cheap tactics

[Urizen]

Ok..
I have a sinking feeling that WOTC is going to be releasing material about a race variant I've been busting my butt on, but, alas.. my book isn't finished yet, and probably won't be before they release their supplement.

I had thought, "well I suppose I could jump the gun and release my race as a free preview," but then ya know... I thought well that's kind of a cheap thing to do.. but honestly, I'm not sure what other recourse I have, given there's a good possibility that the supplement may not be OGC..

*sigh*

any suggestions, anyone?

 

[Flyspeck23]

If your rules mirror those of WotC it won't be a good thing. But if not then I (IANAL) don't see a problem.

Could you be more specific?

 

[Ranger REG]

To a consumer, offering a free preview of your product may means that it is in the late stage of development (editing and/or layout design), and they are expecting a so-called "street date."

You're better off getting your work done while ignoring whatever product Wizards is releasing.

 

[Wycen]

First, there is a forum here just for questions like this, the e-publishing forum, right here: www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=67

Now, if you are only worried about Wotc, I would say don't worry. They are the big boys and unless your project is spectacular and blows the doors off several blocks worth of buildings, worrying about what Wotc does is probably just going to get you an ulcer.

As for a preview, it really is up to you. If it looks good and people find it useful and/or innovative, it could cause an increase in interest. If it is bad, well, they say publicity of any kind is good, but I wouldn't think that helps much in the pdf market.

Assuming of course you are talking about a pdf or electronic product.

 

[Urizen]

Thanks for the input

I am probably just worrying too much.

thanks again.

 

[jmucchiello]

I had the same problem when I heard about the release of Savage Species. My book was not ready at the time but contained Monster Classes. So I released a preview in January (2 months before SS came out) of that chapter even though my book (Character Customization) did not come out until June. My reasoning was to be able to prove that I had done it without seeing SS. And while this was a good thought from a legal standpoint, I also wanted customers to be able to see I wasn't just piggybacking someone else's work.

YMMV.

 

[Urizen]

interesting

I had the same problem when I heard about the release of Savage Species. My book was not ready at the time but contained Monster Classes. So I released a preview in January (2 months before SS came out) of that chapter even though my book (Character Customization) did not come out until June. My reasoning was to be able to prove that I had done it without seeing SS. And while this was a good thought from a legal standpoint, I also wanted customers to be able to see I wasn't just piggybacking someone else's work.

YMMV.

and how did that work out for you?

 

[jmucchiello]

and how did that work out for you?

Well enough I suppose. No one's ever called the book to task for being like Savage Species.

CC is hard judge sales-wise though because it is also very rules intensive and it came out 1-2 months before 3.5 came out and it is not very compatible with 3.5. So it is on a number of wish lists, I assume, because people are waiting for the update. (It's coming, really, it's coming....) Evidence of this is that it has twice as many page views (on RPGNow) as JBoE and only 1/2 as many sales (or so). The comment on the sales page that it is 3.0 compatible only may be a sticking point to some.

OTOH, it has 130+ sales so it's a good seller PDF-wise.

That help?

 

[Urizen]

hey

that's pretty cool!
glad it worked out for ya