This dovetails into something I have been considering.
How much would someone, as a purchaser of RPGs, think a writer or artist who works on those same RPGs should earn?
Not a consideration in any way means, or manner. For example, I just bought my wife a new truck earlier this month, and I didn't give a single thought to what anyone in the process of designing, building, moving, or selling said vehicle earned. I hammered the price down as far as I could, and went on.
The simple answer is 'I want to support the people who help create my hobby and if they do well, good for them.'
Not the simple answer. The simple answer is: if the price isn't what I like, I'll choose a different product (there's staggering numbers to choose from), or just write the blasted thing myself.
But are there limits? If you were to discover that the person who, say, laid out your latest RPG book earned more than you, would you be okay with that? Suppose you discover they drive an Aston Martin? That they outright own a 5 bedroom house out in the sticks with a swimming pool? That their other hobby is flying helicopters and that they are seriously thinking about their first purchase in that field?
Who cares? I live on lakeside acreage, in a large home, and drive a luxury vehicle. I know the CEO of Ford earns more in a month than I will in my entire life.
More to the point, at what level would you, the purchaser of RPGs, start thinking... 'If the producers of this book were not being paid so much, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper'?
Again, the simple answer is 'if the book is worth that much to me, I will happily pay it.' But are there limits here?
I very rarely 'happily pay'. The simple answer is in fact 'is this worth the price to me?'
The reason I ask is that the majority costs for Mongoose are rooted firmly in content - writers, artists, and those who support them - with other costs (such as printing) way, way behind. This is a position I very much support (indeed, engineered), and I like the idea of being able to tell customers that the majority of their purchases go directly to the creators. The flipside is that if I go into specifics, there may be some thought in the back of some minds that says maybe the latest Traveller book could do with being $10 cheaper...
So, I would very much like to hear peoples' thoughts on this. In the great social strata, where should/could RPG creators sit?
They should sit wherever they can afford the rent.
I recently hired a guy to cut down six trees on my property and haul off the remains. He quoted a price, I agreed to it, he did the job, I paid him. I didn't inquire if he was struggling to make ends meet. I did not offer to buy a replacement for the tie-down strap he broke. We had a transaction that was completed according to the agreement. I could have bough a chainsaw, rented a trailer, and done it myself, but it is hot, the work is hard, and the price he offered didn't upset me.
If Mongoose puts out a product, and I think the price is too high, I'll look at all the other products, commercial and free, for a better alternative. Or I'll read the reviews and write my own version, because Mongoose has no lock on my gaming options.
And I know for a certainty that Traveller material will continue to be produced even if Mongoose folds.
The simple fact is there is a glut of RPG writers, to include those posting materials for free, and a decades-old backlog of material in the older systems. Plus the fact that a GM can write their own.
So the laws of economics suggests that RPG writers will need a day job.