(Call of Cthulhu) Ransoming Delta Green

[TheAuldGrump]

Most likely old news - but a new Delta Green supplement - Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity - is being ransomed over to Fundable. They are trying to collect $20,000 by May 28th. Every $50 donation gets a 'free' copy of the supplement. (For some reason I don't quite buy the term 'free' in connection with a $50 donation....) Annoyance with the abuse of the word 'free' aside, I quite like the idea of a new hardcover to accompany Delta Green and Delta Green: Eyes Only. I put my fifty in last week. If the attempt fails then no money will be removed.

At this point they have $18,750 - so it is looking good at this moment.

The Auld Grump

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

The following blog entry by Dennis, explains some of the reasoning behind the use of the ransom model.

State of the Industry by Dennis Detwiller (10th May, 2008)
http://web.mac.com/drgonzo/Site/The_Blog/Entries/2008/5/10_State_of_the_"Industry".html

 

[PetriWessman]

At this point they have $18,750 - so it is looking good at this moment.

Yup, here's hoping. I'd love to see some new Delta Green stuff -- and since if this succeeds if will be a limited run of 1000 copies (like Eyes Only), I'm guessing that it too will sell out pretty quickly. Even if you decide later that you don't like the book (gasp!), it'll be easy to sell it for profit on eBay. I think Eyes Only was going for close to $100, some time back.

I've put in my $50. With the track record the Pagan guys have, and judging by the fantastic Eyes Only... the book will easily be worth it.

I like the ransom model in general, and I think this was a smart move from ArcDream/Pagan. It's risk-free for all parties, and is essentially a way of doing pre-orders for a game book, with guaranteed money-back (or to be more specific "no charge in the first place") if the thing falls through, since the pledges are handled by a 3rd party.

 

[Aaron L]

I'm still hurting because I didn't have the money in time to get Eyes Only. I'm going to try desperately to get this.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

The limited prit runs, pre-ordering necessity, and instant ebay hike is why I stopped buying Pagan stuff. I can look through Chaosium stuff at the store and decide what I need for CoC. While I love DG, I've never gotten anything beyond the first book.

 

[Garnfellow]

This was not old news to me, and much appreciated. Will definitely chip in.

The limited prit runs, pre-ordering necessity, and instant ebay hike is why I stopped buying Pagan stuff. I can look through Chaosium stuff at the store and decide what I need for CoC. While I love DG, I've never gotten anything beyond the first book.

I understand where you're coming from, but given Pagan's track record, it's not like this is a huge gamble. There aren't many publishers that can be called almost sure things, and several others I would never take a flyer on. But Pagan? I'm all in.

 

[PetriWessman]

...aaaaaaand it's complete. $20k secured.

The ransom is still accepting pledges, so I assume you can still pledge your $50 if you want to make sure you get a copy of the book -- the "leftovers" will go for normal sale at a slightly reduced price, but of course there's no saying how fast those will sell out.

To the person saying they're not buying Pagan stuff because of the small print runs and fast sell-outs... fair enough, that's your call. But do realize that the print runs are small because printing costs, and Pagan is a very small operation. Asking them to risk huge amounts of their cash on a larger print run (which may or may not sell) is asking them to take a pretty big risk.

That said, I'd love for them to a) reprint some of their older oop books, b) do PDFs of their books and c) explore the wonders of print-on-demand (Lulu etc). Step into the new millennium, guys!

Sidenote: the DG core book was recently reprinted (with d20/BPR stats), and a reprint of DG Countdown is in the works afaik. So there's progress on the "reprint" front.

Personally, I find the Pagan books to be among the best quality I've found in gaming, so I try to get them regardless of small print runs etc. Eyes Only rocked, and I expect Targets of Opportunity to be the same. The Pagan guys haven't let me down yet, qualitywise.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

To Garn and PetriWessman,

I don't run DG, so that's $50 for purely reading material. That is steep
considering the volume of books I can buy at any given bookstore.

Yes, Pagan does great stuff. Just not stuff I can rationalize $50 just
to read.

 

[PetriWessman]

To Garn and PetriWessman,

I don't run DG, so that's $50 for purely reading material. That is steep
considering the volume of books I can buy at any given bookstore.

Yes, Pagan does great stuff. Just not stuff I can rationalize $50 just
to read.

Sure, I hear you . Just wanted to comment on the small print run issue.

 

[Crothian]

Hopefully this will work for you guys and get it so you can just print the books and not need to do this. I like Delta Green but it's just not worth it for a book I haven't seen.