[Sabledrake Ent.] Naughty & Dice Press Release

[Mouseferatu]

Most likely -.- I am already altering some of the material and ordering new art for our prestige class book, Careers in Villainy. I can only be horrified at what the new license will do to this book.

Why not release it under the OGL instead of the D20 license?

 

[KingOfChaos]

Name recognition. I could release it without the D20 license, as could Sabledrake Ent. with their book, but who would pick it up and look at it without the D20 license glaring on the front like some heavenly becon of geekdom? Probably not many. As much as I like writing, I still need money to continue doing so if I want to print my work in books.

I don't know what I am going to do with my books just yet. I may or may not publishing just under the OGL and hope for the best.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Name recognition. I could release it without the D20 license, as could Sabledrake Ent. with their book, but who would pick it up and look at it without the D20 license glaring on the front like some heavenly becon of geekdom? Probably not many. As much as I like writing, I still need money to continue doing so if I want to print my work in books.

I think you might be surprised, actually. This is just my personal experience here, I have no statistics or studies on which to base this. But I think a good portion of the market has learned to recognize a D&D-compatible product even without the D20 logo.

Besides, as Sword & Sorcery proved with the Everquest book, it's not hard to create a logo that doesn't impinge on the official D20 logo, but is still recognizably a D20. And you can always plaster "Compatible with 3.5 Edition Fantasy Roleplaying" across the back cover. No mention of trademarked terms or logos there at all, but no doubt at all as to what you're talking about.

That said, I'm neither a lawyer nor a business consultant, so take my opinion for what it is--my opinion.

 

[sabledrake]

GURPS Sex -- Or at least I assume that is what this is based on.

Yes. Naughty & Dice is a HUGE expansion of the GURPS Sex rules that we wrote nearly 10 years ago. We made some effort to have is published as a GURPS product, and when that failed, decided to publish it as a generic supplement. GURPS fans (as well as everyone else) will not be disappointed.

--Tim

 

[sabledrake]

I think you might be surprised, actually. This is just my personal experience here, I have no statistics or studies on which to base this. But I think a good portion of the market has learned to recognize a D&D-compatible product even without the D20 logo.

I agree. I think fans of WotC's game system have learned how to look for it and recognise OGL as something that is for their game.

As for Naughy & Dice, we have not gone to print yet. We are using a domestic printer with a wonderfully quick turnaround time and were planning to send off the files over the coming weekend. We have not fully determined what changes we'll make, but have full confidence in being able to make them over the next week while still maintaining our high quality standards. I expect we'll go OGL.

I'll cut this short and actually work on the game . . .

--Tim

 

[MThibault]

Not that you've asked advice, but would it be economical to do a very small print run (expurgated) with the d20 Logo, then follow it rather speedily with a larger print run immediately following with "Unauthorized Version!" replacing the d20 Logo and required text?

If you crunch your numbers right and can get the distributors on-side you won't lose much on the initial d20 run and will still get your unedited work out there and shelved beside the D&D books.

Just a thought. Obviously you have to do the math first.

Cheers

 

[BSF]

Name recognition. I could release it without the D20 license, as could Sabledrake Ent. with their book, but who would pick it up and look at it without the D20 license glaring on the front like some heavenly becon of geekdom? Probably not many. As much as I like writing, I still need money to continue doing so if I want to print my work in books.

I don't know what I am going to do with my books just yet. I may or may not publishing just under the OGL and hope for the best.

I would. But, I am reasonably well versed in the different licenses that designate compatible content. I concede that there would probably be a fair number of game stores that might not know where to shelve a product if it didn't have an immediately recognizable logo.

Of course, I have seen a few games stores that had no idea where to shelve something with the D20 logo.

 

[sabledrake]

I would. But, I am reasonably well versed in the different licenses that designate compatible content. I concede that there would probably be a fair number of game stores that might not know where to shelve a product if it didn't have an immediately recognizable logo.

Of course, I have seen a few games stores that had no idea where to shelve something with the D20 logo.

Here's an update on what we're doing:

We've removed all references to WotC trademarks and just gone with the OGL. The back cover has been redesigned to reflect this change. We'll upload copies of the cover to our website over the weekend.

We're also working on an OGL logo that we will probably offer up free to the gaming community if we can get it to look good today or tomorrow.

We go to press on Sunday.

We also had a nice long talk with the new game buyer from Blackhawk Distributors here in the US. He was very supportive and they will probably be carrying Naughty & Dice. So some stores at least will be carrying it.

Thanks for everyone help and support!

--Tim

 

[d20books]

Of course, I have seen a few games stores that had no idea where to shelve something with the D20 logo.

AH! You're buying your books somewhere else? ;-)

I've sent an email to SableDrake about distributorship or direct sales to retail chains and have not received a response yet.

I have more than one customer already asking for this product

 

[BSF]

AH! You're buying your books somewhere else? ;-)

I've sent an email to SableDrake about distributorship or direct sales to retail chains and have not received a response yet.

I have more than one customer already asking for this product

[Hijack]

Jeff, you know I like you! Heck, I keep encouraging people to check you out in a few of the threads here!

But, I do have two game stores here in town. One is terrible, the other is well-meaning, but I am not sure how long he will be able to stay in business. Both do a decent job shelving D20 product in the same general location. I also travel a bit and I check stores whenever I get the chance. From what I have seen, there are some really great game stores out there. There are also some less than stellar ones out there.

FWIW - I think the people that have great game stores around should support them. After all, it is supporting the same local community.

For the people that do not have good game stores nearby, I do not think you should blindly support them. I once walked into a game store (Since closed) where the guy "behind the counter" couldn't deign to come out of the back room, where he was playing a game, to help me. Same guy was generally rude to women, especially the mothers of the younger kids that would be trying to buy CCG product. This guy was terrible and did not need to have any of my money, regardless of whether he was a LGS or not.

I am happy to say that dealing with Jeff (www.d20books.com) is kind of like dealing with a FLGS, except that it isn't a shop I can walk into. Still, I can talk to Jeff on AIM, or through a Yahoo group and he is certainly more knowledgable on the product than any of the folks I have locally! So, if you are less than thrilled with your current FLGS, maybe you should check him out.

[/Hijack]

I have taken a look at the preview for Naughty and Dice. I am interested in learning more. From what I can tell about the D20STL changes, going the OGL route certainly looks to be in your better interest. One question: Any chance we could get a preview of some of the text so we can get a feel for the writing style and flavor of the book?

Thanks!