Krug
Newshound
1. Give us an overview of your product lines
Well, right now I have four "lines" though some have only one product in them.
Our "flagship" line has been the "Enchiridion Series" - it currently has three offerings - the Enchiridion of Mystic Music (EoMM), the Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects d'art (EoTaOdA), and the Enchiridion of Elided Enduements of the Expanse (EEEE). In fact, the EoMM started it all.
The Enchiridion Series is where I try to explore an under-developed (in my opinion) aspect of the rules of the game and expand it to include a lot of options. For Mystic Music, the focus was on a Bard's music abilities - there just seemed to be so much room to expand on music rather than the five abilities that existed in 3.0, and that's what the EoMM did. Similarly, the EoTaOdA was focused on "mundane treasures" and "minor magic items" - I thought there was a lot of room to expand on mundane treasures other than just "piles of coins" and I hope the EoTaOdA provided the tools to do that.
Finally, the EEEE tried to explore rangers and give them a few more "naturalistic" abilities - though it came out right around the shift from 3.0 to 3.5 and since the ranger got a significant makeover in that transition, some of the ideas were redundant, didn't work, or generally weren't applicable to the new ruleset; I tried to edit the nearly-finished work when 3.5 came out, but didn't want to do a total rewrite because at that point I was getting sick of the project - and some portions suffered for that desire - the EEEE is probably the weakest of the three because of it.
One of the major things I try to emphasize when writing the Enchiridion Series is what I call "total modularity" - that is, I don't want to re-write the rules completely, just offer new twists and options, so that you can take as little as one sentence or item or what have you from an Enchiridion work and drop it into your existing campaign with no need to convert to a new system. I think that's the best way to present topics that expand on the existing ruleset, because I myself am not a fan of having to incorporate an entirely new rewrite of rules just to make use of one good idea that I see - I just want to steal that idea. Of course, if it is tied to another ruleset and I don't want the system, I then have to tweak and massage and convert that one little piece to get it into my campaign... and that's work I don't like doing either, because I have to do so much work just to make use of one little piece. If I can make my ideas so "easy to move" that the GM doesn't even have to convert it when moving it, I think that's the most satisfactory thing. It also allows GMs to add a sprinkle here and a touch there with ease. So that's been my overriding emphasis in writing the game mechanics for stuff in the Enchiridion Series... make it super easy to "yoink" as much OR as little as you want. The Enchiridion Series also tries to aim for "standard" Fantasy fare as presented in the Core Rules; anything that goes too far from "high fantasy" goes elsewhere. In the hopper is the "Enchiridion of Eldritch Energies" which will focus on changing spell shapes, combining descriptors, and may just have a little "planar theory" in it, too. This has been written piecemeal and isn't done, but there are some pieces ready to go.
The "Silver Selects" line was one that I couldn't think of a better title for; but it's basically me messing around with the rulesets in ways that CAN'T be easily modularized like the Enchiridion Series. The first product in this line is/will be "Buy the Numbers" - as I write this Friday Five, I'm polishing off the final chapter; I'm not sure if layout, etc. will be complete by the time the Friday Five sees the light of day, but it will be darn close. Basically, this line is the line when I make a complete mess of the rules and do a huge re-write, so it's not easily compatible with an exisiting 3e/3.5e campaign in bits and pieces - you have to be ready to use the re-write. In that sense, it's something of the antithesis of the Enchiridion Series. See the answer to question #2 below for an indepth discussion of Buy the Numbers.
I also plan to add a "Cybernetics" book to this line by the end of the year that won't just cover metal and plastic, but "magically animated stone arms" and biological (both plant and animal and... um... more monstrous) grafts. That one may be a little more modular, but it's certainly not "mainstream" enough for standard Fantasy fare. Cybernetics is still in the formative stages, though. I have an outline in place and some basic game mechanical concepts on which I'm building the framework, but of all the projects I'm currently working on, it's the farthest from completion.
