From the Ground Up - Building a Game Company
- Thread starter Eosin the Red
- Start date
Eosin the Red
First Post
Sir Elton said:
GURPs is a great model to emulate and one that is fully in my site.
Eosin the Red
First Post
The first official announcement!
The Night of Fire Adventure Line
The Last Dominion Campaign Setting for the d20 System
Designed by Randy Madden and Steven Russell
Cover by Jeff Ward
Interior Art by Jason McCuiston
Character Studies by Lee Smith
Cartography by Clayton Bunce
64 pages, PDF
MSRP: $8.95
Scholars and mages study the sky seeking to uncover the secrets of the strange lights that streak through the sky. When the sky is glowing, the village folk make signs to ward off evil and scurry into their homes for fear of what is to come. Priests watch the sky and pray; they seek answers from their divine patrons and reassurance for their flocks. If the fire in the sky is an omen, none speak of it.
While the sky is on fire, two dynastic struggles threaten to plunge the kingdom into civil war. The king has disinherited the grandchild of his most powerful vassal, Duke Wingate. Meanwhile, the king's half brother, Prince Caras is marching with his troops in the hopes of claiming the throne he believes is his by the right of birth.
While the lights dazzle the sky and the nobles play kingmaker, within the forests and mountains of the Eastern Marches sinister plots are coming to fruition. Caught between the forces of heaven and earth, a countess and her son fight for survival on the Night of Fire.
The Night of Fire is an adventure scenario designed for 1st to 3rd level characters. This module may be played alone or as part of an ongoing campaign.
Written by Randy Madden
Produced by Pencil Pushers Publishing - www.Pencilpushers.net
Coming May 30th
The Night of Fire Adventure Line
The Last Dominion Campaign Setting for the d20 System
Designed by Randy Madden and Steven Russell
Cover by Jeff Ward
Interior Art by Jason McCuiston
Character Studies by Lee Smith
Cartography by Clayton Bunce
64 pages, PDF
MSRP: $8.95
Scholars and mages study the sky seeking to uncover the secrets of the strange lights that streak through the sky. When the sky is glowing, the village folk make signs to ward off evil and scurry into their homes for fear of what is to come. Priests watch the sky and pray; they seek answers from their divine patrons and reassurance for their flocks. If the fire in the sky is an omen, none speak of it.
While the sky is on fire, two dynastic struggles threaten to plunge the kingdom into civil war. The king has disinherited the grandchild of his most powerful vassal, Duke Wingate. Meanwhile, the king's half brother, Prince Caras is marching with his troops in the hopes of claiming the throne he believes is his by the right of birth.
While the lights dazzle the sky and the nobles play kingmaker, within the forests and mountains of the Eastern Marches sinister plots are coming to fruition. Caught between the forces of heaven and earth, a countess and her son fight for survival on the Night of Fire.
The Night of Fire is an adventure scenario designed for 1st to 3rd level characters. This module may be played alone or as part of an ongoing campaign.
Written by Randy Madden
Produced by Pencil Pushers Publishing - www.Pencilpushers.net
Coming May 30th
Surreptitious
First Post
Eosin the Red said:
Very interesing thread, great marketing strategy. Letting us in on your decisions and struggles on the way to creating a succesfull publishing company generates a lot of sympathy.
The teaser for the adventure sounds intriguing - an overall story arch with sinster omens and a war of succesion the start of an epic campaign.
However...
I miss the link to the small beginnings where do the pcs come into the picture?
There is a reference to a countess and her son, do the pcs rescue her or protect her. I would love to have some info on what the adventure is really about. what role do upcomming heroes play in the game of kings and omens?
(this is actually very positive - the teaser has gotten me interested enough to start wondering about these things)
---
on marketing and sales channels:
PDFs are the way to go from my point of view. Living in Denmark the FLGSs are months behind releases of new products except for WOTC releases of course.
I usually buy 1 or 2 rpg products a month. PDFs increase my spending range, as I can cut down on the shipping and VAT which often amounts to as much as the product in it self.
