Creating a new TTRPG Player's Manual

Fair enough. My main point is that it's possibly folly to try and crowdfund until folks know and care about your work; and that may require getting people to play it ahead of time and then to evangelize for you. Publicly playtesting, or running it for people, really helps a lot in my experience.
I totally agree. The part I'm struggling to decide on is how to implement it.
Lets say you create a product and you spend $10,000 on art. Do you want to give that art away for free in a digital format as is? Seems kind of sad to have to do so.

One idea I had was you do the PDF but on each picture you put FREE VERSION in white lettering so that the picture looks like this
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That way you know exactly what you are buying, but you still have incentive to go pay for that art.

What do you think?
 

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What do you think?
I think that would just bug people. And spending 10K on art without a clear expectation of sales numbers might be very risky. I agree with those who say putting out a basic free version without art is a good first step; it has definitely worked for some people who have gone on to great success. Then your Kickstarter can pay for the art once you have an audience behind you.

That said, if you can afford 10K of art at this stage (and it sounds like you can), then the other approach would be to put out a pretty preview containing a decent chunk of the game, fully laid-out and illustrated, and build your pre-KS audience that way.

Of course, all this depends on your expectations and goals for this product. If you just want to get it out there and make your investment back, that's definitely a realistic goal. If you want to launch something to make a ton of money, that's obviously possible (people do it all the time) but it's definitely a gamble, even for those with an established audience!
 

I think that would just bug people I agree with those who say putting out a basic free version without art is a good first step
Interesting, it would bother me more to have zero art versus defaced art. But I can see your point.
The book has to be a single book cause lulu is so expensive, but I could split up the PDFs, PHB+1st adventure for free, DMG+MM for $5.

Of course, all this depends on your expectations and goals for this product. If you just want to get it out there and make your investment back, that's definitely a realistic goal. If you want to launch something to make a ton of money, that's obviously possible (people do it all the time) but it's definitely a gamble, even for those with an established audience!

I don't expect to make my investment back, but if I do then yay yay I can keep the project going, otherwise its a case of "I gave it a shot". This is a hobby project for pleasure, not expecting it to be a source of income, I'm not a writer, but I'm not going to turn down money.
 

Interesting, it would bother me more to have zero art versus defaced art. But I can see your point.
The book has to be a single book cause lulu is so expensive, but I could split up the PDFs, PHB+1st adventure for free, DMG+MM for $5.
Why Lulu, specifically? Why not DTRPG?
 

Why Lulu, specifically? Why not DTRPG?
For the physical? I'm not sure it would suit me, I wouldn't be listed as a publisher, nor a rule system, there is no easy way to narrow down the results to my niche game.

I want the book to be shipped to exotic locations like Canada and DTRPG is not well positioned for that
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Lulu is a few days delivery and also its sold through "40,000+ global retailers" which sounds cool, though the percentages are high for the privilege.

I wouldn't rule out putting it on DTRPG, I can handle so much though, so I'm working on a PDF that is formatting for LULUs print on demand.

For the pdf I figured it would be easy enough just to use itch.io, they only take 10% which is more than fair to handle the shopping cart functionality.
 

Before you go any farther on publishing, I'll suggest that you have strangers playtest your game. Either watch them silently or have them record audio/video of it. Just playing with your friends isn't enough; if you plan to publish, I really think you need to see and hear how people other than you respond to what you've created so far.
 

For the physical? I'm not sure it would suit me, I wouldn't be listed as a publisher, nor a rule system, there is no easy way to narrow down the results to my niche game.

I want the book to be shipped to exotic locations like Canada and DTRPG is not well positioned for that
View attachment 154556

Lulu is a few days delivery and also its sold through "40,000+ global retailers" which sounds cool, though the percentages are high for the privilege.

I wouldn't rule out putting it on DTRPG, I can handle so much though, so I'm working on a PDF that is formatting for LULUs print on demand.

For the pdf I figured it would be easy enough just to use itch.io, they only take 10% which is more than fair to handle the shopping cart functionality.
You seem pretty decided on what you’re doing. :)
 

Before you go any farther on publishing, I'll suggest that you have strangers playtest your game. Either watch them silently or have them record audio/video of it. Just playing with your friends isn't enough; if you plan to publish, I really think you need to see and hear how people other than you respond to what you've created so far.
I won't be publishing until December, there will be a few months of playtesting from 50-100 people or so before I commit to the final version. Its a little different, so you can't compare it to your typical D&D RPG that would require years and thousands of people.
 

Heh. The thing about the playtesting I've done is that I then had to make changes based on the results, and then playtest THAT. :D

Hope the publishing goes smoothly! I'll be excited to see and hear about the process. The more experiences people share, the better.
 

Heh. The thing about the playtesting I've done is that I then had to make changes based on the results, and then playtest THAT. :D

Hope the publishing goes smoothly! I'll be excited to see and hear about the process. The more experiences people share, the better.
For sure. I'll definitively share as I go, I've already had some amazing feedback here to questions that has gone straight into the game.

Right now I'm working on the classes and species and getting all the art pulled together for those first 20 pages of the book which give that important first impression.

Its a super fun process, I mean what is better than dreaming up a fantasy scene then having an artist bring it to life? Or fixing something you don't like in an edition, or taking an implementation you adore from another game.

If I don't make December its ok, there are no shareholders. But I feel like I should, I'm trying to outsource as much as I can, from key monsters to the pantheon, to city maps to adventure encounters. That way I can focus on the core combat and rules design.
 

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