My third product line has been fairly well-received so far, it's the "OGL-Fantasy Lite" Series. This is almost the opposite of my other lines; while the other lines seek to add to the game, this one seeks to condense and streamline it and throw things out for simplicity. So far, I have only completed the Basic Player's Guide, but I am hoping to add a Basic GM's Guide and an Intermediate Players Guide and Intermediate GM's Guide at some point in the future. The idea here was that 3e/3.5e as presently constituted is way too complex for a new player to learn. The Fantasy Lite series is an attempt to create a streamlined version with a lot less rules that is more accessible for new players. It still uses the Core Rules, just not ALL of them. Once players master the "Basic" guide, which isn't all that difficult, they should be ready to make the leap to the complexity of the Core Rules... and from thence to Core Rules + Supplements! I'm hoping to get the Intermediate Guides out there to give a "second step" between "Basic" rules and the full-fledged "Core Rules" set, again, in an attempt to make the transition easier.
I firmly believe that the hobby is in constant need of "fresh blood" and that it is important to have products that are accessible for younger audiences. I ran a poll on ENWorld quite some time ago asking at what age people were introduced to RPGs. The results (available at http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44019) told me that most people entered RPGs as pre-teens! That means (to me) that if we want
new blood, we have to make products that are accessible to pre-teens... both in terms of rules sets that are simple enough for pre-teens to grasp, and products that are "pre-teen friendly" in terms of theme and setting.
The main group of RPGers are now in their late 20s to late 40s and have "grown up" and may want more mature/adult themes and more complex rule sets with more options... but I don't think it's right to "pull the ladder up behind us" by making *everything* that way. The younger set needs rules they can understand and settings that are less "mature" to get themselves started. That's what this is. Call it a "moral imperative" that I feel to publish stuff that is a "gateway" to the product and is "kid-friendly." This stuff isn't for "established gamers" unless they want to have a quick & easy game or want something to "add new converts" to the RPG community. At some point, I hope to add some simple adventures to the mix as well, but that's a ways down the road.
Finally, there's the "Fantasy Quest" line. We have but one product in that line now, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning adventure "The Burning Sage's Demesne" - but there are 6 other adventures "in the hopper" that are more or less written - they were originally written for 3e, so need some conversion to 3.5 - and need some layout and rewrite work, but if all goes well, they should start coming out at a rate of one each month or two starting in late June or early July. They're "semi-connected" - you can run them in sequence if you wish, or you can simply run any one of them independent from the others. I have another set that were written for 1e that will need some major conversion, but I hope to get those out some time next year... at that time we will have over a dozen adventures in the "Fantasy Quest" line, which I'm really excited about!
2. Tell us at length about your most recent project (upcoming or just
released)
Buy the Numbers tears out the existing "class & level" paradigm from the Core Rules in favor of a "spend your XP directly to gain BAB, Fort Saves, Skills, Feats, Spells, Hit Dice, etc." - basically modelled on the thought that the existing "class & level" paradigm is like going to the cafeteria and plunking down money (XP) to buy (level up) a complete meal (the set of abilities granted by the class level you picked) where you don't get a choice of what side dishes come with your entree; instead, Buy the Numbers is completely a la carte. If 3.5e emphasizes specialization at a cost of well-roundedness, BtN does so to an even greater degree... but also allows well-roundedness should it be needed.
BtN solves a lot of the frustrations I've had with the Core Rules... for instance, there are so many good Feats out there to choose from, but I don't get Feats nearly as often as I'd like. In BtN, I can pick up Feats "more often" than normal, allowing me to explore character concepts faster. I also like having lots of low-level spell slots available; I can't do that in a standard game, but I can in BtN. After all, shouldn't a 6th-level wizard be able to a lot of "minor" magic? Most importantly, though, I think its magic system does a satisfactory job of solving the great "multiclass divine/arcane caster level" debate. A word of warning - a "powergamer" can exploit Buy The Numbers to an even greater degree than the Core Rules because it allows him to focus solely on developing the one specialty he wants without having to pick up all the "extraneous stuff" that class & level systems give him, so it's recommended that GMs watch their players very closesly. I do offer suggestions throughout of ways to slow down/tone down the power gamer, but ultimately (as it always does) this responsibility rests in the hands of the GM. I also give lots of advice for variants to the system to reflect those who think things might better be handled a certain way (e.g., the variant that allows for purchasing "melee BAB" and "ranged BAB" separately rathar than the regular "BAB" might appeal to someone who feels that such a method is more realistic to depict the yeoman archer who can hit a bullseye at 200 yards but can't wield a sword very well).
