Nyambe - Curious

[Razuur]

Hello all,

I was just wandering by the Atlas site and saw that Atlas is offering a free 107 page players guide to Nyambe. It is filled with all of the races, classes, skills, feats, equipment, magicks, etc of Nyambe.

That kind of worried me. Won't such a thing hurt sales? The preview for the product mentions all fo the cool things that Nyambe will have... but they are in the Players preview. I loved Occult Lore, and I can't wait to pick this up. It is already on order. But I am worried that it will hurt sales. What is to stop people from not purchasing the product (at 37.95) and just downloading the crunchies?

Or is the book primarily targeted to GMs. Does that mean that everything in the players guide will be in the book? Are people purchasing what is freely given? Or is that just a small part of the book.

Like I said, my purchase is already guaranteed, but I worry about the product overall?

I know people are going to or at GenCon, but does any one have any info regarding this?

Razuur

 

[2WS-Steve]

They probably assume that having online versions available does very little to dissuade someone from purchasing the print version. Pretty much the entire PHB, DMG, and MM have been available online as a free download for quite a while and I doubt that has significantly hurt sales. The preview probably improves sales in fact, since people sitting on the fence can check it out and decide they want something they can read on a plane.

 

[mythusmage]

I have to agree with Steve here.

In addition, the Player's Preview does not have everything (not even the crunchy bits) found in the hardback. Furthermore, the preview, while well designed and produced, does not look as good as the Atlas Games book.

The preview gives you a taste of Nyambe-tanda, the book gives you the meal.

So my advice for everybody is, go and download the preview from Nyambe, read it, and if you like what you see, go and buy the Nyambe book.

 

[JohnNephew]

Yep, what these guys said. Remember, the printed Nyambe book is more than twice as big as the PDF -- 256 pages in print, lavishly illustrated, with a high text density. The material in the original free download has been tested, tweaked, improved, updated. Our hope is that people who like the download will sooner or later pick up the printed book. Sort of like how people will upgrade to a new edition of a game they enjoy. Only this time, the "first edition" is free.

Time will tell if the strategy is right, but we're giving it a try.

 

[JohnNephew]

I should add, one of the reasons we have the preview still there for free is that we want to encourage people to PLAY in Nyambe (you know, that whole network externality thing!). Having a free PDF you can give your players to take home should make it a lot easier to get them into the setting. Once they're lured in, they'll sooner or later want the full deal, not just the preview.

I hope folks will let us know how this works out for them, and if they find the PDF useful in getting their gaming group into the new setting.

 

[Ghostwind]

Having just received my copy of this book yesterday and briefly reading through it, I have to say that this is one densely packed book. The amount of information is staggering and it seems to do a good job of capturing the cultural feel that one would find in an African setting. Looks like a solid but very different campaign setting to me and certainly worth perusing at your local game shop. It definitely has some good things going for it...

 

[CWD]

There are things in the PDF version that aren't in the print version, and conversely, there is a lot of stuff in the print version that isn't in the PDF.

For example, the PDF has a paladin variant called the kuitika. Well, in playtesting my players decided that the whole paladin concept didn't work in Nyambe so we dropped it from the print version.

Conversely, the print version has prestige classes like Dembe (monster hunter), Inyanga Insimbi (iron doctor), Leopard Cultist, Mask Maker, Mganga (witchdoctor), Ngoma (drum dancer), Nibomay Amazon, and Zombi Cultist. These prestige classes are mentioned quite a bit in the background material, but don't appear in the PDF at all!

What this means of course, is that if you like some stuff in the PDF that isn't in the printed version (like a paladin variant), you basically have a 100 page web expansion!

 

[trancejeremy]

Personally, from reading the PDF, I want to run out and buy the book. The only reason I haven't, is I'm broke. And I still haven't bought occult lore yet, which I also want to run out and buy. And Hell on Earth d20, and the rest of the Weird Wars d20 line. And the Epic Level handbook.

I probably just need to rob a game store