D&D 5E DM's Guild: The Advice You Didn't Ask For

[Staffan]

BUT, the fact it costs us $2 to retrieve any funds we've actually accrued is a bit of a kick in the nads... It means my quest is going to have to cost $2.80+ (I think... my maths isn't great) to get anything out of it, which instantly makes people not want to buy it...

I'm pretty sure that's $2 per withdrawal, not per sale.

So let's say you write some pamphlets, priced at $1 each. You manage to sell a total of 500 of them over a period of time. That's $500 in sales, $250 of which go into your DM's Guild account. Then, when you want OBS to put that money in your actual Paypal account, that costs $2, so you only get $248.

 

[Reynard]

I think that's a better attitude to have. But there are people out there who have sky high expectations from what are essentially amateur efforts. And that's a touch on the unfair side, to me.

If someone wants professional compensation for their efforts, they should produce professional quality work. And in the context of RPG materials, it does not have to be that much compensation for it to rise to the "professional" level.

 

[Bawylie]

If someone wants professional compensation for their efforts, they should produce professional quality work. And in the context of RPG materials, it does not have to be that much compensation for it to rise to the "professional" level.

Not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that the critique "this is amateurish" when applied to amateur work, is a bit of a BS critique.

I don't criticize joggers for being slower than Uwe, or high school basketball teams for not dunking.

Question of value is up to each person to decide for themselves.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I'm not sure who the "you" refers to in the "do you" sentence, but I'm guessing from context you mean reviewers of products, not necessarily the people in this thread. But really, on most RPG product sites, I find most reviews, if critical, are more considerate than what you paint here. It's not like a YouTube comments section.

Yes, some critical reviews are well done. Let me tell you, a constructive review, even if critical as long as it's objective? As a publisher it's worth its weight in gold. Makes me want to send them free stuff just as appreciation even if it was critical. [MENTION=9342]merric[/MENTION] has done some really good reviews, even if they weren't the most flattering.

But a bad, bad review? One of the most frustrating things ever. Some advice to people giving a critical review:

Review what you actually have/see before you. Don't make assumptions. E.g., I had one reviewer accuse me of copyright violation because I had some Larry Elmore work in my product, despite my listing "by special permission" in the front page. With people like Shipman out there, accusing someone of stealing anothers' work is pretty serious, and shouldn't be slung around unless you know for sure.

Do your review in context of what the goal of the product is. I.e., if the product is free or very cheap, and tells you outright that the product is meant to be a toolbox of sorts; an outline with the tools for you to flesh out the greater details on your own, don't give a bad review because you wanted it to be like a $15 PDF full adventure. It would be like me giving a bad review of a Ford Focus because it didn't have the hauling capacity of a truck, or wasn't as refined as a Mercedes. That doesn't mean you can't be critical of it, but do it in the proper context of similar products.

And avoid the one I mentioned above. If you don't like the D20 system used in a Western setting, don't give a bad review to all products that use that. For one, it doesn't do me any good to know how I can improve, and secondly, it would be like if I didn't like 4e's mechanics, going around and giving bad reviews on every 4e product regardless of how the actual product is.

 

[I'm A Banana]

There's "Amateur" and then there's "I pumped this out in about an hour."

The DM's Guild is already a pretty crowded marketplace. If you take pride in your work, even as a non-professional playing in WotC's playground, it'll be worth the money someone paid for it, worth someone's effort to read and use in their games. It'll be worth people finding and paying for and downloading.

If you just write something that sounds neat to you and charge $3.00 for it, that's...not necessarily worth the money or effort. I mean, maybe it's great, but chances are it could be better.

Some aspects of professionalism are slightly beyond the reach of amateurs. For instance, I'm whipping up a monster document right now, and I've got no idea how I'd go about getting art for it, and very little money to pay for it, even if I could. I probably couldn't afford a pro editor (even at a fan discount. ). But basic editing - checking spelling and grammar and consistency with how 5e presents rules and balancing it and maybe doing a quick playtest in Fantasy Grounds - that's something that just requires my time. And since I intend to ask for someone's money, it's worth doing.

It's also worth noting that smaller, shorter things are often easier to check in this respect. You could probably put together a good 1-page subclass and do the editing and such in a solid 48 hour period, and stick it up there for $1, and it'd be great even if it's got some errors. But a 12-page adventure would be harder, and a 20-page compendium of monsters is going to be even harder.

A good question for any amateur is: what is the minimum viable product? Make that small product the best you possibly can. Think about what makes your offering distinctive. Spend a week on it. There's no real rush.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

As long as there's a rating system, low quality stuff should sink to the bottom fairly quickly. So worrying about it probably isn't in anyone's best interest. That's what we have freelance reviewers for.

I'm more on edge for seeing how they're going to handle copy/paste content, myself.

 

[DEFCON 1]

...it would be like if I didn't like 4e's mechanics, going around and giving bad reviews on every 4e product regardless of how the actual product is.

We would have lost about half the threads here on EN World eight years ago if people actually followed that policy.

 

[Miladoon]

Yes, the whole of rpgnow seems to be down.

Appears to be Up

 

[Bawylie]

Whatever you publish, if this is your 1st go, I'm proud of you: congratulations for getting something out there.

Your next one will be even better. You'll learn a bunch.

This is all very exciting to me, and i want to encourage more, and promote the feeling people have something to contribute, rather than push a sense that only refined, pro stuff is worth putting out there

 

[Reynard]

This is all very exciting to me, and i want to encourage more, and promote the feeling people have something to contribute, rather than push a sense that only refined, pro stuff is worth putting out there

I agree, but I do think that new creators should tend toward free and pay-what-you-want models. If for no other reason, people are a lot more forgiving of flaws with those models and a new creator can gain both experience and loyal core customers so that when that person's work is good enough they can charge pro prices for it. My concern was not about new people entering the marketplace but rather a glut of terrible products that will cause customers to feel burned because they paid actual money for someone's poorly edited, badly designed 600 word amateur effort.