So I don't know if it will be "upcoming" or "just released" when this hits the messageboards, but either way, it's been the product I've worked with the most of late.
3. What is your main target audience, and how much of a spread beyond that do you feel is likely, first for your line(s), then for your most recent?
You know, I've never thought about a target audience. I have just written stuff that I feel "needs to be written." I think my target audience is probably those folks who are looking for the thing the Enchiridion series does - for an expansion of an underdeveloped area of the rules so they have more options and can bring more wondrous variety to their worlds.
Obviously, the different lines cater to different tastes, though. It's probably clear from the types of projects in the lines that I have a lot of interests and am not the kind of person that wants the same thing all the time!
I think the Buy the Numbers product will appeal to gamers who (a) want to be more flexible in building characters without resorting to building specific prestige classes with power combos, (b) people who like GURPS and HERO point-buy sytems instead of class & level systems, and (c) those who want more Feats or more Spells than the "standard" system provides... probably in that order (and there's probably some overlap too).
4. What is the main thing about your company that makes you most proud?
I think the thing that makes me most proud is the e-mail feedback I get... "I used Item X in my campaign and my players loved it!" or "what a great adventure, my players couldn't believe it when..." It tells me that I've been able to enrich the lives of others and in that way I get to be a small part of their gaming experience. Other things that make me proud are my OGC declarations - I WANT this stuff re-used, so I open pretty much everything but my name and my product names in the text of the work - and the fact that I have never included cross-advertising in my products. One advantage about running my own ship is that I can make sure I never do things that annoy me - I hate it when people waste pages - even "ethereal" ones in a PDF - by slipping advertisements into their products, so I never do it. I hate it when people try to hang on to "their precious" by making obfuscating or limiting OGC declarations, so I never do it.
I guess that means I'm proud that my products are made the way I feel products SHOULD be made, and that I've not compromised my beliefs to sell more product or to let my ideas own me through nasty OGC declarations (I truly believe the zen adage that, "anything one cannot bear to give up is not owned, but is in fact the owner" and find it sad that so many great creative thinkers are owned by something as ephemeral as words on a page).
Maybe the writing isn't the best stylistically (I'm rather dry, I think), and my artwork skills suck, so I have to rely upon others, especially clip-art collections, but I hope the ideas and concepts spark thought and inspire readers. I think that's why I'm proudest of the e-mails I get, because it means the ideas presented transcended the limitations imposed upon them by my own meager writing skills and managed to shine through to light the fire of the imagination of others (I envy guys like Monte Cook, Chris Pramas, and Jesse Decker, who have more ideas and better writing to express them and must therefore get that thrill more often).
5. Where do you see your company one year from now?
I don't know... probably putting out a slow trickle of products as we are now, though with a much larger catalogue than our current five offerings... with so much stuff written and just needing some rewrites and updating, I think it's safe to say I want a dozen products in our catalogue in one year. But at the end of the day, this is and has always been a hobby for me - to make it a "business" would eat quickly away at the beauty of it. I have other interests, too and a growing family, and I'm lucky they humor me in this... but I think they do it because they realize it's part of me. A big part of my creativity is in "inventing worlds" - something I have been taught by countless RPG authors from Gygax to Cook, but also from the community of RPGers at large. In many ways, I am the child of the RPG community... so to coin a phrase from the Silmarillion, "As a child to his father, I offer too these things, the work of the hands which thou hast made."
Right now, this is a business of one person - just me writing in my spare time, slowly putting ideas to virtual "paper" a bit here and a bit there. A year from now, if it's not more of the same, I'll be disappointed becasue it will have poisoned what I started out to do... to have fun. I've been at this for over two years now, and it's done solely for pleasure. The moment that pleasure stops is the moment we close our virtual doors. Maybe that's not the most "ambitious" of business plans, but I think in the RPG business, it's one of the purest.
----
ST Cooley Publishing's website is located at http://www.stcooleypublishing.com
Well, right now I have four "lines" though some have only one product in them.