Good luck with your venture
Qwillion
First Post
amusing I get author credits even though randy is really the one writing the adventure, I expect that some of Here there be Monsters will be used in Night of Fire and I imagine we will fit in sidetreks to make use of the Two Fisted Action, and Freestyle campainging logs.
Oh I would love to tell you about the adventure and where the PC's fit in but I will leave that too randy.
Oh I would love to tell you about the adventure and where the PC's fit in but I will leave that too randy.
The Dread Morg
First Post
Hello Randy!
I've been lurking around your site and this thread, and I wanted to post and say that it sounds like you've got a winner there. The teaser hits me where I like it, and I look forward to seeing more. If I might though, IMO, you use the word "sky" too often in the description. It sort of sounds redundant and throws me off somewhat. That's the only critique I'd offer though. The rest of it sounds good, and gives sort of a "dynastic psedu-political" feeling to the world. (Subject matter near and dear to my heart as you know.)
I wish you and Qwill the best of luck, and you can count on at least one definite sale!
I've been lurking around your site and this thread, and I wanted to post and say that it sounds like you've got a winner there. The teaser hits me where I like it, and I look forward to seeing more. If I might though, IMO, you use the word "sky" too often in the description. It sort of sounds redundant and throws me off somewhat. That's the only critique I'd offer though. The rest of it sounds good, and gives sort of a "dynastic psedu-political" feeling to the world. (Subject matter near and dear to my heart as you know.)
I wish you and Qwill the best of luck, and you can count on at least one definite sale!
Eosin the Red
First Post
Been a busy week. Real busy.
My email has been on the fritz for the last 24-36 hours. Sometimes I get the normal flow of mail and sometimes nothing for hours. I know that I am missing stuff cause I sent myself 3 emails from work yesterday and those are gone. I also see some quotes on the various lists that I am on that reference posts I did not receive.
Since I could not get at the email last night and I had to work, I ended up doing some research some for setting and some for publishing.
I looked at several company’s submission guidelines and release forms. Some of them read like a legal enema and others are full of piss and vinegar. I really liked the stuff by White Wolf. My co-workers kept wondering why I would occasionally laugh aloud. Yep, it is that funny.
I pondered a setting description or setting blurb. I checked out what other people put out and much to my surprise, NO ONE has a setting blurb anywhere (OK, 7th Sea does but it is well hidden). Kalamar also had one but it nearly put me to sleep and I like Kalamar!
What to know what the Scarred Lands are like? Me too. I could not find it. Want a nice blurb about the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk? Me too. What about the Iron Kingdoms? At least they had something but the blurb told me exactly what I would know within seconds of picking up a product – Steam, machines, and no holds barred art.
I am still pondering what this means. I need a setting for my non-businessy, business plan as bass ackwards as it may be.
Lack of sleep has turned me into a chump. This has more to do with the wife being out of commission than it does with anything else.
I read several pages of veteran RPG writers and designers giving the whoozit about publishing, writing, game design, and grammar. I still don’t know the difference between loose and lose. I suspect it will say that on my grave. Thank goodness for editors. The advice is keen and cutting. If you want to get the skinny then head to places like S. John Ross’s website, then start looking at company submissions and art submissions statements.
I just noticed something that is a big ole boo-boo. When talking with people, I figured out that I would need to bump my planned adventure from 32 to 64 pages if I wanted to see print. I did this. Now I realize, I am shy on art. I am going to need a hook other than just a standard adventure – i.e. give DMS something that they can reuse for more than just the life of the module. Finally, I just realized that if the writer (me) was in a hurt locker before, at this point he is FUBAR. It is like 3 or 4 days after posting my announcement and I am going to have to change the release date.
Why does this suck? I am glad you asked. I had planned to squeak this bad boy into the ENNies and then cross my fingers and hope that it is good enough to garner some attention. Even making into the top 3 of any category would equate to real dollars in sales for a brand new company. I know that I did not buy Magical Medieval Society until it had won and I had “proof” that it did not suck. That proof or “street cred” is probably invaluable and now I will have to wait 16 months to see anything from it (the ceremony is in August and IF I was to produce something that made any cut but hit the street after May 31st then it will not be known until August 2005).
This is a real fish or cut bait scenario I have found myself in. No answer is a good answer – so I turn to my trusty goal statement and the least acceptable level of success for me is to produce something that I am proud to have my name on. I think that means that the date is going to get kicked back but that raises all kinds of money issues.
I am still working on “THE SETTING BIBLE.” Not so much adding things to the document as I am refining the ideas, increasing word precision and boiling things down to the bare minimum needed to convey what is needed. While doing this, I am wrangling with my partner about various names [I did mention that I was a name freak before didn’t I?]. I think I hit pay dirt today with some stuff on a race. Excuse the technical terms but I have an ELDER RACE who are SECRET GUARDIANS mixed with dose of PIRIAH ELITE [Think Vulcans, Mimbari, Middle-earth elves and the like]. I wanted them to be different than the often-lamented “Tolkien Races” but not so different that people did not “get” them. A little does of Celtic myth goes a long way in this case.
While I am on that, we have nearly finished the first collaborative re-imagining of FRP using minotaurs. I am anxious to see how well it goes over. Steven did the initial write, then I edited and added in some text. Steven took my stuff did some more adding and subtracting then handed it over to an editor. There are still some minor issues with the piece but I can see the shine in the article already.
Anyway, I head back to work tomorrow after a week of being mom, dad, and everything else. I should finally be able to get some writing done.
PS - Thanks for the tip Morgish one. I will see about a tweak.
My email has been on the fritz for the last 24-36 hours. Sometimes I get the normal flow of mail and sometimes nothing for hours. I know that I am missing stuff cause I sent myself 3 emails from work yesterday and those are gone. I also see some quotes on the various lists that I am on that reference posts I did not receive.
Since I could not get at the email last night and I had to work, I ended up doing some research some for setting and some for publishing.
I looked at several company’s submission guidelines and release forms. Some of them read like a legal enema and others are full of piss and vinegar. I really liked the stuff by White Wolf. My co-workers kept wondering why I would occasionally laugh aloud. Yep, it is that funny.
I pondered a setting description or setting blurb. I checked out what other people put out and much to my surprise, NO ONE has a setting blurb anywhere (OK, 7th Sea does but it is well hidden). Kalamar also had one but it nearly put me to sleep and I like Kalamar!
What to know what the Scarred Lands are like? Me too. I could not find it. Want a nice blurb about the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk? Me too. What about the Iron Kingdoms? At least they had something but the blurb told me exactly what I would know within seconds of picking up a product – Steam, machines, and no holds barred art.
I am still pondering what this means. I need a setting for my non-businessy, business plan as bass ackwards as it may be.
Lack of sleep has turned me into a chump. This has more to do with the wife being out of commission than it does with anything else.
I read several pages of veteran RPG writers and designers giving the whoozit about publishing, writing, game design, and grammar. I still don’t know the difference between loose and lose. I suspect it will say that on my grave. Thank goodness for editors. The advice is keen and cutting. If you want to get the skinny then head to places like S. John Ross’s website, then start looking at company submissions and art submissions statements.
I just noticed something that is a big ole boo-boo. When talking with people, I figured out that I would need to bump my planned adventure from 32 to 64 pages if I wanted to see print. I did this. Now I realize, I am shy on art. I am going to need a hook other than just a standard adventure – i.e. give DMS something that they can reuse for more than just the life of the module. Finally, I just realized that if the writer (me) was in a hurt locker before, at this point he is FUBAR. It is like 3 or 4 days after posting my announcement and I am going to have to change the release date.
Why does this suck? I am glad you asked. I had planned to squeak this bad boy into the ENNies and then cross my fingers and hope that it is good enough to garner some attention. Even making into the top 3 of any category would equate to real dollars in sales for a brand new company. I know that I did not buy Magical Medieval Society until it had won and I had “proof” that it did not suck. That proof or “street cred” is probably invaluable and now I will have to wait 16 months to see anything from it (the ceremony is in August and IF I was to produce something that made any cut but hit the street after May 31st then it will not be known until August 2005).
This is a real fish or cut bait scenario I have found myself in. No answer is a good answer – so I turn to my trusty goal statement and the least acceptable level of success for me is to produce something that I am proud to have my name on. I think that means that the date is going to get kicked back but that raises all kinds of money issues.
I am still working on “THE SETTING BIBLE.” Not so much adding things to the document as I am refining the ideas, increasing word precision and boiling things down to the bare minimum needed to convey what is needed. While doing this, I am wrangling with my partner about various names [I did mention that I was a name freak before didn’t I?]. I think I hit pay dirt today with some stuff on a race. Excuse the technical terms but I have an ELDER RACE who are SECRET GUARDIANS mixed with dose of PIRIAH ELITE [Think Vulcans, Mimbari, Middle-earth elves and the like]. I wanted them to be different than the often-lamented “Tolkien Races” but not so different that people did not “get” them. A little does of Celtic myth goes a long way in this case.
While I am on that, we have nearly finished the first collaborative re-imagining of FRP using minotaurs. I am anxious to see how well it goes over. Steven did the initial write, then I edited and added in some text. Steven took my stuff did some more adding and subtracting then handed it over to an editor. There are still some minor issues with the piece but I can see the shine in the article already.
Anyway, I head back to work tomorrow after a week of being mom, dad, and everything else. I should finally be able to get some writing done.
PS - Thanks for the tip Morgish one. I will see about a tweak.
Eosin the Red
First Post
Surreptitious said:
Thanks for the kind words. Here are some thoughts.
The Night of Fire will place the intrepid free swords – or not so free swords, in the line of fire between several of the powerful noble families of Middea. I am working on the hooks for several of the character classes so that the adventure starts off in a little different manner but the basic premise is to help the countess and her son.
There will be options for playing the Countess or most likely her son. Additionally, the region will be set up in Eden Games, Fields of Blood realm management system. This will allow players and game masters to run a strategic and tactical game depending on their gaming preferences.
Long term, your group or your character will become involved in the dynastic struggles and if lucky you will uncover the omens of the Night of Fire. The setting will play to more human oriented adversaries, the kind who kill their nephews for a few years on the throne.
One of the things that I will focus on in the Adventures is to work classes like Paladins, Wizards, and Clerics. There will be encounters that are keyed to these types of characters.
For example, I have come up with a series of small encounters that will interact with a paladin type - they will receive dire omens from dead things. Only the paladin will ever see them – skeletons at a crossroads that recite poems, road kill that whisper secrets to him when no one is looking, etc… All of these warnings will lead the paladin into town and eventually into the service of the Countess and her son. Who knows why the warnings started or what they mean? But the paladin will soon ask to have some company when walking near grave yards.
Last edited:
Eosin the Red
First Post
I have spent most of the last few days getting ready to run a Wheel of Time adventure for the OKC gameday. I understand that people will be showing up – but precious few bothered to post to the thread. I hope it is fun either way.
I have been working with the various artists. The interior is nearly done – but as noted above I will need to at least double the amount of interior work since the size of the book has doubled.
The character studies are getting started, plus I hope to unveil the logo for “The Last Dominion” line sometime this week. It is strange when you can talk to an artist and they can pull an image right from your head, only better. Lee Smith, one of the artists, also let me know that he reads this thread. ;p
I am officially revising my publish date. There is no way that I can make the May 30th dead line. The revision is good for me cause it takes a huge amount of stress off me. I am still pondering the new release date but I expect that to be July-ish, prior to the Gencon drought.
The cover is also coming along well. We had to make some revisions and move a few things but I could see what I wanted in the rough pencils.
Let’s go back to Lee for a minute. Last night he told me he would rather have an AD [Art Director] tell him what was wrong or if an image needed to be changed rather than just accept it and then either:
A) Not publish it.
B) Voice dissatisfaction after the fact.
That came in handy today and last night. It is good knowing that professional artists (not all of them obviously) feel this way. It takes a load off me when I want something a little different. IT was much easier sending a reply saying “how bout we move this here and cut this guys hair.” I probably would have accepted it before and felt slightly disappointed. A warning though, artists are such for a reason – non artists should listen carefully to why they did things the way they did. I also dislike quibblers…..a fine line that one.
Second part: Writing. Writing. Writing but what am I writing?
Working with others is a real pain in the hindquarters. Even more so when what you are doing is not standard and you are a demanding freak J
First, I did get the adventure outline done and firmed up. Second, most of the writing was about how to write for The Last Dominion. I have a setting bible that gives some flavor and explains some things but I really needed something that said – these are the themes, these are the moods, these are the motifs and symbolism that should be used in The Last Dominion. I am nearly done.
Here is a question for anyone who wants to pipe up and offer their opinion. The “Writers Guide” will have information that if given to readers and players would “spoil” some of the fun of the setting. How do I manage this? Do I require a NDA? Gentleman’s agreement since I don’t have the money to sue anyone anyways? It is kinda tricky.
Anyway --- I am very interested in what you have to say on this subject.
BTW – only White Wolf [WoD] tells the writers/freelancers “how to write” for the WoD. Kinda strange.
I have some more ideas on PR and Line Direction and as usual these are not things that I have seen done before (probably for good reason). It will be interesting to see what I think after the game day – I am gonna talk to some folks and run the ideas by them.
I have been working with the various artists. The interior is nearly done – but as noted above I will need to at least double the amount of interior work since the size of the book has doubled.
The character studies are getting started, plus I hope to unveil the logo for “The Last Dominion” line sometime this week. It is strange when you can talk to an artist and they can pull an image right from your head, only better. Lee Smith, one of the artists, also let me know that he reads this thread. ;p
I am officially revising my publish date. There is no way that I can make the May 30th dead line. The revision is good for me cause it takes a huge amount of stress off me. I am still pondering the new release date but I expect that to be July-ish, prior to the Gencon drought.
The cover is also coming along well. We had to make some revisions and move a few things but I could see what I wanted in the rough pencils.
Let’s go back to Lee for a minute. Last night he told me he would rather have an AD [Art Director] tell him what was wrong or if an image needed to be changed rather than just accept it and then either:
A) Not publish it.
B) Voice dissatisfaction after the fact.
That came in handy today and last night. It is good knowing that professional artists (not all of them obviously) feel this way. It takes a load off me when I want something a little different. IT was much easier sending a reply saying “how bout we move this here and cut this guys hair.” I probably would have accepted it before and felt slightly disappointed. A warning though, artists are such for a reason – non artists should listen carefully to why they did things the way they did. I also dislike quibblers…..a fine line that one.
Second part: Writing. Writing. Writing but what am I writing?
Working with others is a real pain in the hindquarters. Even more so when what you are doing is not standard and you are a demanding freak J
First, I did get the adventure outline done and firmed up. Second, most of the writing was about how to write for The Last Dominion. I have a setting bible that gives some flavor and explains some things but I really needed something that said – these are the themes, these are the moods, these are the motifs and symbolism that should be used in The Last Dominion. I am nearly done.
Here is a question for anyone who wants to pipe up and offer their opinion. The “Writers Guide” will have information that if given to readers and players would “spoil” some of the fun of the setting. How do I manage this? Do I require a NDA? Gentleman’s agreement since I don’t have the money to sue anyone anyways? It is kinda tricky.
Anyway --- I am very interested in what you have to say on this subject.
BTW – only White Wolf [WoD] tells the writers/freelancers “how to write” for the WoD. Kinda strange.
I have some more ideas on PR and Line Direction and as usual these are not things that I have seen done before (probably for good reason). It will be interesting to see what I think after the game day – I am gonna talk to some folks and run the ideas by them.
The Dread Morg
First Post
I would think that a NDA would suffice, especially if you are working with folks who are (or want to be) professional freelancers. If your secrets of campaing are leaked, then it would reflect badly on the freelancer(s) who spilt the beans, and that sort of stuff likely gets around the community fairly quickly, and could be damaging to their future credability.
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