Bastion Press News

[Jim Butler]

Hail and well met, all! Here's what we've been up to at Bastion Press.

GUILDCRAFT ON SALE NOW
Until now, there has been little reason for adventurers to give guilds a second thought. While often seen as places to find goods and services or hirelings, guilds can form the backdrop for many exciting adventures on many fantasy worlds where power and prominence in shaping nations, cities, and cultures depends on the guilds and money. Much excitement and intrigue can lurk among the shadows and rooms of the guildhalls, as those with secrets and coins quickly learn….

Guilds hold strengths and influences hardly available from dragons’ lairs or the darkest of dungeons. Guildcraft details the powers and privileges of guild membership, as well as new knowledge and details on the underpinnings of your d20 worlds. Adventurers of every class and skill have new opportunities for both enlightenment and profit.

Available now at the
Bastion Press Online Store.

MINIONS: REBIRTH
Almost one year ago, Bastion Press released its first product, Minions: Fearsome Foes. To herald its release, we also crafted e-Minions: Cunning Creatures as an online companion to the printed book.

Minions: Rebirth contains the complete text from both Minions and e-Minions, plus 13 new pieces of artwork (by Jeremy Jarvis, Patricio Soler, and Todd Morasch), new graphic layout, and larger artwork throughout.

Minions: Rebirth brings the design talents of Greg Dent, Jim Butler, Wolfgang Baur, and a host of others into your campaign. Edited by Michael Cantrell. 132 pages; full color. Two versions are included (one with borders and one without) for easy printing. $9.99.

Available at RPGNow

Available at SVGames.

THE AWFUL TRUTH
I tackle the touchy subject of what makes a good review in this week's Column.

Happy Halloween, all, and as always...

 

[Crothian]

THE AWFUL TRUTH
I tackle the touchy subject of what makes a good review in this week's Column.

That was a very good and insightful little article on reviews. As someone trying to do the best reviews I can I appriciate hearing from the Gaming Community on their general thoughts on this. It seem to be geared more towards the "House Reviewers" of gaming sites then the fan reviewers though. You mentioned the "cherry picking" of people reviewing only the porducts they like, while with the fan review we tend to buy everything we review. Since we buy what we like, most of the reviews tend to be pretty good. Then you mentioned doing good reviews just to keep receiving the "Free Review Copy." Obviously, that plays little in the mind of the fan review who buys them. I was wondering if you had any comments that would apply directly to the fan reviewer?

 

[Jim Butler]

Fan reviewers, since they're buying a product they're interested in, are a different breed then the 'staff' reviewer that puts up a large number of reviews each month because they received it free from the publisher. Fans review things that they feel strongly about--one way or the other.

Much of the article applies to fan reviewers as well, since it's important to quantify and rate your review so that others reading know exactly why you marked a product down.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I think with Oathbound you will break the market. This statement isn't based on actual knowledge of your product - as I'm living abroad I'll have to wait for it a little bit longer - but on the interest that I see many people take in Oathbound. The move to create a setting which can be inserted into almost any fantasy campaign is really a clever one.

On the other hand, I think your sales figures may always have suffered a bit from the price of your 96 pg. books. Although I see the economic reason behind this - full colour printings - it's a bit pricey for most d20 customers. I've always been reluctant to spend € 25 on 96 pages. This is totally different when it comes to Oathbound. There the price per pages relation is much better, even compared to your competitors. Don't you think it would be a clever move to produce more big hardcovers compared to small pricey booklets?

I hope you consider this a honest question. It's not meant to be any kind of bashing .

Turjan

Btw, I've just downloaded the pdf of Minions: Rebirth, and it looks great !

 

[Jim Butler]

On the other hand, I think your sales figures may always have suffered a bit from the price of your 96 pg. books. Although I see the economic reason behind this - full colour printings - it's a bit pricey for most d20 customers. I've always been reluctant to spend € 25 on 96 pages. This is totally different when it comes to Oathbound. There the price per pages relation is much better, even compared to your competitors. Don't you think it would be a clever move to produce more big hardcovers compared to small pricey booklets?

First, thanks for the kind words regarding Oathbound and Minions: Rebirth.

Pricing is always a sensitive issue for some gamers, but it ultimately comes back to finding a happy medium between offering value for the money. Color printing is much more expensive than black and white printing, and those costs have to be carried forward to the customer (well, at least in order for a publisher to remain in business).

WotC charges $19.95 for their 96-page splat books, and we priced all of our 96-page releases slightly higher than that. Those higher prices are required both for the full-color content and the short print runs that smaller publishers have to make (printers charge less per product the more you print; WotC prints around 50,000 copies of its products versus the few thousand a typical game publisher will print).

While we'd love to sell 50,000 copies of our products, I don't believe it's a pricing issue that's preventing us from reaching those sales levels. Lower pricing doesn't mean you'll sell more, only that you'll make less money to cover your costs.

In the end, I'll continue to do what I believe the majority of gamers want me to do, and right now I think that's a continuation of our full-color products. But I'm always open for suggestions for improvements.

 

[Turjan]

Well, I see your point. But neither did I suggest to go black&white, nor did I expect you to go down with the price of your 96 pg. booklets. As I said, I see the economic reasons behind this. My suggestion was to go up with the pagecount of single publications in order to get a better price per page ratio.

For instance, what do you think how much a print version of Minions: Rebirth (132-4 pages), taken as an example for a slightly enlarged format, would cost?

 

[Jim Butler]

Well, I see your point. But neither did I suggest to go black&white, nor did I expect you to go down with the price of your 96 pg. booklets. As I said, I see the economic reasons behind this. My suggestion was to go up with the pagecount of single publications in order to get a better price per page ratio.

For instance, what do you think how much a print version of Minions: Rebirth (132-4 pages), taken as an example for a slightly enlarged format, would cost?

Larger products do cost slightly less per page than smaller products; that much is true. There's a lot more work invested in them as well, though, so most publishers tend to stretch out there large books over the course of a year. A 128-page product would run $27.95, and a 160-page would probaby settle in around $29.95. As you move past that point, weight starts playing a larger role in the pricing equation.

We've bumped Pale Designs (our January release) up to 128 pages. Oathbound: Plains of Penance (February) is also 128 pages.

 

[Nightfall]

Don't suppose you could plug Pale Designs a little harder since I helped to contribute to it Jim? (Cheers for the fact it's now 128 pages! )

Neverthless, it's an honor to be working with you guys and I can't wait to do more stuff for you.

 

[Jim Butler]

Don't suppose you could plug Pale Designs a little harder since I helped to contribute to it Jim? (Cheers for the fact it's now 128 pages! )

Neverthless, it's an honor to be working with you guys and I can't wait to do more stuff for you.

I'll plug it a bit more once Duane Maxwell (the editor) turns over the final file and I verify it will fill 128 pages. ;-)

 

[2WS-Steve]

I'll plug Pale Designs a bit; rumor has it that Pale Designs has some rules options to help put the fear of poison back into your players....