Our "flagship" line has been the "Enchiridion Series" - it currently has three offerings - the Enchiridion of Mystic Music (EoMM), the Enchiridion of Treasures and Objects d'art (EoTaOdA), and the Enchiridion of Elided Enduements of the Expanse (EEEE). In fact, the EoMM started it all.
The Enchiridion Series is where I try to explore an under-developed (in my opinion) aspect of the rules of the game and expand it to include a lot of options. For Mystic Music, the focus was on a Bard's music abilities - there just seemed to be so much room to expand on music rather than the five abilities that existed in 3.0, and that's what the EoMM did. Similarly, the EoTaOdA was focused on "mundane treasures" and "minor magic items" - I thought there was a lot of room to expand on mundane treasures other than just "piles of coins" and I hope the EoTaOdA provided the tools to do that.
Finally, the EEEE tried to explore rangers and give them a few more "naturalistic" abilities - though it came out right around the shift from 3.0 to 3.5 and since the ranger got a significant makeover in that transition, some of the ideas were redundant, didn't work, or generally weren't applicable to the new ruleset; I tried to edit the nearly-finished work when 3.5 came out, but didn't want to do a total rewrite because at that point I was getting sick of the project - and some portions suffered for that desire - the EEEE is probably the weakest of the three because of it.
One of the major things I try to emphasize when writing the Enchiridion Series is what I call "total modularity" - that is, I don't want to re-write the rules completely, just offer new twists and options, so that you can take as little as one sentence or item or what have you from an Enchiridion work and drop it into your existing campaign with no need to convert to a new system. I think that's the best way to present topics that expand on the existing ruleset, because I myself am not a fan of having to incorporate an entirely new rewrite of rules just to make use of one good idea that I see - I just want to steal that idea. Of course, if it is tied to another ruleset and I don't want the system, I then have to tweak and massage and convert that one little piece to get it into my campaign... and that's work I don't like doing either, because I have to do so much work just to make use of one little piece. If I can make my ideas so "easy to move" that the GM doesn't even have to convert it when moving it, I think that's the most satisfactory thing. It also allows GMs to add a sprinkle here and a touch there with ease. So that's been my overriding emphasis in writing the game mechanics for stuff in the Enchiridion Series... make it super easy to "yoink" as much OR as little as you want. The Enchiridion Series also tries to aim for "standard" Fantasy fare as presented in the Core Rules; anything that goes too far from "high fantasy" goes elsewhere. In the hopper is the "Enchiridion of Eldritch Energies" which will focus on changing spell shapes, combining descriptors, and may just have a little "planar theory" in it, too. This has been written piecemeal and isn't done, but there are some pieces ready to go.
The "Silver Selects" line was one that I couldn't think of a better title for; but it's basically me messing around with the rulesets in ways that CAN'T be easily modularized like the Enchiridion Series. The first product in this line is/will be "Buy the Numbers" - as I write this Friday Five, I'm polishing off the final chapter; I'm not sure if layout, etc. will be complete by the time the Friday Five sees the light of day, but it will be darn close. Basically, this line is the line when I make a complete mess of the rules and do a huge re-write, so it's not easily compatible with an exisiting 3e/3.5e campaign in bits and pieces - you have to be ready to use the re-write. In that sense, it's something of the antithesis of the Enchiridion Series. See the answer to question #2 below for an indepth discussion of Buy the Numbers.
I also plan to add a "Cybernetics" book to this line by the end of the year that won't just cover metal and plastic, but "magically animated stone arms" and biological (both plant and animal and... um... more monstrous) grafts. That one may be a little more modular, but it's certainly not "mainstream" enough for standard Fantasy fare. Cybernetics is still in the formative stages, though. I have an outline in place and some basic game mechanical concepts on which I'm building the framework, but of all the projects I'm currently working on, it's the farthest from completion.
