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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Orcus" data-source="post: 1978661" data-attributes="member: 1254">We've made a couple. 1. Paying royalties. Did it once early on and it was a mistake. On the flip side, I have also done it when it made sense. But you just cant know when that will be. 2. Early on announcing products before we understood our own production schedule and constraints. "Bards Gate" would be a prime example (though that is finally coming out Jan 2006).3. Getting blinded by a product. Wanting to do a product for certain reasons other than the product itself. Usually a bad call. There are a few things we have done right:1. Focus. We dont try to be what we arent.2. We dont chase the money. Bill and I have the luxury of doing this as a hobby so we dont feel compelled to "do what everyone else is doing" to cash in. We have NEVER done a product for the money, and as a result, we have made money. Funny how that happens...because we make products for the products themselves.3. Follow Steve Wieck's advice (president of WW): "Only do business with people you like." It's NEVER worth it to do business with people you dont like just because you think you will make money. In the end, you wont make the money and you will be miserable. In general, we live by that principle. The TLG guys. Kenzer. The WW guys, of course. Fiery Dragon. Monte. Etc. Those are all people we love hanging out with. 4. Listen to the fans--not for marketing, but for true input. I think we really do that well. 5. Do what you love. Bill and I dont do this half a$$ed. We love gaming and we love our products. I have seen many a product that looked like the publishers were just going through the motions. Sometimes you read a book and say "does this guy even play?" Bill and I love this stuff and I really think it shows in our products. Those are some of the things I think we do right. And alot of other successful companies probably do, too. Not sure what you mean. Like I said, Bill and I dont try to be what we arent. We arent Monte. One-upping WotC on rules is Monte's gig. Not ours. I am not the anal "balance" guy. I "play" D&D. I dont balance it. I want fun. And sometimes that doesnt mean perfect balance. So I dont really think that is what Bill and I do well.  So we dont do it. That said, we have done some alternative stuff that I have liked. Frankly, I think hands down just about every one of Scott Greene's versions of monsters that have also been done by WotC that Scott's version is better. So we certainly do monsters well. I like my revised XP chart. I like some of those things we have done. But we are not the "alternative rules" company and dont try to be. Do any stand out in need of revision? Yeah, all of them. And none of them. As for challenging WotC as a general matter, I'd say we threw the d20 gauntlet down when I produced the original Creature Collection with WW/SSS which beat the official Monster Manual to press. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> So I shure dont mind challenging WotC. And I dont think they mind (or Ryan certainly didnt when he was in charge anyway); they loved it. Clark</blockquote>

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