.