My third product line has been fairly well-received so far, it's the "OGL-Fantasy Lite" Series. This is almost the opposite of my other lines; while the other lines seek to add to the game, this one seeks to condense and streamline it and throw things out for simplicity. So far, I have only completed the Basic Player's Guide, but I am hoping to add a Basic GM's Guide and an Intermediate Players Guide and Intermediate GM's Guide at some point in the future. The idea here was that 3e/3.5e as presently constituted is way too complex for a new player to learn. The Fantasy Lite series is an attempt to create a streamlined version with a lot less rules that is more accessible for new players. It still uses the Core Rules, just not ALL of them. Once players master the "Basic" guide, which isn't all that difficult, they should be ready to make the leap to the complexity of the Core Rules... and from thence to Core Rules + Supplements! I'm hoping to get the Intermediate Guides out there to give a "second step" between "Basic" rules and the full-fledged "Core Rules" set, again, in an attempt to make the transition easier.
I firmly believe that the hobby is in constant need of "fresh blood" and that it is important to have products that are accessible for younger audiences. I ran a poll on ENWorld quite some time ago asking at what age people were introduced to RPGs. The results (available at http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=44019) told me that most people entered RPGs as pre-teens! That means (to me) that if we want
new blood, we have to make products that are accessible to pre-teens... both in terms of rules sets that are simple enough for pre-teens to grasp, and products that are "pre-teen friendly" in terms of theme and setting.
The main group of RPGers are now in their late 20s to late 40s and have "grown up" and may want more mature/adult themes and more complex rule sets with more options... but I don't think it's right to "pull the ladder up behind us" by making *everything* that way. The younger set needs rules they can understand and settings that are less "mature" to get themselves started. That's what this is. Call it a "moral imperative" that I feel to publish stuff that is a "gateway" to the product and is "kid-friendly." This stuff isn't for "established gamers" unless they want to have a quick & easy game or want something to "add new converts" to the RPG community. At some point, I hope to add some simple adventures to the mix as well, but that's a ways down the road.
Finally, there's the "Fantasy Quest" line. We have but one product in that line now, the critically-acclaimed and award-winning adventure "The Burning Sage's Demesne" - but there are 6 other adventures "in the hopper" that are more or less written - they were originally written for 3e, so need some conversion to 3.5 - and need some layout and rewrite work, but if all goes well, they should start coming out at a rate of one each month or two starting in late June or early July. They're "semi-connected" - you can run them in sequence if you wish, or you can simply run any one of them independent from the others. I have another set that were written for 1e that will need some major conversion, but I hope to get those out some time next year... at that time we will have over a dozen adventures in the "Fantasy Quest" line, which I'm really excited about!
2. Tell us at length about your most recent project (upcoming or just
released)
Buy the Numbers tears out the existing "class & level" paradigm from the Core Rules in favor of a "spend your XP directly to gain BAB, Fort Saves, Skills, Feats, Spells, Hit Dice, etc." - basically modelled on the thought that the existing "class & level" paradigm is like going to the cafeteria and plunking down money (XP) to buy (level up) a complete meal (the set of abilities granted by the class level you picked) where you don't get a choice of what side dishes come with your entree; instead, Buy the Numbers is completely a la carte. If 3.5e emphasizes specialization at a cost of well-roundedness, BtN does so to an even greater degree... but also allows well-roundedness should it be needed.
BtN solves a lot of the frustrations I've had with the Core Rules... for instance, there are so many good Feats out there to choose from, but I don't get Feats nearly as often as I'd like. In BtN, I can pick up Feats "more often" than normal, allowing me to explore character concepts faster. I also like having lots of low-level spell slots available; I can't do that in a standard game, but I can in BtN. After all, shouldn't a 6th-level wizard be able to a lot of "minor" magic? Most importantly, though, I think its magic system does a satisfactory job of solving the great "multiclass divine/arcane caster level" debate. A word of warning - a "powergamer" can exploit Buy The Numbers to an even greater degree than the Core Rules because it allows him to focus solely on developing the one specialty he wants without having to pick up all the "extraneous stuff" that class & level systems give him, so it's recommended that GMs watch their players very closesly. I do offer suggestions throughout of ways to slow down/tone down the power gamer, but ultimately (as it always does) this responsibility rests in the hands of the GM. I also give lots of advice for variants to the system to reflect those who think things might better be handled a certain way (e.g., the variant that allows for purchasing "melee BAB" and "ranged BAB" separately rathar than the regular "BAB" might appeal to someone who feels that such a method is more realistic to depict the yeoman archer who can hit a bullseye at 200 yards but can't wield a sword very well).
