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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mythmere1" data-source="post: 5380278" data-attributes="member: 26563">From talks with Frank and Tim, I think they will come out with good material; this is an element of the business they know how to do. I can't speak as to Jim Ward or anyone else, but I've talked with Tim and Frank.When they started this project a year or so ago, I also think that they (Frank) understood that the market had changed, and that the digital side of it was crucial. However -- at that time -- I don't think they had altogether developed a workable business model yet based on that general knowledge. That's no crime, since Frank and Tim hadn't been involved in RPG publishing for decades, and the market is utterly different for a start-up company.Frank called me some months ago (along with calling several other small publishers) to discuss their company. Mainly I think it was to get a sense for whether they were getting into a cutthroat environment or a relatively collegial environment, but he was also interested in getting a sense for how various publishers have approached the old-school market. I don't mean any of that in a bad way - he wasn't trawling for inside information or anything, just picking up a general picture of things in a completely acceptable and polite way.So, they aren't approaching this with the idea that they know everything about business already; I think those early discussions about capitalization and sales were the starting-point, and have been revised since.One other aspect of the conversation was definitely information-gathering, and that was on the topic of retro-clones, especially Swords & Wizardry since in that case the retro-clone is essentially the only way to get a version of the original rules. Their business plan has always turned upon the idea of being able to reach into more than one game system, but Tim Kask, especially, is writing for 0e, which is what Swords & Wizardry clones. So there is a certain "extra factor" in terms of how they work with Swords & Wizardry.To what degree they will end up working with Bill Webb - Frog God Games - Swords & Wizardry isn't yet clear, if there will be any coordination at all beyond the fact that their materials will be compatible with Swords & Wizardry. Most likely, there won't be a direct co-operative connection at the production level, but I think both companies will play up the fact that their 0e/Swords & Wizardry product lines are essentially a single slate of compatible material. That will give them better access to the Swords & Wizardry players as customers, and it will also continue to add to the "street cred" of Swords & Wizardry as a game with strong publisher support. It's good for both sides of the equation, and I think Frank and I both recognized that aspect of the discussion.I will be interested to see how generic they try to make the modules; I definitely think that the Frog God Games model -- picking only a couple of systems, and writing 2 versions that are specifically design-tooled for the mechanisms and game-assumptions of those systems -- is the strongest model for quality.</blockquote>

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