Indie Publishers, what are you working on for 2023?

[Sacrosanct]

Seems like we spent a lot of time talking about certain small publishers who don't actually create anything. I'd like to talk about those of us who do. I'm very curious to see what other folks are working on, planning on having them released this year. And I'm curious to share how we each tackle our projects as small companies (I'm a one-person show for example). We might have some best practices to share.

For me, last year was pretty busy, especially since I am just one person. I put out my biggest project in Twilight Fables, but also put out Bugbears&Borderlands and released advanced copies of Tomb of Entropy. I'm pretty proud of being able to do all of those in a year.

For 2023, I've already released the official Tomb of Entropy adventure, and I'm 99% done writing "Mirrored Mountain", which takes the classic Endless Quest book, Mountain of Mirrors, and converts it to an adventure. Due to the OGL scandal, I'm also finally releasing my own system. It's so nice to write for a system that you're invested in and love rather than someone else's system (like 5e).

So what about you? Gonna take advantage of the D&D movie success and put out some OGL stuff?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I’m planning on becoming a first time publisher this year, with a supplement for 5e dedicated to shadow folk and shadow realms, and then a larger project that jumps off from the SRD into a 5e variant similar in scope to adventures in middle earth, with new classes, modified versions of existing classes, new and new versions of races, and a full setting.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I’m planning on becoming a first time publisher this year, with a supplement for 5e dedicated to shadow folk and shadow realms, and then a larger project that jumps off from the SRD into a 5e variant similar in scope to adventures in middle earth, with new classes, modified versions of existing classes, new and new versions of races, and a full setting.

congrats! I wish you the best success!

 

[Bedrockgames]

I put out Sons of Lady 87, a wuxia sandbox for our Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate RPG. The PDF is up on Drivethru, the print is available through a link on our website (and should be getting into broader circulation in April).



I am also working on Strange Tales of New England, a modern horror RPG that uses the same core system as our Strange Tales of Songling RPG. I tend to work slowly over a long period, so not sure how long this project is going to take.

I have a couple of other projects in the works as well (which I can describe as they get closer to take off).

 

[doctorbadwolf]

congrats! I wish you the best success!

Thanks! I’m terrified!

The big project is basically a D&D port of my own game, Quest for Chevar. QfC is set primarily in Earth, but features other worlds, and central to the conflicts of the setting is the mysterious world of Chevar.

The product I’m working on, Chevar: Champions of The Ninth Realm, is set in that fantastic world itself, and it’s got a vibe of the Thundercats generation of science fantasy cartoons meets final fantasy and aetherpunk or crystalpunk fiction.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I put out Sons of Lady 87, a wuxia sandbox for our Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate RPG. The PDF is up on Drivethru, the print is available through a link on our website (and should be getting into broader circulation in April).

View attachment 279274

I am also working on Strange Tales of New England, a modern horror RPG that uses the same core system as our Strange Tales of Songling RPG. I tend to work slowly over a long period, so not sure how long this project is going to take.

I have a couple of other projects in the works as well (which I can describe as they get closer to take off).

I absolutely love that cover. I’d ask for the name of the artist, but I don’t want to steal them lol

 

[Sacrosanct]

Thanks! I’m terrified!

The big project is basically a D&D port of my own game, Quest for Chevar. QfC is set primarily in Earth, but features other worlds, and central to the conflicts of the setting is the mysterious world of Chevar.

The product I’m working on, Chevar: Champions of The Ninth Realm, is set in that fantastic world itself, and it’s got a vibe of the Thundercats generation of science fantasy cartoons meets final fantasy and aetherpunk or crystalpunk fiction.

Some advice for those stepping into the creator waters:
Do it because you love it, regardless of anything else
Ignore anyone who criticizes it because there will always be people like that so don’t let it affect you personally.
Don’t get down if it doesn’t take off right away. Not all of us have the following of Mercer or others.
No matter how good you are, always have outside people look it over. The #1 law is the minute you publish it, you’ll see all your errors
Unless it’s a vanity project for you, be humble and willing to leave a favored part on the cutting room floor if your potential customers won’t like it.

Most importantly, you can totally do it. Before we can be good at anything, we have to be ok with being bad at it for a bit. Just keep going.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I absolutely love that cover. I’d ask for the name of the artist, but I don’t want to steal them lol

Thanks. The cover artist is Jackie Musto. She has been doing an unbelievable job on these

 

[Balvennie]

Some advice for those stepping into the creator waters:
Do it because you love it, regardless of anything else
Ignore anyone who criticizes it because there will always be people like that so don’t let it affect you personally.
Don’t get down if it doesn’t take off right away. Not all of us have the following of Mercer or others.
No matter how good you are, always have outside people look it over. The #1 law is the minute you publish it, you’ll see all your errors
Unless it’s a vanity project for you, be humble and willing to leave a favored part on the cutting room floor if your potential customers won’t like it.

Most importantly, you can totally do it. Before we can be good at anything, we have to be ok with being bad at it for a bit. Just keep going.

Man, am I glad I stumbled on this post.

I'm about 32,000 words into an expansion for Spelljammer. I should have the writing wrapped up in the next two weeks. Other than taking the material and putting it into production form, I have very little idea on the best way to get there except for following the standard product development cycle. I have a deep background in digital marketing and web design, but I have no idea what the art design process should look like or cost, or whom to approach about it. I have high confidence in being able to put together the final project, but getting the right look and feel is a big concern.

I'd also love for someone to just take a look and see if anyone would be interested in using any of the ideas in it, or if anyone could give me some pointers on where to go next.

 

[Art Waring]

I am currently in the trenches writing my first major ttrpg, and I am hoping to publish by the end of the year. However, the OGL debacle has set me back in costs and time invested on creating a 5e project that is now being migrated over to our own in house system.

Our game "Splicer Gears" features a heavily customized 5e-forked system, featuring modular options for standard games, solo games, hardcore mode, E6 modes, a classless "normal human" mode for playing a "The Boys" style campaign, and an outstanding amount of customization for characters to choose from.

Splicer Gears is a biopunk ttrpg with a unique world and a unique approach to game design. I am waiting until I am closer to release to reveal the playtest, the world, city map, and the pitch

I am a freelance artist (with 24 years experience as a street artist, typographer, & a graphic designer), doing the layout, design, and about half of the art myself including the cover. I have been fortunate enough to work with several other talented artists on the project whom I have a great deal of respect for, including the eminent Rashed Alakroka.

Alternate Cover by Rashed Alakroka.

You can keep up to date on new developments for the project on my blog, or you can get early access to playtesting, characters sheets, discount codes for our websites, and concept art available exclusively on my patreon page.

 

[monsmord]

Also hoping to start being an indie publisher, sorta, by helping someone else get their homebrew setting into a publishable state (likely for 2024). The good and bad news is that their world is massively documented, and has been played in for decades. The first decision is how best to get it all out there - a ginormous setting book, a one-region book with some starter adventures followed up with gazetteers , a campaign book that focuses on adventurers while delivering lore on the side, "other," etc.

I'd like to do my own creative work, too, but I'm clueless about what's in demand these days, what with VTTs (not my thing), multitudinous systems and play styles, the kerfuffle with the OGL, etc. Like staring at a smorgasbord, I can't make up my mind what to start with. It all looks so good! Heartbreaker setting using a licensed system? An adventure with a licensed system? A new system? Generic system-agnostic supplement? Solo adventure? One-off RPG-adjacent game? Or maybe a card game, no, wait, a board game... I'm a train without tracks over here.

Good luck to everyone who's making it happen!

 

[Zaukrie]

I've started selling maps to other publishers....two pitches, two sales. So that's nice.

I still have a masters and minions book, initiative systems book, and two others in draft. I am considering KS one of them this year, we'll see.

Right now, I'm leaning toward selling three maps per PDF on Drivethru....and a few heist lists / ideas / plots on DMsGuild. If I can figure out how to make modules in Foundry, I'll sell the maps there also (set up with walls and lighting).

Oh, and I bought a chromebook so I can get back to working on my novel, which seems to require me NOT to be at my normal desk.

 

[Ath-kethin]

We just released the second in our line of short DCC supplements and character options (after a LONG gap after the first one), and I'm preparing to launch a crowdfunding campaign for our first big DCC release: a 0 level funnel/module we playtested last Gen Con amongst other places. We have a bunch of other DCC stuff in various stages of development as well, though unfortunately we won't have anything ready by this Gen Con.

We still have some 5e Al-Qadim stuff theoretically in the pipeline, as follow-ups to our Campaign Guide, but progress on those has been pretty minimal for a while. Someday!

 

[Vexed Vizier]

Like many others, I'm working on my own system. I've been working on it for a couple years. It began as an AD&D refinement and has mutated into its own thing.

I started playtesting with my group a couple weeks ago (levels 1-6 only at the moment.) It's going well! I'm very satisfied with the core of the game and I'm amazed at how much fine-tuning there is. My guess is this will take longer than I first expected. I'm enjoying the process, though, and I'd rather do it well than do it fast.

I would love to put the first 1-3 or maybe 1-6 levels out for free by the end of the year to generate some buzz and iron out any final kinks.

 

[Gradine]

I myself am also hoping to become a first-time publisher, working on an PbtA hack focused on episodic, character-focused science fantasy.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Let's see:

*In mid-April I will be launching a Kickstarter to revise Filling in the Blanks and A Guide to Thieves' Guilds with the same layout as Into the Wild, and will also be funding an omnibus version of all three books combined into a single volume.
*Mid-June I hope to launch BX Advanced Bestiary, Volume 2
*Mid-September will see The Keep of the Rawhide Gang hexcrawl.
*Mid-November I'm shooting for BX Advanced Bestiary, Volume 3.

And I'll also continue to release Populated Hexes Monthly. Will begin Year 3 this summer.

 

[BASHMAN]

I just finished the BASH! Awesome Powers Omnibus, culminating the series, now available in hardback on Drivethru, and also got Honor + Intrigue available on Drivethru in hardback as well (with a neat new cover). H+I is also coming to Fantasy Grounds.

What I have upcoming is a compilation for H+I called the Tome of Intriguing Options. It will be combining everything from Intriguing Options 1-4 along with the Duelist's Guide (and a few other extras) in one book. My intention is to do this via crowdsourcing as my next full-length book. There will also be a couple adventure modules that lean on this expansion of what the system can do as well as a monster book.

 

[John R Davis]

24 hours away from launching latest adventure KS!

 

[hojulation]

I got into Indie Publishing last year with two play aids and a Wildspace System creation guide for Spelljammer. Planning on releasing some adventures and rules options this year. About 80% complete on an adventure module for 5E that can run as a standalone adventure or as an add-on for a Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign.

Also have some ideas to put out some content supporting Free League's Forbidden Lands and Green Ronin's Fantasy AGE(2nd Edition!!)

 

[dragoner]

Solis People of the Sun revamped was published this month, and I am working on other books, people have been very enthusiastic about spots, so I hope to keep up with the expectations.