So I don't know if it will be "upcoming" or "just released" when this hits the messageboards, but either way, it's been the product I've worked with the most of late.
3. What is your main target audience, and how much of a spread beyond that do you feel is likely, first for your line(s), then for your most recent?
You know, I've never thought about a target audience. I have just written stuff that I feel "needs to be written." I think my target audience is probably those folks who are looking for the thing the Enchiridion series does - for an expansion of an underdeveloped area of the rules so they have more options and can bring more wondrous variety to their worlds.
Obviously, the different lines cater to different tastes, though. It's probably clear from the types of projects in the lines that I have a lot of interests and am not the kind of person that wants the same thing all the time!
I think the Buy the Numbers product will appeal to gamers who (a) want to be more flexible in building characters without resorting to building specific prestige classes with power combos, (b) people who like GURPS and HERO point-buy sytems instead of class & level systems, and (c) those who want more Feats or more Spells than the "standard" system provides... probably in that order (and there's probably some overlap too).
4. What is the main thing about your company that makes you most proud?
I think the thing that makes me most proud is the e-mail feedback I get... "I used Item X in my campaign and my players loved it!" or "what a great adventure, my players couldn't believe it when..." It tells me that I've been able to enrich the lives of others and in that way I get to be a small part of their gaming experience. Other things that make me proud are my OGC declarations - I WANT this stuff re-used, so I open pretty much everything but my name and my product names in the text of the work - and the fact that I have never included cross-advertising in my products. One advantage about running my own ship is that I can make sure I never do things that annoy me - I hate it when people waste pages - even "ethereal" ones in a PDF - by slipping advertisements into their products, so I never do it. I hate it when people try to hang on to "their precious" by making obfuscating or limiting OGC declarations, so I never do it.
I guess that means I'm proud that my products are made the way I feel products SHOULD be made, and that I've not compromised my beliefs to sell more product or to let my ideas own me through nasty OGC declarations (I truly believe the zen adage that, "anything one cannot bear to give up is not owned, but is in fact the owner" and find it sad that so many great creative thinkers are owned by something as ephemeral as words on a page).
Maybe the writing isn't the best stylistically (I'm rather dry, I think), and my artwork skills suck, so I have to rely upon others, especially clip-art collections, but I hope the ideas and concepts spark thought and inspire readers. I think that's why I'm proudest of the e-mails I get, because it means the ideas presented transcended the limitations imposed upon them by my own meager writing skills and managed to shine through to light the fire of the imagination of others (I envy guys like Monte Cook, Chris Pramas, and Jesse Decker, who have more ideas and better writing to express them and must therefore get that thrill more often).
5. Where do you see your company one year from now?
I don't know... probably putting out a slow trickle of products as we are now, though with a much larger catalogue than our current five offerings... with so much stuff written and just needing some rewrites and updating, I think it's safe to say I want a dozen products in our catalogue in one year. But at the end of the day, this is and has always been a hobby for me - to make it a "business" would eat quickly away at the beauty of it. I have other interests, too and a growing family, and I'm lucky they humor me in this... but I think they do it because they realize it's part of me. A big part of my creativity is in "inventing worlds" - something I have been taught by countless RPG authors from Gygax to Cook, but also from the community of RPGers at large. In many ways, I am the child of the RPG community... so to coin a phrase from the Silmarillion, "As a child to his father, I offer too these things, the work of the hands which thou hast made."
Right now, this is a business of one person - just me writing in my spare time, slowly putting ideas to virtual "paper" a bit here and a bit there. A year from now, if it's not more of the same, I'll be disappointed becasue it will have poisoned what I started out to do... to have fun. I've been at this for over two years now, and it's done solely for pleasure. The moment that pleasure stops is the moment we close our virtual doors. Maybe that's not the most "ambitious" of business plans, but I think in the RPG business, it's one of the purest.
----
ST Cooley Publishing's website is located at http://www.stcooleypublishing.com
Last edited:
